by Uc Amalu, Jr
CHAPTER THREE
Jay jotted down a few more notes before taking one last
look around the crime scene. From the walking track
where he was standing, he could see the last of the
television crews still hanging around the roadside. They
were loading their cameras and sound equipment into
white mini vans while reporters were relaying what little
information they had, back to the studios, via cell phones
and palm pilots. Even though he had managed to get rid
of most of them earlier on, their presence angered Jay.
For years, the media had been a thorn in the side of Law
Enforcement. Many times, they would enter a crime scene
snapping photos and capturing whatever footage they
could, before being escorted away by officers. They never
gave a second thought to the evidence they might have
been destroying, nor did they care for the victims or their
families. More than once, they had broadcast grisly images
of a victim, before their next of kin had even been notified.
Jay detested news crews and he wasn’t shy about letting
them know it.
"Jayy," Seth yelled to him from a few feet away. "We’re
ready when you are...”
He watched as the mutilated body of his Jane Doe, was
sealed inside a black, plastic bag before being slid onto a
metal trolley. Two ambulance officers raised the trolley
and began wheeling it through the scrub, towards him.
Jay raised his hand to Seth and yelled back, "Let’s do it...”
He waited for the ambulance officers to reach him and
then positioned himself at the head of the trolley, ready
for the march out of the scrub and up to the roadside.
"Okay people," He began. "We still have a few vultures
circling out there, just dying to get a shot of our girl. Let’s
try to make this as quick and as smooth as possible,
eh?"
The young officers nodded in agreement.
"Right. Now, no matter what happens, just get the body
into the bus and get going. I’ll do my best to keep the
reporters outta your hair...”
When Jay was sure they were ready, he began the
procession along the walking track. The metal trolley
rattled and squeaked behind him.
The trolley had barely reached the loose gravel on the
shoulder of the road, when the frenzy began. Cameramen
scrambled for their cameras and reporters grabbed their
microphones. Jay remained firm at the front of the
trolley, guiding it quickly to the ambulance.
"Detective, Detective… Can you tell us what happened?"
"Is it true that the victim was decapi-tated?" The barrage of
questions flew thick and fast at Jay. "Was this a cult
killing?"
Jay held his arms out, trying to prevent the news crew
from invading the space between him and the body. "I’m
sorry, folk," Jay drawled. "I got nothing for ya’s. You’re
just gonna have to wait till we release a statement."
"When will that be?" Asked one female reporter.
"Yeah," mimicked another, "When will that be?"
The trolley reached the open back doors of the waiting
ambulance and the two officers pushed the body inside.
Jay tapped one of them on the shoulder as he was
climbing up into the ambulance, and said, ‚Good job,
fella’s... He then secured the heavy doors shut behind
them.
"When can we expect a statement, Detective?" The
reporters continued their onslaught. Bright flashes and
camera lights burned his eyes. Tape recorders and micro-
phones were being shoved at him from every direction.
"Give us something, Detective, come on!"
Jay turned to the gathering of paparazzi and simply
smiled. He then winked and weaved his way through
them and back into the scrub without saying a word. A
string of insults and boo’s followed him. It cheered Jay
immensely, just knowing that he had spoiled their day.
Seth approached Jay and shook his hand. "Thanks for
that, Jayy. Damn news crews, they just never know when
to quit.."
"No problem, Seth. Any idea when the autopsy will be?"
"I just phoned Augie, he’s going to get started on her at
midday.."
Jay looked at his watch. It was already 11am. "Great, you
helping out?"
Seth shook his head. "Nah, I just got a call on another
murder. I have to head out to Bayside now.."
"Must be the day for it eh?" Jay scoffed.
"Sure seems that way. I’ll see you around, Jayy.." Seth
juggled his bag of tricks under one arm and his clipboard
under the other before heading back towards the road.
Jay waved him goodbye and turned back to the scrub
where the young girl’s body had been discov-ered. He
sighed deeply and then spun around in the same
direction as Seth, and headed for his cruiser.
