Myeong took in a deep breath before addressing Kay. ‘Tullik is right. I’ve already wasted way too much time here. Whatever that is, it isn’t important. I’ll describe it for the benefit of the recording once again, like I did with the eyelid discoloration, but the decision is mine and I’m moving on.’
Myeong quickly completed the external examination while her ‘assistants’ collected samples of hair and debris from under his fingernails for lab analysis, if needed.
‘I’m ready to start,’ Myeong announced.
Kay and Tullik stepped closer.
Myeong retrieved a long scalpel from the instruments tray, stepped up to the body and started the famous ‘Y’ incision, cutting from both shoulders to the lower end of the sternum and then downward, in a straight line, over the abdomen to the pubis.
‘I’m going to need a little help with the pulling,’ Myeong said, her gaze moving from Kay to Tullik.
‘We’re on it,’ Tullik replied.
Kay and Tullik used special scissors and toothed forceps to peel back skin and soft tissue, pulling the chest flap over the body’s face to expose the ribcage and neck muscles.
‘Oh, Jesus!’ Myeong said, indicating two clearly visible severe fractures to the ribcage – frontal, right side – ribs four and five. ‘Very big contenders for the COD, right here.’
With both fractures, the ribs had broken completely free from the cage and, in both cases, perforated the subject’s right lung.
‘He wouldn’t have survived this,’ Myeong announced. ‘Not without immediate assistance.’
‘Definitely not,’ Tullik agreed, but Kay stayed quiet.
The injury was real. Kay could clearly see that, but she could also clearly see that something didn’t seem right. She bent over the body to have a closer look.
‘You look doubtful, Kay,’ Myeong said. ‘Don’t you agree with my assessment?’
‘I’m not doubtful about the injury,’ Kay replied, using her left hand to gently move one of the ribs that had implanted itself into the subject’s lung. ‘This would’ve definitely beenlife-threatening, but…’ Instead of finishing her sentence, Kay studied the perforations to the lung a little more closely.
‘But what, Dr. House?’ Tullik asked, sarcastically referring to Kay’s favorite medical TV drama series.
‘Don’t you think that there’s a lack of internal hemorrhaging?’ Kay asked, indicating the area next to the lung. ‘There should’ve been more blood everywhere around here.’ Using her left hand, she applied a little pressure to the lung, in a squeezing motion. ‘There should’ve been a lot more blood inside his lung too.’
‘You can’t really tell if there is or not with a simple hand-pressure exam,’ Tullik countered. ‘Not to mention the fact that he died a week ago and has spent the last few days lying in cold storage. To confirm the hemorrhaging, the lung has to be removed and autopsied, which is what we’re about to do… if we’re allowed to.’
‘Also,’ Myeong offered, her sweet voice doing its best to sound authoritative, ‘like I’ve said, this is just a contender for the COD, but let’s be honest here – his body is pretty mangled – and we just barely opened him up. A double-punctured lung isn’t the only life-threatening injury we’re going to find. I’m one hundred percent sure of that.’
Kay tilted her head, opened her mouth, then closed it again. She’d been about to raise a different point, but in the end, all she did was smile and nod.
Discussion over, Myeong used a bone saw to cut and remove the ribcage. Without its protection, extracting the larynx, the esophagus, arteries and ligaments was easy work.
Kay had to admit that she was quite impressed by how precise Myeong was with every autopsy cutting instrument she had reached for, but that precision came at a cost – time. By the time that she had finished severing all the attachments to the spinal cord and removing the internal organs as an entire set, Myeong’s time as the head pathologist was over.
Tullik was quick to step into his new role and, as he did, he looked Kay straight in her eyes. ‘Not a peep from you from now on. This is my show now.’
Seventeen
‘So how are we doing here?’ Dr. Hove asked, walking up to Kay, Myeong and Tullik’s group to check on their progress, just as the first forty-five minutes were over.
‘We’re OK, I guess,’ Myeong replied, her head angling slightly to one side, showing uncertainty. ‘I wish I could’ve covered a little more ground.’ Halfway through her sentence, Myeong’s stare moved to Kay and stayed on her until seconds after she had delivered the last word. ‘But things didn’t run as smoothly as they could’ve done.’
Kay’s eyes widened at Myeong. ‘Not quite like that,’ she said, not so much in an effort to defend herself, but more to try to grab Dr. Hove’s curiosity. ‘Straight from the external and preliminary exams, Doc, a couple of things just didn’t look quite right. Here, have a look…’ Kay tried, pointing at the body’s eyes, but before she could say or do anything, Dr. Hove paused her with a subtle hand gesture.
‘It doesn’t look like it’s your turn, Kay.’
‘Damn straight,’ Tullik said, repositioning himself at the head of the examination table.
Dr. Hove knew how dedicated Kay Sixtree was. After all, she had already offered Kay a residency at the Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner. Kay would be an exceptional medical examiner someday, but her enthusiasm did get the best of her most ofthe time. That was something Dr. Hove also knew would eventually die down naturally, but as a student, Kay wanted what every other forensics pathology student wanted – to be the hero… to find that one thing that no one else saw… that one thing that was overlooked by everyone… that one thing that so happened to solve the whole mystery, if there was one.
