Chapter One: Mortis
-----------------
I was vaguely aware of someone in my room. I didn't feel endangered but you never can be too careful especially when you're vulnerable as a newborn baby. I reached underneath my pillow for the Glock .45 that I bought the afternoon I got my Peace Officer's license. I heard a gasp and they stepped backward. The balls of bare feet on aged wood floor made a sound that I've come very accustomed to in this house.
"Don't pull out the gun, Yami. It's me, Yugi." Yugi's first name and my middle name are exactly the same. I don't know why my mother did this but it's gotten confusing when I got in trouble and Grandfather calls me by my whole name and both of us come waddling in with our heads lowered in shame. When that happens there's usually hope that it's the other guy that's in trouble.
I rolled over without opening my eyes and waited for the weight at the end of my bed to sink in, signaling that my brother made himself comfortable without the threat of being shot. The saftey was on, naturally, but things happen; always have a plan, a plan for your plan to fail, make another plan. When the bed finally sank underneath Yugi's weight, I asked what time it was.
"Six-fifteen." He chirped. I smelled coffee brewing in the kitchen, breakfast blend. Cool.
"School day?" I asked, sitting up and rubbing my face with both hands. If it was a school day I had to be at work in fifteen minutes.
"Sunday."
"Why are you up so early?" I asked; this boy had to be dragged out of bed in order to make it to school on time.
"You forgot. . ." I didn't need to look at him to know that his face was melting into disappointment. His voice laid it out flat for me. I knew he tried not to let it show; he'd been disappointed time and time again in his short life and I was only adding to the heartbreak.
I stared at him for a moment, our almost identical eyes locked for a moment when I realized that we were going to go to the museum of modern art as soon as the sun came up. This was how I lost a great deal of potential Mrs. Motous. I forgot things in the heat of my work.
I have been an officer since I graduated from the Domino Police Academy at twenty-two and I've been an investigator since I was twenty-seven. I'm now thirty and one of the best on the force. The phone rang and I groaned; Yugi tossed me the black cordless and I turned it on.
"Motou, Yami."
'Morning sunshine, we're on call on our God given, much needed day of rest. You think they'd wait until after noon when most of us are heading out of church.'
My partner, Katsuya Jounochi was only a couple years older than me and only a tad more experienced than I was. We didn't have the luxury of graduating together from high school, college, or the academy. His partner was killed in the line of duty and he was given me, a rookie fresh from the Academy. He wiped my nose until I could pick it myself. We actually didn't click for a good four months. I was inexperienced and almost got the both of us killed on a felony traffic stop. I'm not ashamed to say that I threw up at my first crime scene, I was responding officer and had no business touching any of the evidence; I'm lucky I didn't contaminate it. Old habits die hard, but now I'm paid to touch the evidence. I wish I could say that I don't throw up anymore.
"What do you have?" I got up out of bed, put an arm around Yugi, and led us to the kitchen where the coffee was just finishing. Our grandfather, Sugoroku, was frying eggs and making miso to supplement our breakfast. I don't like to admit it, but he's a better cook than I am. I own a large collection of foreign cookbooks that he's obviously memorized already.
Sugoroku has lived with me since the death of my mother because I couldn't take care of Yugi, work, and go to school. We shared my small house until I bought this three bedroom and two bath not long ago. It still smells new.
'A fountain of blood, literally.'
"Fuck me." I groaned. Grandfather rose an eyebrow and slid me a big mug of coffee with a cream and three sugars.
'Darling, it's very tempting but I'm straight. If you cross-dress and become a eunuch maybe we'll have a chance.'
I laughed and didn't ask for details of the scene. I knew I'd regret this later but I just didn't feel like missing breakfast because of Jou's exaggerated theatrics of the information what he was sent through dispatch.
"I'll be there in ten." I checked my watch.
'Domino Central Park. Samurai fountain.' I could hear him unlocking a door and smiled when his two kids, a son and a little girl, came screaming to cling onto their father. 'Give me a kiss.' Two smacks and they ran squealing further into the background.
"Not the Samurai fountain. . .any damage to it? I like that thing."
'Negative, but there's a new ornament gracing the tip of his sword.' He paused, "BYE KIDS, MIND YOUR AUNT! BYE SHIZUKA!" His sister had come in from Tokyo where she works as an interior designer. She actually helped decorate the house. There really was no trace of a female influence in the house; she'd done a very good job.
My stomach rolled and I resisted the urge to add a little bit of vodka in my coffee. I quickly dressed into black trousers and a white shirt with a respectable plain tie. I was putting on my shoulder holster when I kissed Grandfather on the cheek and mussed Yugi's hair. "We'll go to the museum when I get back."