His phone was lying on the front seat; it chimed a few
times and then finally fell silent. Jay picked it up and
read the screen; it was a voice message. His fingers
punched in his pin number. “You have one new
message… no saved messages,” the automated voice
informed him. “To listen to your message, please press
one…. Jay followed the prompts to retrieve his message.
He listened intently and made a mental note to call Ben
after Jane Doe’s autopsy. He disconnected from the
message bank, set his phone down on the passenger
seat and turned the key in the engine. Gravel and dust
flew up from beneath his tyres when he drove away in the
direction of Showsdale.
When he pulled into the station house parking lot, Jay
peered quickly at his watch. It was 11.40 am, he decided
he had just enough time for a quick coffee before heading
to Jane Does autopsy. He could do with a reviver and a few
quiet minutes to think. After locking his cruiser he found
his way out onto the bustling footpath. The street was
jam packed with cars, all lined up bumper-to-bumper,
and the sidewalk was littered with people in a mad,
desper-ate rush to be somewhere other than where they
were.
The heavy glass doors of Café Cino seemed even heavier
today than usual, Jay stalled briefly when he pushed on
them. He despised this café; it was a haven for
intellectuals and professionals, yet he continued to drop
in every so often. A grin spread across his face when his
eyes surveyed the coffee shop and came to land on the
young waitress behind the counter. It was Joany. Jay
hadn’t seen her for quite some time now and he was
pleased to see her. He approached the counter, his smile
growing wider; and began his regular verbal assault on
her.
"Joany, baby…." He began.
"Detective Marnotti, I thought you must have dropped off the
planet," she said and then added, Seems I’m not that
fortunate huh?"
"Now, don’t be like that. You know you’re my favourite
girl...."
"Couldn’t you find another favourite?" She asked, cutting
h
im short.
Jay smiled. Joany had good reason to withdraw and wish
she was somewhere else whenever Jay showed up. He
took great pleasure in making life difficult for her every
time he visited. Not that he disliked Joany, quite the
opposite. She was attractive, competent and; in Jay’s
opinion, the best waitress Café Cino had.
"So I take it that means you won’t run away with me huh?"
Jay cooed at her.
"With you?" She rolled her eyes at him, "From you, more
like it."
"Well how’s about you just bring me a coffee then, darl?"
He drawled.
"If that’s the alternative to running away with you… You’ve
got it.." She grinned, before walking over to the coffee
machine. "And I ain’t your darl!" She added, picking up a
cup and placing it under the percolator.
"You love me Joany, you just don’t know it yet," He
laughed and then strode over to a corner booth in the
back of the café.
Joany just shook her head and continued making his
coffee.
In the corner booth, Jay pulled the phone out of his
breast pocket and hit the speed dial number for Ben. As
the phone began to connect; he slid a cigarette out of his
packet. Then right there, in front of a No Smoking sign, he
proceeded to light up. He glanced toward the cash
register to see how Joany was coming along with his
coffee. Instead, he saw Creston Philbert, the manager,
heading toward him. Ignoring his incoming visitor, Jay
refocused on his phone call and took a long draw on his
cigarette.
"Jayy, what’s up?" Ben asked, having finally answered his
phone.
"Got your message earlier, Ben, how’s 9 o’clock tonight
sound?" replied Jay, still eyeballing Creston’s approach.
"Fine by me…." began Ben groggily, "I got a couple of
leads I want to follow up first though.."
"Oh yeah?" quizzed Jay. "Some real police work eh?"
Ben paused, still too fogged up from his painkillers, to
even bother taking Jay’s bait.
"Yeah, yeah… I still got it in me y’know, Jayy," said Ben,
deflecting Jay’s sarcasm with a little touch of burnt-out
humour.
"Okay Ben, you do whatever it is you old farts do, and I’ll
see you at Bluey’s at 9, alright?" Jay barked into the
phone, annoyed that Creston was now right upon him.
"Right Jayy, see you then," Ben con-firmed before ending
the call.
Jay glared knowingly at Creston, then snapped his
phone shut and slid it back into his pocket.
