Morbid

Arnold woke up the next morning when the alarm went off, had a healthy bowl of cereal with milk and a small glass of orange juice, then had a quick shower and dressed for work. When he opened his dorm room door, he was met with the same half naked scene as always and also with a lot of warm greetings of good morning and hello.

He walked the hallway and returned the greetings and made sure to make eye contact with everyone. They all felt like he was making time for them and that was quite a feat for a hallway full of women, and Arnold gave them a little wave as the elevator doors closed. He rode it down to the ground floor and stepped out into the partially crowded lobby.

Doris gave him a wave and he walked over. “Good morning.” She said and glanced around, then leaned over her desk. “I'll need your help tonight if you're not busy.”

“I'm not busy.” Arnold said and then he whispered. “I'll kiss you later.”

Doris nodded and watched him walk away.

“What's he going to help you with?” A young woman nearby asked.

“He's just moving some things for me in the back room.” Doris said and smiled brightly. “It's so nice to have a strong man that can help with those kinds of things.”

The young woman chuckled. “I hear that.” She said, then decided to try and shock the older woman. “Of course, he'd be doing a bit more than just moving things if he was with me.”

“My word!” Doris fake gasped and the young woman laughed.

Arnold stepped out of the dorm building and walked the eight minutes to work. Once there, it was the biology degree course that had to be set up and not regular students, so it took more than just his efforts to set things up. Amy, Cissily, and the other lab workers helped. Most of them weren't hung over, so they had it done before the professor came into the lab.

“Excellent work, everyone.” Professor Hamil Crenslav said and they took their positions and the class came in for their full morning lab and everyone got to work.

*

“Uhhhhh.” The supervisor groaned as she woke up around noon. Her head was splitting and she didn't remember falling asleep and she wondered why her bed felt so hard. She used a hand to rub her face and felt wetness, then sighed. She hated it when she drooled in her sleep. She reached out to hit her alarm before it went off and heard a squelching sound.

“Huh?” She opened her eyes and one was tinted red and she felt a stinging sensation. “Ow! Ow! Ow!” She said and tried to wipe at her face again, which only pushed even more sticky blood into her eye and made her cry. “What is this stuff?” She asked herself and tried to look at it with her good eye. “What... no, it's not my... today's a safe day.”

The supervisor tried to sit up and hit her back on the bottom of the truck's door. She grunted at the odd sensation and rolled over to look at whatever it was over her bed that she hit, then she caught her breath when her single eye saw something her brain couldn't make sense of. There was no way she would bring Brad back to her place.

“Brad, what the hell are you doing here?” She asked and reached for his shoulder, then shook him. “Brad! Wake up!” She said and shook him harder. When his head rolled to the side and she saw the state of his face, she screamed.

And screamed.

And screamed some more.

*

A man and his wife were jogging along the road and heard the hysterical screams. They exchanged looks for several moments, then the woman sighed and nodded. They diverted their path and ran down an access road just off the main road and almost comically skidded to a stop when they saw the grizzly scene of two people with their pants pulled down and one was dead and the other was screaming.

“Oh, god.” The woman said and took out her cell phone. “Please don't be busy. Don't be busy!” She said and dialed 9-1-1. It started ringing and she sighed in relief when the operator picked up.

*

When lunchtime arrived, Arnold went with the lab workers and he greeted the woman behind the counter when he picked up his meal and Angela at the register when he paid for it. He ate lunch and Cissily asked him what he did during the weekend. Arnold told her about the confrontation at the restaurant and then getting a restraining order, sleeping in, then having a party with his friends.

“Well, at least you enjoyed yourself at some point, right?” Cissily asked.

Arnold gave her a smile, which caught everyone's attention, and then he finished eating. “See you tomorrow.” He said and went back to work.

“Good lord, did you see that smile?” Maxine asked. “He lit up the whole room!”

“Oh, I saw.” Cissily said and smiled herself. “I'm thinking he might have gotten something extra at that party.”

“I hope he had protection.” Amy said. “Otherwise, he'll be getting some surprising news soon.”

Cissily laughed. “I'm sure he's got a box of condoms stashed somewhere.”

