Nikki scrubbed up as the body was wheeled into the morgue; she grimaced as she couldn't get the image of the branding out of her head. It was awful and abnormal and she couldn't understand how anyone could do that to a fellow human being

"They've finished prepping the body" Harry said coming up behind her

"Thanks" she said as she followed him into the cutting room where they were met by Detective Matthews

"I hope you have a strong stomach" Nikki told the detective who was turning a whiter a shade of pale

"The things I do to earn my pay check" he laughed weakly as Nikki began her examination of the body

"This is a young male, past puberty but still in his teenage years. There are deep lacerations on the limbs and there are ligature marks consistent with being tied up. There are also a number of open fractures to the limbs with obvious fractures to the neck. The chest has been branded as well" she said and Harry nodded

"Can you work out how long he's been dead?" Matthews asked weakly

"Rigamortis has set in" Nikki said as she tested the muscles in the body and found them to be stiff "So no longer than twenty-four to forty-eight hours"

Harry was examining the brand on the boy's chest "This is nasty" he sighed "It looks like it's been put on with something like a cattle brand"

Nikki nodded "Whoever did this is violent; the broken bones suggest force was used and the lacerations are all over the body and they are deep which suggests the attack doesn't seem very controlled"

Matthews nodded "The paramedics said the girl had similar injuries"

"Do they know her condition?" Nikki asked

"I checked with the hospital; she's gone into surgery, apparently there was a lot of internal bleeding….she had the same brand on her chest too"

Nikki sighed "How could someone do this?"

The two men in the room didn't seem to have an answer for her at all; they could only stare at the body and hope that they would find some justice

Nikki was at her desk later on that day examining some samples she had taken from the body

"Nikki?" she heard her name being called and she looked up to see Leo standing there with a worried look on his face

"Sorry I was miles away" she gave a weak smile which didn't quite reach her eyes

"I heard about your case" Leo said pulling up a stool and sitting down next to her

Nikki turned away from her samples and pushed a photograph in Leo's direction, he picked it up and saw the image of the brand on the boy's chest "Nasty" he grimaced

"It was before death" Nikki said quietly and Leo sighed

"Are you sure?"

She nodded "The congealed blood is a pretty good indicator; it matches up with the time of death"

"So he was tortured"

"It seems so" Nikki said sadly "He was bound up for a while, the ligature marks are quite deep. The lacerations wouldn't have been enough to kill him; he would have lost a huge amount of blood but would have been just about conscious"

"Poor lad" Leo said sadly

"I've sent off the bloods for analysis but it looks like it was a mixture of shock from the amount of blood loss and trauma to the rest of the body"

"The brand is unusual" Leo said studying the picture

"That's what I wanted to ask you about" Nikki said looking over Leo's shoulder at the picture

"Well whoever did this is trying to communicate something" Leo said and Nikki nodded "Latin is an unusual language to use in this day and age. It might suggest something about our killer…"

"There's something wrong about this whole thing through" Nikki frowned

"What's that?" Leo cocked his head on one side

"There's a real lack of defence wounds. I know he was tied up but surely you would struggle and try anything to get away…"

Leo nodded "It is curious I'll give you that. Do they have identification yet?"

"No. They're checking missing persons to see if anyone matches the description"

"There was a girl as well wasn't there?" Leo asked

"She's in hospital. Her injuries were just as bad…" Nikki sighed loudly "Leo I don't understand it. How can two teenagers just disappear and then turn up later with signs of them being tortured. It's just not right"

"There's a lot not right about this case Nikki" Leo told her "I just hope that we can put the pieces together before anyone else gets hurt"

Author's note: Sorry I know the chapters are short. But I'm trying not to overcomplicate things and throw lots of details in at once