Mary was walking down a cold alley, her jacket was zipped up to her neck in order to prevent the chilling cold. The hoodie hid her hair color with only a single blond strand danced in front of her black sunglasses. She was taking a small shortcut to the alley after hard days work just like her usual day only for a horrible pungent smell to hit her nose.

Mary covered her nose with her jacket sleeve as she coughed, the smell was a pungent iron stench with a horrible waft of shit that made Mary's nose scrunch in disgust. Against her better judgement she decided to follow the rancid stench and instead of going straight down the alley like usual she instead turned to the dark hollow alley to the right. Mary pulled out her phone and gave it a quick shake to turn on the flashlight.

Mary then moved her hand away from her nose and forced herself to walk through the dark with only the subtle light from her phone. Each step Mary had a pungent whiff of the horrific odor until eventually Mary came face to face with an outhouse that was stuck in the alley. Mary then fearfully pulled her left arm from her nose and opened the outhouse door.

A body flopped to the ground from the outhouse, the pungent smell of shit, blood, and alcohol was horrendous with the only positive being an lollypop stuck in the dead bodies mouth. Mary kicked the dead body with her heels to flip it over to see the body in it's entirety.

The dead man had dirty scruffy brown hair filled with grains of sand and gravel, the man's left eye was covered with an eyepatch and the other was that of a dead fish. The man's mouth was dry and cracked and seemed to have red rectangles around his mouth, his teeth were unkempt as the few that remained where yellow and full of holes. The man's clothing was a tacky jacket and white tank top decorated with alcohol and blood splatters. In the location of the heart was a simple steak knife with a black handle stabbed through in a single strike. The man had a ripped pair of jeans and no shoes on. 

Mary immediately screamed in horror at the sight of finding the dead body. She then tapped on her phone quickly before 

"Hello, 911... I found a dead body!"

I'm not a smoker... far from it in fact but I couldn't imagine doing this job without it. The pungent smell of the smoke and ash helped cover the horrid scent in front of me. I bent down to look closer at the body before putting a pair of black gloves on. The sounds of the cop cars behind me felt as if they were trying to drown out my own thoughts. I then heard the powerful stomp of footsteps behind me. I pull my cigarette out my mouth and look behind me at the chubby police officer who was a few years older than me. "So Johnny, what do you know  about this?"

The police officer spoke with a rough cough "A random homeless guy with a gambling addiction, our victim is named Punter Nickels. He was a classic crapshooter making bad bets with bad odds only to start drowning in debt while trying to swim out of it. The cause of death was near instant from two thrusts in the heart with a steak knife, the first stab seemed to have missed the heart before the second stab killed him immediately. We have a blood test going at this moment. On the outhouse toilet was a simple rope that was cut presumably after the murder for some unknown reason, and a few strips of duct tape on the ground presumably to mute the victim. The time of death is unknown with there being a fingerprint test being done on the knife."

I nod and open the victims mouth and grab out the lollypop, it was bright pink and was slightly dissolved from saliva. I spoke "Hey Johnny you hungry?" The policer immediately spat back "Cut the shit Barney" I chuckled at his response and said in a more serious tone "Hey man, do you think this is supposed to be a message of some kind from a debtor?"

Johnny shrugged and said "Hell if I know." Before bending down beside the body and speaking once more "But this seems to be a classic loan shark or debtor murder. Tie the fucker up and kill him if he won't give you the money, the only strange part is the lollypop to be honest."

I stood up lent my hand out to help Johnny get up. The assumption seemed completely reasonable after all this was the slums of the town, so despite the lollypop I sighed and said "Yeah you're probably right. Let's get back to the base and see if the fingerprint test tells us anything." 

Johnny then coughed and said "I fucking hate that they did this in a shitter." The joke was so funny I almost laughed while standing over the crime scene but instead I said "Hey Johnny, how do you deal with the smell of a crime scene?" Johnny then gave another rough cough before saying "After a while they all smell the same."

Johnny nodded and I placed my cigarette back into my mouth, the smell of blood still permeated my nose but thankfully I could ignore it now. Before we met up with the other cops I asked "What did your first murder case smell like?" Only for Johnny to stop in his track and say "The human body is a complex beast, when it decomposes hundreds of parts interreact in ways they shouldn't. The smell was torturous and I will never be able to forget it. To this day the smell still clings to my nostrils... well I guess it makes my jobs easier so I can count that as a blessing."

As they were walking the walked passed the middle aged mortician who had a clothespin on his nose and gray bag in his arms. I gave him a little wave and said "Good luck."

Punter sauntered down the dark alley, a beer in one hand and a enclosed fist in his other. He smashed his fist into the wall in a drunken rage as he yelled a curse out into the sky "Why God! Why Did You Do This To Me!" Punter continued punching the wall till his knuckles lost their skin before he slumped down into a pile of garbage and cardboard, his home in other words. Punter threw his cheap beer can at the wall in despair as he cried into his knee poking out of a hole in his jeans. 

Suddenly Punter felt a warm tap on his shoulder, the person had a warm smile looked like they had a nice load of cash. Punter immediately stood up and fixed his posture at the thought of robbing this new face. The person asked "Hey can you lead me to a bathroom?"

Punter gave a quick nod as he tried fighting off his drunken state as he said "Do ya mind it bein dirty?" Only for the person to giggle and say "Do you?" Punter then gave a hearty laugh before standing up and saying "Follow me... what ya name?" The person only laughed and said "It doesn't matter, you won't see me again anyways."

Punter stumbled down the alley despite his best efforts to look refined, he wanted to bring his victim deep into the alley before robbing them so no one else would try touching his prey. The person then spoke "I'm so sorry for the inconvenience, I thought about this for a while before deciding to choose you." Punter understood, he would be the last person he asked for help. The person then spoke one final time "I hope you don't mind." 

Punter then felt something cover his mouth before he passed out... when Punter opened his eyes all he saw was pitch black darkness as a horrible smell of shit filled his nose. His body was tied to the seat he was on and his mouth was covered in three strips of duct tape. Punter kicked ferociously only to feel a pain in his chest. Punter looked down but couldn't see anything, the only emotion he felt was pain and despair. Suddenly a soft voice rang out like an angels "I thought I practiced enough but oh well, I apologize for the mess after all this is my first time."

Suddenly Punter felt blinded as a light filled his view, he could barely make out that the light source was a phone before he heard the voice again "Alright, now it's time for take two!" Punter couldn't have been more wrong, this wasn't an angel... it was a devil.