CRIME BOOK 101

Over Cooked

Bayward Police headquarters, at the Coroner's Office. The autopsy room is located at the end of the hallway on the first floor of the five-story building. Where Doctor Emma and her team worked.

Sam Danson, fine, handsome detective known as one of the most impressive, talented police who gained his position as the supervisor level 3, below the chief, at the very young age, just twenty - eight years old. But, most of his team are so young and fresh, one of them is Emma, a gorgeous young forensics doctor who's known as, cold, stern, sharp young, lunatic evil doctor, they said. Some people just over reacted, the woman looked so fine.

Emma pulls back the covering cloth from the unfortunate body, charred beyond recognition, making it impossible to tell if it was a woman or a man. The body is so burnt that the bones are nearly visible, with the flesh blackened like overcooked steak.

The entire body is scorched, and some bones can even be seen peeking through the flesh, which is almost reduced to ash. Its eyes are wide open, as if trying to escape their sockets, since the eyelids have been completely burned away, leaving behind the poor eyes that seemed to scream until the very end when life was snatched from its form.

Its hands are still in a lowered position, one resting above its head. This is what Emma and a few coroner team members are trying to fix, at least to return the body to a more normal position before conducting further autopsy procedures. Smoke is still faintly rising from between the bones as Sam enters with Dakota, who has joined him.

Emma approaches, carrying a board filled with the data she has gathered. 

"A woman, twenty-eight years old, unmarried, working as a tax consultant at a well-known company. She just celebrated her birthday last night after working for five years at the company. Her friends reported seeing her last night around eleven-thirty leaving a karaoke club. They all went home, and nothing unusual happened before that. Even the victim's boyfriend called her just before midnight to ask if she wanted a ride. When he arrived at the designated location, he couldn't find her anywhere."

Sam furrows his brow. "Hmm, so the incident happened around midnight until dawn."

Emma nods. "Yep, judging by the body still being quite warm, the perpetrator intentionally made the victim burn longer until it extinguished itself."

Sam lowered his head, catching a whiff of the smoke that was still seeping out slowly.  

"What’s that smell? It’s really sharp."  

Emma nodded again.  

"Yeah, it’s thinner."  

Sam frowned.  

"That’s weird, using thinner. Why not just use gasoline?"  

"It’s highly flammable; it might be the trigger," Emma replied.  

Dakota moved around the body and observed what he visible on it. From the size, the victim has quite a large figure, which means needs lots of effort just to hang her in a very high position. The culprit must be more than one or two, or maybe more than that.

He stopped when saw some smoke still hovering near the burned feet, he came closer to check on it.

Dakota who was standing next to Sam suddenly gripped Sam's arm tightly, he seemed to be struggling to catch his breath.

"Sam"

"Hey Dax, what's wrong?" asked Sam.

Dakota moved away from the corpse. He accidentally inhaled some of the smoke that was still sneaking out from the body. Sam helped him sit up while Emma rushed to get him a drink.

"What happened? You look so pale all of sudden" Sam asked worriedly. Could Dakota be afraid to see the corpse? Although he had often encountered murder victims who were far more sadistic and strange than this before.

Dakota tried to collect his breath, his chest tight.

Sam glanced at the smoke coming from between the thigh bones.  

"Have you checked what chemicals are in this body? Dakota has an extreme allergic reaction to powders or liquids like sulfur; maybe you should check that."  

The smoke definitely still contained chemicals, and he didn’t realize how dangerous the reaction could be for Dakota.  

"I’ll take it to the lab after this," Emma replied.  

****

Sam and Ron were already seated in their workspace, while Dakota sat at one of the empty desks where he had spent some time a few months ago. Rina, Sam’s junior colleague, approached after getting the lab results for the murder victim; they referred to the case as 'Tower Crane flames' to differentiate it from others. As soon as Sam picked it up, the girl sat right in front of Dakota, totally a fan of his and not wanting to miss a moment to see him.

"Hey, prof."  

But Sam pulled the girl's ear.  

"Hey, what are you doing? Quickly explain what this means."

Rina groaned in pain and finally followed Sam back to the whiteboard where their case being displayed.  

"Ouch, it hurts, Boss."  

Sam crossed his arms over his chest, looking at Rina with a sharp gaze.  

"Come on, what are you waiting for?"  

Rina grabbed the paper again, still grumbling in annoyance, but seeing Dakota also waiting for information from her made her feel energized.  

"So, from the lab results, it seems the perpetrator used several different chemical liquids; the burn marks are different in several places. It's likely the perpetrator started the fire from the feet, using thinner as a base, and the fire spread throughout the body with other oils, kerosene in particular. The upper body contained a lot of kerosene, and the lab also found some sulfur powder on the feet. Before dying, the victim had burns on the soles of their feet; that's what the coroner deduced from the post-mortem condition."  

Sam furrowed his brow, looking at several photos on the whiteboard, photos of the burned victim that might provide a few clues.  

"If thinner is a liquid commonly found in construction areas, the perpetrator could have gotten it on-site. But hanging the victim and especially starting the fire from the feet—doesn't that seem excessive? I mean, look at how our reliable officers struggled to lower the victim's body while the perpetrator seemed to easily tie them up there. What a coincidence that the crane was out of operation due to a broken machine. So how did they manage to hang them there? But why mix in sulfur? That part still doesn’t make sense. If the goal was just to hurt the victim, it would be pointless since it ultimately led to a brutal death."  

Rina stepped closer.  

"It could just be for satisfaction. And according to the report from the crane operator, it indeed stopped working because of some broken spare parts. They planned to fix it today, but the other cranes weren’t damaged."

"They're using two cranes at the same time," Dakota's voice made Sam and the others turn their heads; Dakota had already stood up from his spot and moved closer.