"I'll hold you to it." Yugi called as I made my way to my car. It was a vague piece of shit but it got me from place A to place B just fine.
"You always do."
-----
The park had been closed off to the public; this meant that pedestrian traffic was backed up to Midori Blvd. which was near three miles from the park. I had to drive on the sidewalk with my lights flashing in broad daylight and yell at people to get out of my way. I got a dent on my passenger door and watched in my rearview mirror as they were arrested. As I got closer and closer the wave of media reporters plastered themselves to my windows and I was forced to go less than five kilometers an hour.
"Detective Motou can you give us-"
"Officer Motou what do you think-"
"Detective Motou you recently-"
I turned up my radio and listened to a woman giving sex advice to the listening teenagers of Domino city. Anything was better than what the media had to say, request, demand, or ask.
The police let me in and I parked right outside of the yellow tape which was put together upside down in the haste. No one needed to read it; they all knew what it meant. I stuck my hands in my pockets and nodded a greeting to my partner. He was taller than me by a good three inches and had messy blonde hair that made the girls swoon, especially when we were called into the high schools to give lectures on our Crime Stoppers program.
"I used to be a horror movie buff, then I got into this job and nothing seemed real enough to scare me," He murmured, passing me a cup of bad coffee. It was November and the weather was cooling down dramatically. Cameras were going off like crazy from both the media behind us and the camera crew of the crime scene clean-up team. They'd photographed everything before anyone else got here, as it was all tagged, with a wide shot of the entire scene itself, and so on. All together you're looking at a couple dozen rolls of film belonging to one crime scene.
"Has the pathologist come in yet?" I asked, signing the integrity sheet. Every officer on and off the scene has to sign this paper documenting who was on the scene and what they did from the specialists, Jounouchi and I, to the responding officer who just stands there making sure no one leaves who isn't supposed to.
"That's a negative, she is on her way."
"She's here."
We turned and there she was, blonde hair pulled up in a messy bun and thick black-rimmed glasses pushed up on her small nose. She was not wearing her make-up which meant she had been in a hurry; Kujaku Mai was a vain woman if I'd ever seen one. Her lab coat was buttoned and covered her blouse so I couldn't see, but she was wearing black work slacks and her boots. She had her equipment was in one hand and a box of gloves in the other.
She didn't give us one look as she walked by. She never let her personal life get in the way of her work. She was all about work right now. She and Jou had been dating since August; it was now April. She knelt by the body and began to take the temperature; usually it's done internally because externally the body is cold to touch from the early stage of death.
"The normal temperature of the body is around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of the body falls from its normal level at a rate of roughly one and a half degrees per hour for the first twelve hours depending on the build of the body and the clothes or insulation covering the body." Mai murmured as she recorded numbers that meant nothing to me. "For the next twelve hours the internal temperature falls at about half this rate. You can also tell what stage the body is in, through Rigor mortis, a Latin term meaning "the stiffness of death"; this begins as the internal chemistry of the body changes from its normal acid state to an alkaline one, usually two hours after life has been extinguished."
"This person isn't a fucking bon fire, Doctor Kujaku." Jou muttered. He's very honorable when it comes to talking about the dead. He won't go into a cemetery that doesn't have a set path; it's very rude to walk on the dead even though they surely won't mind. They've been decaying for years.
Mai went on her lecture as if she'd never been interrupted; I noticed that we had a crowd of officers who were listening intently on what she had to say, some were even taking notes beneath the information they'd use later for their reports. She's one of Domino's best forensic pathologists, wrote a book on the connection between our job, crime scene investigation, and hers, pathology. I guess it helps that she's come from a long line of pathologists who run their own firm, or business, or clinic, whatever you want to call it. I never pay attention. I'm too preoccupied with the dead bodies to remember to get the correct name of where these people work.
"Another tool that can determine the time of dead is called livor mortis, or 'the bruising of death.' When the heart stops beating and the blood stops circulating, the red cells descend by the force of gravity to the parts of the body in contact with the ground. They're a bruised color from about two hours after death to indicate that the body has not been moved," She lifted the body out of the water with some help and set her on the ground. It was almost gentle the way she did it, not like setting down a corpse at all; it was more like laying down a child to sleep. "But the most accurate estimate time of death was discovered by Dr. John Coe, medical examiner from the Hennepin County of Minneapolis United States. When the red blood cells break down in the process which produced livor mortis, they release quantities of potassium. It diffuses into vitreous humor, the fluid that fills the insides of the eyeballs. A sample of this and a test to determine the potassium levels will give you the most accurate time of death."
I turned and Jou looked positively pale.
-----
To Be Continued. . .
