CHAPTER 448: CHAPTER 273 DETAIL_2

"Pull back the white sheet."

Cheston En hurried forward, helping Walter, the medical examiner in charge of the autopsy, remove the white sheet covering the corpse.

All five bodies were completely naked. Their abdomens were sunken, revealing protruding ribs on what should have been plump torsos. Ugly, dense black sutures, like myriad centipedes, crawled across their pallid skin, creating a grotesque tableau.

These were marks from the autopsy.

In the lower regions of the five victims were five dark, gaping holes, each the size of an adult’s wrist. They were uniform and deep, as if pierced by a sharp instrument that had then been used to remove their entire reproductive systems.

"That’s pretty twisted," Dean muttered. He narrowed his eyes and squatted down to closely examine the wound on the body nearest to him.

Due to the extended time since death, the wound site had turned a dark reddish-black. Up close, Dean could see carbonized traces on the walls of flesh.

This condition typically appeared with severe burns.

Walter, the medical examiner, spoke up, "Detective, this victim is Marg. She was twenty-one, a sales clerk at a department store. She disappeared two weeks ago after work. On the morning of the fourth day of her disappearance, a passing motorist found her body, neatly arranged, by the roadside."

"What was the specific cause of death?"

"Asphyxiation!" Walter stated firmly. "All five victims share a common characteristic. I found trichloromethane in all of their bodies."

"What’s that?" Cheston En asked, puzzled.

Dean pricked up his ears as well. While he had developed a habit of reading and accumulating knowledge, he wasn’t omniscient.

Walter paused. "It’s an outdated anesthetic. This stuff has anesthetic properties, but it readily damages the body—the liver, for instance. So, it hasn’t been common since the 1950s."

"Okay," Cheston En offered, "so the killer might be older."

Walter didn’t comment on that, continuing, "The trichloromethane levels in all five victims were very high—enough to cause immediate loss of consciousness and even bodily control. Simply put, their bodies couldn’t even breathe instinctively. They developed symptoms of respiratory amnesia, which resulted in their suffocation."

"So they died without pain?"

Walter nodded. "If you’ve ever had surgery under anesthesia, you’d know. When someone is anesthetized, their consciousness feels like it’s floating in the clouds—light, airy—until they completely lose awareness. Furthermore, the victims’ facial features indicate they didn’t suffer before death. Otherwise, as their bodies cooled, they couldn’t have maintained such serene expressions after... feeling their bodies hollowed out. That’s what I find most puzzling."

The medical examiner sighed. "Based on the bodies’ characteristics, I deduce the killer anesthetized the victims when they were relatively calm. Then, he tortured them by inserting a high-voltage electric prod into... that area. That also explains the burn marks around the wounds. Afterward, the killer used a sharp instrument to neatly excise that area. He then reached in and tore out the victims’ intestines, kidneys, liver, and other organs, arranging them to resemble flowers. These were placed beside the victims, who appeared serene in death... It was a profoundly disturbing scene."

Hearing Walter’s account, Cheston En couldn’t help but recoil. Removing organs with bare hands! No ordinary person could do something like that! Placing flowers before the dead is usually an act of mourning and remembrance, a beautiful gesture. Imagine it... the grotesque contrast between flowers sculpted from fresh organs and the serene faces of the dead women... This killer is truly depraved!

...

Dean’s reaction wasn’t as strong as Cheston En’s. He’d seen far more depraved things. His attention was focused on Walter’s deductions about the killer’s methods. Most people, learning about the victims’ state, would instinctively assume the killer was a cruel psychopath. Dean didn’t deny the killer was depraved. But he saw something more. A sense of ritual! Serial killers with a consistent M.O. usually do it to showcase their uniqueness, to gain attention, or out of habit. This case likely falls into the last category: habit. Habitual traits also vary widely. Some are to satisfy a collector’s urge—taking a specific body part from each victim, or one of their belongings. Others stem from life habits.

Dean suspected the killer, in real life, might be a cultured individual with refined manners, someone who had received strict etiquette training and possessed an artistic sensibility. This type of person is often so governed by habit that even a simple table setting would be arranged to be aesthetically pleasing. Of course, it couldn’t be ruled out that the killer was doing this deliberately to attract attention. After all, with each victim, the killer murdered them and then deliberately chose a road with frequent traffic to leave the body, almost as if ensuring it would be discovered.

Dean wasn’t yet certain about the killer’s behavioral profile. He needed more information to confirm his theories.

So he stood up and asked, "Chief Louise, what’s the traffic volume like on the road where the bodies were discovered?"