"Detective Marnotti, why is it that you continue to harass my
staff and how many times must you be asked to
extinguish your cigarette? This is a non-smoking venue,"
Creston rolled out his usual speech, which, as expected,
rolled off Jay like water off a duck’s back.
"I see your surgery wasn’t a success, Creston," Jay
replied seriously.
"Surgery?" asked Creston. "I didn’t have any surgery.."
"So I see," Jay continued, "as that bug is still quite clearly
lodged up your ass!"
Creston was too dumbstruck to reply, he simply stood in
front of Jay with a vacant look on his face. Before he had
a chance to recover, Jay stood up and slapped him on
the back.
"Never mind old boy, I’ll get my coffee elsewhere for today.
But you have a fine after-noon, ya hear?" With that, Jay
stubbed his cigarette butt out in the sugar pot and made
his exit, laughing heartily as he went.
Stepping off the pavement and into the gutter, Jay
weaved his way through the avalanche of cars and crossed
the busy intersec-tion, remarkably unscathed. He rejoined
the flow of pedestrians on the footpath and continued on
his way to the ‚Hal Cotter Medical Centre.
Jay reached the giant glass doors of the rather ordinary
looking building; he lit another cigarette and just stood
there for a moment. He wondered if all the citizens and
motorists passing by even knew what went on behind
these doors. Sure, everybody was aware that it was a
medical research centre of renowned excellence, but did
they have any idea that this is where murder victims were
brought to be autopsied? It seemed ironic to Jay, that
the person responsible for the murder of these people,
could be walking past this building at that very same
moment their victims were being autopsied.
Jay lifted his cigarette to his lips and drew back hard,
filling his lungs with its deadly poison. Slowly exhaling,
he threw his butt to the ground and crushed it with his
foot before turning and walking through the glass doors
of the Medical Centre. He directed himself to the elevator
where he pushed the down arrow. Jay watched the
button light up as he waited for the stainless steel doors
to open and beckon him in. In no time, the doors rolled
open and Jay stepped inside. His finger hit another
button, commanding the elevator to take him to the
lower ground floor. The droning of the engine sounded
out and Jay’s stomach churned as his descent began.
With a slight jolt, the lift came to a stop and an
automated voice echoed through the shaft telling him he
was now at the lower ground floor. The steel doors rolled
back and allowed him to get out.
Jay turned right out of the elevator, then made his way
to the tiny office at the end of the corridor where he
showed his official I.D. He leant through the glass window
of the reception
desk asked for the suite number of his Jane Doe.
The pretty blonde receptionist eyed his creden-tials
carefully, then continued tapping away at her computer
before saying, "Suite two, Detec-tive Marnotti… Dr. August is
performing that one.."
Jay shot her a seductive smile before replying, "Good old
Augie eh? Thanks darl, you’re a gem.."
Dr. Leon August was almost a veteran in autopsies; after
all, he’d performed hundreds of them in his twenty-five or
so years as a patholo-gist. Jay was rather fond of Dr.
August, or Augie as everyone called him. He found his dry
wit and humour to be a complimentary match for his
own, and Augie could take it as good as he could dish it
out. Jay respected his thor-oughness and his ability to
convert the mumbo jumbo of medical jargon into lay-
mans terms for his benefit. Augie could be pretty tightly
wound at times though, that sometimes irked Jay, but
with the responsibility of his job who wouldn’t be?
Jay knocked on the door of Suite two and waited to be
let in. A skinny, pimply-faced assistant opened the door,
asked for I.D. and then welcomed him in. He handed Jay
a mask, shoe covers, gloves and a full body apron to put
on.
"Wash your hands thoroughly, then come on through,"
the assistant told Jay. He accepted the adornments
without a word and did as he was instructed. He hadn’t
attended too many autopsies
before, but he had a feeling
that it was important that he come to this one in
particular. He hadn’t bothered sitting in on Tessa Hunt’s
last week, although he now wishes he had.
When he entered the sterile autopsy suite, he was handed
a clipboard with a few sheets of blank paper, and a pen.
Jay looked at the assistant quizzically.
"In case you wish to make notes," the assistant told him,
helpfully.
"Oh, right… thanks," Jay mumbled through his mask.