-----------------
I was vaguely aware of someone in my room. I didn't feel endangered but you never can be too careful especially when you're vulnerable as a newborn baby. I reached underneath my pillow for the Glock .45 that I bought the afternoon I got my Peace Officer's license. I heard a gasp and they stepped backward. The balls of bare feet on aged wood floor made a sound that I've come very accustomed to in this house.
"Don't pull out the gun, Yami. It's me, Yugi." Yugi's first name and my middle name are exactly the same. I don't know why my mother did this but it's gotten confusing when I got in trouble and Grandfather calls me by my whole name and both of us come waddling in with our heads lowered in shame. When that happens there's usually hope that it's the other guy that's in trouble.
I rolled over without opening my eyes and waited for the weight at the end of my bed to sink in, signaling that my brother made himself comfortable without the threat of being shot. The saftey was on, naturally, but things happen; always have a plan, a plan for your plan to fail, make another plan. When the bed finally sank underneath Yugi's weight, I asked what time it was.
"Six-fifteen." He chirped. I smelled coffee brewing in the kitchen, breakfast blend. Cool.
"School day?" I asked, sitting up and rubbing my face with both hands. If it was a school day I had to be at work in fifteen minutes.
"Sunday."
"Why are you up so early?" I asked; this boy had to be dragged out of bed in order to make it to school on time.
"You forgot. . ." I didn't need to look at him to know that his face was melting into disappointment. His voice laid it out flat for me. I knew he tried not to let it show; he'd been disappointed time and time again in his short life and I was only adding to the heartbreak.
I stared at him for a moment, our almost identical eyes locked for a moment when I realized that we were going to go to the museum of modern art as soon as the sun came up. This was how I lost a great deal of potential Mrs. Motous. I forgot things in the heat of my work.
I have been an officer since I graduated from the Domino Police Academy at twenty-two and I've been an investigator since I was twenty-seven. I'm now thirty and one of the best on the force. The phone rang and I groaned; Yugi tossed me the black cordless and I turned it on.
"Motou, Yami."
'Morning sunshine, we're on call on our God given, much needed day of rest. You think they'd wait until after noon when most of us are heading out of church.'
My partner, Katsuya Jounochi was only a couple years older than me and only a tad more experienced than I was. We didn't have the luxury of graduating together from high school, college, or the academy. His partner was killed in the line of duty and he was given me, a rookie fresh from the Academy. He wiped my nose until I could pick it myself. We actually didn't click for a good four months. I was inexperienced and almost got the both of us killed on a felony traffic stop. I'm not ashamed to say that I threw up at my first crime scene, I was responding officer and had no business touching any of the evidence; I'm lucky I didn't contaminate it. Old habits die hard, but now I'm paid to touch the evidence. I wish I could say that I don't throw up anymore.
"What do you have?" I got up out of bed, put an arm around Yugi, and led us to the kitchen where the coffee was just finishing. Our grandfather, Sugoroku, was frying eggs and making miso to supplement our breakfast. I don't like to admit it, but he's a better cook than I am. I own a large collection of foreign cookbooks that he's obviously memorized already.
Sugoroku has lived with me since the death of my mother because I couldn't take care of Yugi, work, and go to school. We shared my small house until I bought this three bedroom and two bath not long ago. It still smells new.
'A fountain of blood, literally.'
"Fuck me." I groaned. Grandfather rose an eyebrow and slid me a big mug of coffee with a cream and three sugars.
'Darling, it's very tempting but I'm straight. If you cross-dress and become a eunuch maybe we'll have a chance.'
I laughed and didn't ask for details of the scene. I knew I'd regret this later but I just didn't feel like missing breakfast because of Jou's exaggerated theatrics of the information what he was sent through dispatch.
"I'll be there in ten." I checked my watch.
'Domino Central Park. Samurai fountain.' I could hear him unlocking a door and smiled when his two kids, a son and a little girl, came screaming to cling onto their father. 'Give me a kiss.' Two smacks and they ran squealing further into the background.
"Not the Samurai fountain. . .any damage to it? I like that thing."
'Negative, but there's a new ornament gracing the tip of his sword.' He paused, "BYE KIDS, MIND YOUR AUNT! BYE SHIZUKA!" His sister had come in from Tokyo where she works as an interior designer. She actually helped decorate the house. There really was no trace of a female influence in the house; she'd done a very good job.
My stomach rolled and I resisted the urge to add a little bit of vodka in my coffee. I quickly dressed into black trousers and a white shirt with a respectable plain tie. I was putting on my shoulder holster when I kissed Grandfather on the cheek and mussed Yugi's hair. "We'll go to the museum when I get back."
