A/N: Hello Dear Readers. My schedule for the upcoming week is not exactly fanfic friendly. That said, I hope to be updating, in 2 weeks. Thanks for sticking with me. I hope you are enjoying the story!
Chapter 5
The morning came early and Olivia had met Fin down at the coroner's office. He had called the night before to tell her that Melinda wanted to see them. She had agreed to meet him and she was now nursing her second coffee. The Captain had not gotten much sleep and was wishing that she had managed to shut her mind off the night before.
"Morning," Melinda said to the two as they approached. She stood at the examination table with Christine Fleming's body underneath the sheet in front of her.
"Morning Doc. What did you find?" Fin asked.
"Right to business, I see. Well, I think some of this you can guess – cause of death was exsanguination. While the air conditioning in the room had slowed her bleeding, it wasn't cold enough to force it to coagulate fast enough for help to arrive. The surgeons did all they could, but our killer had made just too many stab wounds in critical areas," she explained.
"How many wounds?" Fin wanted to know.
"There are twenty. Regrettably, because of the work of the surgeons, I don't have a clear picture of the knife wounds that I could testify to in court," Melinda said.
"You can't tell if it was serrated or not?" Olivia asked.
"Yes, the surgeons tried to close all the injuries up so any defining marks have been obscured. That said, Velasco sent over the list and photos that regarding the victim's knife block, I'm fairly certain that none of the missing knives are the murder weapon," the coroner explained.
"Don't leave us hanging Doc," Fin said.
"I called up forensics and they brought the knife block down. The slots are not deep enough to hold the knife that I believe our perp used. I'd say it was a long knife approximately twelve to thirteen inches long. Christine's spinal cord was nicked and her organs look like Swiss cheese," Melinda heaved a sigh.
"Would the air conditioning mess with the time of death? We know that heating does, since it accelerates the process of decomposition, but I would have thought that chilling the body would be more helpful for us," Olivia switched the focus of the conversation.
"Honestly, if the mailman hadn't found her, decomposition would have been slowed. It would only be when I examined the body that I might have been able to give a better time of death. Now, as I said, it wasn't cold enough to completely coagulate the blood. To be honest, if our perp didn't know she wasn't dead, he wanted her to suffer," Melinda figured.
"Because she couldn't get to the phone and she was freezing, while her blood slowly oozed out," Fin shook his head.
"Yes. She probably knew she was going to die and could do nothing to stop it," the coroner heaved a sigh.
"This changes what Huang was thinking. I better make a call," Olivia grabbed her phone from her pocket and headed out into the hallway to call the forensic psychiatrist.
"She ok?" Melinda asked Fin.
"Stabler's back, shit's hit the fan multiple times lately, and we have a new Chief of D's breathin' down our necks," he told her.
"So, she's playing Wonder Woman again," the coroner gave him a look.
"Not sure she knows how to shut it off. The walls are back up. Though she told me that she went to see Doctor Lindstrom the other day," Fin said.
"Not that I need to ask but…" Melinda started. She stopped as Olivia walked back into room.
"Huang is going to meet us at the precinct in an hour. Is there anything else we need to know?" The Captain asked.
"Not on my end," the coroner smiled.
"Thanks Melinda," Olivia softened a little.
"Of course. Let me know the minute you catch this guy," she said.
"Count on it," Olivia nodded before she left the room. Fin looked at Melinda and nodded. He knew what she was trying to say – he had Olivia's back.
To Be Continued…