He stared at a sign on the wall, below the oversized clock.
“Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae.”
The writing puzzled Jay, he recalled having seen the
same sign a few years ago when he had sat in on another
autopsy.
He was still entranced by the sign when Augie approached
him and stood silently by his side. ‚It’s Latin, Augie
blurted out, breaking the silence. "Roughly translated it
says, ‘This is
the place where death rejoices to teach those who live’...”
Jay turned to Augie and considered whether or not to
make some sarcastic remark about him being too much
of a know-it-all, but decided against it. Augie rubbed his
gloved hands together and said, "Are we ready?"
"As I’ll ever be," Jay replied, his enthusiasm for what was
about to take place, less than minimal.
"I’m only here for the basics Augie," he continued. "When
I’ve got that, I’m outta here...”
"Gotcha," confirmed Augie with a knowing nod. "Now, let’s
get started."
Jay followed Augie over to the steel gurney in the middle
of the room. As he walked past the bench, he noticed
numerous clear plastic bags, all neatly labelled,
containing samples of hair, dirt and nail clippings among
other things.
"What’s this?" he asked Augie.
Augie looked back towards the bench and replied, "Oh,
just some samples and scrapings we have collected for
forensics. We thought we would get it over and done with so
we can get down to business and you are not sitting
through hours of painstaking discovery."
"Sounds fair," Jay replied, glad that he had missed the
meticulous process of watching them scour the body for
external forensic evidence. "Any signs of rape?"
"Some minor bruising to her inner thighs, so it’s
possible. I carried out a rape kit, should have the results
in a day or so."
Jay nodded and allowed him to get on with his job.
Augie stood beside the gurney and turned to his
assistant, "When you’re ready, Pete." As though they were
the magic words he’d been waiting for, the assistant
pulled back the sheet, exposing the ravaged, mutilated
body of Jane Doe.
Augie and Pete began performing an external search of
the body and made notes of any scratches, abrasions,
birthmarks or defects of any kind. The second assistant
scribbled notes down on a clipboard as Augie verbally
docu-mented the findings to him. Pete grabbed a large,
black camera from the bench and intermit-tently took
photos of Jane Doe, while Augie continued relating his
notes to Ed, the second assistant.
"Deep gash evident above the right eye, approximately
seven and a half centimetres long… severe bruising and
ligature marks around the throat, wrists and ankles."
Picking up her hands, Augie looked at her palms. He then
studied her feet, heels and soles. "Defensive cuts on both
palms, nails appear torn and broken, heels and soles of
feet bare considerable abrasions and minor cuts… injuries
possibly caused by being dragged along rough terrain."
Augie continued his examination making reference to
Jane Doe’s chest and abdomen.
"Victim’s breasts, both left and right have been removed
by a clean, sharp apparatus, I’d almost bet it was a
surgical instrument. The cuts are smooth and precise
enough to be a scalpel. Due to extensive clotting, I
estimate this was done post-mortem,"
Augie paused intermittently to allow Ed to keep up with
him.
"You right Ed?" he enquired. The young red headed
assistant nodded as he continued scribbling down his
notes.
Jay thought it would have been much quicker for Augie
to use his Dictaphone to log his findings, but he
appeared to prefer his assistant to scribe for him.
"Abdominal cavity extremely mutilated. Closer inspection
by sight only indicates that some organs may have been
removed. The person who did this seemed to know what
he was doing, though. The incisions are almost perfectly
placed, much like those made during a caesarean section.
Quite well executed actually. Will return to this point for
further, more detailed inspection directly."
Moving to the opposite side of the gurney, Augie
gestured for Pete and Ed to roll the victim onto her
stomach. Pete sat the camera down and joined Ed in
rolling the body over. Augie then stepped forward again
and resumed his external examination.
"Large brown birth-mark on left shoulder, shaped like a
half moon, approximately two centimetres wide and four
centimetres long. Numerous cuts on elbows and calves,
otherwise nothing extraordinary is apparent."
The assistants again rolled Jane Doe onto her back.
