Chapter 222: The fog
Under the bright light, the eyes of the corpse were slightly open. It was very red, with a heavy redness in the whites like the blood vessels were inflamed. The eyes reminded Arlen of a movie he had watched when he was much younger with dead people, walking and growling for human flesh.
But even in the eerie forensic room with the red eyes, it was not the strangest thing that Arlen had ever seen.
In the middle of the victim’s stomach was a red rose.
***
It was a long-stemmed, velvety rose that looked just too perfect to be natural. It had over 30 petals and its color was a deep, rich red with subtle hints of crimson , almost black a the edges.
"The rose was planted premortem."
"You are saying the victim was alive when the killer opened her stomach and put a rose in." There was a calmness in Arlen’s voice that fascinated Korra. The first time that the sergeant had seen this, the fifty-something-year-old man had thrown up for more than twenty minutes.
"Yes. The surgical technique is extremely good. So either this killer has been learning and practicing for a very long time or he/she works in the medical profession. The healing of the external body was very well done as well, there is no sign of any binding mark either or traces of his mouth and nose." Korra blinked, if it was her formal workspace with the number of cases that they get in a day, no one would have time to do an in-depth autopsy, because of just how healthy the victim looked from the outside.
"It could be either. We have identified 21 missing Jane Does. We would ask the forensics in Alstria to send some examiners to aid you. If the toxicology report comes back, contact me immediately. If you check any of the Jane Does and they have the same..." He paused, swallowing, he did not know how or where to start with a person who tortured someone, healed them and then planted a rose in their stomach, healed them again, and then slashed them and left them on a sidewalk to bleed to death. If he had held the victim for such a long time, why was the woman killed there? Did leaving her outside mean something particular for the killer?
"
21 deaths was not a coincidence at all but Arlen still needs confirmation from forensics, "If the same Mo appears, then I need you to establish a time of death for them, according."