9. The Autopsies.

Adam caught up with Tony in the middle of the town square, sitting on a huge log or tree trunk. He was staring at the floor, deep in thought. Adam waited, feeling more than a little unhappy that he'd been left to walk back alone, surrounded, he assumed, by dragons.

"The Muggles in parts of your world," said Tony, still looking at the ground, "do not understand restraint the way we do in the Wizarding world."

"Would you like to explain it so I can understand?"

"No," He paused again, marshalling his thoughts, "but I'm going to try, anyway. The wizarding community keeps itself small. We don't have the number of children your families have. One of the biggest families in the last hundred years is the Weasley's. It's rare nowadays for families to have more than one or two children." He paused for a moment, getting his thoughts in order. "The wizarding families do not think it is right that certain areas of the Muggle world, Muggles are breeding out of hand and are considered by some as being little more than a disease, and should be treated as such."

"I assume Ramsey is one of these because of the Salamander extinction?"

"I don't know if he is one, or he agrees. I seriously don't think this has anything to do with the case."

Silence descended as both thought through the problems.

"I assume wizard and Muggle governments have never come to blows before," Adam said after a moment.

"Many times."

"No, I'm sure I would have heard of it," Adam said, shocked for a moment.

"No, you wouldn't, that's what we Auror's do, we cover-up, and clean problems caused by wizards and Muggles coming to blows."

"Cover-up, clean up?" He asked.

Tony smiled ruefully at him before continuing. "What I know is that Muggle governments, not just in England, are pushing the boundaries set up hundreds of years ago. They believe their technology is now potent enough to put the Wizards in their place."

"One day of this world, and I know the Muggles wouldn't stand a chance."

"You're a Muggle."

"So are your parents." Replied Adam, this made Tony smile.

He walked over to the huge log and sat down next to Tony. The surface was smooth, caused by countless visitors. "I've not been briefed on the Muggle problem by the Ministry, but this problem is something that is talked about a lot, in school, during my Auror training, and in the pub. It's a common topic of conversation."

"How bad is this problem?" Adam asked as he made himself comfortable on the log.

"You watch the news, don't you?"

Adam thought about it for a while, now from a fresh perspective, and found he did not like the answers he was getting. He liked the probable outcome even less.

"Where would this Ramsey Arn be now?" He asked, changing the subject.

"If he's on the run, then he will avoid most of the Wizarding communities. Few people would shield a rogue wizard these days."

"Is he on the run?" Adam asked.

"No, I don't think so."

"Then he could be anywhere without a wand." Tony shrugged after a moment. "Let's assume for now," continued Adam, "that he is hiding in the Muggle world somewhere where he wouldn't need a wand."

"Still doesn't help us find him."

"Want to bet?" Tony looked around at Adam and smiled. "Can we get a photo of him?" Tony's smile widened.

"Why do you need a photo?"

"There are hundreds of cameras, most linked to police databases, add the police computer AI and you have little chance of hiding anywhere these days."

Tony stood. "Wait here. I'll be back in a minute."

He expected him to disappear and was surprised when he marched off across the green towards the inn.

Adam enjoyed the early morning sunshine and total peace. Not even birdsong broke the silence, which for a moment, confused him until he remembered what was lurking in the surrounding countryside.

Tony came back from the pub with a piece of paper in his hand, which he gave to Adam. He was happy he was not carrying any more beers, as he was already feeling light-headed.

"That was quick."

"We have our methods," Tony replied, sitting down.

Adam took his notebook and used it to take a picture of the paper, and swiped the screen several times. Then he spoke Ramsey Arn's name in full and spelt it out phonetically before slipping it back into his pocket.

"Done. If he's been anywhere near a camera, then the system will alert us." Adam's tablet beeped. He pulled it out and looked at it for a moment before looking at Tony. "Ramsey Arn is at the Yard, under sedation in the infirmary." Tony's jaw dropped in surprise. "He was found this morning unconscious in a side street off the Charing Cross Road, identity unknown but the photograph matches."

"Hell's teeth, that was quick," Tony exclaimed. "Near the Leaky Cauldron where the wand was found," He said, standing up. "We'd better get to him before he wakes up."

Adam barely had the chance to stand before Tony grabbed his arm and the now familiar, but less intense, squeezing sensation swept over him.

They were in an alley near the Yards main entrance, the one Tony liked to use, as there seemed to be no cameras trained on this point, he hoped. Adam grabbed the wall to stop himself from falling over.

Once Adam felt well enough, the two of them walked the short distance to the Yard. Once through the metal barriers and into the station, Adam went up to the wall display and asked questions of the duty Sergeant. Tony watched his shoulders slump, making him assume the worst and wondering if Arn had done any damage.

Adam wandered back over. "He's had a severe blow to the head and is under observation for now."

"Which means?" Tony asked happy Arn was still here.

"We have to wait. But, I still want to know who sent the wand. It's as if they knew where Arn was, and they wanted him found there."

"I'll contact the Ministry and find out who it was."

"I feel that someone is leading us and I don't like that feeling."

