Sirens wail loudly in the background, and some would say that that ruins their concentration, but I'm so used to it that I'm able to just block it out.
I stand over the body inside the taped-off rectangle of the scene. A young, twenty-five-year-old man has died tonight.
I look down at his body. He has two bullet wounds, one on his shoulder and the other on his chest. By the time we had arrived, he was already dead.
The ambulances haven't arrived yet. On average, I've found pizza deliveries come slightly faster than ambulances. Quite amusing but also worrying at the same time. But, we had told them he was already dead, so they are probably not in the biggest hurry.
Officer Grover comes up to me. He is only slightly taller than me, in his late thirties and with a short brown beard. He strokes it thoughtfully. "What we got 'ere, Chase?" He asks, in between chews of his gum. Officer Grover always chews gum, sometimes of the weirdest flavours. Today, judging from the smell is pineapple and chilli. Yuck.
"Well, a dead body with two gunshot wounds, one on the shoulder and the other on the chest, as you can see,"
Grover sighs. "Poor lad, his girlfriend is devastated, you see 'er over there with the brown hair? That's her. It will probably be a while before we can question her without a meltdown. I don't blame 'er quite frankly."
"Did you call the ambulances?" I ask.
"Yeah, but I told them he's already dead. Maybe if we had been called sooner then he could have lived. I guess they aren't hurrying too much,"
I sigh. "Makes sense, I suppose."
I take in the scene. The man lies half on the pavement and half on the road. Judging by the position of his arms and legs, he had jumped in front of his girlfriend and had taken two bullets. Brave man.
An ambulance arrives, the lights on its siren on but making no noise. Two men step out with a stretcher. They hoist his body onto it and wheel him into the vehicle. They don't hurry too much, they already know he's dead. His girlfriend follows, along with a young officer who I don't know.
The ambulance starts its engine and starts driving. Officer Grover waves over to me. I reluctantly make my way over to him.
"You going with 'em? You're probably gonna wanna see the autopsy,"
I smirk a little. "I know how to do my job,"
"Well," he says, checking his watch. "We're gonna look around a little, you know, to see if we can find any evidence."
I see an officer getting into a full-body plastic suit. If they were going to try and find any DNA, they had to make sure not to contaminate it.
I hold up a small plastic evidence bag with two cigarette butts. "I found these earlier,"
"Well done Chase," he says, holding out his hand.
"These are mine, get your own evidence," I say. Grover's face falls a little and he looks at me sternly.
I laugh. "I'm joking. Let me study them for a couple days then I'll send them over. I think they might not belong to the killer, I think he would have been a lot more clever than that."
"Probably. But I want you to still study them. Bring them over to us and we'll see if the DNA matches with anyone on the records."
I nod and start walking off. Grover and I didn't bother with hellos or goodbyes, they just wasted time.
"You're done here?" He asks. I turn and nod. I had already done all I needed to do. I got in my car and started driving. I look at the time. 11:47.
I take a back road and park outside a cafe, but I don't go in. I turn off the lights. I had lied to Grover, I needed to go back to the scene, but not with people around. I estimate they'll look for about fifteen minutes and then spend around six packing everything up. Then it'll take them around three to get going. Then the driver would take a different road to a different cafe. I know it won't be to this one.
I shiver, but I don't turn on the heating. Turning on the engine would result in noise, and I don't want to draw attention to myself in any way. Anyway, you think better and are more alert in the cold.
I check the time again. 12:12. If my estimates are correct, they should have left a minute ago. I wait two minutes to be safe, and then I start the car. I drive up to the scene and park. I step out of the car. My predictions were right.
I walk through a small puddle. It had started to rain. I walk to exactly where the man was lying sprawled on the ground.
It is in these moments of time where reality seems to shift a little. Even the most real, down to Earth and logical people will admit they have felt it. Everyone has, and everyone will. Reality often shifts in dark parks, your house at 4 am and in empty school hallways. We've all felt it and we all will.
I stand almost exactly where I'd been standing when the man was there. It seemed almost long ago, the loud sirens, the crying girlfriend, officer Grover and the dead man. If anyone were to come now, they could never guess any of that was ever here.
Then, he steps out of the shadows. He always does that, one moment he's not there, and the next minute he is.
"Hello, Annabeth Chase."
I breathe in sharply. I don't like people using my first name. His lips
barely move when he forms the words, and they seem to slip out of his mouth like smoke from a chimney.
"I see you've returned," I say, trying to maintain a cold, sly tone like his.
"Annabeth, you're the one doing the returning. I was merely waiting,"
"But why are you here? The body was taken ages ago. You are late."
Death shakes his head. "I could almost ask you the same thing. What are you doing here, Annabeth? Have you come to talk to me? This isn't the first time we've met,"
"That's not the point. I came back for...another reason." I feel my cheeks redden slightly. I pull my scarf over the lower part of my face, but I am sure he noticed. Death notices anything and everything.
"See you next time, then," he says. Then he disappears. Why have I come here? Was it to see death? To me, Death just came and...did his thing. We never really spoke much, and we didn't need to. I usually don't even look at him. He'd just take the body and leave. We never bothered with the usual greetings or any sort of small talk
But tonight? Tonight's different...in a way. In what way? I can't really pinpoint it.
Still in thought, I get into my car. I start the engine and drive off into the night.
Authors note: So what do you think? This story is a little different from my usual style, but if you like dark, mysterious but romantic(ish) stories, then this might just be for you.