Pete took a few more photos before placing the camera
back onto the workbench behind him. He picked up a
scalpel from a tray beside the gurney. He handed it to
Augie. As he did so, the scalpel fell to the floor, hitting it
with a high-pitched crack.
"Darn it Pete, how many times have I told you to take
more care when handing me the instruments? Thanks to
you we need another scalpel and goodness knows our
supplies are depleted enough as it is."
Pete hung his head and looked at the floor, "I’m sorry, Dr.
August. I’ll get you another one right away." With that he
left the gurney and headed for the supplies cupboard. Ed
put down his clipboard and pen and retrieved the
instrument from the floor before heading in the direction
of the sharps disposal.
Augie turned to Jay, shaking his head and said, "Budget
cut backs… everything suffers. Wouldn’t be so bad only
the supplies seem to be far outweighed by the number of
autopsies. Scalpels, chemicals… they’re all just walking off
the shelves."
Jay nodded in agreement, "I know what that’s like, so
much crime, so little resources."
Pete returned with a fresh scalpel and handed it carefully
to Augie, this time it didn’t fall to the floor.
"Now," said Augie looking over at Jay, "let’s see if we
can’t open her up and try to make some sense of what’s
happened with her abdomen."
Jay shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, feeling rather
uneasy. Augie commenced his Y-Incision, skilfully guiding
the blade of the scalpel from each shoulder down to the
mid chest and then
continued straight down toward the
stomach. Upon reaching the navel, Augie stopped for a
moment.
"What is it?" Jay asked him.
"It’s difficult to complete the Y-Incision due to the
extensive mutilation."
Augie lifted the scalpel from Jane Doe’s body and
repositioned it below the slashing. He completed the
incision, running the blade down to the base of the pubic
region. Delicately, he peeled the soft tissue and skin back,
exposing the rib cage and breastbone. Pete handed him
an electric saw, which he used to cut through these
bones, allowing him to thoroughly examine the heart and
lungs.
"Heart and lungs appear normal in colour and size."
He then produced a large hypodermic needle and drew
some blood from the heart, he handed this to Pete to
store and catalogue. Augie continued on, removing the
heart and lungs which he weighed and instructed Pete to
take samples of. Ed carried on, furiously writing his notes.
Augie then reached into the abdominal cavity. As he
inspected it, he stood back and stared solemnly at Jay.
"What is it?" Jay prodded Augie, now feeling uneasier
than before.
"Although the uterus is severely muti-lated, I can see
evidence of a placenta," said Augie quietly.
"You mean…" Jay said before Augie cut him off.
"This woman was pregnant. By the size of the placenta I
would estimate she was about four
months gestation."
Augie began investigated the abdomen again. "There is
no foetus present… the sick bastard must have cut it out
of her."
"Just like Tessa Hunt," Jay whispered.
Just like Tessa," Augie agreed.
Jay ripped the paper from his clipboard and stuffed it
into his pocket.
"I’m outta here Augie. Let me know what else you find, will
ya?" he instructed. Without waiting for a reply, Jay flew
out the door and into the scrub room.
"Will courier a copy of my report to you A.S.A.P," Augie
yelled after him, and then carried on with his autopsy.
Jay tore off the mask, gloves and apron and hastily
threw them into the hygienic disposal on his way out the
door. Halfway down the hall, he realised he was still
wearing the boot covers. ‘Oh hell’ he grumbled as he
bent down and pulled them off, throwing them on the
floor.
Jay was annoyed at how unnerved he felt. He’d never
experienced this before and quite frankly it disturbed him.
He was so rattled in fact, that he didn’t even bother to flirt
with the blonde receptionist on his way out.
Jay chose to take the stairs to the street entrance
instead of the elevator, hoping the exertion of energy
might have the calming affect he needed. He ran up two
small flights of stairs, exited the stair well at the ground
floor and walked out of the big glass doors. Once he was
back on the street, he fumbled clumsily in his pocket for a
cigarette.
As he puffed away heavily, he took out his
notepaper from the autopsy and read what he had
written: Victim pregnant- foetus stolen!
Jay stared into space and whispered to himself, "Dear
God!"
