- In this chapter there will be also an autopsy. Or at least I tried to describe it a as good as it was possible for me. So enjoy reading if you like to read about an autopsy. If not, well... I warned you ;D -
"Yes yes yes. Who is my next patient today?" asked a small owl in a white coat as he swaggered buoyantly into the morgue.
"He´s a blue-bottomed-booby called Birdbrain" answers a young Dog who was wearing a blue coat with the word 'pathological assistant' printed on its back.
"Oh good good. Just put him on the table Terry."
The dog heaved the stocky corpse panting on examination table. "He´s heavier than he looks like."
"That doesn´t seem possible." The owl smirked.
"I know, right." Terry laughed wiping some sweat drops of his forehead.
"Well let´s see what happened to you Mister Birdbrain…" The small owl grabbed a sharp scalpel which he turned like a poker chip in his hand. "Oh, of course, Terry please don´t forget to note everything we will find."
"Understood Doctor Coleman" said Terry and pulled his notepad out.
"Okay. Then let´s see." Doctor Coleman set the scalpel gently on Birdbrains chest to open torso. On the height of the right collarbone he pushed the scalpel gently in the skin and dragged it down to the breastbone like he would cut a cake. He repeated that on the left side of the body. From the spot where both cuts met he pulled the scalpel down to the pubis. As this was done he laid the scalpel on the little metal side table next to him.
"So doctor you start with a standard Y-cut." The doctor´s assistant asked in a tone that could be easily interpreted as provocative.
"Do you want to tell me something?" Asked doctor Coleman as he folded Birdbrain´s skin and fat tissue externally.
"This is an absolute standard autopsy, doctor Coleman! Why can´t I do this alone?"
"Well Terry." Coleman meant with patient tone of voice. "Usually I would agree with you because that would mean that I could take a break. But this isn´t a standard autopsy." said Doctor Coleman friendly and put the bone saw on Birbrain´s breastbone.
"First, this is the notorious villain Birdbrain, a blue-bottom-booby and endangered species what is the second point." He laid the bone saw on the side table and put both of his hands into the torso like someone who wanted to get something out of the freezer. "And third thing is that he died under suspicious circumstances!" the doctor meant in a mystic as well as amused tone.
"Oh." Terry meant now sorry about his recent provocative question. "And how did he die?"
"He suddenly collapsed at the street" meant Doctor Coleman baldly as he took the heart out of birdbrain and weighed it. "Normal weight. The fat coating it is a bit thicker than usual but if we regard that our patient was a bit overweight it is okay."
"Anyway, Doctor I wouldn´t call that 'suspicious circumstances'." Terry meant writing down the doctors words.
"Yes, but you should have heard the description of his death by the two agent that tried to arrest him." meant Doctor Coleman as he weighed Birdbrains lung he just cut out of the body. "Also, not unusual."
"Doctor, if I take a quick glance at the rest of the organs, I can´t see any harm of the vital organs. Also, like we already saw, the heart is healthy so we can exclude a heart attack as cause of death." Terry explained is conclusions.
"Very good Terry, you´re right. All organs seem healthy. Pity he had no organ donor card."
"So maybe he had some kind of an apoplectic stroke?"
"Yes, Terry, that´s the question. But we just get an answer if we take a look at his brain. Ha, Birdbrain´s brain… sounds funny." The doctor giggled amusedly. "Well, would you be so kindly to hand me the other bone saw over there?"
Terry handed the Doctor the saw and watched him how he opened the skull.
"Yes, okay Terry now help me to detach the skullcap. Ready? One… Two… Three!" Coleman and Terry pulled at Birdbrains head and managed to open the skull.
"Oh my god" Doctor Coleman exclaimed.
"Shit!" cried Terry. The reason for their reactions was the view on Birdbrains brain. It looked black and burned. The brain fluid had disappeared and there was this foul stench. A stench which was so terrifying, so intensive and so different from everything Terry and the Doctor have ever smelled in the pathology that it evoked blind panic in them.
