My Forensic Scientist Wife

On the third day after my death, my body was sent to the police station in different packages. Jonathan Walsh, my husband, and Frank Stone, my junior at work, saw my corpse and frowned. “If only Elena were here, she would have been able to find some clues.” Frank sighed as he stared at my horribly mangled remains. “Don’t mention her. She’s not even worthy of being a forensic scientist!” I stared at my husband with a conflicted look. He analyzed each part of my body and deduced the manner of my death with familiar ease. “The murderer is a monster…” Frank’s face turned pale, and he sighed again. Jonathan calmly used all that I had taught him and perfectly pieced out the entire process of my death based on the clues from my dismembered body. I could not help but feel proud. Unfortunately, he was still a little off the mark. He did not manage to figure out that this body belonged to me, his wife. Chapter 1 I was chopped into pieces. My murderer packed my dismembered parts into different plastic bags, just like how a butcher would pack meat. My murderer even sent my body to the police station. The audacity of that person… “This is clearly a provocation!” When the police officers saw the parts in the black plastic bags, their faces drained of color. “The murderer has a certain degree of countersurveillance knowledge. This is just one part of the body,” said Frank Stone, my junior at work. His face had turned pale. Even though he had already performed an autopsy on countless bodies before, his face changed when he saw my dismembered parts. “Sorry for the trouble, Jonathan.” Liam Tyson, captain of the police force, looked at Jonathan Walsh, who stood at the side. Ever since I resigned, Jonathan was the only qualified forensic scientist left in the forensic department. He often had to work overtime. But Jonathan just changed into protective gear without complaint and went into the autopsy room. “Where are we even supposed to begin? Just what kind of hatred does the murderer hold for the victim to do this?” Frank sighed. He stifled his discomfort and started assembling my body parts. Jonathan gave Frank a cool look before he quietly started identifying what part went where. Good. He could do it without batting an eye. When I first started teaching Jonathan, he often puked at such scenes. He could finally do this without blanching. After a long while, the outline of my body was pretty much restored to how it was supposed to be. Calmness was the most important aspect of being an effective forensic scientist. The second most important aspect was to maintain rational judgment while doing everything to figure out the truth. Jonathan did well. I felt proud of him. “You’re amazing, Jonathan! You have almost reached Elena’s record—” “Don’t talk about her!” The usually cold and calm Jonathan suddenly snapped angrily, and it startled Frank. Frank immediately stopped talking and felt a little awkward. He thought, ‘I forgot… Jonathan treats Elena like a grain of sand in his eyes. He cannot tolerate her.’ He lowered his head and frowned as he looked at the cuts on my body. “The victim was brutally tortured. Based on the muscle atrophy, she was still alive and conscious as her bones were ripped out and her muscles were torn. “It’s similar to the cases from before. “Based on the skeletal development, the victim was a woman in her thirties and was around 5’4”. “Check for recent missing cases of women in their thirties.” After analyzing the torn remains, Jonathan figured out the basic details. Frank pouted and thought, ‘Jonathan still can’t compare to Elena. ‘If Elena were here, she would definitely notice details and deduce more useful information.’ I sighed. Jonathan could not be blamed for that. In the past, I told Jonathan that the most troublesome of all cases were the dismemberment cases because we would need to put together the body parts to reconstruct the form. It was even more bothersome if the murderer took away any identifying information of the victim. It was incredibly difficult to search for clues from dismembered corpses. It was as difficult as looking for a needle in a haystack. So, he was not to be blamed. After all, my murderer had sent my body parts with a plan in mind and had not spared anything that could provide Jonathan with any useful information. More importantly, I did not know who had killed me. There were gaps in my memory. Aside from the brutal pain, I could not remember anything about the murderer. Chapter 2 Only a part of my corpse was delivered to the police station. Dismemberment cases were already hard enough and trying to look for answers from such fragmented parts of my body made it even harder. I floated to Jonathan’s side and saw him work overtime to get more answers from the remains of my body. Night fell, and Liam brought lunch. “Thanks for all your hard work, everyone. Let’s eat.” Jonathan quietly picked up his lunch and went into the lounge. “Jonathan, there’s no need for that.” “It’s been years. It’s time for you to move on and live the rest of your life with Elena.” “That’s right, Jonathan. Elena resigned so many years ago…” Frank said softly. Jonathan’s face turned cold, but he said nothing. “By the way, why hasn’t Elena come by to drop lunch for you recently?” Liam looked at his unappetizing lunch and started missing me. Ever since I resigned and became a housewife, I always delivered food to Jonathan when he had to work overtime, without fail. I would also cook extra food for his colleagues. After all, it was common for those who worked