One For Sorrow

Chapter Eight

23:30

Cecelia parked in her reserved spot and entered the building through the main entrance. She went up to her office and sat at her desk. She booted up her computer, she needed to keep busy as she wasn’t looking forward to what was about to come. She really didn’t want to do this, but if it kept Riley at the heel she would do anything. She knew what he could be like when fuelled by anger, and it wasn’t pretty and it definitely wasn’t anything for him to get himself into trouble over.

As she was filling out the forms with difficulty, when they both walked into the room. She sighed. This was the moment of truth. She had promised to tell them, and she knew she wouldn’t get away with it. If she chickened out now, Riley would go nuts.

“Ready Cee-Jay?” Sally asked. She had decided in the car that maybe Riley was right, maybe she should leave him to speak to her for now. She now wasn’t sure she wanted to know the truth as she didn’t want to find out what she could be capable of if the need arose, and she didn’t think she was ready for that yet. “I will get set up and see you downstairs. I think we have a newbie, so I think I need to go supervise. He’s bodged the setup a few times already.” Sally explained with an eye roll.

“OK…”Cecelia said, a little bit surprised by the sudden change of heart from her friend. Sally left the room and Riley shut the door.

“Ready to talk, or would you prefer to wait until later?” Riley asked with a genuine smile.

“I could do with waiting until after I have worked so that my mind isn’t on it.” She replied. “I don’t want to mess up the autopsy because my mind is on something else.”

“Very well,” He said with a put-on smile. She sighed and stood up, picking up the file she had started. She was confused as to what was going on.

“Let’s go and find out what Mr. Chaste has to tell us, shall we?” She led him out of the room.

“Would you believe I have never been here before? They made quite an impressive building choice,” he said.

“Never came here with me?” She asked with a frown as they walked along the corridor.

“Nope, not once.” He replied.

“My father worked here, surely.” She said, looking up at him.

“No sweetheart.” He said as the memory came to her. Her father had died just after she had met Riley. Martin Montage had managed to meet Riley all of twice before he was shot in the back of the head when he had been at the crime scene of a beaten wife. The husband, who had been hiding in the closet, burst out and shot him in a panic, and still hadn’t been found to this day. It was Cecelia’s mission to find the man. “Well, now it would seem we will be working together more. I will give you a tour sometime.”

“I would like that.” He smiled. “See your pride and joy.”

She smiled at this, he was right, the building was her pride, as it had been her father’s. “Well, I will start here. This is the viewing room, where you will be. I am afraid we don’t allow people to come into the actual lab. It’s a new protocol to prevent any cross-contamination.”

“Very well.” He smiled as he walked into the viewer's room. She carried on to the changing room where she undressed down to her underwear and pulled on clean scrubs. She pulled on a pair of Crocs and walked into the lab. Picking up a mask, she tied it around her neck before pulling on two pairs of gloves. Riley was sitting between the screens. He grinned at her as she entered. “If you want to talk, Riley press the button at the side of the screen.” She watched as he pressed the button.

“OK, Pumpkin!” He grinned as Sally chuckled and the young assistant turned red. Cecelia glared. She turned on the tape recorder.

“Autopsy of Douglas Charles Chaste, date of birth Seventeenth of July Nineteen ninety-five, date of death Friday eleventh of May Twenty Twelve.” Cecelia dictated as she unzipped the orange bag which lay on the gurney in front of her. “Attending is Doctor Cecelia Jayne Montage, Doctor Sally Elizabeth Birch, and assistant Jake Mason. Also present in the viewing room is Detective Chief Inspector Riley Blackman.”

Cecelia opened the bag so that the body was fully on display. She heard a gasp coming from Jake, who was behind her. She turned around to see the young lad with a very pale complexion and a hand covering his mouth. Cecelia rolled her eyes.

“Jake, if you are going to be sick, then please leave the room,” Cecelia said before the boy ran from the room. She looked over the body, doing a cursory review of all the injuries that it carried. She recited everything she saw for the benefit of both the tape and Riley. She measured all the wounds as Sally handed her what she needed. They worked well together, never getting in each other’s way and always knowing what the other needed to do the task at hand. “All these cuts, I count 130 behind the ears, on the palms, and on the soles of the feet, were caused post-mortem. The genitalia were removed premortem. The shock of this would have knocked him out, but this isn’t what killed him, his death was caused by asphyxiation and a broken neck. The break would have happened first, paralyzing him, and then the rope around his neck caused him to asphyxiate. The heart was removed post-mortem. Both the heart and genitalia are absent from the person. Looking at the rate of lividity, my guess is that the time of death is between ten and eleven. The temperature was normal, so the rate would have matched that.”

“Between ten and eleven?’ Riley asked through the intercom. ‘Wow, you are as good as they say.’

Cecelia turned to look at him, her face creased with a frown. ‘What do you mean by that?’ Sally chuckled at his remark.

“The call came in at 10:30, the killer must have made the call.” He said, cutting the intercom as he made a call.

Cecelia proceeded with the autopsy. She pulled back the skin flaps, the murderer obviously knew the correct way of performing a Y incision, it was nearly a perfect cut. She weighed what organs were still present and then completed the autopsy following the procedure completely. Once she was finished, she closed up and covered the remains with a sheet. She stated the time of the finish and switched off the recorder and removed her gloves and mask. Putting her hands on the back of her hips, she leaned back in a stretch till she felt the familiar pop in her back. She looked at Sally who was pulling off her own mask and gloves.

“That was eventful, that boy needed to strengthen his stomach, that’s the third autopsy he has had to leave mid-way through now,” Sally said, referring to the assistant who had run out earlier.

“Really?” Cecelia said, straightening up. “Why wasn’t I informed?”

“We thought we should give him the benefit of the doubt, we didn’t expect him to do it with you”, Sally informed him as she disposed of the gloves and mask in a bin. “I had a word with him a couple of days ago, he said he’d be better next time.”

“I will speak to him on Monday, and see if he feels he is cut out for this job,” Cecelia said.

“Who?” Riley asked through the intercom.

“Jake, the assistant,” Sally said to him.

“Give the lad a break, that was a nasty body, it even turned my stomach, and I have seen a lot.”

“Riley, you need a strong stomach for this job,” Sally explained. “That’s the third one he has had to bail on.”

Cecelia snuck out of the lab and went into the changing rooms, leaving the two of them to argue, stripping out of scrubs. She wrapped her cast in cling film to prevent it from getting wet and then turned on the shower and got under the hot water, enjoying the feeling of her battered body as the water drummed off of it. Shutting the water off, she dried, dressed, and reapplied all of her dressings in the mirror before going up to her office.