In this life, keep your enemies close and your friends even closer because friends make better enemies.
★

Detective Benjamin Moore had grown up in a predominantly female household on the outskirts of East Boston. It had always been his mother, two aunts and his sister versus his father, his younger brother and ofcourse, himself. They weren't as rich as the rest of the families that lived there but they got on fairly well. Atleast, there was always food on the table. Benjamin's father would die first before he let his family starve.

Benjamin's father was one of those emotions-make-you-weak fathers. A staunch supporter of tough love. The biggest display of love Benjamin's father had ever showed to his children was a light pat on the shoulder. Benjamin's mother, on the hand, was the fluttering fairy type. If she wasn't down in the kitchen whipping up a fresh batch of oatmeal cookies, she was somewhere in the house with a magic broom making everything spick and span. Even in her sleep, she was already planning what to cook for dinner the next day. Then arthritis had swooped her off her busy feet and into the confines of a rocking chair in their backyard.

His mom's illness had left a void in young Benjamin's chest which he had filled with sex, booze and drugs. Nothing serious though. Then he'd met a very volatile Rukelle Savannah, the proverbial school bully, and he'd instantly known that she was the only one who could fill the void in his chest. After an intense pursuing and a brief dating period, Benjamin and Rukelle had gotten married at the courthouse in downtown Boston with only his brother, Bernard and Rukelle's younger sister, Rachel as witnesses. The rest of his family had not attended because they had not approved of Benjamin's choice of a wife. It didn't matter to Benjamin now. Nine years had a way of numbing the pain of his family's rejection.

Benjamin had thought that his marriage to Rukelle would be just like those in the movies. He had believed that marriages were all about love, friendship, trust and support. In other words he wanted a picture perfect marriage. Rukelle, on the other hand, didn't do so well with anything that was perfect: even something as sacred as marriage. So she had started finding ways of picking fights with Benjamin over the smallest of things. When that didn't work, Rukelle had found an even better way to ruin their marriage. She had gone and robbed a corner-store. And that had marked the end of their marriage.

Benjamin still missed his ex-wife. He saw her everywhere. At work, in his dreams and occasionally, at their daughter's school. Benjamin knew that Rukelle was trying to reach out in her own way. He also knew that if he offered to help Rukelle reconnect with their daughter she would flee. Rukelle suffered from an extreme case of survivor's guilt. Ever since her brief stay in prison, Rukelle thought that she didn't deserve to be happy. She believed that if she met her daughter, she would ruin her just like she'd done with their marriage.

His marriage, however catastrophic it was, had also given him the most precious thing in the world; his daughter. Benjamin didn't know if it was a good or a bad thing that his daughter had the looks and character of her mother.

Rachel Bernice Moore had inherited her mother's feisty nature. At eight years old, she had the attitude of a Tasmanian Devil. Just yesterday, Rachel had adopted a stray kitten and had brought it home. When Benjamin had asked her to take it back out, she had blatantly refused and thrown a huge fit. This morning while Rachel was still asleep, Benjamin had tried to throw the cat out. It had woken up instantly and scratched the skin off his arms. Rachel had woken up and laughed at him. Then she had seen the blood on her father's arms and she'd cried. Rachel had felt so guilty, she had even fed him breakfast. Maybe the cat wasn't so bad after all.

Now, Benjamin sat in the reception of the Boston state mortuary admiring the long thin scars that marred his arms. He still had a bone to pick with a certain cat and when he got home tonight, they were going to have a stern talk –man to cat. His arms resembled a torn rug but he didn't mind. All that mattered right now was Harleigh's autopsy, which he was here to preside over. Lady luck wasn't smiling down on him these days. He was always assigned the worst jobs. From notifying the Amari family to presiding over autopsies. Very soon, he would be crawling into septic tanks to extract dead bodies.

The assistant Medical Examiner, Alicia Prescott, an old stick thin woman with grey streaked black hair tied up in a side bun, walked out of her office. She was fully dressed in green hospital scrubs, a wrinkled white lab coat and gloves. Alicia took one look at Benjamin's arms and scowled.

"You either get those things looked at or you shall not be entering the morgue." Alicia's feet tapped a regular pattern on the scuffed linoleum floor as she waited for Benjamin to do the needful.

"It's only a few scratches. I can manage."

Alicia remained scowling at him with her arms crossed over her non-existent chest. Let's just say Benjamin knew when to give up.

After his wounds were treated by the friendly receptionist, he entered into the morgue. The cloying smell of antiseptic and  bleach hit him almost immediately but he could still smell the faint undertones of decomposing flesh and dried blood. His breakfast began to squirm in his stomach.

Alicia was already at work with two other men. One man was meticulously arranging an array of tools on a metallic tray while the other was helping Alicia remove Harleigh's body from a freezer. The body was placed  on a metallic gurney and one of the men snapped more pictures of her body.

Alicia took out a tape recorder that looked like it had survived the second world war. She snapped it on and the autopsy began.

"This is the comprehensive autopsy of twenty year old Harleigh Amari, done on the fourth day of September 2020. The subject has an underwhelming weight of 159 pounds. She has an above average height of five feet and seven inches." Alicia declared.

Alicia checked her eyes and neck then declared. "The subject has petechiae in her eyes and scarring on her neck consistent with persistent strangulation. Important to note that this strangulation happened pre-mortem." Alicia proceeded to check her nails, her thighs, then checked her private parts. This was the external exam. It was the easy part. Benjamin planned to keep his eyes closed for most of the internal exam. Alicia combed Harleigh's pubic hairs for any foreign DNA. Benjamin figured that Alicia was testing for rape.

"Was she raped?" Benjamin asked.