such jobs to have no time to eat. Besides, Jonathan had gastritis. “You’re a couple. Even if you argue with each other, you still need to live together.” Liam took a look at the necklace around Jonathan’s neck. There was a delicate ring attached to it. “I watched you two grow up together. Elena is a good person.” Liam stared at the ring and smiled. Jonathan had proposed to me with that ring, but mine was a duplicate. The original was given to someone else—his childhood friend, Yvonne Verde. To Jonathan, Yvonne brought him joy, unlike me. He felt nothing for me. “The method used in this case is similar to those murder cases in the past… “Good thing Elena caught them back then. “This might be a copycat. That old group picked women as their victims, especially women below thirty.” Liam seemed to have thought of something, and he looked worried. “Elena is at home alone. You should tell her to be careful.” Jonathan’s face turned a little paler as if he just remembered how traumatic it had been in the past. “Don’t worry. Troublemakers always live longer than anyone else, so Elena will be safe. “Also, she’s a famous criminologist and our best forensic scientist. No one can possibly hurt her.” Even though I was only a ghost, I felt a sharp ache in my heart. Jonathan’s phone rang. I looked at it. It was Yvonne calling. “Yvonne, I’m a little busy here. “Yes. It’s a troublesome case. I won’t be coming over tonight. “Alright, I’ll buy you your favorite blueberry cake next time,” he said and chuckled. “Who is that, Jonathan?” Frank shot Jonathan a curious and disbelieving glance. “She’s my neighbor and sister in all but name. She has only returned home from abroad recently.” “Your neighbor and your sister in all but name? I’ve never heard of her before!” Frank was puzzled. “Let’s continue examining the corpse.” Jonathan put a stop to the questions Frank still wanted to ask. I sneered. ‘Sister in all but name, my foot!’ Yvonne was his one-sided love. “Jonathan, you’re a married man. You need to keep some distance from other women…” Liam sounded like he still had more to say. Yvonne had spoken so sweetly a few moments ago that he felt shivers down his spine, despite his age. “You’re reading into this too much. Besides, Elena knows about my friends.” Yes. I did. Whenever Yvonne faced any trouble, she always turned to Jonathan. Even during our wedding anniversary, she would show up and make it seem as though she had not meant to intrude. I laughed mockingly. This was the first time Jonathan chose not to go to Yvonne but stayed behind for me. Chapter 3 On the fifth day of my disappearance, Frank began to feel that something was off. “Jonathan, Elena has not come to the police station for days, and things haven’t been particularly safe here. Elena is alone too…” Jonathan pursed his lips. “Just ignore her. Let her act out all she wants this time.” Since I was bored, I just stared at Jonathan while he busied himself. I sighed helplessly. In reality, enough time had passed for Jonathan to report me missing, but I knew he would not look for me. He had completely wasted the golden window. As time passed, useful information on the body would start to deteriorate. So, Jonathan had spent the past few days at the police station. He was short on time and had to fight for every second with my dismembered parts to get as much information from them as possible. He had no time to care about my feelings. This was not the first time I had argued with Jonathan, and it was also not the first time I had left without a word. But whenever such arguments happened, I was usually the one admitting defeat. I knew that Jonathan resented me. In the past, I had made a mistake at an autopsy on one particular corpse and missed the golden window to save Jonathan’s mother. The criminals had staged a diversion. Their real goal had been Jonathan’s mother. When I finished extracting the information from the corpse and deduced the killer’s location and identity, the police had found a new body. The criminals had been lurking in the city all along. When we saw the white sheet over his mother’s dead body, Jonathan went mad. He started to hate me ever since. “It’s all your fault! Didn’t you say that they would find their next target in Artillia?! They had been setting us up all along! “Elena, did you find any corpse in Artillia? You didn’t! Because they wanted to hurt you by hurting my mother! Didn’t you say that your knife can figure out the truth? How could you make such a mistake?! “If you hadn’t made the wrong guess about their next target, my mother would still be alive!” Jonathan grabbed me by the throat, and I could not breathe. “You said that Artillia was the only city with that sort of soil, and what happened?!” “Jonathan, calm down!” “How can I calm down?! Elena, they’re taunting you! They hate you! You were the one who made a mistake and sent the police to Artillia! “You’re the one who challenged them on TV and claimed that you’d bring them to justice! Did you catch them?! “Why did my mother end up in their hands?! Your pride killed my mother! You’re not worthy of being a forensic scientist!” My face was pale. When we arrived at the place where I had deduced they would leave behind the corpse of their next victim, we found no body at all. Instead, we were told that someone was killed in our city. This time, the victim was Jonathan’s mother. I changed into protective gear. No matter what, I had to figure out the truth. There must be some sort of information on Jonathan’s mother, Nina. Jonathan shoved me away. “Stay away from