Sutures

“Are you sure you’re free today?” I asked my husband when I saw him roaming his laboratory in our house and collecting materials.

The police are doing their best to solve the murder case and Fajardo is keeping me updated but I feel like I should do something to help them especially when I need something to report in my program.

I asked Hayden if he has free time because I need someone who will show me the exact methods of killings and it is a good thing that he has a day off for this week. I cannot help but admire his intelligence and creativity when I first walk into this building in the laboratory.

It is like a mini-clinic for educational purposes because all of the pieces of equipment are present.

Hayden aside from being a general surgeon is also a famous researcher, not just here in the country but also abroad. That’s why it is not new to saw him acquiring this laboratory.

“ Wait, I think I am stupid!” I exclaimed when I realized something. How can he show me how to drain someone's blood and take their organs out without committing a crime.

Hayden laughed when he saw me frustrated with my stupid realization. However, my jaws dropped to the ground because of amusement when I saw Hayden do something in the wall and it opened revealing a narrow passage. He motions me to follow him, so I did and I am even more amused when I saw what is exactly in that area.

“ Is that a human-robot?” I amazingly asked before running and examining the body on the metal table. I once heard that the world of medicine is extraordinary, I haven’t thought that it is this extraordinary.

“ Ah!” I screamed when I tried to touch the hand of the human robot and I saw the veins and the blood that is flowing through it.

“ Let’s start,” Hayden said before giving me a surgical glove and motioning me to be his assistant. This is the first time that I will saw him do surgeries in person because I cannot ponder to saw him cutting someone open.

“ Drain the blood, cut the upper body then harvest the organs and make their eyes pitch black?” he asked when I handed him the paper where I wrote what I needed him to do. I exciting nodded to him.

“ If you drain the blood first, then the organs will die and it will not be much of use but if you harvest the organ and preserve them before draining the blood of the body then it will be a great help,” Hayden explained while he is busy doing something in the body. I just sit there and nods as if I am getting what he is trying to convey.

Because this is just a robot, he shows me how can someone drain the blood, and now he is showing me how to cut the body open. I tried to look okay when I saw him cutting through the skin of the robot from the neck to the abdomen. It feels like I am seeing him butchering someone.

“Wait, fuck!” I run outside when my stomach churned watching him harvest the organs. How can someone do those cruel things to a person? Is the murderer still a human?

I exhaled and tried to calm myself before entering the room again. Hayden just laughed at me before continuing his work. When he harvests the organs, I saw him putting them in ice and salt?

“For preservation” he explains when he saw that I looked puzzled in his action. I just nod in amusement before looking at the body again.

“Stitch it from here to here.” I pointed to the area where he should stitch similar to the murders. Like in the picture 16 years ago, the suspect sutures the victims from their neck to just the lower part of their heart to intentionally show that the organs are missing.

I watch Hayden sutures the skin and when he is done, I am shocked because I’ve realized something.

“Stop!” I shouted when I saw him finishing his work.

“Just don’t move!”

I run through our bedroom and rummaging all of my things to find the photos of one of the victims. I quickly run back to Hayden’s lab and compared the robot body to the photo that I am holding.

“Where did you learn that suture?” I asked him afraid of hearing his answers. I know that I seem paranoid sometimes but learning that the sutures on those bodies are unique and hard to learn plus the fact that I just saw my husband do the same suture as the murderer did. My hands tremble from fearing the words that will come out in his mouth.

Hayden looks confused in my reaction but manages to answer properly.

“I attended a special program, right? In our 4th month, I flew abroad to learn this?” he explains before showing me the sutures that he learned. I calmed down when I understand what he is trying to say. I feel guilty for accusing him that easily.

“Did you just suspect me of being a killer?” he asked before shaking his head in disappointment. It is true, I never thought that he can hurt someone but the fact about the sutures made me shake my faith in him.

“I…I…I am sorry.” I had a hard time apologizing but he just ignored me and start fixing his things. I bite my lip out of annoyance to myself because of how stupid I am to doubt my husband. I feel like a dog following his master when I saw him enter our living room and sit there.

I remain standing at the entrance wondering if I should approach him because his aura is too intense. His eyes are just fixed on the television like he is watching something when in fact it is turned off. I walk slowly and sit on the carpet just below him and place my head into his lap. I trace my finger into the carpet and wait for him to calm down a bit.

When Hayden is sulking, disappointed, or angry he is not the type to voice it out or expressed it like a normal person, he will just sit to one side and calm his self and I will be shocked because the next day everything will be okay, just like that. But today, I never saw him this disappointed.

“Sorry!” I apologized again as soon as I catch him looking down at me and I feel my conscience increasing when instantly he just nods and kiss me on my forehead. I feel sad when he carefully places my head out of his lap and stood up leaving me there dumbfounded, but it’s not even a minute when I saw him coming back holding a piece of paper.

“It’s the list of participants in the special program, you can look through it and contact Fajardo,” he explains before handing me the piece of paper. I want to say something to him and explain myself but as soon as he handed the paper he stormed out of our house.

I bump my head into the sofa because of stupidity, of course, there are 91 participants and potential suspects who know about those sutures, I said to myself after looking at the list he gave me.

How stupid am I to doubt my husband whoever did was to be a good human being?

“Stupid wife!” I cursed to myself before standing up and following my sulking husband.