removed the brush that was lodged between the rows of teeth.
‘Hello’.
‘Nathan it’s Jack, are you awake?’ Nathan pondered slightly on the confusing question that his friend just asked.
‘Jack, firstly I know it’s you, your name showed up on the screen……secondly, I’ve just answered your call, so yes…..I am awake!’
‘Okay easy now, still not a morning person I see……….bad dreams last night?’
‘Yeah, another night of them………what’s up?’
‘Oh, right, well the coroner’s report will be done this afternoon. She just called to say that the body had thawed.’
‘That’s great Jack, when can we go?’
‘Now if it suits you?’ the answer was what Nathan had hoped for.
‘Ideal, send the car’ he ended the call and moved back to the bathroom tossing the phone onto the unmade bed. This was the type of news he enjoyed getting up for. Something may be found on or in that girl’s body that helps create a new stepping stone for the case, he decided to freshen up quickly as there was no time to waste.
Malcolm collected him from the front of the hotel, the car sat idling, awaiting the guest. He climbed inside, the warmth greeted him and his jacket was undone, his cold skin accepting the more ideal climate. The usual morning welcomes were fired between both men as the car pulled away.
He met Jack outside the old building. The brickwork dated back to around the 1800’s. The only thing that didn’t was the eye catching plaque by the entrance. The gold soaked in the sun’s rays and intensified it. Nathan squinted to read the name.
‘Doctor Sally Brough’ he spoke aloud.
‘Yeah, she’s a catch’
‘I’m married Jack!’
‘Yeah but you can look, not touch’ he joked.
Jack dug into his pockets and removed a small green tub of Vicks Nasal Rub.
‘Is it that bad?’ asked Nathan as he contemplated dipping his little finger in and smearing his top lip with the transparent goo.
‘Apparently so, due to the body been frozen and only just thawed out, the decomposition phase speeds up slightly. Bear in mind she has been dead several hours, maybe days Nathan……want some?’ the open container poised in front of his face. He decided it was best to apply a thin layer, just in case. The refreshing menthol aroma brought tears to his eyes. He loved the smell as it reminded him of his childhood. His mother would smear a large blob upon his upper lip and into the case of the pillow where he slept. His eyes would sting as he rubbed the sleeve of his pyjamas across his face. Jack placed the tub back into his coat pocket and both men entered the Morgue after inhaling deeply through their nostrils. The corridor before them was long and narrow, every ten feet or so a chiselled post protruded from the walls, the room had a Greek feeling to it and seemed different from the external appearance. To the left they noticed the Coroner’s office, the door was ajar and the room was empty.
‘She must be with the body’ stated Jack.
The pair walked side by side along the tiled floor, the age showing as the pattern was visibly faded. The copious amounts of shoes traipsing back and forth had reduced the colour to a pale brown, some patches of white could be seen where the colour had vanished completely. The walls either side held mounted pictures of the human anatomy, parts which neither men had seen or heard of, many items were given an obscure and lengthy name, the ones they would attempt but couldn’t pronounce. They stopped at the door labelled as the Operating room. The door offered a hollow sound as Jack tapped the centre with his knuckles.
‘Come in Jack’ the female voice faint from inside the room. Jack flashed a smile to Nathan as he pushed down on the handle.
Inside the room was well lit. Large four bulb panels were scattered across the ceiling lighting every section of the box they stood in. Doctor Brough stood at the far end of the room behind a long metal table.
‘Morning gentlemen’ she greeted with a small smile
‘How did you know it was me Sal?’
‘Come on Jack, I can tell your knock anywhere. You obviously spend too much time here……..I’m just wandering if it’s me you come to see, or the bodies?’
Nathan stood to Jack’s side awaiting an introduction. He remained silent whilst observing the awkward chemistry between the two.
‘Hi, you must be the famous Nathan Cawley…….it’s a pleasure’ her hand stretched out over the corpse waiting for Nathan to grab it and commence shaking. He chose not to when he noticed the surgical gloves she donned were splattered with red.
‘Pleasure’s all mine’ he winked.
‘So, Sal, what can you tell us so far?’ asked Jack
Sally moved from behind the table and stood next to Jack.
‘Well what I do know is that she didn’t die from the cuts the killer gave her in the movie. See here!’ her finger hovered above a deep cut on the girl’s right cheek.
‘This was the first slice he gave, multiple incisions in fact, looks like several razor cuts. The wounds are shallow and the skin is finely cut, a knife would have dug deeper and ruptured the muscle around the cheek bone…..which it hasn’t in this case.’ She moved back around the table.
‘Now this is what killed her. It looks like he removed the heart, badly. It was hard to determine when as the body was frozen, but this morning this hole was filled with a dark red blood, even after de-frosting, it held its colour……the blood had pumped from the organ and filled her lungs……that tells me she was alive when he began removing it.’
‘You said he?’ asked Nathan
‘I did. Two reasons why……One, the bruising on her skin is in large sections, hands to be exact and bigger than a female…..Two, to remove the heart meant breaking through the rib-cage, not an easy job. So power and force would be needed to do so.’
‘Fuck’ Jack whispered
‘Yep, one sick puppy you have here Jack. On a better note I couldn’t find any indication of forced intercourse, there are no signs…..which would be visible as bruising on the inner thighs, normally found there as that is where the attacker grips the legs to open them.’
Nathan couldn’t help but stare at the gaping hole where her heart had been, the skin was sliced so bad it appeared to have a criss-cross effect at the edges.
‘Did you find the heart?’ he asked her with suspicion
‘No’
‘So he keeps a memento then………..maybe to eat, or possibly just keep sake’
Sally left the table and moved toward a grey locker, the door screeched as she opened it. From inside she removed a coat hanger. Hanging from it was a Red Cloak.
‘This was under her body, frozen to it actually……it had soaked up a lot of her blood also, so I think he killed her when she was wearing it!’
‘
‘He thinks he’s a Wolf……….he made the girl dress up as Little Red Riding Hood…….dragged her through a wood and sliced her up, removing the heart.’
‘Your point is?’ asked Jack, the same question floating through Sally’s head.
‘My point is he’ll do it again…….and soon. The preparation this man has gone through, the ritual he will have set himself, the copious amounts of rules he must obey. He is obviously a fan of the story, could be a good place to start. He removes the heart but for what purpose? We need to concentrate on what
The red garment was hung away in the locker. The cold weather had created the stiff board effect as the blood, soaked up by the fabric, had frozen.
***
