We parked in front of a two-story house twice as big as mine. A middle-aged couple stood in front of it, the woman crying and the man trying in vain to calm her down. We both got out and headed for them, Simon standing behind my shoulder. I was always the one to talk with the witnesses...

"Hello, I'm Officer Cross, and this is my partner, Officer Aston." I let out a small smile and held out my hand to the man, who looked more sensible.

"Jeff Tanner." He squeezed my hand briefly, then pointed to his wife, who was pressing against him. "This is my wife, Karen Tanner." And then he went on quietly explaining what happened. Long story short, they returned home from a breakfast with friends and everything seemed perfectly fine until Karen noticed the lack of a very expensive set of pearls and then discovered the word Bastard! written on their bathroom mirror. I told them we would have to look through the house and assured them that we would do our best to find the culprit and her jewelry. Simon, meanwhile, inspected all the doors and windows on the first floor.

"No sign of forced entry," he told me as I entered the living room. I left the downstairs to him and headed for their bedroom. Well, the second I opened the door to that room, I went still. The bedroom smelled like sex. Oh, heightened senses were obviously as much of a curse as a blessing. I could smell Karen and Jeff here together with sweat, excitement, satisfaction and certain bodily fluids that I would rather not smell. But there was something else here too… Something… Or someone…? I shook my head at it and went inside.

The jewelry box was exactly where they said it would be. They assured me that they were missing nothing but that pearl set. Giving in to this new superpower I bowed down and smelled the box. It was here too. The other smell… But there was more… a certain bitterness… I had no idea what to think about that or how to describe it. Was there just something wrong with the person, something evil? Somehow that explanation didn’t feel right. I followed the scent right to the bathroom. The word on the mirror was written in a black marker. Well… There would definitely be fingerprints on the glass, there was no doubt about that.

I went back downstairs to get the necessary tools out of the car. Unfortunately, a certain thing stopped me before I could approach the car. The man was now talking to Simon, who was asking him the usual things like: Who has access to the house? Do you have a spare key somewhere? And so on. What stopped me was the smell. It was here too, but this time without bitterness and mixed with the smell of a man. Damn… It was the guy. He smelled of sex and the scent that mingled with his definitely wasn't his wife’s… I sighed and wearily rubbed my face. Some things I just didn't need to know…

"Oh my God! Karen, I heard what happened!” A young woman suddenly came running hugging the distressed wife. I wanted to start banging my head against a pole. It was her smell on Jeff and in their room. It was her… She was the thief…

“Oh, Lisa! How could anyone steal them from me?” Karen cried. “They were a wedding gift from Jeff, you know? Oh, you have to find them!” She turned to me and Simon with a pleading expression.

"We'll do our best," I said carefully, then turned to the other woman. "And you are?"

"Oh, Lisa Howard, I live next door," she replied with a nice smile and continued to calm Karen. My stomach turned over.

"Hm..." I frowned at her and suddenly lost all my patience. This day was just full of lies... "Well, with a house like that, you're obviously not struggling, so you probably didn't steal it for money." I thought aloud and earned myself shocked and outraged looks from everyone around me. "So why did you do it? Did you have enough of casual sex here with Mr. Husband of the Year and wanted more?”

"How dare you!" She went red and for a moment looked like she would hit me.

“Andrew! What the hell are you doing?” Simon grabbed my shoulder, but I just shook him off.

"But he didn't want anything more, did he? Maybe he said he would end it?” I guessed, watching her expression for any telltale sign. "Or did he promise to make you into the new Mrs. Tenner?" Bingo. A shadow of memories crossed her eyes. "But he didn't keep that promise. So you stole the jewelry he gave to his wife at the wedding, and then you left a message on the mirror." There was a moment of silence between us.

"He’s just a disgusting pig!" she exploded in an instant and started swearing and yelling at Mr. Tenner. The wife looked shocked for a moment, but once it all set in she joined the woman yelling at her husband. He tried to defend himself but it was all in vain. Well, he got what he deserved.

"How the hell did you know?" Simon asked me, almost in amazement.

"Intuition." I shrugged. Now I understood what the bitterness of her smell meant… It wasn't something evil. It was betrayal, and hatred born of pain. I wanted to punch the guy, but I was still a cop. Unfortunately, we couldn’t just leave the punishment to the women no matter how much I wanted to. "Come on, let's take her into custody." And we did.

The rest of the day was slow. Simon and I avoided any kind of conversation for the rest of the day. The tear in our friendship only seemed to grow bigger. I spent most of the day doing paperwork for Caroline and running around the people from Fish and Wildlife. I felt irritated and hungry and I itched to hit someone. How I looked forward to lunch.

“Hey, Andrew! There's a guy here who says he knows you," Lewis yelled from the reception. I was sitting at my desk, so I didn’t see who came, yet I seemed to know instantly. His scent spread across the room and swirled around me.

"Let him in!" I called and leaned back in my chair, finally relaxing my tense muscles. However, when I looked up at the man who was heading toward me I momentarily forgot how to breathe. You had to be kidding me… Dale wasn’t wearing my clothes anymore… Instead, he wore a red plaid shirt, blue jeans, and genuine brown cowboy boots complete with spurs on the back. He also wore a cowboy hat from which a tail of some poor animal hung. Someone kill me… Everyone followed him with their eyes as he made his way to me confidently with a grin on his face. He held a plastic box in his hand.

"I brought you lunch." He sat down on the edge of my table and placed the box in front of me. A tempting scent was already pouring out of it.

"Thanks, Dale." I gave him a small smile, then opened the box. Stewed beef with gravy. Oh, fuck me. A happy sigh escaped my mouth which just seemed to amuse Dale immensely. I didn't wait for an invitation and dug in. Each bite was like an explosion of ecstasy in my mouth. As if that wasn't enough, I found slices of bacon in it too. "God Dale, this is amazing," I said with my mouth full.

"Mmhmm… If food can entice you to make such wonderful sounds, I will have to cook for you more often. I make a great boar on wine.” Dale grinned at me. I rolled my eyes at him, though I was really excited to try it, however much I refused to admit it. "You gonna have a break anytime soon? We need to talk,” he added more seriously and began fiddling with the pens on my desk.