her!” He stood in the morgue like a lost child, so I could only ask for someone to take him out of there. My teacher once told me that forensic scientists must always remain logical and rational. Getting emotional in this field of work was a huge mistake. Time was precious, and I had to make use of every second. I could not let the murderer escape justice. I insisted on performing an autopsy on Nina. Perhaps God was merciful, and I managed to find a lot of crucial information from her body. This was a criminal group that tortured and killed women just for the thrill of it. Based on the information I got from Nina, we captured several criminals. While we were pursuing those who slipped through the net, I got into an accident. “Elena, I never gave you the permission to perform an autopsy on my mother! Can’t you just let her rest in peace?! “You’re a murderer too! They were right! You really are the daughter of a murderer!” Jonathan ran into my ward and yelled at me. When I was discharged, I found that I could no longer hold a scalpel, so I resigned. Jonathan took over my job. “Serves you right! You’re not worthy of being a forensic scientist.” I knew that I had let him down, along with Nina. So, I quit and became a housewife. Besides, Nina’s wish was for Jonathan to have a family of his own. Chapter 4 I was in high school with Jonathan, and I had a crush on him for years. We also ended up choosing the same major. Later, Yvonne left the country, and he gave up on her. After all, being a forensic scientist was a sure turn-off for anyone searching for a partner. “Elena, my light has slipped from my grasp.” On the day Yvonne left the country, he drank himself into a stupor. I looked at him and felt an unexpected sense of relief. Jonathan was my light. I lost my father when I was still very young. Since I was a loner, many people did not really like me. There were plenty of rumors about my family background. Some people claimed that my father was in prison, and others alleged that he was a murderer. Whenever I asked my mother about where my father was, she would end up screaming at me hysterically. “You have no father!” she once screamed shrilly at me, as if she wanted to tear me apart. “You’re lying…” I mumbled. I could see the picture she kept so dearly, but I could not see the face of the man in the picture. They did not even have a marriage certificate. So, I gained yet another label: a child abandoned by her father. Later, when my mother died, I tried to take a look at the picture again, only to discover that the man’s face had been torn clean off. I moved and became Jonathan’s neighbor. If not for Nina, I would have starved to death. When someone lost the lunch money in class, everyone banded in together and blamed me for stealing it. My supposed dark past also made me a suspect. “It wasn’t her!” Jonathan stood up for me and told them where I had been when that had happened. In the end, they found the culprit—a stray cat. “Finding the truth and catching criminals is my dream.” I did my best to chase after him and even surpassed him to run ahead and wait for him to fulfill his dream. My teacher told me that I was his most talented student and would turn into a great forensic scientist in the future. We became the best duo and uncovered the truth behind multiple cases. Unfortunately, he was not my light alone. Yvonne often came over to cook for him. Compared to the silence between us, Yvonne seemed more like his family. “Jonathan, I made soup for you. Try some.” Yvonne’s hand was bandaged. She gently skimmed the layer of oil on the soup out and put the bowl in front of Jonathan. “Yvonne, what happened to your hand?” “I twisted it by accident. It’s nothing.” Jonathan looked touched and took the bowl, but he did not drink it. I think he must have felt quite sick when he saw the meat inside the soup. It must have reminded him of my dismembered parts in the plastic bags. A dark look flashed in Yvonne’s eyes. “Thanks for cooking for me, Yvonne.” He set the bowl aside. He realized something was different after a while. “Did you change your perfume, Yvonne?” Yvonne looked down a bit awkwardly. She looked up after a long pause. “Yes. I’ve recently come to like stronger scents.” She wore a white tiered skirt and twirled in front of Jonathan. “Does it smell nice?” With a faint smile, he patted her head affectionately. “Yes.” It looked as though he was forcing himself to smile. Jonathan was not quite used to such heavily scented perfumes. That night, Yvonne slept in my room. She looked at my simple dressing table and closet disdainfully. “It’s no wonder you can’t make Jonathan love you.” She grabbed a bottle of moisturizer and scoffed at it. My friend packaged all of my skincare products. Since it was a simple moisturizer, she had packaged it in a simple bottle. My friend was an aesthetician. Even though the bottle looked simple, the product inside was effective and only available to beauty salons. Using it gave me peace of mind. “This doesn’t have any fragrance whatsoever. It’s no wonder it couldn’t mask the smell of death on you,” Yvonne spat. Mockery flashed in my eyes. Scents affected a forensic scientist’s judgment. More importantly, Jonathan did not like strong fragrances. He was also allergic to them. I heard the sound of a door closing. Just as I expected, Jonathan’s skin had broken out in hives. I followed him to the pharmacy. Even though he knew that he was allergic to stronger fragrances, he still had touched Yvonne. I suppose, in that regard, Jonathan and I were similar to a certain degree.