Smoke and Glory

•6•

As I pull up in the car to my house I can't help but smile, Ive had such a wonderful evening and hope is just everything I could ever want and more and even through we don't see each other that often anymore due to her work and mine, I still love her with all my heart and cannot wait to marry her. I climb out the car and pull out my key from the black bag that hangs around my hips and I bring it up to the door, the small converse shoe key ring banging against the others as I place them into the door but the second I do im overcome with a odd feeling of fear and panic and like the gut sensation that something is going to go wrong and so I cautious and slowly open the door. And I step in slowly and quietly ready for whatever may be thrown at me as I venture into the living room. Nothing looks strange, everything is in its rightful place and nothing looks out of sorts or touched, must just be something I ate, or at least that's what I keep telling myself. And I walk into the kitchen placing the bag down on the table as I kicked of the high heels I'm wearing and remove the earrings that are slightly tangled in my hair. I then fall gently onto the sofa and breathe a heavy sigh as I grab the tv remote and put on the tv, flicking through the channels before coming to the conclusion nothing eventful is on any of the channels and so I press the red button that signifies Netflix and I press on Brooklyn Nine Nine and have Jake Perulta and Captain Holt playing away to themselves in the background as I close my eyes in order to be able to actually think straight for a few seconds and just organise everything I'm doing right now in my life. The phone rings interrupting my thought process and I get up again, muting Amy Santiago as she talks to Rosa Diaz about some case or other while Charles Boyle is in the background doing some funny things. I walk over to the phone and I pick it up, "hello who is this" I ask into the phone kind of tired and I know it's apparent in my town of voice as I let out a yawn that I don't even try to hide "hello again doctor, I just wanted to tell you there's a little gift outside waiting for you, just by your car I would go and check it out now, goodbye" says the voice, the same voice that could potentially by the voice of the murder, I grab my mobile and chuck back on my shoes as I quickly call Detective Griffin, "hey it's Doctor snow and I know it's an interesting time but I just got another call and apparently there's a gift outside my house, should I check it out, we know what gifts are like in this weirdos eyes, they are bodies... so should I check it out?" I say into the phone as I walk over to the door ready to open it if Detective Griffin deems it a good idea. "Yeah check what it is and I'm going to come on over, but keep me on the phone until you've found whatever this gift is" she says and I open the door using the torch in my phone to highlight the car, "I can't see anything" I say as I anxious walk closer, each step slowing as I look down the dark and ominous street, knowing that the killer could literally be anywhere using the torch light to look at each individual bus and every small thing that moves although it's only down to the wind, "alright approaching my car" I say nervously as I walk around to the back of the car, the end closest to the street and that's when I see it, "shit" I say in utter shock looking at it as I realise once again what this means and what it's going to do to the state of New York and the already paranoid people of it. I can't help but gag as I replace the phone the my ear "detective might I suggest you get here now, I've found another dead body, and I can't say for sure but it looks like Commander Greg Davis and I can see what appears to be a gun shot wound to the head but it's so bloody I can't tell just get down here now" I say quickly my whole body shaking not only due to the shock but due to the cold as I stare down at the bleeding body that lays just steps beyond my house, " alright we're coming doc just hold on tight" she says through the phone as the call ends and I just look down at the body. The lifeless body. The dead body. I open my cat door and grab out the large black jumper that is on the passenger seat for a unknown reason and I slide into it, still shivering as I climb out and am once again greeted by the look of the body, even though I'm the medical examiner I don't want to get close not until the police arrive just so no reporters walk over begging me to answer there insensitive questions and get close to the bodies themselves in order to admire and touch, perfect for the front page, as the always claim. I stare down at the body, the eyes filled with shock and horror, but almost as if it was so sudden there was no escaping as in some respect the eyes looked like they finally accepted it, and that they knew, no matter what he did there was no escaping and he had come to terms with that in the very base of his soul and it reflected in his petrified eyes that stare back at me as I stare down at them.