Two updates in about an hour... hmm, sorry about that. I won't be able to update for a while, now, y'see, and so I want to leave you with a suitably worrying cliffhanger ;) Lucky you!
Anomalies
Secretiveness should have worked. But I wasn't thinking, was I? I didn't have every detail correct in my mind – I missed the most obvious thing, and I left records behind me. They would find out. They would know. They would always know.
*
"Nikki?" Leo asked, shocked, as he opened the doors to the lab at half past eight that morning. Nikki didn't even glance up in surprise; she'd heard almost exactly the same thing from the three lab technicians who had arrived shortly after eight o'clock, and each time she'd been addressed she'd merely smiled and shrugged as if to say 'oh yes, I'm early. There's a surprise'. When she realised it was Leo who was addressing her, this time, though, she took a deep breath; she was going to have to show him what she'd found. Smiling at him, she opened her top desk draw, and lifted out her the disk on which the recording of her commentary on the four autopsies she'd conducted, hastily, that morning, was recorded.
"What's this, Nikki?" Leo asked, apprehensively, when she passed it to him; she just shrugged, hoping that he'd listen to it. She was too tired for discussion or argument. Sighing, Leo left the room, and crossed to his office, leaving Nikki free to lay her head down on her desk, and curl her arms underneath it, as a pillow, to sleep.
*
The first three times Leo shouted her name, Nikki didn't hear. She had actually fallen asleep at her desk, and it took Harry throwing a pen at her to wake her up. She blinked hard, wondering what on Earth she was doing at work when she should be in bed, before she remembered. And then she heard Leo shout her name again, and she stumbled to her feet, grabbing Harry by the arm to drag him to Leo's office with her – for scientific if not moral support.
"So?" Leo asked, playing the part of a stern head teacher as Nikki sat down opposite him. She merely blinked in response; surely the disk had explained everything that she possibly could. Leo repeated his question again, however, elaborating this time; "so, are you going to tell me what on Earth this is about?"
"I think that the recording should explain that." Nikki stated, calmly. She'd been preparing herself for this moment as she drove to work far, far earlier that morning, and she had anticipated Leo's mood and reactions perfectly. She knew that behind the façade, he was as fascinated as she was, and that he really wanted her to cut to the chase sooner rather than later.
"It does. But are you going to tell me why you disobeyed police orders in order to make the recording?" Leo asked, a flash of his normal-self creeping through as he spoke. Before Nikki had the chance to respond, however, Harry did; "WHAT?!" he almost yelled, in absolute horror, "you did what, Nikki?"
"I autopsied the remaining bodies." Nikki stated, plainly and calmly; there was no point in allowing her emotions to play a part in what was happening, because, frankly, she knew that that wouldn't do her any good at all.
"Why?" Harry asked, incredulous.
"Because," she said, turning behind her so that she was looking at him rather than Leo, "I knew that the only way I could prove that there were definitely only seven bodies originally was to carry out an autopsy."
"And did you?" Harry asked, perplexed more than incredulous, now.
"No…" Nikki conceded, wistfully, turning back to Leo.
"She found something even more intriguing, though…" Leo told him, unable to contain his fascination beneath the veneer of strictness any longer.
"Oh?" Harry asked, and Nikki smiled, in such a way as to question how either of them had ever doubted her.
"Well, there were several anomalies in the bodies I looked at." She explained; "I autopsied four more, because we'd already looked at four, and what I found in two of them was consistent with what we found before."
"Oh?" Harry asked, crossing to perch on the corner of Leo's desk, so that he could read Nikki's expressions as she spoke.
"Oh indeed…" Leo echoed, a knowing edge to his tone.
"Yes." Nikki continued, smiling; she hadn't expected them to listen to her so readily, yet. She'd expected to have to put up a fight… but they were drinking in what she was telling them with a fascination which made her wonder why they objected to her reading crime novels – the nitty-gritty, gory horrors and mentalities behind the crimes clearly intrigued them just as much as they did her. "The other two bodies were different, though; the times of death were different, for one thing, as were the bullets used to shoot them. Whoever planted them was hoping to throw us off so much with the extra body that we wouldn't investigate them fully."
"What?" Harry asked, leaning forward to survey Nikki's expression.
"The anomalies I've already mentioned, as well as the evidence on the actual bodies themselves – one of which was female, and the other of which was far older than the rest – suggest to me that both were planted."
"Why?" Leo asked. Nikki clearly had a well-considered theory in her mind, and he was beginning to accept that it might very well be true.
"Well," Nikki began, pausing for thought, "I've been thinking about this… and the only explanation I can come up with is that when the two bodies were planted, one of the original bodies, which harboured more evidence than the perpetrators were willing to give away, was taken."
"Why would they plant two extra, though?" Harry wondered aloud.
"To confuse us. To make us ask why. To delay us working out the truth." Nikki suggested, and Leo shrugged:
"Could be, I suppose…" he conceded, "but I still wish you'd waited for the police to give this the all-clear, though…"
"You still don't get it, do you?" Nikki asked; "in the original case, the police were almost certainly in on it… and just when something interesting crops up, they don't ask the appropriate questions, and they stop us from carrying out the autopsies we need to in order to find evidence…"
"Nikki," Leo asked, "you're not suggesting that the police are involved in this case, too, are you?"
"Yes." Nikki stated, plainly, "I think that they might well be."
*
"Really, Nikki?" the elder man asked, his raised voice causing the speakers to crackle slightly, "I think you've spent too much time watching CSI…"
"That's not fair, Leo," the younger man stated, calmly; he seemed to be trying to smooth things over. The man at the desk with the headphones attached to the equipment in the darkened room noted this down, alongside everything else, and he smiled; they had already found the woman's weakness, but they hadn't expected the younger man's to be so easy; it was too easy, really. The younger man's statement had just confirmed what they had ascertained on Sunday – but that needed doing, anyway.
If he didn't know better, the man at the desk with the headphones attached to the equipment in the darkened room would have thought that they were already one step ahead… because they were making this all too easy…
A/N: Please do tell me if I'm boring you to death. I seem to be getting way too bogged down in autopsies and science which I don't understand! :-/
