Autopsy, Suspect

Brian pretended to waft away the burnt smell coming off the corpse, then crushed the little red ball of obsession.

As the red ball turned into countless specks of light, they poured into his eyes.

A new piece of obsession information surfaced in Brian's mind: make sure Shaina stopped sinking into the flesh trade, and let her live out the rest of her life happily.

Shaina?

Could she be the girl the dead man had liked?

After Brian finished reading the dead man's obsession, he was a little disappointed.

One look at the contents told him it had nothing to do with the killer.

The most ridiculous part was...

The obsession was to let someone live out their life happily.

He wanted to live out his life happily too.

The question was, was that possible?

This damned obsession couldn't be completed at all!

After enough disappointment, Brian got used to it.

He began working according to the autopsy procedure.

Susan, standing to one side and completely unaware that Brian had absorbed the obsession, watched him work with great interest, acting as a token extra.

To ensure fairness, an autopsy was no longer allowed to be conducted by one person alone.

That was also why he had called an assistant.

It was not because he needed help.

It was because he needed a token person to ensure the autopsy procedure was legal and compliant.

The first step of an autopsy was to confirm the identity of the remains.

Brian glanced at the registration form, then verified the identification tag on the corpse's foot before saying to the camera, "The deceased is Kenneth, male, twenty-two years old. Time of death: 1:56 p.m. on September 30th. The identity of the deceased has been confirmed. Medical examiner Brian will now begin examination of the body."

An autopsy was somewhat similar to seeing a patient.

After confirming the deceased's identity, the second step was not to cut him open, but to perform a physical examination.

Brian first gave the body a simple visual inspection, then checked the deceased's charred limbs, mouth, nasal cavity, ears, and other private areas in order. Only at the very end did he take up his tools and carefully peel away the leather apron stuck to the flesh.

"Huh!"

Susan, who had been watching curiously from the side, let out a cry of surprise when she saw the deceased's chest. "There are deep purplish-red wounds on it!"

Brian glared at Susan, signaling for her to shut up, then said to the camera:

"The deceased suffered severe burns over his entire body. There is a large amount of smoke and soot inhaled into the nasal cavity. The chest has collapsed, with multiple rib fractures and accumulated blood in the mouth. Internal organ rupture is suspected.

"In addition, there is a large, deep purplish-red circular wound on the deceased's chest. Multiple hole-like missing imprints are present in the center of the wound. It is suspected that, for a period of time before death, the deceased was struck with considerable force by some kind of circular blunt object."

After saying this, Brian looked at Susan, who was covering her mouth. "Didn't the deceased die in the hospital? Why was the leather apron on his body still there?"

Before the autopsy, he had thought he would be dissecting a mangled corpse that had undergone surgery.

Susan explained:

"The deceased had already stopped breathing when he was delivered to the hospital. The reason I stayed there and had the hospital conceal it was at Ivan and the others' suggestion. Generally, after committing a crime, a killer might appear at the crime scene or the hospital to confirm the target's condition.

"I considered that the cause of death was very clear, so I agreed."

Brian:

This was actually a very serious violation of procedure.

Ivan and Glenn's way of doing things was a little wild.

This team leader was also a little stupid.

Brian had no choice but to give this newbie team leader a bit of basic education. "A lot of the time, the manner of death you see with your own eyes may only be a confusing trick the killer used to cover up the truth. Delaying the autopsy is not a smart move."

Susan was quite willing to listen, and nodded. "It won't happen again. But if that's the case, how should I write the follow-up report for this case?"

Brian spread his hands. "If the case is solved, no one will care. If the case isn't solved and you fail the assessment, there's no need to care either."

Because of some of Susan's inappropriate remarks, Brian had no choice but to change the camera's card and start the procedure over again.

After completing the recording once more, he began examining the remnants of clothing left on the deceased's body.

Before death, the victim had suffered severe impact and burns from flame. The clothes on his body were basically all destroyed, and even after Brian activated his enhanced scent, he gained nothing but the smell of burning.

All one could say was that there was a reason murder and arson went hand in hand.

No gains.

Brian could only begin the next step of the autopsy.

It was still the most commonly used "Y"-shaped incision.

