Ashes

Detective Brian Haner walked down the hallway to the mortuary where he would meet the Medical Examiner. He knocked on the door then pushed it open to see Dr. Jonathon Seward hunched over a corpse. Johnny looked up as Brian started walking towards him.

“Afternoon Johnny,” Brian greeted.

They too were on a first name basis and they had often gone out after work for drinks at the local bar. Brian pointed at the body on the table. It was that of a man. He looked to be in his fifties. His body was swollen and the skin was a sickening greenish black. There were no external injuries and from Brian’s experience with corpses he would probably guess that the man had drowned to death.

“What do we have here? A floater?”

“Yep sure looks like it,” Johnny announced. “Some men reeled him in when they went fishing in Lake Taru today. He just got here a while ago. They’re saying it was suicide, but who in their right mind tries to drown himself?”

“I know,” Brian said shuddering. “I hear it’s the worst kind of death.”

“Yes. Well it’s my job to rule out foul play now isn’t it?” Johnny remarked walking away from the table to the storage area. “I’m guessing you’re not here for him.”

Brian watched as Johnny read the names on each of the large refrigerated draws then pulled out one. Inside was a body under a white sheet. He motioned for Brian to help him move the body to another exam table then remove the sheet to reveal a naked Ms. Thornton. They had done their best to clean up the blood and the body looked fine except for the long cut along her neck and the signature autopsy incisions.

“When we found her we were a little skeptical that we were dealing with the same person. Well it could be the same but the injuries are a little different. Notice that there is only one visible would. The first girl had many cuts and gashes. I thought that the wound to the neck was the fatal one but when I studied her carefully at the crime scene I noticed that the perp just barely cut her. It was however deep enough to cause a lot of blood loss. When we turned her over we noticed another, deeper wound,” Johnny informed Brian while flipping the cadaver over.

It was then Brian noticed the stab wound on her back. It was just as Brian had suspected. There was too much blood near her lower abdomen to have just come from her neck injury.

“It’s a pretty deep wound. I’m going to get Dr. Ashman to figure out what type of weapon but I’m guessing its some type of knife. He’ll be able to narrow it down to the type and length so you’ll know what to look for,” He informed Brian.

“So you don’t think it’s the same guy?” Brian inquired.

“Well this victim died differently. It seems that she was cut across the neck first then left to bleed enough that she was too weak to fight back or even passed out. Then the fatal back stab was delivered but after we find out the weapon and compare the wounds we’ll have definite results. Give us about two more days,” Johnny said.

Brian thanked him for the information then headed back to headquarters. He thought that the ME would answer some of his questions but he was even more confused now. Why all the changes in the approach? Was the killer trying to throw us off? If he was he was doing a great job at it.