The Pink Mug

Everything is OK

"Shitshitshitshit..." I rummage through the cupboards on a seemingly endless quest for a simple coffee mug. The time is currently 8:17, I leave the house at 8:00. I simply can't leave without my coffee, not that I need the caffeine, I just love the taste, everyone has their addictions: sugar, gaming, alcohol, drugs... my addiction just happens to be coffee, Folger's Morning Blended to be exact.
"Babe? What's wrong?" The shadow of a tall thin accountant drags himself into the kitchen and straight towards the coffee pot. He reaches behind the coffee machine and the familiar pink gloss and purple unicorn completes my quest. I quickly snatch my coffee mug out of his hand and fill it with creamer and coffee before running out of our house, my heels clacking behind me.
"Thanks honey! Have a good day at work!" I yell over my shoulder to the man I call my boyfriend. He stares at the ground, degraded and rejected.
He knew it was mine, that sloppy mess.
In everyone's story there is a beginning, a middle, and an end, we all just hope to accomplish something before that end. But as a homicide detective I've realized that very few actually accomplish anything.
I sigh as another tan folder flops onto my desk. Let's play a game! $100 that it's another drug deal gone wrong-"Olive! We've got another case." The high pitched squeak of my partner, Felicia, calls from her desk.
"Yeah, I know. The case was dropped at my desk." I roll my eyes and open the folder of another drug deal gone wrong.
"No, a new one just came in. Apparently it's pretty gruesome." A gruesome murder? Haven't seen one of those in years, in Seattle the murders are usually passionate or quick.
-*-
"This is where you found the body?" I glance at the bloodied bathtub, the thick red syrup leaked out of the black trash bags and out the empty drain of the tub. The older woman nods, and sneers, her breath overpowers the smell of the landfill as she asks for her needle back and I send her off to another officer.
"What do you think? Not normal is it?" Felicia snaps on a pair of gloves and lifts the black trash bag. That's when the smell hits me, worse than the landfill, or baby diapers: rotting flesh. The sight was more horrific than I was prepared for.
The body had been dismembered, separated at each join of the body. This particular section seemed to be the head. It was what seemed to be a man with a beard, an ice pick stuck out of each ear.
-*-
"They're ruling it a drug deal gone wrong." I rolled my eyes "I mean just because the guy had tons of ecstasy in his system doesn't mean it was drug related, but I guess that's what happens when you're from the slums of society"
"Olivia, it seems like maybe the murder was drug related, maybe the guy got wrapped up in some bad deals, they tortured then killed him. Can we have a normal dinner tonight?" Alex frowns from across the dinner table. "Babe, it's been weeks since we've had dinner together, be grateful that you have this chance ok? I know how you feel about this but everything is ok."
"Yeah I guess, I'm sorry babe." We ate dinner in silence, I couldn't get the Vic out of my head, something just wasn't adding up.