Excerpt: Sweet Cherry Pie

Blood has a certain smell to it, a sweet, sticky and metallic smell that is strong enough that you can feel it on your skin and the taste haunts the back of your throat. It smells slightly different depending on the time of day as well. You walk into a crime scene on a hot summer day and you get the sickly smell of sweet blood and salty sweat, with a rotting, cooking corpse. In the winter everything is frozen still and oddly scentless. Well, except for the smell of death.
Death has a unique stench to it. I can’t explain what it smells like, it’s almost sweet. Walking into a crime scene that’s all you smell. The blood, the death, the rotting corpse and the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness. The worst thing about working with dead bodies is that you get used to the smell, you grow cold to the feelings but the anger is always there. Ask any investigator, they will lie through their teeth and say it’s no big deal. But it is. Anyone who goes to their first scene throws up, looks away and struggles with it. Guaranteed.
I never was a morning person, I can't remember a time I was. Ever. I'm more of a night person, it's just who I am. Unfortunately, I do spend a lot of time up early morning or late at night due to work. It's just part of the job.
The problems with morning is that its the start of a new day, and I live in the past. I long for the night or day before. And this morning more than ever. My goddamn phone rang at three in the fucking morning. It was still dark out, and all I could manage was a groan and a lot of anger at whoever was calling. I really hated mornings, and this was part of the reason why. And as much as I hated getting up, it was a phone call and I feel obligated to answer the phone. I don't know, I just do. So I rolled out of bed and stumbled to my phone out in the living room. My apartment can be hard to navigate at night. I stumbled out of my room and into the open living room that was gently lit by the moon. It was beautifully clear outside. I walked, now able to see where I was going, and picked up the phone.