I waltzed out of the kitchen, carrying 2 tubs of ice cream. As I entered the living room, Mark looked up at me and gave a tired smile. I went over and sat on the couch next to him and handed his favorite ice cream, orange sherbert, to him. "Perfect for relaxing after work" I said cheerily. He gave a happy mmhmm  since his mouth was already too full of ice cream to even attempt to respond. I laughed and dug into my Spumoni sherbert. "Hey, I went shopping today!" He said. I looked at him eagerly and waited for the story. We had a little tradition where we would tell each other a little story about something that happened whenever we went shopping, and we'd try to make it 10x funnier than it originally was.

   "this lady ran into the store wearing yellow rainboots (it's set in summer) and a work outfit. Her hair looked like she had just gotten out of bed!" Already, I was starting to have a fit of giggles. "Anyways, she ran over to a shelf and picked up all the latex gloves on it, then she rushed over to the self checkout, paid for everything, and left! Without  the gloves!" He finished. I imagined the scene and burst out laughing, and he joined in too. He started to tickle me and it made me laugh even harder.

     After we calmed down, my sides hurt. It was 9:30pm, so I suggested we go to bed. We lived in a apartment that just barely fit the two of us, but we managed to scrape by. I had a job as a detective and Mark was a security gaurd. We met once when I was on a case  and we've been together since. I didn't have very much work lately, so I was grateful to Mark for supporting us, even with his small salary.

     That night I had a dream about the lady in the yellow rainboots.

     I woke to the noise of shower water coming from the bathroom.  That's right I thought lazily Mark has work today. Guess I'll just go back to sleep. Eventually I got up. I flicked on the radio and cleaned up the ice cream from last night. I was doing the laundry when a particularly alarming broadcast came on.

I sat down with a cup of apple juice and decided to  give it a listen. The broadcast began as soon as I took my first sip " there has been a mass murder at pristine plaza! Over 30 have been confirmed dead and no..." but by the time it had said pristine plaza I had stopped listening and whipped out my phone. Mark's employer was right next to pristine plaza! I dialed his number at least 6 times, but he didn't pick up. I grabbed my things and my badge and set out to meet him at the scene.

     On my way downtown, I could see the lights flashing from police cars and several ambulances.

     As I pulled in, I rushed to the scene, where I was then stopped by an officer. "Mam, only authori-" he started  but couldn't finish his sentence before I flashed my badge at him. Before getting permission to come in,  I barged in and started calling Mark's name, but he was nowhere to be found. I started to freak out, but then realized there were several other logical reasons he wasn't responding? He could be in interrogation! That would make sense why he wasn't picking up and he wasn't here. I reassured myself many times over, but couldn't shake the worry off my mind.

     It was 10pm and Mark hadn't called or come home. I started to cry and got out some ice cream, but didn't eat any. The more I sat there thinking, the more I thought of how I would avenge him. I put in an appeal to be put on the case, but wasn't expecting anything of it. They only put me on small delinquent cases, however to my surprise the next morning it was accepted.

     I attended a mass funeral a week later.

     I looked at the police locker room, but couldn't find any evidence other than the murder weapon, which was a gun, but had no fingerprints, a mask that held the scent of the murderers hair products in it, and a latex glove. Whoever had done the murder must have thoroughly  been cleaned a couple of hours before the murder, since there were no DNA traces of any kind on the items.

     There were three suspects, a man and two women, one of which was a lady wearing a business suit and had messy hair... with yellow rainboots. the other two looked to have just been shopping, but looked nervous and anxious.

     Over the next few weeks, I ruled out the two normal people and all who was left was the strange woman. All the evidence pointed to her. In her home, officers found a variety of hunting guns and the same brand of conditioner was found in her shower. Also, Mark's story about her and the latex gloves all matched up. I gave my opinion and left her to the officers.  The last thing I remembered from her was her look of disbelief and protesting that she didn't do it.

     I went home that night the happiest I'd been since Mark's death. I had finally avenged him! I felt my triumph all the way into the shower. As I was washing my hair, I noticed I'd never moved Mark's shampoo off the edge of the tub. Now that I thought more about it it was the same brand the lady used. That's funny. The lady. I started to recall his story about her. Wait... I thought with sudden shock; she didn't take the gloves with her! She's innocent! But then who else would have had access to all those things... as my thought came to zero in on one person, I realized with how every bit of it made sense, and I didn't want to believe it.

     As soon as I got out of the shower, I rushed over to Mark's dresser, and after digging around a little bit, found his medication for his insanity. I shaked it a little and found it was almost completely full. I went pale with realization. He hadn't been taking his medication. That was when I heard the front door creak open from across the house.

     Did I leave the door unlocked? It didn't matter, I had to find a weapon. I eyed my surroundings and spotted a bottle of pepper spray and a knife I had brought in from the kitchen yesterday from spreading butter on my toast in bed. I quickly dual wielded the two items just as soon as the bedroom door open. I launched myself at the tresspasser, knife in hand but froze as soon as I saw who it was. "Mark?" Was all I could say  before I noticed the gun he was pointing at me.

     As soon as that bullet fired, my suspicions had been confirmed. I didn't die right away. My vision was extremely blurry and I was in bushels of pain, but the last thing I saw before I passed was a blank stare  that held no emotion, except a tiny glint of sorrow and regret caged behind his dark brown eyes.