"I'll hold you to it." Yugi called as I made my way to my car. It was a vague piece of shit but it got me from place A to place B just fine.
"You always do."
-----
The park had been closed off to the public; this meant that pedestrian traffic was backed up to Midori Blvd. which was near three miles from the park. I had to drive on the sidewalk with my lights flashing in broad daylight and yell at people to get out of my way. I got a dent on my passenger door and watched in my rearview mirror as they were arrested. As I got closer and closer the wave of media reporters plastered themselves to my windows and I was forced to go less than five kilometers an hour.
"Detective Motou can you give us-"
"Officer Motou what do you think-"
"Detective Motou you recently-"
I turned up my radio and listened to a woman giving sex advice to the listening teenagers of Domino city. Anything was better than what the media had to say, request, demand, or ask.
The police let me in and I parked right outside of the yellow tape which was put together upside down in the haste. No one needed to read it; they all knew what it meant. I stuck my hands in my pockets and nodded a greeting to my partner. He was taller than me by a good three inches and had messy blonde hair that made the girls swoon, especially when we were called into the high schools to give lectures on our Crime Stoppers program.
"I used to be a horror movie buff, then I got into this job and nothing seemed real enough to scare me," He murmured, passing me a cup of bad coffee. It was November and the weather was cooling down dramatically. Cameras were going off like crazy from both the media behind us and the camera crew of the crime scene clean-up team. They'd photographed everything before anyone else got here, as it was all tagged, with a wide shot of the entire scene itself, and so on. All together you're looking at a couple dozen rolls of film belonging to one crime scene.
"Has the pathologist come in yet?" I asked, signing the integrity sheet. Every officer on and off the scene has to sign this paper documenting who was on the scene and what they did from the specialists, Jounouchi and I, to the responding officer who just stands there making sure no one leaves who isn't supposed to.
"That's a negative, she is on her way."
"She's here."
We turned and there she was, blonde hair pulled up in a messy bun and thick black-rimmed glasses pushed up on her small nose. She was not wearing her make-up which meant she had been in a hurry; Kujaku Mai was a vain woman if I'd ever seen one. Her lab coat was buttoned and covered her blouse so I couldn't see, but she was wearing black work slacks and her boots. She had her equipment was in one hand and a box of gloves in the other.
She didn't give us one look as she walked by. She never let her personal life get in the way of her work. She was all about work right now. She and Jou had been dating since August; it was now April. She knelt by the body and began to take the temperature; usually it's done internally because externally the body is cold to touch from the early stage of death.
"The normal temperature of the body is around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of the body falls from its normal level at a rate of roughly one and a half degrees per hour for the first twelve hours depending on the build of the body and the clothes or insulation covering the body." Mai murmured as she recorded numbers that meant nothing to me. "For the next twelve hours the internal temperature falls at about half this rate. You can also tell what stage the body is in, through Rigor mortis, a Latin term meaning "the stiffness of death"; this begins as the internal chemistry of the body changes from its normal acid state to an alkaline one, usually two hours after life has been extinguished."
"This person isn't a fucking bon fire, Doctor Kujaku." Jou muttered. He's very honorable when it comes to talking about the dead. He won't go into a cemetery that doesn't have a set path; it's very rude to walk on the dead even though they surely won't mind. They've been decaying for years.
Mai went on her lecture as if she'd never been interrupted; I noticed that we had a crowd of officers who were listening intently on what she had to say, some were even taking notes beneath the information they'd use later for their reports. She's one of Domino's best forensic pathologists, wrote a book on the connection between our job, crime scene investigation, and hers, pathology. I guess it helps that she's come from a long line of pathologists who run their own firm, or business, or clinic, whatever you want to call it. I never pay attention. I'm too preoccupied with the dead bodies to remember to get the correct name of where these people work.
"Another tool that can determine the time of dead is called livor mortis, or 'the bruising of death.' When the heart stops beating and the blood stops circulating, the red cells descend by the force of gravity to the parts of the body in contact with the ground. They're a bruised color from about two hours after death to indicate that the body has not been moved," She lifted the body out of the water with some help and set her on the ground. It was almost gentle the way she did it, not like setting down a corpse at all; it was more like laying down a child to sleep. "But the most accurate estimate time of death was discovered by Dr. John Coe, medical examiner from the Hennepin County of Minneapolis United States. When the red blood cells break down in the process which produced livor mortis, they release quantities of potassium. It diffuses into vitreous humor, the fluid that fills the insides of the eyeballs. A sample of this and a test to determine the potassium levels will give you the most accurate time of death."
I turned and Jou looked positively pale.
-----
To Be Continued. . .