“They're no good if you never use them.” Maxine said. “Then again... you know how it feels...”

“Stop right there.” Amy said and held a hand up. “You better be practising safe sex or I'll disown you.”

Maxine reached over and took the hand. “I didn't know you cared so much about my vagina.” She said. “I've been feeling a little itchy down there and...”

“Fuck no!” Amy said loudly and pulled her hand back, and everyone at the table laughed.

*

“Ma'am? Ma'am?” The EMT tried to calm the hysterical woman down. “Ma'am, please. I know this is... it's horrific... but, we need to check you over.”

The supervisor wasn't listening and just couldn't bring herself to stop crying or to stop hugging her legs to her chest. She was in complete denial.

“It looks like self defense to me.” One of the police officers said. “Attempted rape...” He looked down at the young man's body and the clearly visible semen. “...make that actual rape, since she struggled pretty hard to get away and it's pretty obvious that he had his way with her.”

“It definitely started in the truck, then she managed to get the door open.” The second police officer said ad pointed. “By the looks of it, the guy hit his face pretty hard here in the dirt and grass.”

“The rest is a damn mess.” The first police officer said. “A fight between a shovel and a screwdriver isn't fair at all.”

The second police officer shook his head. “We better call this in and get the guys out here.”

“We've already trampled all over the scene, especially the EMTs.” The first police officer said. “I'll call the station and you can mark the spots with the known shoe prints, for what little good it'll do.”

“I'm on it.” The second police officer said and started to do just that and the first police officer went to the squad car to call it in. The response was immediate, since there hadn't been an incident like it in a while. When he was told who was assigned to the case, he silently cursed. He left the squad car and went back over to his partner.

“You can stop doing that.” The first police officer said, then leaned in close and whispered. “Detective Anal has the case.”

“Oh, shit.” The second police officer whispered back. “I don't feel like getting yelled at today.”

“I think we're getting yelled at no matter what we do. She's been better since her talk to the chief; but, this is going to set her off like a nuclear warhead.”

“Yeah, and that's going to suck for that poor woman.” The second police officer said and indicated the supervisor. She had been picked up by the EMTs and put on a stretcher, and they marked on her medical sheet to perform a rape kit, despite the obvious signs that she had been forced to have sex. They covered her and one of the EMTs gave her a mild sedative to calm her down.

“We're good to go.” The EMT said and they carefully rolled the stretcher around the work truck and towards the ambulance.

“She's definitely not going to like a witness leaving the scene before she gets to talk to her.” The second officer commented.

The first police officer let out a chuckle. “She's hysterical and incoherent after killing her assailant and she hasn't spoken yet.” He said as the ambulance drove away. “Although, it might be a good idea to record her badgering the victim and prove that she's doing more harm than good with her 'modern' tactics.”

They both nodded and then winced as they heard the squeal of tires and then the pings of gravel on the underside of a car as an unmarked car sped towards them and skidded to a stop just behind their squad car.

Detective Tanner stepped out of her car and walked over to them. “Tell me everything you know.”

Both officers did their best to describe the scene when they had arrived, about the hysterical woman and the sexual assault, and about how the EMTs had to cart her away and give her a sedative.

“Goddammit.” Detective Tanner spat. “Our best witness is incapacitated and we need the details only she knows as soon as possible.” She said and stood there and thought about what to do now. “This is a crime scene, so get your tape out and block this off, then get me piles of evidence bags.” She said. “I'm tempted to get the medical examiner out here to let him gather the forensics evidence personally.”

That's not going to happen, because he hates you. Both police officers thought and didn't say it.

“Where's the camera guy?” Detective Tanner asked and a tiny car pulled into the service road and parked behind her car. A skinny man stepped out and grabbed his camera bag and walked over to them.

“Tell me what you want.” The man said and took out the very expensive professional camera.

“Focus on the body for now, then spread out to the truck, then do the surrounding brush.”

“You got it.” He said and stepped by her, then they heard the whirring and clicking. It took both real and digital photos, in case a detail was lost from either one. When he was close enough to see the face on the body, he cursed loudly.

“What is it?” Detective Tanner asked and turned to look at the camera guy.

