Jerry Taber burst into Rashida and Travis's office with the energy of a teenage boy who had just found his first chest hair. Slamming the door behind him, he exclaimed, "You guys better be into Sci-Fi, cause this is some mind-blowing shit!"
Jerry was a young, but accomplished Scientist who had quickly found a home in forensics. He had graduated not only top of his class, but three years ahead of what was intended as an eight-year program, walking away with degrees in biochemistry, criminal psychology, forensic pathology, biophysics and, just for fun, a minor in film studies.
While Jerry's work showed maturity beyond his years, his casual nature offered a perfect contrast. To say he was vibrantly eccentric would be as much of an understatement as the lab coat he wore over his faded jeans and 'Suspiria' t-shirt.
As Jerry remained standing in the middle of the room as he held up a folder containing the post-mortem analysis on Terrance Michaels, "I have tried every single kind of test I'm allowed to get my hands on and, nothing. I've even tried a couple of tests that I'm not necessarily supposed to 'know about' or have 'clearance' on and still, nothing. We have literally tried everything and I still have no discernable cause of death for this guy."
Rashida looked up from her desk, "What are you talking about? He didn't have a head."
Jerry tilted his head to the side as he explained, "Sure, a lot of shit happened that could have killed him, but fuck me if I can figure out the sequence of events. This dude- sorry- 'Mr. Michaels', seemingly died in a simultaneous multitude of ways that forensic science has never even considered as a possibility. When it comes to root cause of death," Jerry leaned on Rashida's desk as he handed her the file, "this guy's a fucking Rock Star."
Travis interjected from across the room, "What about the post-mortem analysis? Any kind of poison or chemical used?"
Jerry shrugged as he shook his head, "Nothing."
Travis let out a frustrated sigh, "This guy looked like he was made of plaster! How is that normal?"
Jerry put a finger up in the air to stop Travis, "I never said 'normal'. I said 'nothing'. As in, I can't give you the post-mortem analysis because I can barely even test the victim's remains."
Rashida and Travis exchanged an increasingly frustrated look in silence.
Jerry smiled as he got up from the chair and moved towards the office windows that looked into the bullpen of the precinct, "See, I thought you guys might have trouble wrapping your head around it, so I've prepared a little demonstration."
Jerry then quickly closed the blinds to the office before producing a petri dish from his pocket and placing it on Travis' desk.
Travis leaned back in his chair, "That better not be what I think it is."
Flicking his hand dismissively at Travis, Jerry responded, "I know, I know. I shouldn't take samples out of the lab, but trust me... you going to want to see this."
Rashida got up from her desk and came over to watch Jerry's demonstration. Slowly, Jerry removed the lid from the petri dish, placing it to the side. He then grabbed the mug of coffee out of Travis' hand before Travis could even consider protesting it.
Jerry's excited eyes danced back and forth between Rashida and Travis, as he explained, "When preforming a post-mortem analysis, we usually test things like the blood, fluid from the eyes, bile, basically whatever fluids remain in the body. This victim, however, had no fluids left whatsoever."
Rashida turned towards Jerry, "So someone bled him dry?"
Jerry nodded in half-agreement, "Bled him, sweat him, tapped his spinal fluid, even drained his joints, they got everything. This guy had literally nothing left in him that resembled fluid of any kind. Hence..." Jerry mimed his head blowing up before adding, "...just to clarify, that meant 'mind-blown', not that his head blew up from the pressure of his brain fluid vaporizing... that's just a theory some of the guys had."
Travis then leaned in, "So what about the parts that were left? Isn't there some kind of way to test his skin, or bones or something?"
Jerry smiled at the unintentional segue, "Excellent question. So normally at this stage we would resort to testing things like the bones, or the bone marrow, or even the skin cells, but when we run tests on dry samples we typically mix it with a saline solution. That's when this happened..."
Without warning, Jerry dumped the entire mug of coffee over the petri dish.
