The Ring

It was a rainy day, I had just come back to the police station from the lunch break, clothes still soaking wet, and messing around with my coat, trying find a spot for it to dry. Then, all of the sudden, I noticed my wedding ring was missing, so I searched for it in my pockets, but I couldn't find it. "I probably left it at home. But wait, then my wife would've called me. Or she just hadn't found it yet, no worries" I thought. So I walked to my desk, sat down, and started on some paperwork. Then Pritchard approached me.

"Inspector Miller , we just got a call. It's your wife... She's dead sir, I'm really sorry for you"

"My wife? Are you sure? That can't be!"

"We're sure, sir. One of your neighbours saw your wife lying in the garden, dead. He saw it through a window"

"That... That can't be true... But she was only 34 years old..."

"I am deeply sorry for your loss sir. We have already started the case, the sergeant is assigning it to you, in the hope it will help you get closure, and move on. Inspector Garner has also been assigned to the case, you will be briefed around 2"

"Thank you, Pritchard"

As Pritchard walked away, I looked at the time, 1:30, half an hour to go. So I continued my own work, finishing off some paperwork, and thinking, who would want to kill Grace, I mean sure, she could be really annoying, but why kill her?

Somehow I felt as if this news was familiar, and that I could've seen this coming. But I repressed this feeling, as it was probably déjà vu.

At 2 o'clock, sergeant Bates called me and Gary Garner to the briefing room, where he briefed us on the case, he also told me that I had to find someplace else to stay, because my home was a crime scene. When he was finished, we went to the crime scene, where several officers were already waiting for us. The officers showed us the crime scene, and what had already been found, there wasn't much, just my own home, like nothing had happened, then we reached the garden, and Grace was lying there, still, motionless. It was still hard to accept. I felt the urge to throw up, so I ran outside, and did so. And then, a stinging painful feeling started to emanate from my head, and then, everything went black...

I couldn't see anything. Then, it became bright, yet somehow dull. A silhouette emerged in front of me, it was moving. I saw a finger, yes definitely a finger, with a ring on it... It looked vaguely familiar... I saw a hand, covered in something red, grabbing the ring, pulling it off, and throwing it away. Then everything went black again...

All of a sudden, I was outside again.. With the vomit in front of me. I ran to the toilet to wash my face, freshen up, and started thinking about what I had just seen. The ring, there was something about it, maybe it's still around here. So I ran back to the corpse, and started looking around. There it was! In the grass, maybe there were some fingerprints on it! I put on some gloves, and dropped in in a special bag, for analysis. If I could just get some fingerprints off this thing, and if I could just find this bastard...

The rest of the day, we kept looking, and we recovered some hair fibres, so we went back to the office, to look through piles of files and documents, looking for evidence. It was still hard to accept Grace's death, and I couldn't think clearly, and before I even knew it, the day was over, and as everyone went home,I stayed, and talked with Gary. When I decided to go back home, I realised, I was not allowed to, so I booked a cheap hotel room, so I could stay there until all of this was over

That night, I wasn't able to sleep. I kept pondering about the murder. Secretly, I hoped that this was all a dream, that I would close my eyes, fall asleep, and wake up, next to my beloved wife. Oh I wished and I wished, until I finally closed my eyes, only to end up in a bad dream...