‘I can go first,’ Myeong said. Her voice was naturally quiet and so sweet, sometimes Kay believed that she could get a cavity just by listening to Myeong talk.
‘I’ll go second then,’ Tullik was fast to suggest, as his attention returned to Kay. ‘If you don’t mind.’
Kay knew exactly why they wanted to go before her. She wasn’t only the best student in her class. She was also very fast and precise with a scalpel. If she went first, she could easily cover more ground in her forty-five minutes than Tullik and Myeong could in their combined hour and a half. Once she was done, there probably wouldn’t be that much left for the two of them to examine. Plus, if Kay went last, it meant that she would probably have a chance to do the brain autopsy.
‘I don’t mind,’ Kay said, the corners of her lips stretching, but not into a smile. It was more like a mouth shrug. ‘I can go last if you guys want to go first.’
‘Great,’ Tullik said, while Myeong repositioned herself around the autopsy table, moving closer to the instruments tray.
‘We’re all ready, then?’ Dr. Hove asked one last time.
Everyone in the class nodded.
‘OK, your time starts… now.’ The doctor finally gave everyone the go-ahead as she clicked a button on her wristwatch. ‘I’ll give you all a heads-up when you’re ten minutes from time… then again at five minutes. And remember – treat the body with respect. They deserve it just as much as the living.’
More, even,Kay thought, but kept it to herself.
Kay, Tullik and Myeong had chosen the third autopsy table – the one right in the center. As Dr. Hove finally gave everyone the go-ahead, Tullik pulled the surgical sheet away, revealing a tall, white, male subject. The subject looked to have been in his early to mid-fifties when he died, but Kay, Tullik and Myeong all knew that with death, human skin would quickly acquire a different tone, dehydrate, lose elasticity and wrinkle. Add that to days spent in cold storage and correctly guessing someone’s age at the autopsy table became a magic trick that very few got right.
The body had already been stripped naked and the injuries to it made all three of them cringe – his right leg was twisted out of shape, with his ankle completely bent backward, showing a comminuted open fracture. His left leg didn’t look broken, but it was cruelly bruised. There were three other exposed fractures – right forearm and elbow, and right shoulder – while his left wrist and shoulder looked visibly dislocated. His torso was covered by different-sized hematomas, which were a sign of at least two broken ribs, but it was his head that made even Kay Sixtree shiver in place. The right side of his face was damaged beyond recognition – cheekbone and jaw broken, with the skin and flesh lacerated. On his skull, just above his right ear, there was an impact dent so severe that they could see the fracture to his cranium, leading all the way to his gray matter. Kay didn’t need to do a brain autopsy to know that bone fragments from his skull had broken inward and perforated his brain.
‘Jesus!’ Tullik said, taking a step back, unable to peel his eyes from the body. ‘What happened to him?’
‘This is a suicide victim?’ Myeong asked. ‘What did he do, jump into a meat grinder?’
‘He probably either stepped in front of high-speed incoming traffic,’ Kay replied, reaching for the file on the instruments tray. ‘Or he jumped from a building… a bridge… some place high off the ground.’ She nodded at the body. ‘Those are high-impact fractures and lesions.’
‘Poor guy,’ Myeong said as she exhaled. ‘I wonder what he must’ve been going through to believe that he had no other way out other than to do this to himself.’
‘That’s a cardinal sin if you’re a forensic pathologist,’ Kay said, as she flipped open the file in her hands.
‘I know,’ Myeong replied, lifting a hand in an apologetic gesture. ‘I’m not getting personal with the body. I’ve just always been fascinated by the kind of darkness that can lead a person toend his or her life with extreme prejudice like this. Especially so late in life.’
‘How old would you say he was when he died?’ Tullik asked.
Myeong shrugged. ‘Somewhere in his fifties… sixties, possibly?’
Tullik nodded, signaling his agreement.
‘Even if you knew what had led him to this,’ Kay offered, ‘chances are it wouldn’t make too much sense to you. But it did to him. He simply had had enough.’ She once again indicated the body. ‘Are you ready to start? Your time is ticking.’
‘I am.’ Myeong took a second to recompose herself.
The autopsy body-block had already been put in place. This was a thick block made of rubber that was placed under the body’s back to make the chest protrude forward, so that the arms and neck fell back, making cutting a lot easier.
Finally ready, Myeong nodded at Tullik, who started the digital recording.
Myeong began by giving a detailed description of the body’s appearance, including ethnicity, gender, and hair and eye color, but when Myeong pulled open the body’s eyelids to register his eye color, Kay frowned.
‘That’s odd,’ she said, stepping closer and bending over to get a better look.
‘What is?’ Myeong asked.
‘Just around his bottom eyelid,’ Kay replied, and used her index fingers to pull down the body’s right and left lower eyelids. ‘Here, can you see it?’
There was an odd color change right on the inside edge of both eyelids.
‘Yeah, so?’ Tullik challenged, his tone already dismissive. ‘Skin discoloration happens after death, you know?’
