Smoke and Glory

•5•

"A calling card?" Detective griffin says In complete disbelief and I nod my head not having any other conclusion for why there would be a playing card in the gunshot wound, "I have to report this instantly" she says reaching for the tweezers to pick up the blood stained card and place it into a evidence bag, "no please let me keep a hold of it, I can look at it now to speed up the process but why do you need to report it as of right now?" I ask wondering as to the sudden sheerness in her voice, "I got promoted to lead detective on this case" she says as my mouth drops open in shock, "that's amazing" I say "I wish I shared your optimism" she says in return taking a few random yet constant looks at the body, "I'm not an optimist I'm a realist, but it's a good thing, a very good thing being put in charge of a case like this it's really good" I say in return smiling at her as she smiles back at me in return. "Okay so I'll run some tests and look for any DNA other then the victims but i can't make any promises". I say as I place the playing card on a glass microscope slide and then my phone goes off once again the ring tone playing away to itself until I notice it. I cautiously pick it up fearing it to be the dreaded number once again. "Is it the killer?" detective griffin asks and I shake my head as I read the number and see the name Hope ❤️. "No it's my financé" I say and detective griffin looks confused as I lift up my hand to show her the diamond ring that sits profoundly on my finger. "Hey" I say into the phone as I walk out of the examination room and simply Down the Corridor not wanting to stray to far but still have a bit of privacy. "Hey babe, so tonight I may have just booked us a table at Monnia because I wanted to spend some quality time with my love" she says laughing as I laugh as well admiring the ring on my finger but at the same time pondering, "I'd love to come what time is the reservation?" I ask as I look out of the window having arrived at nighttime and now seeing the sun coming up means the autopsy took longer then expected. "6" she says and I look around the room for a clock but I don't see one, "sure so I'll come home, get ready and then I'll see you at the restaurant" I say and Hope laughs over the phone again I assume she's watching a tv show because the kind of laughter she has is the one when shes laughing at something comedy funny such as the tv shows she enjoys watching. "Okay see you then love you bye" hope says as she hangs up the phone and I slide it back into my pocket and walk back into the room where detective griffin stands looking at the body and the broken vertebrae. "Sorry about that" I say as I re pick up the microscope slide and place It under a microscope, while writing on a post it note 'please analyse quickly, thanks -doctor Snow' and I stick it to the microscope. "No it's okay how have you two been engaged?" She asks and I think back to the night when we were in Monnia and hope got down on one leg and told me she loved me and that she wanted to be with me for the rest of our lives and asked if I would be her wife and I said yes. "About a year now we've been busy though so I haven't made any plans for the wedding" I say re adding wedding planning to the mental list of things I need to do. "So I can't do anything more right now so if it's okay, I'm going to go home and get some sleep and then go out for dinner because that is how my life works now, which is you know fun, anyway tomorrow do you want to come round to the morgue and we can get the results from the first test and see if there are any more options into further DNA tests or areas we can analyse" I say to detective griffin who nods her head and waves goodbye at me as I walk to my office removing my blue overalls as I go and I grab my stuff before climbing into my car and driving home. I open the door and Half expect hope to come over before I remember that now it's 9 she would have left for work as a ceo of a small company that works in selling tech, and has a big thing coming up that Hope can't stop stressing about. I put all my things down and I wonder upstairs where I get into bed and have a sleep the tiredness making it easier for me for me to sleep. Once I wake up I walk over and open my wardrobe where I slip into a little black dress that is just above my knees and single strapped around my left shoulder and I complete it with a pair of black heels, a silver necklace and some silvery dangling earrings. I smile at myself in the mirror quickly brushing my shirt brown hair as I apply some red lipstick before leaving the house to go the restaurant picking up a little black bag on my way out. I get a table for 2 and sit down and wait looking at the fancy menu and instantaneously deciding that I want Chicken pie, my favourite meal from this restaurant and the thing I order every time I'm here. Soon I watch as Hope walks In wearing a small silver dress that compliments her dark skin as she swoosh's her brown hair out of her face and smiles at me her brown eyes sparkling ad the light flickers off them in a somewhat mesmerising way, while she walks over and we kiss. "Hey" she says and I smile at her as she sits down in the chair, "hey" I reply with as she summons over a waiter, both of us already know what each other wants, we come to this restaurant a lot, it's our favourite and we've shared many amazing memories in this place. "A bottle of the red wine and A chicken pie and a lasagna please" she says before Turning her attention back to me, "so how's work?" She asks and I nod my head, taking a sip of the tap water that's already in the cups on the table "it's all going pretty good, you know big case going on at the moment though, we're trying to track a killer and detective griffin is all getting worried that some else is next and that what if this and we are all pretty paranoid, but it's good" I say and she smiles in a almost patronising way, she doesn't really approve of my work and I can see it in her eyes that it makes her afraid but she shrugs it off and acts as if she's completely okay with it. We just sit and talk the rest of the time while eating our food and it's a nice and fun date but I can't stop having a gut feeling that something is going to go wrong and no matter how many times I try to shake it off it stays, and I feel like something is going to happen but the question is what?