Alison woke up to the sound of dishes clattering around in the kitchen. A soft glow of orange light peeked through the curtains, casting soft shadows on the wall. She pulled herself out of bed, drawn to the smell of food in the kitchen. The bottoms of the legs of her pink checkered pajamas caught under her feet, just a little too long, as she padded down the stairs. Beth was standing by the stove still in a tank-top and her underwear, flipping pancakes, tending to bacon, and scrambling eggs. Alison took a deep breath, the sweet smells made her mouth water. "Something smells good," she went to stand beside Beth at the stove.
"Morning, sleepy head," she smiled. "I was wondering when you were going to get up!" Beth's lips brushed against Alison's lips in a soft kiss.
Alison smiled back, gesturing toward all the food, "what's the occasion?"
Beth shot her a playfully hurt look, "why does there have to be an occasion? Can't I just make a nice breakfast for you?" Beth flipped a pancake, and added some seasoning to the eggs.
Alison laughed, pulling Beth into a kiss. "You know what I mean! Usually you barely have any time off on the weekends, and today you're making this big breakfast." Beth was always the one to cook fancy dinners for Alison whenever she had the chance. She'd tried teaching Alison to cook once. That had resulted in pots boiling over, and a small fire starting in the oven. They eventually ordered pizza.
"I wanted to celebrate, it's been a month since we moved into our new house together. Art can handle things without me this morning. I would've been doing paperwork all morning anyway. Believe me, I'd much rather spend it it with you, Ali. Now go sit down," Beth gestured toward the table. "I'm serving you. Do you want some coffee?"
Beth got the plates and utensils out of the cupboard, filling each plate to the brim with food. Alison nodded, smiling. Obeying Beth's order, she went to sit at the table. Beth brought the plates over to the table, then filled two cups with coffee.
Alison sipped her coffee, and took a bite of her eggs. "I've got my yoga class today, so I can pick up some dinner on the way home."
Beth nodded, "Chinese? I can rent a movie and we can turn this into a date night."
Alison perked up at the idea of a movie, "Let's rent The Sound of Music!"
Beth groaned, rolling her eyes and chewing on a piece of bacon. "Aliii! No, I don't care how much you beg. I'm not renting that damn movie again! The guy at the video store sees me rent it so much, he asks why we don't just buy it!"
"But -"
Beth cut her off, "seriously, Ali, just let me handle the movie, you handle the food. I'll pick one we'll both enjoy, I promise." Beth was enjoying this moment. She was happy with her life; she had Alison, and they had taken the step to move in together. She thought things finally seemed like they were falling into place for once. Her daydreaming was interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing. She checked the caller ID; Art was calling.
"Hey, Art. What's going on?"
"Beth, someone called in a dead body."
I'm on my way." Beth hung up her phone and quickly shoved a few more bites of food into her mouth. She stood up, planting a kiss on Alison's forehead, "Ali, I'm really sorry, Art and I got called into work. I'll call you later!"
There goes my nice peaceful morning, she thought. Beth was dressed and rushing out the door in ten minutes.
Art was at his desk making a phone call when Beth arrived at the police station. When he hung up the phone, he filled her in on the case so far. "Beth, we got a Jane Doe. Chief wants us to go check out the crime scene. Let's move, Childs."
The Jane Doe had suffered a massive blunt force trauma to the skull, and their case looked to be a murder. There were signs of a struggle, but no signs of forced entry into the victim's home. Beth made note of that; the victim most likely knew her killer. The dining room table and chairs had been pushed around in the fight, one of the chairs smashed. The victim's car had also been stolen.
"This person probably hasn't committed any previous murders. Why would they steal the vic's car? It doesn't make sense, it's like they're asking to be caught."
Art nodded, "or trying to throw us off. Once we see if we can get a match from her finger prints, I'll check out the vehicles she has registered in her name and put an APB out on the car. Let's look around the rest of the house."
Jane Doe had been killed in her bedroom. She was an Asian female, probably not much older than forty, with dark hair. It looked like the killer had placed her on the bed, and crossed her arms over her chest. Her hair was matted with blood, and her clothes were disheveled, but her pose was neat. Why go through all the trouble to kill this woman, and then place her in this position?
"You think this a remorse thing, Art? Why would they place her like this?" Beth's eyebrows furrowed, making little wrinkles on her forehead.
Art sighed, shaking his head. He looked just as confused as she was. Where was the motive? "We'll figure that out. The crime scene techs are done processing the scene. Let's get some lunch, and then we'll go back to the station and work on this."
They were back in the car when Art gave her a look. She knew that look; they were going for doughnuts. "You want doughnuts, Childs?" Right on cue.
Beth laughed, "You need to stop feeding the cop/doughnut stereotype, man," she playfully slapped his shoulder. "But yes. Yes, I want doughnuts, you dipshit. Of course I want doughnuts!
They stopped at a small doughnut shop, one of Beth's favourites. Art ordered a box of twelve, and they sat at one of the small tables. The inside of the shop was small but colourful. The walls were covered in a red and white candy stripe wallpaper; there were several small, round tables that were brightly coloured, like gum balls.
Art had ordered an assortment of doughnuts, but Beth went straight for the jelly filled doughnut with strawberry icing and sprinkles.
"So, what do you think about our Jane Doe?" Beth took a bite of her doughnut, jelly squirting out onto her face. She licked her lips, trying to get all the jelly. "She must have known her killer, there's no sign of forced entry," she trailed off. "She had a pretty nice house, nice clothes. Maybe the motive was money?"
Art's doughnut had left a dusting of white powder around his mouth, "you got some, uh," Beth pointed to the same spot on her mouth, letting Art know he was sporting a powder mustache.
He wiped the powder away with his napkin, "it did look like she could be wealthy. Whoever did it had to pretty angry with her; the murder was pretty brutal. Maybe an ex? Or maybe she owed money to the wrong people? I don't think this was a professional hit, the crime scene is too sloppy. Like you said, the killer probably hasn't committed any previous murders. When we get the autopsy results, we'll see if there was any evidence that she was drugged, or sexually assaulted. This looks like a crime of passion."
Beth nodded, taking another bite of her doughnut. She ran a finger through the frosting, collecting an acceptable amount and licking it off her finger. They finished their doughnuts, still bouncing theories about the case off one another, and then headed back to the station.
The fingerprints had been sent to the lab, and they would have the results in the morning. There wasn't much else they could do tonight besides paperwork. Beth sat down at her desk, getting to work on filling out all the necessary forms. She was absent minded, thinking about what movie she was going to rent for her and Alison tonight. She remembered she'd told Alison she would call her; she pulled out her phone and dialed Alison's number.
It ran a few times and Alison, in her familiar, perky tone, picked up, "hello? Beth?"
"Hey, Ali. Listen, I just have a bit of paperwork to finish up here. I'll be home soon, okay?"
"Okay, I'm on my way to pick up the food. I'll see you soon, love you."
"You're damn right you do."