Although Fang Zheng really wanted to immediately investigate the girls' secret garden, investigating the case was still more important. So the next day, he and Uozumi went to the morgue together. After all... investigating the case came first.
They were received by a female coroner named Natsume. Judging by her attitude toward Fang Zheng, she seemed to be related to the detective somehow, but that was unimportant to Fang Zheng. What mattered were the examination results for the two bodies.
First was the female corpse that consisted of only a head and limbs. Natsume said that although it still had a head, they had yet to determine the victim's identity. The body had decomposed too badly for its features to be recognizable. Furthermore, Natsume pointed out something strange: it was still winter, yet the maggots on the corpse had grown far too quickly and in far too great a number. Of course, this clue did not seem especially meaningful at the moment. The body might have been kept somewhere hot before being brought out... though that seemed unlikely.
Another finding from the body was that, based on the condition of the severed limbs, the victim had still been alive when her legs were cut off, but she no longer showed signs of life when her arms were severed. That confirmed that her legs had been cut off while she was alive. Her cause of death had most likely been hemorrhagic shock.
Next was the body from the cemetery. She was likewise a young woman, with her left arm severed. Her body had been buried underground, while lamp oil had been poured over her legs and set alight. Analysis of the cut surface led to the conclusion that, like the previous victim, her left arm had been cut off while she