Tony nodded before turning away and walking as far from the desk Sergeant as possible while beckoning Adam to follow him.

"I need to get near him and negate his abilities, just in case he wakes up and panics. Are his belongings being kept somewhere?"

"They'll be down in evidence lockup. I'll get them sent up to the office. Follow me down to the infirmary first. While we're down there, we can see the autopsies of our dead people. We can then interview Arn afterwards."

Suddenly it was Tony's turn to feel sick, as he realised what happens in autopsies.

After five minutes of walking along endless corridors and countless stairways, nodding and talking to many police, uniformed and not, they entered one of the medical wings, which contained many departments, all to do with death. They had stopped outside the ward that Arn occupied while Adam held the door open. He pointed his wand into the room at Arn's bed, keeping out of sight of any cameras. Seconds later, he dropped the wand, slipped it back up his sleeve, and allowed Adam to close the door.

"Done?" Adam asked beside him. Tony nodded and again followed Adam down yet another corridor to the lifts.

Several floors later, and even more introductions, the doors opened into a small foyer. Adam pulled out his tablet and showed it to the receptionist. She sent them through to another room; this one was a large carpeted office with a flat table on it. A dark-suited man stood up from a small desk in the room's corner and smiled as they walked in.

"Am I to assume you are DCI's Croft and Garrett?"

"We are." Said Adam, holding his notebook out again, knowing this would be the next question. Tony did likewise.

"Good, I'm Doctor Coulson, let's get on." He said briskly.

Tony moved back towards the door, not wanting to watch what was about to happen.

The doctor touched a button on the side of the table. The area above it flickered for a moment and the haggard, naked body of Argonia Huxley stared up at them. Tony stepped back, feeling very relieved, also hoping the magic in his body did not stop this amazing machine from working. He had braced himself, expecting to see and watch the dead body of Argonia Huxley being cut up, not a detailed hologram, in full and graphic colour.

"No idea what she died off. Can't find a mark on her." The doctor said, shaking his head as he spoke. "No distinguishing marks, scars, or tattoos. I think she was beyond healthy for her age, which could be anywhere between thirty and fifty. She was well-fed and had no signs of any trauma. No sign of inoculations or surgery either." He looked at them both for a moment, allowing them to digest this news, which in his mind was important. "Even stranger still, her teeth are perfect in every detail. I'd assumed she'd had extensive dental treatment, which would allow identification, but X-rays show nothing of the sort." Again, he paused for his audience. "Her heart has no sign of ageing, no cholesterol, no plaque on the artery walls." The doctor paused and took a deep breath. "She is one hell of an enigma."

The doctor paused again, expecting Adam or Tony to supply some information. When neither of them did, he continued. "There is one strange detail." He pointed at the shoulder of the woman. Both looked and saw nothing.

"When the hospital morgue receives any dead body, regardless of how they died, they carry out an electronic autopsy, which you know." He stopped again and looked at them. Getting no response, he continued again. "The body is scanned at many wavelengths. It gives us the ability to see right through the body in different ways. This gets us around any religious objections that may crop up. We've little need to take a knife to a dead body these days, unless we find something that needs further investigation, like this." He paused again while he picked up a clipboard-sized tablet, sliding his fingers across the surface. The view of the woman changed as he zoomed in on the shoulder area. The doctor slid his finger over the screen again. This time the colours changed, and a tracery of fine lines filled the display, emanating from a spot where the doctor had pointed. They could see them twisting their way through the body. Some lines twisted down to the heart before stopping, others travelled up the neck and into the brain.

"I cut a section of skin and flesh out of the body at the entry point, if that's what it is." He did something else to the tablet, and the body disappeared, replaced with what they assumed was the cross-section of the entry point. "This is a section of the skin through the mark, enlarged many times. The cells along this line have exploded, a little like what happens when someone is electrocuted."

"So it's electrocution then?" Adam asked.

The doctor shook his head. "I said it reminds me of electrocution, but I've seen nothing like this before." Again, he looked at them both, his body language telling Adam that more was still to come. Until three weeks ago. Now I have seen it four times."

"Four times?" Tony asked.

"Yes. Sarah Mitchell." The section of Huxley's skin flickered, replaced by Mitchell, looking like she did in the picture, her face lumpy and misshapen. "This one had extensive dental history and had surgery as a child. She had the body of someone in her thirties, a little overweight, exactly as I would expect. Nothing unusual, except for two things, one, how she died. The entry point or whatever is on her back." The hologram rotated. "As you can see, the mark travels through the body in the same way." He took a deep breath before continuing, his eyes flicking toward both officers while he spoke.

"Any reason for his, an allergic reaction perhaps?" Adam asked and received a withering look in return.

"Absolutely no idea." It was obvious to both of them that the doctor was not happy. "Sarah Allinson, nothing else to add except for what we're calling the entry point, was in her calf." The hologram flickered again as the naked body of Allinson stared vacantly upwards. The doctor looked at them both again before moving across the room to sit down in front of his desk. "Again, we have the same facial and eye problem." He sat down, shaking his head. "I have sent files to a few experts in the field, no names, of course. No one has any idea what has caused this."