And this almost indescribable stench spread through the whole pathology. "OH GOD, WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HER!" screamed Terry hysterically. The dog grabbed his boss by the sleeve and dragged him in panic out of the pathology. Outside the room he slammed the door behind them and threw himself against it like he tried to prevent something from bursting through it.
Both took deep breaths of fresh air as they were outside.
"Doc what happed to him? WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?!"
"Terry calm down!" doctor Coleman shouted
"CALM DOWN! WHAT WAS THIS?" Doctor Coleman had no other choice as to slap Terry to make him see reasons again.
"Thanks Doctor Coleman…" the dog meant now a bit calmer. "But what was this?!"
"I don´t know but may god rest his poor soul." Meant Coleman shaking his head in disbelieve.
Meanwhile Dudley was sitting at his desk and thought.
"What´s up Dudley?" asked agent Nutz as he walked by Dudley´s desk.
"Nothing. I´m just…thinking. I mean Birdbrain died yesterday and I can´t get him out of my head."
"Dudley you´re such a wimp." sneered agent Nutz giggling.
"Nutz. Please. Piss off!" Nutz kept on laughing at Dudley and walked away.
"I hate this guy!" Dudley muttered angrily. All what this overly annoying squirrel was doing is trying to make him angry all the long. What was the point about that? Was Nutz just bored or just an asshole?
Dudley stood up and sighed. It had no sense to rack his brain about someone who was so stupid. He let his thoughts wander again and like they wandered he also started to wander around in the office. Restlessly his mind jumped from Birdbrain to his mom back to Birdbrain and death itself and what comes then until it finally stopped pacing around and found a firm viewpoint on his own live.
"Life is short I´ve seen it yesterday." He said to himself. "I have to change something in my life, before it´s over. I want to achieve something! Maybe have a family, build my own house and plant a tree." For a second the picture of Kitty popped up in his mind as he spoke that out. But he just shook his head and continued. "But it´ll take some time to initiate the first steps."
Dudley stopped walking aimlessly in the room and headed to the chief´s office. As he stood in front of the door he took a deep breathed and knocked on it.
"Come in!" he chief called from inside the room. Dudley entered the room and walked in front of the chief´s desk. "Well, agent Puppy what´s the matter?"
"Chief I need some time for myself" Dudley meant without beating around the bush.
"Do you mean you need some kind of break?"
"Yeah, I really need a vacation. I still can´t get Birdbrain out of my head." The dog admitted.
"I know what you mean agent Puppy but I can´t let you go now it´s high season for crime."
"Chief, please , I need only a few days, please." The chief looked pensively to the ceiling before he looked back to Dudley. "Well… Okay, agent Puppy. But only because I´m think you need some time to think about what happened to Birdbrain. I know how you fell…"
"Thanks chief" said Dudley smiling and went out of the office.
"So now I have some time to get my life on the right way. But I have to talk to somebody first…" thought Dudley as he walked out of the T.U.F.F. building.
"Hey Dudley, wait!" shouted Kitty behind him. "Hi Kitty, what´s wrong?"
"What´s wrong? You´re leaving work while working hours!"
"Oh… I have the chief´s permission for that so there´s no need to worry about me. I take some days off from work to think. But Kitty would you do me a favor?" asked Dudley smiling.
"Of course what do you need?" She asked friendly.
"Could you drive me? I need to get to someone."
"No problem Dudley" Kitty said. "Good thing my shift is over."
"Lucky coincidence. Usually I hate these days when we´re on different shifts but today it´s pretty convenient." Dudley explained smiling.
"Me too Dudley. Anyway, wait here I just get the car." She smiled and they walked to the T.U.F.F. garage. A few minutes later Dudley and Kitty sit together in the T.U.F.F. mobile.
"So Dudley. Where we´re going?" She asked.
"To the Petropolis cemetery."
