The sanguine dress lay on the floor in a pile. Music played softly on the stereo. And candles lit the empty room. It looked like the perfect setting for a romance novel without the people in it. But this was not a romantic scene.
The adjoined bathroom held three people. The officer called to the scene and the coroner. And a woman lay slumped in the bathtub covered in the same sanguine only this really was blood red and not a low cut dress. The detectives had yet to arrive on the scene, but foul play was suggested by the knife wounds on the body.
The woman was a thirty-year-old single woman who was missing from work the last two days and her boss called for a welfare check as the woman had no family in the area. The detectives would have their work cut out for them as she had few friends and acquaintances close to her for them to interview. She largely worked alone in a graphic design business and was the quiet house in the neighborhood. She was a very private person.
The detectives arrived and began a search of the house, with techs bagging evidence and taking pictures. They confiscated a laptop and her cell phone. Just as they were bagging the cell phone it rang. This may be their first clue. The detective raised an eyebrow when he saw the caller ID; it simply said “Him.”
Written for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (FOWC) – sanguine
Leigha Robbins 