On the Autopsy Table
Lewis Bétóven had an undeniably bad, deceptive sense of smell. He found the characteristic smell of a homeless person to be vanilla. Drowned bodies smelled of lilies. Suicide suspects, who took sedatives or narcotics by the handful smelled to him like geraniums. Heart failures or those who died of some heart disease due to the vicissitudes of nature affected his nose like the scent of roses. Thus he knew already, well before the autopsy, unless the unambiguous signs of death were visible on the body, what it was that he would find: a failed kidney, a wet lung, remains of medicine in the gastro-intestinal tract, a hematoma in one of the brain lobes, or just constricted arteries.
Sindbad reeked of an intoxicating mignonette that he had not previously encountered. At f
