Please note that this chapter does contain scenes of a graphic description of an autopsy. If you don't feel like you can read it, you can skip it. Reader disgression is advised. You have been warned.
The harsh, cold lighting of the autopsy suite was unyielding as the three occupants of the room looked down at the body. Shi Tawakemono picked up her scalpel as she prepared for her task. Dojima watched silently whilst Adachi turned pale. Shi reached across and started up her Dictaphone.
"Victim is a twenty seven year old female. External signs show no injuries or signs of trauma. There is also no sign of abuse." She said. She held the scalpel blade near the victim's neck. "Preparing for the first incision." She said. She made a y-incision down the woman's torso. As she glanced up, she saw Adachi turn paler. "Sink's over there." She said. As she continued, slicing through muscle to expose the ribcage and organs, she heard him running towards the sink. She put the scalpel down and reached for her bone saw. She glanced up to see Adachi returning to his place.
"Will you stop acting like a rookie?" Dojima snapped. Adachi winced.
"Sorry sir." He said. Shi rolled her eyes and began to saw through the ribcage after removing the attaching muscles. She continued to saw though the bones when she heard a clatter. She looked up to see Adachi had fainted, his arm catching the sharps tray of the next autopsy table. She quickly placed down the saw and moved over to him. Dojima stood beside her.
"Adachi! Get up!" He yelled. She removed her gloves and lifted his head.
"He's out cold, come on." She wrapped one of Adachi's arms around her shoulders and pulled him up. "We'll put him in my office." She said. Between the two of them, they carried him to her office and lay him on the sofa. "He'll be fine so long as we leave him there. Come on, we'll continue." She said, heading back out of the office. Dojima followed and watched as she continued sawing through the rib cage. X-rays had already been taken and stood on the light box nearby. As she removed the rib cage and examined the organs in their places, he looked at them.
"There were no fractures?" He asked her, examining the x-rays. Looking at the images in black and white, they didn't look human. But the thing on the table that Shi currently had her hands in was human. Shi glanced up at him.
"No sign of any fractures that would have caused her death. Which is why I'm struggling to see it as a homicide. There's no trauma. Same with a suicide. There's no trauma to indicate it." She let out a sigh as she picked up a second scalpel. "Maybe the toxicology results can help me identify her cause of death." She said. He turned to face her as she began to remove the internal organs. Slowly, each organ from her heart to her womb was removed and examined, its weight, colour and size recorded along with any possible abnormalities. Finally, her attention was turned to the victim's head. She paused when she heard a groan.
Both she and Dojima turned to see Adachi walking out of her office, holding his head.
"Ah, so sleeping beauty finally awakens." Shi joked as she turned back to her duty. Judging from Dojima's chuckle, Adachi had blushed at her comment. She slowly extended her Y-incision around the hairline of her victim and pulled the scalp over the corpse's face. "Skull is intact, no signs of fractures." She commented before reaching for a circular saw. She cut around the skull, leaving small notches in it before removing the top. "No sign of any cerebral haemorrhaging." She murmured again. She picked up her scalpel and cut through the membrane surrounding the brain before removing it. She weighed, measured and recorded every detail about the brain and put it in formaldehyde. She went into the skull and removed the dura membrane but there was still no evidence of trauma. As she re-attached the skull and pulled the hair back in place, she sighed. "I'll take some samples for testing but this is weird." She said.
"There's really no sign to give you a cause of death?" Dojima said, watching as she cut a small amount of hair from the victim.
"Nothing. There's no trauma, there's no pathological markers, I doubt I'm gonna find anything based on histology but I'll give it a go. And unless tox reveals anything, all I can tell you is this. The heart of this woman just stopped." Shi said as she took a small sample of the blood, liver and kidneys. "I'll analyse these tomorrow. For now, I'll sew her back together and put her in the cooler." She said, putting the scalpel and syringe down and picking up a needle and thread. As she placed the organs and rib-cage back into place, she heard a commotion from outside. The three of them looked up as a patrolman entered the room.
"Dr Tawakemono, Detectives. I'm sorry, we're trying to stop them but they won't leave." He said before falling forward as a journalist shoved him out of the way.
"Dr Tawakemono, any idea on the cause of death?" He demanded, throwing a Dictaphone in her face. A photographer came down the hall.
"Alright, you can leave now!" Dojima yelled, shoving the reporter out along with his photographer before they could get any photos.
"The public has a right to know!"
"They will be told in an official statement. But for now, I have no comment I can make upon the situation." Shi said. The reporter was about to say something else but the doors slammed shut on them. "Phew, barely got her here and already the vultures are searching for the carrion." She said. She went back to sewing the announcer shut. Once she was done, she picked up her samples and stored them in a cool storage unit. Then, she pushed the body into one of the cooler and looked at them.
"So, you calling it a night?" Adachi asked. She nodded, walking to her office and grabbing her bag.
"I can't do the toxicology analysis until tomorrow. But I'll make a start on my report tonight. And here." She held out a packet of mints, some nausea tablets and a bottle of water to him. "It'll help deal with the smell and the nausea." She said. He blushed slightly and took them. "Say hi to Nanako –chan for me Dojima-san." She said. He nodded and left. Adachi followed her as she left, rummaging through his pockets.
"Shit. Where is it?" He growled. She glanced at him. "I must have dropped it somewhere." He spotted her raised eyebrow. "My bus-pass." He said. "Now how am I going to get back?" He asked himself.
"I can give you a lift." She said. He stammered. "Don't even bother refusing, I wouldn't want to walk in this fog. Come on." She led him to her car and opened it. As she climbed in, he sunk into the seat. "Just give me the address and we can get going." He gave her the address and she set off. As she drove, she felt more at ease with him in the car then she ever had alone. Little did she know that moment was the first few steps on a path that would lead her to the future she never would have expected.
So, a lot of you are probably wondering how I know this much about forensics and autopsies. And alot of you may assume I googled it. But, actually, I am a trained Forensic scientist and CSI. That's how I know so much about these things. I'm trained in them.