Rashida instinctively rushed forward to save the sample whereas Travis leapt backwards as the coffee spread across his desk, pouring onto his lap. Jerry, however, put his hands in the air to silence both Travis and Rashida, he directed their attention back to the petri dish.
The sample remained bone dry.
Jerry continued, "Not only does this substance not absorb liquid, it repels it. Look, there's not even a drop in the dish."
Rashida and Travis both leaned in to verify Jerry's statement. Sure enough, there was a four-inch radius on Travis' desk, surrounding the sample, that remained bone dry.
Travis promptly grabbed his mug back, as he dabbed his pants with a tissue, "You couldn't have shown us that with a couple of drops of water?"
Jerry smiled a Cheshire grin as he took a seat opposite Travis and produced a small slinky from his pocket. Confidently, he rocked the slinky back and forth between his hands, "I only have so many pockets."
Rashida remained staring at the sample, puzzled, "This can't be right."
Jerry leaned back in the chair, "Rash, you can trust me, like you can trust Science. We're both always right." As if to pop the bubble of Jerry's momentary confidence, the slinky slipped from his hand and tumbled to the floor, prompting him to clumsily lean down to pick it up.
Rashida thought back to the substance that used to be the Terrance Michael's skin and how it had felt when she rubbed it between her fingers, "His skin was like plaster though, not dust, and it almost smelt like sulfur. There has to be some kind of bonding material to keep the outside of his body intact."
Jerry stood, collapsing the slinky into one hand as he excitedly pointed at Rashida, "See? That's why our future babies will be both beautiful and smart! I was asking myself the very same question, what is keeping this thing- sorry- 'him' in one piece? So I started looking at the cellular structure of the skin sample as best as I could and here's where this shit takes an even weirder turn. The skin cells... contained bone marrow."
Travis leaned forward, "What?"
Jerry started pacing the Office, "Think of it this way, when the human body bruises, it's because there's a catalytic concussive impact resulting in damaged tissue. In response, the body sends white blood cells, to the sub-dermal layer in liquid form, where it coagulates around the damaged tissue like a soft scab; hence, purple bruises. In this case, the body has attempted a similar reaction, but instead of sending blood towards the localized injury, it has seemingly vaporized the bone marrow, sending it to every inch of the body's extremities."
Rashida's mouth was agape, "Jesus."
Jerry put his index finger in the air, "There's more. Instead of the bone marrow coagulating around the damaged tissue beneath the skin, like a bruise, the skin cells have taken on a compounded composition. I'm talking complete cellular integration. The marrow has become part of the skin."
Travis leaned back into his chair, exhausted, "I feel like I'm back in Biology class."
Jerry slowed his walking and talking to a patronizing pace, "Look, in Science there are rules. Laws even. But this breaks all of them. Biology, Chemistry, Physics, even the laws of Time. Whatever situation it was that lead to this victim's death... it didn't adhere to any of them."
As Travis shot a disgruntled look at Jerry, Rashida interjected, "You must, at least, have a theory of what happened."
Jerry continued playing with his slinky, "Well yeah, sure. I've always got theories."
Travis impatiently leaned forward, "...So?"
Jerry paused, "Well, ask yourself... how does someone get simultaneously decapitated, hollowed out, drained of all bodily fluids and have their bone marrow vaporized, fusing it to the base structure of the skin cells? Better yet, how does it happen in the middle of a downtown street in the span of a couple of hours, with no witnesses whatsoever? These are the questions I've been asking and through all of it, there's only one answer that keeps coming up... Aliens."
Travis scoffed, "Fuck off."
Jerry conceded, "Okay, fair. Statistically speaking, it probably wasn't Aliens. But it's easier to pitch that theory than to admit the truth."
Rashida leaned forward with anticipation, "Which is...?"
Jerry stopped pacing, capturing the slinky in one hand, "Scientifically speaking? I have no fucking clue what we're dealing with here."