Steven picked it up all nonchalant, but Xander suddenly went quiet and whispered, "Steven, isn't this ring a dead ringer for yours?"
Steven took a quick peek inside the ring, smooth as could be, without a single engraving. He didn't sweat it and just brushed it off. "Eh, it's probably just the same style. These rings were everywhere back then, you know?"
Once he was done, he lingered by the scene entrance for a while, lost in his thoughts. After a bit of contemplation, he glanced down and dialed my phone.
It rang for a few seconds before he quickly hung up, no second thoughts.
"Look at her, acting all high and mighty after throwing fits every day! Whatever she isn't picking up, it’s not her, though!"
He was so sure of himself because our wedding ring had engravings on it.
But seriously, my husband, being the forensic whiz that you are, shouldn’t you know that metal engravings are the first to go? It only took me six months to buff out our initials.
So, the forensic team was doing their thing, patching me up with like five or six people pulling all-nighters. Meanwhile, my body was just lying there on the table. I was feeling queasy at the sight of all those body parts.
Xander pointed to my body and said, "Look, the head's gone, fingers too and there's a chunk missing from the ankle."
Meanwhile, Steven was silent, probably thinking about what made those parts different.
Finally, he spoke up, "So, who's the unlucky one?"
Xander shook his head. "We gotta wait for the DNA results. As soon as someone files a missing person report, we'll jump on it and try to ID our mystery guest."
My husband nodded, but he wasn’t giving my body more than a quick glance. Was he grossed out? But to be real, this whole mess was thanks to him.
Later at the meeting, Steven threw out his wild theory.
"I've been poking around recent cases and it seems like we've got a pattern here. Similar stuff's gone down in Yorehaven. They're into some seriously twisted stuff—gutting people, bleeding them out and cutting them into pieces. Looks like someone's trying to make a statement to gain some street reputation."
Xander's eyebrows shot up like he was trying to catch a fly with it.
"Yorehaven... So, like, you’re saying this is just like what those drug gangs pulled?" Xander asked, scratching his head.
Steven nodded and answered, "Pretty much."