“It's trouble, is what it is.” The camera guy said and waved at the body. “Don't you know who this is?”

“We haven't searched him for ID yet, so no.” Detective Tanner said. “I was waiting for accurate photos before disturbing the scene any more than it already was.”

The two police officers exchanged looks. At least she didn't yell at us this time.

“It's Darren Willowby's son, Bradley.” The camera guy said.

“WHAT?!?” Detective Tanner yelled and tromped over to the body and stepped all over the crime scene, which she would later regret, because the basic lesson she was taught was to never disturb the crime scene. She would also never know that she had stepped into the only footprint that Arnold had missed cleaning up near the body.

Detective Tanner successfully stopped herself from turning the head towards her with bare hands and dug out a single rubber glove, then touched his chin and turned the head towards her. One of the eyes was gone and she ignored it to look at the face. She recognized it as the ringleader of the group that had assaulted the Strickland house.

“Why isn't he in jail?” Detective Tanner asked, confused.

“He pleaded down to a misdemeanor and got off with community service.” The camera guy said. “Don't you read the newspaper?”

“What newspaper?” She asked and the camera guy went to his car and came back with a folded paper. Right on the front page was a casual group picture with Brad and his friends.

“They've been advertising the story all weekend.” The camera guy said. “It's not like it's a huge scandal or anything; but, the Strickland family managed to get a restraining order against the whole group.”

“What? That's not normal procedure.” Detective Tanner said.

The camera guy shrugged. “That family's been through a lot, and it's all right there in black and white.” He said. “The husband dying, losing their savings, having their house ransacked, then finding out the little bastards got off.” He looked down at the body. “Well, most of them did.”

Detective Tanner stopped her gasp before it escaped. “Take a lot of pictures.” She said and stood. “I'll let you get back to work.”

“Thanks.” The camera guy said and started taking more pictures. “I bet the Stricklands will be pretty happy to hear this guy's not around to bother them anymore.”

“More like relieved.” Detective Tanner said and went back to her car. She had a bit of reading to do and some calls to make.

*

Arnold received some personal instruction from the professor that afternoon and it helped refine his technique even more. Getting to use his skills on so many different kinds of specimens was invaluable for his education and the professor asked him random questions about the things he had learned from the books and periodicals he had Arnold read. He was quite impressed at his mental retention.

“After everything you've learned so far, is there anything specific you want to learn next?” Hamil asked his apprentice as they cleaned up their tools and their work area.

“I think I need to learn more about chemical formulas and their compositions.” Arnold said. “My high school had a good chemistry course; but, this is college. I need a better understanding of it if I'm going to go further.”

Hamil nodded. “Yes, I have to agree. The more you delve into the biology field, the more of a basis you need in the related fields.” He said. “I can introduce you to the chemistry professor and see what she recommends.”

“I've met Professor Power.” Arnold said.

“Oh? What did you think of her?” Hamil asked, curious if he would find the woman as abrasive as everyone else.

“She's strict and Cissily doesn't like her.” Arnold said. He did not say the nickname Cissily called her.

Hamil chuckled. “Well, they are like oil and water. They mix when necessary and usually separate as soon as possible.”

Arnold nodded and Hamil looked at the clock on the wall.

“The last class is about to end, so if you hurry, I'm sure you can catch her in Building B on the second floor in the chemistry lab.” Hamil said.

“Yes, sir.” Arnold said and left the biology lab at a fast walk, took the stairs and left the building. He walked a good distance across the campus and entered Building B just as the buzzer rang to end class for the day. He went up the stairs and weaved his way through the people milling about that were waiting for the elevator and walked over to the only open door.

Arnold looked inside the lab and saw a very well dressed woman as she stood over her desk and she flipped through several papers and marked them with a red pen. He had to step out of the way of several students as they left the lab and the professor was now all alone. He stepped into the room and shut the door.

Professor Felicia Power saw the movement out of the corner of her eye and waved at him. “Give me a few minutes before you bother me. I need to review these awful papers while I'm still in a bad mood.”

Arnold didn't say anything and stood there and waited. He had always been good at waiting for the right opportunity.