It's brass. Come here, closer, while I wash it off." He walked to a large stainless steel basin. "It's the staff of Aesculapius, the Greek god of medicine. It's a. . . a caduceus; the symbol of the medical profession. Boy, somebody must've really been pissed about their bill!" George chuckled.
"What a way to go." Krastowitcz shuddered. "`Mr. Jones, that'll be forty-thousand for the operation. There was one small problem though. Oops, the knife slipped and we cut your pecker off, Mr. Jones.' And Mr. Jones says, `Maybe you need your pecker realigned, Dr. Grafton?' Well thanks, George. Case closed! Let's get some lunch."
"Real funny, big-boy. Don't you wish all your cases were this easy? I've still got to complete the gross description and finger through the other organs, weigh, measure, and sew him back up and you, the lucky investigating officer get to stand right here and watch me do it, so I don't miss anything. Why is it all you cops ever think about is eating?"
"Don't forget sex, George. That comes before eating in my book."
The coroner narrowed his gaze. "You'd be awfully thin if you waited for sex before eating, Gary, my boy."
George replaced his foot back on the recorder pedal and continued his narrative. "Urogenital system: The epididymis contains mature spermatozoa within the lumens. Testes show unremarkable seminiferous tubules present with maturation of spermatogonia to mature spermatozoa. Unremarkable except for the absence of the penis severed at the cura. The cutting instrument appears to have been a very sharp knife, probably similar to a scalpel." George stopped and looked quizzically at Krastowitcz.
"This sure has the ingredients of a serial murder. An organized one. Same kind of M.O. Three so far. What do you think, Gary?"
"I don't know. You might be right. Maybe the killer only goes for men? Or, homosexual men? Grafton seems to have been pretty strange. Do you usually test for AIDS?"
"Standard procedure in all cases; that's one of the first things I'm going to run. There's something odd about this one and I can't put my finger on it. And, then, I wouldn't touch it unless I were double gloved. The wrists--they've been lacerated from thin wire bindings embedded into the skin, yet if he'd struggled. . ."
"Any ideas as to what kind of wire?"
"Looks to me like picture-wire. I don't know. The wire's so sharp, if he did struggle, he'd probably have cut clean through his wrists--to the bone."
"Why picture wire? Where do you think he got it?"
"See that caduceus? Check the loop on the end. There's a fragment of wire still on it. I'll have the crime lab run a comparison on the fragment and the wire around his wrists. I'll bet they're the same."
"Convenient."
"I'd say so. Murder weapon and binder, all in one."
"This changes things," Krastowitcz said. "At first, I thought it might be premeditated. But the killer used an ornament. He must've grabbed it. Probably, off a wall somewhere. If the wire's the same, it'll tell us why the killer used wire to bind the wrists. He didn't have time to find anything else. Elementary, Dr. Iverson. A crime of impulse, passion. We need to find out whose wall it came from."
George worked diligently, weighing and measuring, examining each piece of flesh closely, until the last suture was stitched and the cadaver once again resembled Milton Grafton. It took about six hours to complete the autopsy from head to toe. Too many times autopsies were bungled because the M.E. hadn't spent the time needed to examine the body thoroughly--the reason why many murders remained unsolved.
Finally, the caduceus was cleaned and tagged. Blood samples were stacked neatly in vials waiting to be centrifuged and tested for whatever secrets they could divulge: diseases, drugs, toxins.
The next item of business for Krastowitcz would be to talk to Pearson, again, and try to
"What a way to go." Krastowitcz shuddered. "`Mr. Jones, that'll be forty-thousand for the operation. There was one small problem though. Oops, the knife slipped and we cut your pecker off, Mr. Jones.' And Mr. Jones says, `Maybe you need your pecker realigned, Dr. Grafton?' Well thanks, George. Case closed! Let's get some lunch."
"Real funny, big-boy. Don't you wish all your cases were this easy? I've still got to complete the gross description and finger through the other organs, weigh, measure, and sew him back up and you, the lucky investigating officer get to stand right here and watch me do it, so I don't miss anything. Why is it all you cops ever think about is eating?"
"Don't forget sex, George. That comes before eating in my book."
The coroner narrowed his gaze. "You'd be awfully thin if you waited for sex before eating, Gary, my boy."
George replaced his foot back on the recorder pedal and continued his narrative. "Urogenital system: The epididymis contains mature spermatozoa within the lumens. Testes show unremarkable seminiferous tubules present with maturation of spermatogonia to mature spermatozoa. Unremarkable except for the absence of the penis severed at the cura. The cutting instrument appears to have been a very sharp knife, probably similar to a scalpel." George stopped and looked quizzically at Krastowitcz.
"This sure has the ingredients of a serial murder. An organized one. Same kind of M.O. Three so far. What do you think, Gary?"
"I don't know. You might be right. Maybe the killer only goes for men? Or, homosexual men? Grafton seems to have been pretty strange. Do you usually test for AIDS?"
"Standard procedure in all cases; that's one of the first things I'm going to run. There's something odd about this one and I can't put my finger on it. And, then, I wouldn't touch it unless I were double gloved. The wrists--they've been lacerated from thin wire bindings embedded into the skin, yet if he'd struggled. . ."
"Any ideas as to what kind of wire?"
"Looks to me like picture-wire. I don't know. The wire's so sharp, if he did struggle, he'd probably have cut clean through his wrists--to the bone."
"Why picture wire? Where do you think he got it?"
"See that caduceus? Check the loop on the end. There's a fragment of wire still on it. I'll have the crime lab run a comparison on the fragment and the wire around his wrists. I'll bet they're the same."
"Convenient."
"I'd say so. Murder weapon and binder, all in one."
"This changes things," Krastowitcz said. "At first, I thought it might be premeditated. But the killer used an ornament. He must've grabbed it. Probably, off a wall somewhere. If the wire's the same, it'll tell us why the killer used wire to bind the wrists. He didn't have time to find anything else. Elementary, Dr. Iverson. A crime of impulse, passion. We need to find out whose wall it came from."
George worked diligently, weighing and measuring, examining each piece of flesh closely, until the last suture was stitched and the cadaver once again resembled Milton Grafton. It took about six hours to complete the autopsy from head to toe. Too many times autopsies were bungled because the M.E. hadn't spent the time needed to examine the body thoroughly--the reason why many murders remained unsolved.
Finally, the caduceus was cleaned and tagged. Blood samples were stacked neatly in vials waiting to be centrifuged and tested for whatever secrets they could divulge: diseases, drugs, toxins.
The next item of business for Krastowitcz would be to talk to Pearson, again, and try to
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