Smoke and Glory

•3•

"Hey this is detective griffin speaking who is this may I ask?" She answers the phone in a polite way, after all I could potentially be someone at a crime scene or simply a civilian, "hey this is doctor Snow, can you come by the morgue... I have some things to share, about they body and some other things.." I say not wanting to just be blatant and say that someone keeps phoning me to tell me some strange twisted thing and that it's kinda freaky. "Sure, what do you want to share or should I just come by now and we talk about there?" She says and I think for a second, "just come by the morgue but try to be quick" I say trying to avoid declaring to detective griffin that someone is messing with me, that someone is phoning me with cryptic messages, and as we hang up the call I find myself once again thinking about the body of captain quill which makes me question who would commit the murder. I mean he was a police captain, so he would have had many enemies but all police have enemies and while some of them were criminals, of whom they would have kicked away or stopped, arson of such a high status person in Society just seems starnge, maybe there's a political motive, a way to make the public think about something or see something, or maybe there is no motive expect, well murder. I guess until they are caught Wd won't ever found out who they are or why they could and would do such a evil thing. As I sit myself down in my office chair I reach into the draw, my head throbbing with all this information, and I pull out the bottle of whisky I keep in it for emergencies, or just when I want a drink, and as I remove a cup from the draw I pour myself a glass as i sit in my main chair thinking about all the murders that have occurred in New York, all the cold cases and unsolved murders, all the unsolved murders that have happened all over the USA, like the Chicago Tylenol murder, or the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders or the Kingsbury run torso killings, all of which are still unsolved despite all occurring at around the 1970's. I put my hand to my head and massage my temples trying to get myself to think slightly straighter and in a attempt to smooth out the splitting headache I have. Soon detective griffin walks in while I'm sitting there drinking whiskey, questioning my life basically. "Hey" she says as I look up to see her, I couldn't really tell all her features when we were outside but now I can see each individual mark on her face clear as day and as she throws back her long black hair into a bun she sits down on the chair opposite me, "drinking on the job?" She asks indicating to the nearly empty whisky bottle that's next to me and my partly filled glass that's in my hand as I take a sip of it before placing it back down on the table. "Well... I needed to, I think someone is following me, I've received 2 phone calls from a blocked number, one was like 'you have pretty hair' and the second was like 'hope you like my gift, smoke and glory and all'" I say reciting what the person has said as detective griffin looks at me unnerved and worried and I assume coming to the same conclusion as me. "When did you get the first call?" She asks and I quickly think back, "just before I was called to the crime scene, I was in my car driving home to get ready for dinner with my friend when I got the call, I took it as I'm supposed to in case it's the police or another doctor, and they said it and then hung up and then almost instantly after I got the call from you" I say as I pour the final but of whisky into my glass as I continue to drink. "So Umm did they just..." detective griffin begins as she is then interrupted by my phone that is ringing, creating a freaky and dark vibe that instantly falls over the room, "it's them" I say as I check who is calling me as detective griffin signals me to answer it, "hello this is doctor Snow who are you?" I ask as me asking them a question seems to get them to talk, "I killed him. I killed the captain. That's the gift" the computerised monotone voice says once again and then they just hang up, I'm shocked and confused did they just confess to the murder, and why a gift? Why murder someone and call it a gift? "Fuck" detective griffin says as she clearly starts thinking about who could be calling. "Do you have any more alcohol?" She asks and I nod my head, "cause it's going to be a long night" she declares as I reach into the draw pulling out a bottle of vodka and another glass, I pour the drink and we sit there in silence for a few minutes drinking and thinking, thinking about the voice and who would have called me, and if whoever called me was legitimately the murderer of captain quill. "So yeah, I think we need to attach a bug to your phone, it can check whoever is calling you, it will help us trace the number" detective griffin says and I nod my head passing her my phone so she can do whatever needs to be done to it. "So hows it all going" she asks as I turn and look out the window for a minute, "just as great as ever" I say not sure what else exactly to say, "right that was a awful question sorry" she says catching on once again and I can't help but smile slightly at the shire awkwardness between us and the small level of stupidity she has going on for herself. Detective griffin's phone suddenly starts ringing, causing me to jump a little, breaking up the slight silence between us, "yes okay sir on my way do we need the medical examiner, I'm here sir yes will do okay thank you sir" she says listening and replying to whoever is on the other side of the line, "that was detective montrioal apparently Chief Nile was just found dead, they think he was shot in the head but I need you to come by the scene and help me figure it out" she says as I sit there in shock that another person was murdered, or at least another police officer was murdered because about 100 people have been murdered in the past day all over New York which is a lot but not police officers. "Okay let's go" I say grabbing the medical bag from down besides my desk as I follow detective griffin out of my office being sure to lock the door for privacy and in a way for safety. "I can't drive I've drunk quite a bit of alcohol." I say as Detective griffin chucks me the keys and I just chuck them back at Her as she nods her head in agreement opening the car doors as we both clamber into the police car. She drives to the crime scene as we climb out of the car, the wind is crying out brushing against the hollow trees surrounding the body in a almost ritualistic way. "Well we seem to have ourselves a flobobbleę*" I say looking down on the body as the harsh winds batter my side. "He's been dead about 3 hours from body temperature, rigamortis hasn't set it except on a few small muscles, the body is warm maybe 30 25 ish degrees, the cause of death seems to be a bullet wound from to the head, the bullet going into the frontal lobe and I would once again recon the gun to be a 38 caliber, it's a open and shut case but I'll run some tests but I would say this is definitely a murder and he was killed by gunshot to the head." I say doing a first examination of the body that lays on the floor before me within the woods. And as the ambulance crew drives away with the body heading once again back to my place of work, the morgue. When I get another call from the strange unidentified number once again. "Woods are the perfect places to kill don't you agree, too bad your chief was there.... and now you get his body!"

*flobobbleę: a word I invented that means a confusing and bad situation or a confusing life.