"Well besides the cuts on her thighs, there is no scarring around her private parts. No sign of penetration or sexual fluids. So I am thinking No." Alicia replied then she asked her aides to help her turn the body over.

Benjamin immediately noticed the first anomaly. "Wait." He continued despite Alicia's scowl. "Could you first move her hair to the side?"

Alicia also saw what he was pointing out. "It looks like a tattoo. A new one from the looks of it. Probably days old. Look closely it's still healing."

Benjamin recognized the tattoo. "Shit!"

Alicia gave him a perplexed look.

"This is  the logo of the M.A.A.A wine company that was founded by Marcos Finn, Archer's deceased father. You know, the one that produces the sweet wine made of bananas." Benjamin explained.

"Wait you mean Detective Archer Finn? The cop? What has he got to do with all this? And why does a twenty year old woman have the tattoo of a wine company on her neck?"

"I don't know but I guess we'll find out soon enough." Benjamin replied.

★★★

Detective Rukelle Savannah had just finished washing off the soot and ash from her body when Archer called with a tip on Carlos Johnson, the manager of the Community center. Rukelle had been understandably livid because Archer was investigating the case on his own when he was supposed to be off duty.

Nonetheless, Rukelle had dressed up and called her new partner, who had said that he would meet her at the community center in twenty. Now, she drove like a bat out of hell from her home to the Community center.

Five minutes later, Rukelle rounded the behemoth building looking for parking and found a spot where a car was pulling out. Rukelle waited for the car to pull out before she took it's place. She put her state-issued Glock in her waist holster and walked towards the double glass doors that served as the entrance to the community center. Rukelle was hit by a wave of air conditioning and she was grateful. She had already sweated through her new pair of clothes. Damn heat.

Rukelle mumbled her apologies to a janitor who was mopping the floor as she tiptoed her way across. As if tiptoeing would magically make her offence a little less worse.

Rukelle grabbed a girl who was dressed in a pink tutu by the arm and asked for directions to the Manager's office. The girl's eyes dropped to Rukelle's waist. She saw the gun and gasped.

When the girl managed to get over her shock, she replied. "Walk straight down the hall. Take the first left then another left and you will see his office. Hard to miss."

The girl in the tutu skipped her way across the wet floor, earning a fresh scowl from the janitor. The janitor flipped Rukelle the bird as if it was her fault that the girl had left muddy shoe prints on the wet floor. Rukelle merely shrugged and just for the fun of it, skipped her way across the wet floor and towards the Manager's office. Yes, she was that petty.

As Rukelle approached the Manager's office, the hairs on the nape of her neck rose for no particular reason. Rukelle raised her fist and knocked on the door.

No answer.

Rukelle's heart rate spiked. She was already getting scared. Where was her damn partner to cover her?

"Carlos? Carlos Johnson? This is the police. We are here to ask you some questions pertaining to one of your employees. Harleigh Amari to be specific." Rukelle was shouting and a few people had gathered in the hall. Some were giving her funny looks while others shared her anxiety.

Rukelle thought that she heard something. She put her ear to the door. And then she smelled it; the distinct coppery-iron smell of drying blood. She pushed open the door and came face to face with Carlos' dead body.

Carlos was lying face down on his cluttered desk. A pool of blood formed a halo around his head and stained the papers on his desk. Rukelle was also aware of the open window in the back of the office and the neat bullet hole in the back of Carlos' skull.

Carlos had not been given time to react. Someone had just stood at the window and fired a bullet or two into the back of Carlos' skull. Then Rukelle had other thoughts. Unsettling thoughts. It was Archer who had given her this tip about Carlos and now the man was dead. Whatiff– Shit! Rukelle hated this case.

Her partner, Detective Matthew, rushed in. Sweat dampened his hair, his shirt and his face. "Shit." He muttered. And that about summed it up.

Rukelle's phone rang and they both jumped. "What!" She screamed into her phone.

"Well hello to you too." The caller replied dryly.

"Benjamin?"

"Yep. Anyway, I called to give you an update on the case." Benjamin replied.

"Archer did it." Rukelle expelled out in a rush. She didn't know why she said it. She just wanted to get it off her chest.

"What did Archer do?"

"He is the killer. He tortured Harleigh, killed Natasha burned down the forest and n-now he has murdered the manager of the community center." Rukelle was on the verge of crying.

"How sure are you that he is the one who did this?" Benjamin, always the calm one, asked.

"His knife matches the weapon that tortured Harleigh. Archer is also the one who called me about the tip on the manager. And do you know what I found when I got here? A long conga line of happy flies munching on the manager's dead body."

"You know Archer way more than I do. Do you think he would be that stupid? Besides, I have even more reason to doubt him. I'm just from Harleigh's autopsy. She had the logo of Archer's dad's company tattooed on her neck."

"You know all this and you still think that he is innocent?" Rukelle asked.

"No, I do not think. I know he is innocent because I hired someone to follow him. After Archer left the community center, Carlos attended a board meeting. Archer didn't return to the community center after he left. He proceeded to Easton College then he went to Harleigh's home then to the courthouse."

"So who did this?" Rukelle was confused. A few minutes ago, she had been convinced that Archer was responsible. Now, she wasn't so sure."

"I don't know, Rukelle but someone is trying to set Archer up. Aren't you scared that they are doing one heck of a fine job?"

Rukelle hung up. And for reasons unknown to her, when the wind blew against her frame, she shivered.

★

So, how did I do health wise? I had to study a little Biology off of Google for this chapter but I think I did well. Let me know in the comments if I met your expectations or if I disappointed you. And don't forget to vote.

Ciao. (Yes I studied Italian too)