Message: XXVIII

"So, what happened?" Toussaint asked not even half an hour later, standing in Aria's living room when technicians were doing their job.

"Seriously, from all the detectives, they had to send you?" Callaghan groaned right away, since that was the very first reaction she had on her partner. Chyler shrugged.

"Two murders in past days kind of give a hint that this one can be next one of them."

"Does that look like it is to you?" Aria asked skeptically, waving her hand into the direction of her coffee table. Coffee table that was splashed with blood and had woman's head laying on it.

Toussaint shook her head, sighing.

"No, not really, but I will not try to cross Courrier's orders. So? What happened?"

"Well, I went for an evening run, like every time I feel like it, and when I came back to the perimeter, I felt something was off."

"What was that?" Chyler didn't note anything down, at least not yet, but she seemed ready to do so at any moment. Aria cleared her throat and shrugged almost dismissively.

"I don't know. Nothing was wrong. Everything seemed to be as I left it. I checked the whole garden and found nothing. Then I came in, and when I switched the light, I saw that." She pointed at the head. "And I called 911. End of the story."

"I know that question can be weird, but... do you know whose head this may be? And why in your house?" Toussaint was trying to be delicate, but at the same time she was wondering if that was even necessary, since Aria seemed unbothered by the whole situation.

"Whose? Oh, of course. Hard not to know when you see your own wife's head like that." She scoffed, looking at Chyler almost with pity when the detective felt a shiver that froze her body for a moment.

Dear God, she recognized her now. That was the woman Aria was interrogating the other day. The one they decided to let go afterwards and told her to await the charges, thinking it wasn't necessary to keep her behind the bars.

"I am so sorry." She choked, trying to let the compassion mask the faux pass she had made. Aria shrugged, and then she covered her eyes with her hand.

"She has Hellblade's brand scorched on the bottom. Weird way to cauterize a lethal wound if you ask me, but well." She grinded her teeth. "Fuck my life, I will kill them all."

"Callaghan, I get you have to feel awful at the moment, but it will be okay eventually." Toussaint hesitated before she laid her hand on Aria's shoulder, but then she sighed and did it. After all her partner was mourning. She should be at least supporting her that way.

Callaghan snorted and she shook her head.

"Okay? Okay? Good joke, Tarte. I wanted to divorce her, and that bitch dared to let herself be murdered to make me a widow." She snarled. "The audacity, I really can't."

"What the hell are you...?" Chyler couldn't hide her shock, but one of the technicians came downstairs and looked at both women.

"Toussaint, ma'am, we found one of the windows upstairs is broken. Probably that's the way the perpetrator came inside."

"And here we have, if not through the door, then through the window. That bitch always had to be extra." Aria grunted, shaking her head. Chyler didn't comment that.

Was that person really suitable for the job she was hired to do?