Office of the Medical Examiner
Sunday, July 18th

"So what was so pressing that you needed us to come down here so you could tell it to us in person?" Munch asked Warner when he and Fin arrived.

The woman looked up from where she was flipping through some papers. "Well, the tox screen came back on your vic."

"That was fast," Munch remarked.

"Well, I put in a special request for a quick test and speedy delivery of the results just because I like you guys," Warner answered with a small smile.

"You find somethin'?" Fin asked, although he and his partner already knew that she had since she had asked them to come down to see her.

Warner nodded. "Your victim took LSD before she died."

Munch and Fin stared at Warner in surprise. "Acid? Are you kidding?" Munch's tone was incredulous.

"That's what I said. I thought someone was playing a practical joke on me so I had them retest the sample twice, but each time it came back still positive." Warner's expression was puzzled.

"This is a nun we're talking about, a woman who swore herself to God, and you're telling me she took acid? What is the church coming to?" Munch's tone was exasperated. "Priests molesting little boys, nuns dropping acid; next thing you know, someone's gonna bust the pope for prostitution."

"Well, I don't know where in the Bible it specifically states that drugs are bad, but I'm sorry that I was the one who had to further tarnish your already soiled view of the Catholic Church." Warner's expression betrayed her amusement. However, as she picked up the autopsy report, she straightened out her face. Handing the papers to Munch, she began speaking once more as he glanced over her findings. "Sorry to burst your bubble though, but I don't think she took it knowingly.

"You see, I examined the contents of her stomach and I couldn't find any traces of blotter paper, capsules or the other forms that it comes in. I think your perp slipped her it as a liquid, probably by putting it into her drink when she was looking the other way. Since LSD is tasteless, she'd never know what hit her. And your perp, he's either a dealer or else he takes it quite often."

"What makes you say that?" Fin inquired.

"Well, first off, he was actually able to find it in the liquid form. That stuff's pretty rare in circulation, blotters being the most common form nowadays, so he's got some connections. Second, he knew how much to give her to put her in the shape he wanted her."

"What do you mean by that?" Munch handed the report to Fin and looked back at Warner.

"He gave her a massive dose; 2,000 micrograms or so, from what I can tell."

Munch raised an eyebrow. "Micrograms? That doesn't sound like much."

"Well, it is considering that the usual dosage that you find on the market's at about 50-100 micrograms. He wanted her so far gone she wouldn't know if she was here or there."

"Maybe he convinced her into thinkin' it was a religious experience or somethin'," Fin suggested with a shrug.

"Some experience," Munch said sarcastically. "'Here, I have an idea! Let's reenact the crucifixion! You be Jesus!'"

Fin looked at Warner appreciatively. "Thanks. You find anythin' else, you know where to reach us."

"Yeah, now get out of here," Warner ordered with a smile. "I've got two more autopsies to perform tonight or else a couple of other detectives are going to crucify me."

…

"Good morning, everyone!" Munch called out breezily as he walked into the squad room the next day. "I trust that everyone slept well last night," he said as his fellow detectives stared at him with eyes that claimed the opposite fact to be true.

"What's up with you?" Fin asked, staring at his partner.

Munch sat down in his chair, answering, "I, my dear partner, am currently running on no sleep whatsoever and four large cups of coffee after spending the whole night watching those late-night infomercials in an effort to forget about this case and make my mind sink into the blissful realm of the unconscious state."

"Just wait," Elliot said as he walked back from the coffee machine, gesturing at Munch with his mug, "In less than six hours, he's going to come crashing down faster than a Boeing 747 with engine failure."

"Then we better get working while I'm still reliable for coherent thought," Munch retorted with a smile.

"John, you've never been coherent." Olivia chuckled, her remark making Fin and Elliot smile.

Cragen walked out of his office, his expression somber. "Sorry to rain on your parade, people, but we've got another vic."

…

"She looks to be fifteen or so and I'd say dead for at least six hours," the medical examiner on scene explained to Elliot and Olivia as he pointed toward the tarp-covered body. "She was strangled from behind, probably with a rope, until she was barely conscious and too weak to struggle, then the killer dragged her over here, behind these trees and bushes."

"For privacy," Elliot said with a grimace as he looked around the foliage surrounding the well-concealed crime scene.

The M.E. nodded. His own expression would be accurately described as 'green around the gills.' "If it hadn't been for those two teenagers who came here to get a little privacy of their own, I doubt we would've found this body for three to four days from now, maybe even a week." He returned his attention to the body. "So, after he brought her here, he nailed her to the ground with wooden stakes he had brought along and then cut out her heart, removing it through her stomach area by reaching up through the inside of the ribcage to cut it out."

"He nailed her down before cutting out the heart this time," Olivia observed. "If he had used her ribs as the nails again, she probably wouldn't have lived through him cutting them out and them nailing them in."

"That and it's a public park," Elliot said, looking around. "I think a saw, even a small one, would've made too much noise for his liking."

"No signs of rape?" Olivia asked.

The man shook his head. "Not from my cursory examination, no. But, before you go, there's one last thing you should see, detectives." He walked over to the tarp and pulled it back over the girl's legs to give the detectives an unobstructed view of them. Carved into the dead girl's flesh were a series of seemingly random numbers.

On the left, they read:
4
1, 49
9-13, 14, 17, 29, 42
4, 21
11, 17, 22, 42
14-16, 42

On the right were:
124, 14, 16, 27
21, 17, 13
19, 17, 9
23-25
124, 7, 17, 9, 16

Olivia stared at the numbers for a moment, then turned to Elliot. "Looks like some kind of code to me. You any good with puzzles?"

"Nope," he answered, rubbing his eyes tiredly, "especially after the amount of sleep I got. Munch wasn't the only one with a problem last night."

"Same here." Olivia looked at the M.E. "Make sure to get pictures of these sent to us," she told him and he nodded in acknowledgement. She turned back to her partner. "Now, let's go see if Munch and Fin have scared up any potential witnesses."

Okay, first off, I posted this at 1 AM so forgive any errors that might be scattered about. I tried to catch them all and I think I succeeded but there's always a couple that slip through.
Secondly, that info about LSD was taken from a couple different, but reliable, online sources so I'm pretty sure it's accurate. Feel free to correct though if you think it's not.
And I'm always willing to hear feedback on other stuff too. If I'm writing characters right, if Munch's dialogue sucks or not, etc. etc.
Finally, um... oh yeah! If you want to try and figure out the code, go ahead. I think it's kinda simple (but then again I know what it is) and it's just something I added in on a whim... anyway, be my guest.