He picked up the tablet again and touched it a few times.

"This morning, I received the autopsy files for Marc Ewan. The Welsh medical examiner sent them over." He paused as he made Ewan's body appear before looking at the two men. "Took me ages to find the mark. This time it was in the head." He gestured to the front of his head. "Nothing, as far as I can tell, shows that the mark had travelled down through the body to the heart; all the damage is in the head. Is this some new weapon I've never seen before?"

"I don't know," Adam replied.

"A hypothesis, perhaps?"

"No." Tony and Adam said together. "Any idea how long it took them to die?" Adam continued, not giving the doctor a chance to ask another question.

"From what I can tell, death was damn near instantaneous."

"Thank you, doctor," Adam said after a pause. "Someone mentioned stomach contents?"

"Yes. Sarah Mitchell and Robin Allinson had not eaten or drunk anything for several days before their deaths; they were severely dehydrated. Both had an unknown liquid in their stomachs imbibed within an hour of death. It wasn't poisonous, but the reports show that the liquid contained many unknown chemicals and plant substances. Few of which have been identified as yet."

"Marc Ewan had eaten the same evening he had died," Adam said, and the doctor nodded.

"Yes, and the unknown woman had eaten normally several hours before her death. Neither she nor Ewan had this liquid in them."

Adam and Tony looked at each other and smiled.

"Thank you, doctor," Tony said as they turned towards the door.

"That's it. What are you not telling me?" The doctor asked, anger and confusion in his voice.

"Yes, that's it. I'm sorry; we can't tell you anything else. Please send the information on all four autopsies to mine and DCI Garrett's notebooks and then lock the information. Please send us both the lock details."

"I will go over your head, Inspector. I have to report to the coroner." The doctor said, not happy.

"That's your prerogative doctor, but it won't do you any good. The information we have is on a need-to-know basis only." Adam said this as the door closed behind him. "And he doesn't need to know, hey Tony?"

"I quite agree. Can you keep him out of it?"

"That's up to the commissioner."

They walked back to the office without talking, both deep in thought.

"Do you know what the mark was?" Adam asked as he closed the door to the office before walking over to the board.

"No, but I have to assume that it was caused by the killing curse." He said, sitting down in front of the large screen.

"How effective is this curse?"

"The Avarda Kevarda curse is deadly if it strikes its victim."

"One hundred per cent kill rate. That's ridiculous. How close do you have to be?"

"Ninety-nine per cent, it failed once, but I think there were some mitigating reasons for that. As for distance, as long as you can see the victim, you can hit them."

"Does it take long to do the curse?"

He thought for a moment. "When we learn wand magic, we speak the words out loud. By the time we leave school, we should be able to use the wand silently. Point and shoot."

"What other magical delights do you have?" Adam asked with a resigned air, taking a seat opposite Tony.

"We have laws," Tony replied with feeling, Adams' eyebrows lifted. "We have three curses that will get the user a lifetime in Azkaban. That's our own prison. You've seen the effects of the killing curse, the second is Crucio, which tortures the victim. Believe me, the pain is indescribable. The third is the Imperious curse; it allows the wizard or witch to control the person like a puppet."

"How do you know this Crucio thing is painful?" Tony looked at him for a moment.

"The teaching methods in Durmstrang are a little extreme compared to other schools. The teacher used the spell on us as a warning."

"Did it work?" Adam asked, more than a little shocked.

"Yes, very much so," Tony replied with feeling. "It's something you never forget."

Adam changed the subject, as he was sure Tony found this upsetting. "Can we be sure that Argonia Huxley killed Ewan Marc?" Adam asked, moving from his seat to the opposite corner of the desk.

"Pretty much so. Remember the things Pinne showed us?" He shook his head. "Sorry, you can't see the images he produced, but he confirmed Huxley used the Crucio curse on Mitchell and the killing curse on Ewan." He paused while Adam wrote this information down on his tablet. "Also, Ferhe used Crucio on Huxley." He thought for a moment.

"Have your methods unearthed who killed the others?"

"No." He pulled the wands out of his pocket. "Huxley's wand". He placed it on the table. "This is Ferhe's wand." He handed it to Adam. "And this one is Arn's wand." Which he also handed to Adam.

"This other information came from Pinne?"

"Yes, and I've confirmed it."

"Can we assume that either Huxley or Ferhe killed the others?"

"No. We have to accept that there are others involved."

"Which could be a blessing."

"How?"

"The more people involved, the more chance of a mistake or a loose tongue. One more thing," Adam continued, "Mrs Jones in Llandudno said the woman she saw was young and pretty." Tony held up his hand to stop Adam.

"Magic. She could have been using any number of spells or potions to make herself look different and younger."

"Could our friend Arn, be doing the same thing?"

"Unlikely. It's very much a vanity thing and Ramsey doesn't seem the type."

Adam's phone chimed. He pulled it from his pocket.

"Mr Arn is waiting for us on the third floor, interview room two." They both stood. "I'll put Huxley's wand back into evidence. What do you want to do with the other two?" Asked Adam.

"Put them in your pocket for now."