I saw Nick walking towards me when he reached the restaurant I asked him to meet me at. My eyes followed his steps as my fingernails were tapping on the table, sitting anxiously for the stuffs he wanted to show me.
"Isaac" He pecked me on the cheek, going for a long hug by the shoulder.
I closed my eyes as I was feeling his discomfort that surprised me. The way his body shuddered in my embrace injecting the fear and worries in my mind, thinking of what were the stuffs that could possibly scare a full grown man.
He had seen hundreds of post mortem results before that contained graphic images in each stage of the procedure. All law enforcement officers must gone through those hard times. But he never got caught by it anymore after the third or fourth time. Because this kind of mental trauma would usually happen to new officers only; shaky body that followed by fever afterwards. It happened to me also in the beginning of my career as a homicide detective.
Baxter could be the least experienced detective in the MIT, but he had been in the team for years already. He wasn't a new recruit anymore.
"Are you alright, Nick?" I asked when he parted the hug, claiming his seat next to me.
Taking his cell phone out, he answered. "Not really"
"Is it that bad?"
"First, it is that bad" He got his phone ready for me to see. "Second, it doesn't make sense"
Cold sweats began to tickle under my skin, wondering what kind of violence that Baxter was talking about no matter how heartbreaking it was to find out about it.
He placed the device on the table for me to take as he leaned his back against the chair, waiting for me to react.
I opened the images that were taken slide by slide, looking very closely at every single one of them.
"That is before they started with external examination" Nick explained.
I nodded, looking at Chae's pictures that were taken before the procedure started. She was laid on the table, wearing the same black, long sleeve shirt when she fell that night. Because nothing on the victim's body could be removed without being photographed and recorded first, including her clothes.
"Wait," I noticed something wasn't right with those pictures. "Where's her necklace? They already removed it?"
"Is it a cross necklace?"
"Yeah, she always wore it"
"You can't see it because she wasn't wearing any necklace"
"No, no no" I shook my head, swiping to the next pictures to look for it. "Chae never took that necklace off"
Nick didn't say anything about that matter. Instead, he called the waitress to order his brunch while I continued to read the full internal examination report first.
I was actually impressed by how clean and healthy Chae was based on the findings. Her intestines, lungs and other organs were in excellent condition. There wasn't any sign of disease or sickness either. She only had fever few hours before she passed, probably getting it when she was working.
I clicked my tongue, thinking that she didn't even tell me she wasn't feeling good while we were texting.
Stopping at a particular page of the report that had vaginal word printed on it, I took more time in reading everything. Chae's hymen was still intact, and so did her vaginal entrance that indicated no penetration in any way possible.
She was as perfect as a newborn baby, just like the way she wanted herself to be; a chaste woman who wouldn't have sex before marriage.
I jumped back to the external examination report when the internal part already met my satisfaction, having scrambled eggs and pumpkin toast that Nick pushed into my mouth at the same time.
"Okay, these are the pictures for signs of struggle Chae had on her" Nick talked again when I reached the important part in this entire post mortem.
"Bruises" That word muffled with the food I was chewing as my eyes were looking at the bluish-red marks on Chae's both forearms.
I matched the images with the report and I was taken aback by what I just read. She had fracture at each of the bruise, probably because she was beaten up and she was protecting her head from getting hit using her hands.
"Blunt object?" I tried to guess what kind of weapon was used to fracture a bone, and there were so many out there.
Nick pointed his index finger on the phone screen. "Read this"
He showed me another paragraph that had a detailed information about those bruises, and my heartbeat just gone for a sprint in split second.
"If she was hit by an object, her bone would have a different crack pattern by bending force" Nick stated, which was correct.
Because Chae had an unusual crack pattern.
Hers wasn't made by bending force, but by squeezing instead according to the result.
"She was held" I whispered, still in shock from what I was reading.
"Who in the world could hold your hand so strong until your bone fractured, Lisa?" Nick asked with frustration in his tone that was caught by my ears.
I responded. "A very, very strong man?"
"Too strong that crushed a bone?"
Nick was right. No man's strength could damage a thick bone just by gripping, even with a strong force was just impossible.
My fingers swiped to the next image and my eyes widened immediately.
"That's the answer for her cross necklace" Baxter commented.
Chae's left palm was wounded with a cut that surrounded by bruising, caused by a strong squeeze of an object that matched with the shape of the cross she used to wear for her chest.
She didn't wear it as a necklace that night. She held it in her hand instead until it cut her skin, and she was found on the ground with her hand closed.
My tongue was paralysed by these findings about my Chae Richards. I was certain that my brain would meet the same fate as my mouth just in a matter of seconds; froze and malfunctioned.
It was Baxter who swiped to the next slide when I was quiet, unable to think of what to do next in struggle to create reasonable theories as a good detective would.
And I was presented by a much greater surprise until I could feel a thud in my chest as if my fast beating heart was shocked by an electric device.
"What the hell is that?!" I asked in an instance while my eyes were staring at burn marks around Chae's upper arms about few inches from her both elbows.
"They look like chain marks to me" Baxter answered.
"They do look like chains, Nick" I responded as my voice gone a little higher. "But who the hell brought a hot chain into my apartment and chained her with it?!"
I began to massage my temples, putting my hands on the table.
"It's not even a third degree burn, Lisa" Nick spoke and my eyes trailed the report again. "You can see her bone in there" He sighed. "Report says it's a fifth degree"
I closed my eyes for a while, forcing my mind to process all these unbelievable injuries on Chae. Those chain marks were definitely coming from a fifth degree burn and I wondered where on earth Chae got that from?
Even a victim who died from a huge fire would most likely have a third degree burn. Fire couldn't destroy bones just in 10 minutes.
The fire temperature must be at least 1400 degrees Fahrenheit for hours long until the bones were completely destroyed and turned into ashes. That was how cremation was done.
There was no way someone just walked into my house, taking 2500 degrees Fahrenheit hot metal chains with him and causing a fifth degree burn on Chae within 10 minutes. Even the metal chain would melt first before it could be used around her arms.
That was how hot it was.
I stretched my hand to take Nick's hot tea, drinking it all at one go as I got chilled, sending shivers to my body.
"Does any of these make sense to you, Isaac?" Nick asked while his eyes followed my gesture in placing the empty cup back on his side. "You know how slow I am, I can't always find the connection among evidences and see the holes like you do" He continued. "I don't know about you but I really can't think of any"
I cleared my throat.
"These are rubbish, Nick!" I cursed with anger and nerve-wracking emotions blended together. "Even my brain gave up on this!"
"How are these even possible?"
I chuckled, shaking my head slightly as I crossed my arms.
"Bone fracture by strong hold," I repeated the reports again. "Fifth degree burn," I blew a heavy breath out through my mouth. "A fucking fifth degree burn and her shirt is fine?!" I pressed my voice, pushing it at the back of my throat. "Her shirt doesn't even have burn marks!"
"Is this a dead end, Lisa?" Nick asked, looking at me that I could see from the corner of my eye.
"I'm not sure" I said. "But who could do any of these?" I held my head with both of my hands on the table. "Who did these ridiculous stuffs to Chae?"
"Maybe we are wrong on that part"
"What do you mean?"
"Maybe it's not who," Nick paused. "But what did these to Chae?"
And I turned my head to him, seeing the fear in his eyes.