Archive of Our Own ^beta

The body is moving.

The corpse of a young man had been brought into the basement of Cresswell and Wadworth's Detective Services about an hour ago. The family had carried him in in a sack, dumped him on the table, shoved some money at them, and left. All they knew was that he had been fine, then suddenly dropped dead this morning. Originally Audrey and Thomas suspected poison, but now that there were cockroaches crawling out of his mouth and eye sockets by the dozens, they might have to re-evaluate their thesis. 

"Gross," Thomas said, eyeing the body with disdain. 

"Oh, calm down, this is hardly the grossest thing we've ever dealt with." Audrey-Rose said, pushing him away from the cadaver to get a better look. She took her scalpel and carefully made an incision across his chest to reveal his lungs, then cut into his lungs as well.

"No roaches in here," she says, "they must be coming from his stomach."

Audrey whips around and holds the scalpel out to Thomas, "care to do the honors?"

Thomas backs up, a sly grin on his face, "oh, no, my love. That's all yours."

Audrey-Rose shrugs and turns back to the body, cutting the skin, then the muscle, then into the stomach. Her face pinches in confusion. There's no bugs in his stomach either. Thomas appears over her shoulder, peering into the bug-less stomach.

"Huh," he says, his voice even, "interesting. Perhaps they're further down, why don't you keep looking?"

Audrey-Rose gives him a look. Something is up, she knows it. With one last glance at the nuisance she calls love, she dives back in. Sifting through the stomach, she finds it empty. No remains of food. Meaning that this man has been dead for more than just a day. She scans the body again. She sees all the tell-tale signs of a fresh corpse-but upon looking closer she sees that it is all a ruse. The color in the man's skin is face paint. Thomas must have seen her still, because he comes up behind her and puts his arms around her waist.

"What's wrong, love?"

"This man has been dead for more than a day," she responds, puzzlement clear in her voice, "yet someone has gone to great lengths to ensure that it looks like it hasn't."

Thomas pauses, seeming to comprehend her words, "how strange. There's absolutely nothing in the stomach?"

Audrey whips around to face him, "how did you know the stomach was empty?"

"Love, I can see."

"Oh, right, of course. Well, I'll check one more time just to be sure."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," Thomas lets her go and steps back to give her room.

Audrey-Rose returns to the corpse and begins to dig deeper into the stomach. She works her way through the folds until she sees something. Something silver. She tries to obtain it with her scalpel, but to no avail. Giving up, she sticks a hand in and pulls out the item, only to have it plucked from her hand. Turning to the thief, she sees Thomas. He holds the item out to her and lowers himself to one knee.