“I came as quickly as I could.” A lady dressed in a white shirt and large latex gloves shouldered a heavy bag into the crowded room. 

“You must be the new forensic specialist.” A detective with a mustache looked over at the woman. 

“Yes,” the lady said as she observed the scene. “I hear it’s a bad one?”

The man frowned, as if he had never seen something like this before. “As bad as it gets, truth be told. I hope you got a strong stomach, Dr…?”

“Carlson.” She made note not to shake his hand, as she was wearing gloves. He seemed to note this as well, and simply nodded. “And I’m noted for my strong stomach, being a forensic agent and all.”

“Right, well, I’m Detective Brown, and over here are Detectives Wright and Hughes.” The man waved over to the others on his squad halfheartedly. “We already solved it, truth be told, but it’s going to be a long trial.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Definitely, I was a lawyer back in my day, and I always knew the domestic cases took the longest.” He ushered her into the bedroom. Blood coated almost every tangible surface of the small room. Flecks of brown coated the yellow-painted walls, and in the middle, a body lay in a bloodless, white heap. Or what was left of the body. It had already begun to decompose.

“God.” The lady pressed a hand to her chest. “How horrible.” 

“We have the wife in custody.” Detective Brown shook his head. “Confessed immediately.” 

Dr. Carlson got to work immediately, focusing on taking pictures of the body at every angle before swabbing for DNA. “I’ll start a trace, thanks Detective.” Her voice carried a sense of dismissal, so he left the room. 

It took some time, gathering all the evidence they needed and following proper procedures. As a special precaution, Dr. Carlson had to take off her gloves to look them up. It didn’t matter anyway, the others wouldn’t want to come back into the room for now. Slowly, she peeled the blood-stained ring off the limp finger and put it in a plastic bag. She rubbed the blood between her fingers and sniffed it. 

“Why are you not wearing gloves?” Detective Brown startled her, standing in the doorway. 

“I…”

A new voice carried through the small house as the front door shut. “Sorry I’m late, car broke down halfway here. Had to call a tow.” 

Dr. Carlson’s eyes widened. 

“Who are you?” Detective Brown asked the new voice. 

“Dr. Carlson with the county forensics department.” She rustled in her jacket to get out an ID. “I heard it was a nasty one.” 

Detective Brown looked from the Dr. Carlson in the bedroom to the one in the doorway. The lady in the bedroom sprung into action, hoisting up the bag of evidence and the bloody wedding ring. She jumped out the window and ran into the crowded street.