Chapter One

  Detective Archer Finn wrinkled his nose at the stench. Burning flesh smelt more like a barbeque gone wrong, very wrong in this case as he stared at the charred corpse of what appeared to be a woman according to preliminary reports from the medical examiner, Amanda Brown, a name not suited for a person who spent most of her time cutting up dead bodies. He looked at the broken window then the carpet and then finally allowed himself to critically look at her.

She was shaking terribly on the floor where she remained persistently rooted and had refused to respond despite the fervent attempts by Archer's partner Detective Rukelle Savanna to get her to talk. She wore a neon pink lace nightgown which made him wonder if she was expecting someone for some steamy action under the sheets. Did he run away like a coward who couldn't protect her. Archer mentally slapped himself to get back to the task at hand but not before he allowed himself to look at her hair. It was extraordinarily white and curly and stretched down to her sweaty back. It was beautiful and his body was betraying him by responding. Another mental slap. Get back to work he chided himself.

Crime scene techs swarmed the entire apartment which was very flamboyantly decorated. Everything seemed neon as though she couldn't see or wanted everything to stand out. The ME hovered over the body doing countless prelims. Archer walked over to the ME and she gave him her deductions.

"Victim is a female. The hair's been burnt off but basing on the general amount of tissue and general appearance I would bet she is a female."

  "Age? Time and cause of death?" Archer asked

  "Age ranges from 18-24 but my bet is around 20. For time and cause of death, I will need to do more examinations." Amanda said as her crew got ready to take the charred remains.

Archer walked to Rukelle and they split the tasks at hand. One was interrogating the shell shocked owner of the apartment turned crematorium whom Archer soon learned from his partner that she was Dr. Emilia Gardiner, a behavioral psychologist who worked in the state referral hospital in a grande state building that was a major waste of tax payers' money and task number two was getting eye witness reports from the neighbours on how the body got there. Personally Archer was hoping to find a nosy old neighbor who had binoculars specifically for spying on the "neon themed " doctor.

  Archer lost the coin toss so he got to interrogate Dr. Emilia. This would be fun. As Rukelle left to get the witness reports, Archer prepared himself for the onslaught.

   He introduced himself to her and she merely stared ahead at where the body used to be. Not a grunt of recognition. Just... nothing. They should teach interrogating shell shocked women as a topic in the police academy because he didn't know what to do at this point.

   "Emilia?" she faced him and he immediately regretted it. She had a hollow blank but crystalline blue stare. The same stare he saw in the mirror every morning. Archer was overwhelmed and turned away.

  "It can't be him because I killed him." she stammered out the words. She was shaking violently again. This caught Archer's attention.  Archer was worried she would get a seizure.

  "What do you mean?" he replied and just like that she clammed up. Something skittered over her face and she squared her shoulders lifted her chin in an open act of defiance and said,

     "You want my statement right? Here it is. I was asleep, dreaming maybe, maybe not. I heard a sound since I am not that much of a heavy sleeper I ran out and I saw this. I heard the sound of an engine and I ran to the window to check and I saw a dark coloured sedan  leave. The number plates were muddied so I didn't get anything.  Nothing Archer did or said would get her to talk she just continued to rock herself.

  Archer stood up to leave and was stopped by a sudden disturbance outside. There was shouting. He stood up and a tall blonde haired man with the worst haircut  Archer had seen and a soft paunch burst in and ran immediately towards the doctor and Archer was immediately and unreasonably angry by how they embraced each other. He was a married man after all. Married in meaning. Mrs. Finn probably wouldn't care as long as she got money for her shopping sprees in Spain and wherever became famous according to celebrities. A sturdy looking woman came in. She looked like a modern day farm woman. The kind that moved around with short sticks to smack kids around that went astray. She could pass for a high school chaperone or headmistress. She was followed by a man who resembled the blonde guy but he was  mascular and taller. He probably gymed. They formed a mini conference in the living room and from the looks of it Emilia wasn't staying here tonight. She was cajoled into taking an overnight bag and leave but before she left she did the unthinkable. She hugged Detective Archer Finn; an action that left him awestruck even as she left with her band of friends.

He was even the more surprised as he read the note she had left in his pocket that simply read.

Elaine Barker, 2010, Mattapan,