A/N: A shout out to my anonymous reviewer! Glad you liked it. As for Glinda, more on her later. ;)
A/N2: I am still not getting alerts, I've reported this to the website but I've not heard any response. I hope that they can resolve this soon. Thanks for reading.
Chapter 5
"Doctor Howat, did you start without me?" Elphaba asked as she entered the undertaker's work room. Corporal Roth stayed just outside the room so the two medical people could look at poor Sarah. The room itself was a very clean space with white painted walls, a countertop with a large sink in it, cupboards for storing tools and embalming chemicals, and two Quoxwood tables. Sarah's body was on the far table.
The lighting in the room was surprising. The undertaker had chandeliers over each table and even wall mounted lights on the walls nearby. It was one of the few buildings in town with electric light. Fiyero had told her that unlike the Emerald City, most towns on the Yellow Brick Road only had electricity on the main road with people off the road still using candles and oil lights. It was something that Glinda wanted to fix and the Council had agreed.
"Hardly. I just did my exterior examination. I could use help lifting the body," the older man gave her a small smile. He was around sixty-five years old and wore round spectacles. His gray hair was cropped close like he maybe had served in the Gale Force. He was about six foot tall and dressed smartly. Elphaba was sure that he ironed his white smock, along with the white shirt and black slacks. His black shoes were highly polished.
"A little magic is needed then," she chanted a spell and the body levitated off the table. The Doctor watched as Sarah's back was about at eye height.
"Much obliged," he said as he looked at her back. Elphaba could see him frown and slowly lowered Sarah back to the table about five minutes later.
"What do you think?" The green woman asked.
"I don't like any of it. I can find no bruising nor puncture wounds. A young woman this age doesn't climb out of her bedroom window and end up mostly naked miles away dead of natural causes. She had some kind of help," Howat told her.
"And not the good kind of help. Maybe we'll find more when we remove her clothing," Elphaba suggested.
"There is no blood on the clothing. Just dirt from being put on the ground," the doctor frowned.
"Do you think someone killed her and then put her in new undergarments?" Elphaba wondered. She lifted the body off the table again but this time just enough to remove the long slip and dainty top cover. The green woman examined them, noting that the doctor was right.
"As you probably know, when someone dies, their digestive system sees no reason to hold onto anything. Those clothes do not smell or urine or feces and I do not see any stains," Howat pointed out.
"I have to be honest; I don't smell anything. Shouldn't she be decomposing?" Elphaba asked.
"Ah so it's just not me then. A freshly dead person would not smell though as the process hasn't started producing large quantities of gas," he explained.
"Something doesn't add up. When Corporal Roth stopped the carriage, he told us a large bird flew up in front of him. Birds of prey, that like the dead, don't they home in on the smell?" the green woman was confused.
"I'm no bird expert. We have a taxidermist in town. He might know," Howat suggested.
"Ok, we'll see him next. He might be able to help the Corporal identify what kind it was," Elphaba said.
"Good idea but that leaves the question – why hasn't Sarah decomposed more? No one could know that you'd be coming along. If the bird was triggered by the body, she would have had to have been there long enough to start decomposition. You moving the body with magic doesn't prohibit anything right?" Howat asked.
"No. The spell only lifts, nothing more," she confirmed.
"Maybe the Mayor is right. There is something more at play here. Could you cast a spell to stop decay?" He wondered.
"There is a spell that is used when heads of state have passed and they have to lay in state for a week. I've never used it outside of when I was taught it at Shiz. Both Glinda and I thought it was an odd thing to teach considering most of the class, if not all of it, was never going to be required at a state funeral. Well at least for that purpose," Elphaba admitted.
"Well maybe in their small town, the head of state would be the mayor or another esteemed politician?" Howat guessed.
"Morrible had many motives and you never found out what they were until it was too late," the green woman said.
"Indeed. There are no puncture wounds under the clothes. I need to check the eyes," Howat told her, shifting the focus back to the task at hand. Elphaba moved to Sarah's head and helped him check both eyes. They were very red.
"She was suffocated and then more than likely a spell was cast on her to stop the decomposition of her body. We are dealing with someone who knows magic. Whoever they are, they made Sarah compliant. She has no wounds suggesting she fought back. You don't let someone suffocate you without trying to fight for your life," the doctor was concerned.
"Why use a spell to lure her out of the house, just to suffocate her? You could have done that in her room. This person wanted something from her," Elphaba gave him a look.
"Women usually have the magical powers – why not just cast a spell to have Sarah tell her what she wanted to know? Why did she have to die?" Howat wanted to know.
"We need to see the list of items stolen during those break-ins that the Chief mentioned," Elphaba had an idea and she wondered if she was right.
To Be Continued…