Lenny's ominous notion had done nothing to raise their mood on that relatively quiet Christmas Day and Steve was grateful when Mike agreed to join him in the morgue, hoping to follow up on a hunch that had been bugging him since Barry's party.
The uniform clattering of their dress shoes against the tile floor was the only noise in the empty hallways of the coroner's office for the longest time, even that department not entirely immune to the holiday cheer and the subsequent vacation requests.
A sole secretary had greeted them in the foyer, a relieved smile playing on her lips when she didn't have to show them the way to the morgue upon sign-in. Surprisingly so, as it turned out, Bernie wasn't off today either.
They slowed down at a mint green door right next to the entrance of the morgue, the name plate on it identifying it as the coroner's office.
It took only a brief knock, before the baritone voice coming from inside beckoned them in.
"Mike, Steve, nice seeing you down here. It was starting to get lonely."
Bernie's dry humor did wonders to their disposition and Steve smiled broadly, making room for the Lieutenant to enter before he did.
"Imagine my surprise when you actually answered the phone. I figure I'd have to get my answers from an intern."
"Funny of you to assume I'd get an intern to work the holiday shift, Stephen."
Bernie sorted some paperwork that had been sitting in front of him, stacking it onto a neat pile near his inbox, before his dark brown eyes settled on the two detectives again.
"So, we're talking about that leg, you said?"
"We sure are…"
Upon hearing the enthusiasm in his partner's voice, Mike raised his eyebrows, reducing his reaction to a confused frown but remaining quiet otherwise.
"I had a couple of questions about your report on it…", the young Inspector began and headed toward a map of the greater San Francisco area, his fingers tracing the shoreline for a brief moment, before he spoke up again.
"Can you tell me some more about the disarticulation of the limbs that takes place when a body spends a prolonged time in the water?"
From his corner in the office, Mike answered his question with a pained grimace, trying to push the mental image out of his mind. Bernie on the other hand shrugged apprehensively, his busy fingers searching for the file in his desk cabinet as he sorted his thoughts.
"Well…disarticulation typically takes place when a body spends a significant amount of time in the water; we're talking weeks, even months. Studies done on pig carcasses have shown us that there's a sequence of disarticulation that takes place as the soft tissue denigrates from exposure and decomposition. Typically the process begins with the bones of the hands, then the arms, the ankles, lower legs and all the way to the upper arms, mandible and cranium. Weather patterns and tidal movement have made it very difficult to recover certain body parts or figure out an exact timeline of disarticulation so unfortunately this is still a very vague field for us to make any sort of determination on. Why are you asking? I didn't note that the leg found was due to disarticulation. If anything, it was severed off."
"Oh, I know, I wasn't questioning that…", Steve answered quickly and shook his head, "I was just…I guess, I was curious. I know that the leg was found on the shoreline and that you figured death to be 3-4 weeks ago. And that there was some advanced decomp due to the elements. I am just curious…as to whether the leg came from the water altogether."
"You think somebody dumped it out of their vehicle driving down the road?", Mike asked inquisitively, and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"It's a possibility.", Bernie chimed in with a faint nod and leaned back in his office chair, "From what I could ascertain, even if the leg came from the waters, it hadn't spent a lot of time there. The soft tissue was too intact. And like we noted…no disarticulation. You would have to check the currents at that time to be absolutely sure but it's a distinct possibility. There was some scavenging activity I discovered on the lower part of the limb near the ankle, so it's quite possible that a predator moved it from its original position. "
"Which means there could be more body parts…", Steve mumbled deep in thought, before letting his eyes drift back over to the map, "Maybe whoever murdered our John Doe was trying to hide the body parts all throughout the park."
"Sounds to me like you guys need to bring in some cadaver dogs…", Bernie noted solemnly, his words receiving approving nods, as he cleared his throat again, "I'll give it to you though. Not everyone would be interested in taking on a human jigsaw puzzle over the holidays."