With practiced ease, Brian used an incomparably sharp blade to cut open the victim's entire chest and abdomen, exposing the horrific internal organs inside as much as possible.

"The seventh, eighth, and ninth ribs on the left side of the victim's chest show impact fractures. The heart and spleen are damaged."

The heart was damaged.

The cause of death had been found.

Only after Brian finished examining these did he turn his gaze to the flesh on the victim's chest. "The victim should have been a very disciplined person in life. There are obvious signs of exercise on his body. In addition, the circular wound on his chest should have already been there before death."

"Why?" Susan was curious about the basis for Brian's judgment. "Could it have been caused by something striking him during the explosion?"

Brian shook his head.

"If it had been caused by an impact, then the ribs in the corresponding position would have traces as well.

"Also, the deep-purple wound on the victim's chest isn't livor mortis caused after blood circulation stopped, but the form shown after pooled blood had coagulated.

"That means this area was injured before the victim died.

"However, the injury probably wasn't serious.

"At least, it didn't affect his ability to keep working."

"This is making my head hurt." Susan patted her head and asked bluntly, "Then did we get anything from this autopsy?"

Brian shook his head again.

"The victim did indeed die from the impact and burns caused by the explosion.

"All we can confirm is that the victim had fought with someone while he was alive.

"In a public place like that, the amount of homemade explosive the killer could carry wouldn't have been very large.

"And with the food truck in between...

"It would be very difficult to kill him.

"So the position where the killer placed the explosive was very clever. Not only did it rupture the vehicle's outer shell, it also detonated the portable gas cylinder inside the truck. This means the killer had some knowledge of demolition and had investigated the food truck's internal structure.

"Actually, after I graduated high school, I studied food truck business models for a while in order to make money.

"Depending on people's habits...

"The interior layouts of food trucks vary greatly.

"And generally, no one pays attention to those things.

"So I believe this was a premeditated murder!"

Susan grasped the key point. "You're saying the killer's goal from the start was to kill the victim?"

"Right!" Brian nodded firmly.

"Ordinary grudges wouldn't involve explosives!

"I just can't figure out why the killer chose an explosion.

"After all, it draws far too much attention.

"If it were me and I wanted to kill the owner of a food truck...

"I'd make it look like a robbery and shooting.

"The food truck owner's business was very good. His daily revenue was probably high, and it was all cash.

"A robber choosing him as a target...

"Would be perfectly reasonable.

"That way, I could kill him without drawing focused attention from the police.

"After all, Los Angeles has plenty of shooting robberies every year.

"There would be too many suspects."

As for autopsies...

Brian truly was nothing special.

But once he put himself in the killer's shoes, he immediately noticed something wrong with the case.

Perhaps that was talent.

"Why do I get the feeling you've done a lot of research into crime?"

After thinking for a moment, Susan said something that nearly scared Brian half to death.

Brian rolled his eyes. "If you heard all kinds of crime stories every day, you'd become like me too."

"All right."

Susan rubbed her aching neck. "If it was premeditated, that means there must have been some connection between the victim and the killer. Looks like our investigation needs to focus on the victim's personal relationships next."

Brian nodded in agreement.

Hopefully the investigation by Ivan and Glenn, the two former detectives, would bring them a pleasant surprise.

They cleaned up the scene.

They locked away the autopsy records and other items.

Together, the two of them left the cold, gloomy morgue.

Toward evening.

Old Harden brought back a printed photograph.

In the photo was a very common plastic bottle.

"This should be the bottle the killer used to hold the explosives. Also, the lab ran a search on the substances on the surface of those plastic fragments and found that the explosive component was triacetone triperoxide. It's a household chemical product, and it's easy to get in places like some furniture factories."

The information Old Harden brought back officially classified the bombing as a premeditated murder.

Not long after.

Ivan and Glenn also returned to the police station with what they had found.

"These are some basic details on the victim, Kenneth, and the personal connections we could find on the surface. Among them, there are two people we should focus on. I suspect they had a motive!" Ivan said, his face grave, as he handed the photocopied documents to everyone.

The others picked up the documents and read them carefully.

Soon.

Brian's gaze locked onto one name: Audrin.

That guy was highly suspicious!