"Dudley you can´t visit Birdbrains grave. His corpse isn´t declassified from the pathology and …"
"I´m not visiting Birdbrain" interrupted Dudley calmly.
"Okay if not Birdbrain who then?" Kitty probed a bit confused.
"You´ll see it soon if you want, were almost there. It´s strange that the cemetery is so close the T.U.F.F. HQ, isn´t it?"
"Do you refer on the number of fallen agents in the last three months?"
"You got me Kitty" grinned Dudley .
"Dudley that isn´t funny" exclaimed Kitty shocked how he could joke about that.
"I know but it´s kind of macabre…"
"Were there." meant Kitty cutting him short before he could something else what was that stupid and parked the car near the cemetery. They got out of the car and walked through the great cemetery gates in silent. They walked awhile over the gravel paths along the flower beds that let the wide well-kept complex more look like a big garden.
Finally Kitty broke the silence because she wanted to know why they were here. "Okay Dudley could you tell me now who you want to visit here?"
"Kitty, have I ever told you something about my family?" Dudley asked with a deep gloomy voice.
"Actually, no. I just know that you live together with your mother…" Kitty suddenly realized it. "Wait, are we visiting your father?"
Dudley said nothing he just pointed with his finger on a gravestone nearby. 'Frank Puppy' read Kitty out loud.
"Dudley I´ve never knew that… Dudley … What happened to him?" asked Kitty with muffled voice "You want to hear the story? Well, it was a cold wet February night when I saw my dad the last time. He was a cop and he had the night shift this day. I don´t remember much details just that we were angry on each other because of some stupid thing. If I´ve known that I´ll never see him again I would have told him how sorry I am and how much I loved him."
"Oh Dudley I never knew… but what…" stammered Kitty as a lump formed in her throat.
"I don´t know the exact circumstances of his death but he was found the next morning drifting in the Petropolis river with a bullet hole in his chest."
"How… how did that…?" Kitty was shocked and was almost unable to speak. She never thought that Dudley´s family had such a sad past. But that would also explain why Dudley´s mother was always so overprotective. She didn´t want to lose somebody of here family again. And assuming that his older brother, the junky, also wasted his life slowly killing himself, Dudley was everything she had left.
"No Idea Kitty…" He sighed and sounded 30 years older. "But I need to talk to my dad alone… just a bit… so would you please…?"
"Oh, okay Dudley." Kitty nodded quickly. "I just walk around here so call me when you done. Take all the time you need." She said and walked slowly away.
"Well, hi dad" began Dudley smiling. "I know it´s been a long time since we talked. I have much to tell you! I´m now working at T.U.F.F. and I found new friends there and my partner there is great. We know each other just a few years now but I think she knows me better then all my other friends I know for ages! She´s my best friend and I like it to make her happy. She also suffers all my stupid ideas without being too mad."
Dudley laughed "Yeah she´s really tough but I think you have to be tough as a T.U.F.F. agent… Sorry for the bad joke here. But dad, I´ve come to talk about something different. I had some nightmares in the last time and I just don´t know what to do. Also this villain Birdbrain died and that also made me think about my life. And I could really need some kind of sign something that shows me the right way, you know?"
Dudley waited a few seconds really waiting for something. Then he sighed and looked sad at the grave. "I always ask you but I never get any response. Maybe it´s time to stop asking questions to you and start getting answers from myself for myself to start my own life… Wait … Wow that´s… that´s … that´s the answer I needed! Thanks dad!" exclaimed Dudley glad. "Kitty! Where are you?"
"I´m here!" Kitty shouted from a group of other tombstones.
"We can go Kitty, I´m done here." Meant Dudley as he ran to Kitty.
"Okay I´ll bring you back home."
"No could you bring me to the next estate office? I think it´s time"
"Time to move out?" grinned Kitty
"Exactly" laughed Dudley.
"You´re right Dudley. It´s about time for that." She nodded and together the two agents strode to the T.U.F.F. mobile.