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🕑 Added 2025-03-13 08:15:26 +0000 UTCAnatomy of a Killer
Chapter 03 - The Christmas Case, Part 3
Miami Metropolitan Police Department
On a silent night, any sound was greatly amplified, making the central courtyard even more unsettling.
The flash of car lights and the sound of brakes echoed through the courtyard.
After a while, several staff members pushed a platform cart, transporting the deceased’s body to the autopsy room.
As the body bag was unzipped, the deceased’s arms came into view.
“Damn it…” Sergeant Doakes had volunteered to record the autopsy, but as soon as he saw this small detail, he flinched. Holding the camera with one hand, he used the other to cover his mouth with a handkerchief.
“Damn it, why is your hand still raised?”
Larry said nothing. He and Max worked together to remove the body bag and take off the deceased’s pajamas.
Because of Miami’s hot weather and the fact that the body had been submerged in the bathtub, the abdomen had turned a slightly greenish-yellow hue.
Fortunately, the water in the bathtub wasn’t hot; otherwise, determining the time of death would have been much more difficult.
The deceased was wearing only black silk pajamas, with no underwear or socks.
Dressed like this, it meant he was either preparing to rest or was already resting. This suggested that only someone very close to him could have entered the room—especially considering that his pet did not attack the killer and allowed them to leave without any signs of struggle.
Larry checked the time. The clock hands pointed exactly to 4:15.
The autopsy would soon be completed, and the body could be sent for a primary pathological analysis to determine the next course of action.
Larry carefully examined the body and confirmed one thing: “When rigor mortis reached its peak, livor mortis had fully settled on the back and buttocks, which proves that the body remained in the same position after death.”
Doakes, unlike other detectives, had been in real battles as a former soldier, so he asked, “How long has he been dead?”
“The estimated time of death is around twenty-four hours.”
“Apart from the stab wound to the chest, there were no external injuries on the body. It is suspected that the chest wound was the only fatal injury.” As he spoke, Larry inserted a blunt, round probe into the stab wound.
Within moments, he traced the path of the blade and measured the depth after withdrawing the probe.
It turned out the wound was as deep as ten centimeters.
Larry looked at Max and asked, “What do these findings tell us?”
“From what we can see, without a moment of hesitation, the knife went straight through the heart, between the third and fourth ribs. This quickly caused pericardial tamponade, leading to death in a single strike.” Max was more than prepared to answer the question.
“However, the deceased did not resist at all, which is rather puzzling.”
Larry picked up a scalpel and used a straight-line incision method to cut from the deceased’s lower jaw down to his abdomen.
The deceased was someone who took great care of his physique. His fat layer was extremely thin, and his thoracic wall was not thick either.
After removing the internal organs, Larry also extracted the victim’s heart and placed it on a nearby tray.
Doakes crouched down and took a photo. As he examined it, Larry pointed out the part of the heart that had been stabbed.
“The murder weapon used to stab the victim was likely a single-edged knife, 1.8 cm wide and between 8 and 10 cm long. Judging by the incision, the blade was extremely thin, no more than 0.1 cm thick.”
The two men standing in front of Larry fell silent, unable to imagine what kind of knife could match that description.
Larry explained to Sergeant Doakes and Max, “The entire heart is enclosed in a tough protective membrane called the pericardium. In this case, the knife pierced directly through both the left and right atria.”
“The wound penetrated the atrium, causing significant bleeding. However, the blood didn’t spray outward; instead, it accumulated within the pericardium, leading to cardiac tamponade. As a result, the deceased died because the pressure from the trapped blood prevented the heart from beating properly.”
“When a knife pierces an artery, the high pressure inside it causes rapid blood loss, leading quickly to shock and death.”
Doakes couldn’t deny one thing—Larry’s brilliance. In no time, he had uncovered numerous crucial details before the official report even reached them.
It wasn’t exactly standard procedure, but this was the fastest way to resolve a scandal that could ruin Florida’s public image.
“Looks like this guy died tragically!”
Larry lifted his head and looked at Max, who had just spoken. Then he asked, “How do you know he died tragically?”
“I can only imagine what I’d feel if I were in his place…”
Max simply didn’t understand. He didn’t realize that when someone gets stabbed, there isn’t necessarily an agonizing pain.
“Did he not call for help, fight back, or resist?” Doakes wanted to know if there were any signs of struggle.
Larry gave a rare smile. “Good question!”
“Masuka came to extract blood from the heart for analysis. I suspect this person was under the influence of drugs when he was killed. That’s why he had no ability to resist and cooperated fully with the killer.”
Larry looked Doakes in the eye and added, “Otherwise, given his height of 186 cm and a weight of nearly 80 kg, it wouldn’t have been possible for an ordinary woman to kill him.”
Doakes’ eyes widened in shock, and his voice instantly rose by several octaves. “A woman?”
“You know the killer is a woman?”
Larry shook his head. “I doubt it. But when I pulled the deceased out of the bathtub, I found two long hairs in the water, and I recovered them.”
“We’ll send them for analysis later. The owner of the hair could be his sexual partner, the killer, or the person the killer wants us to suspect.”
However, seeing two hairs like these in a room that had been so thoroughly cleaned gave Larry a bad feeling.
Larry continued the dissection, cutting through the trachea and lungs. The absence of fluid in the airways ruled out drowning as the cause of death.
Upon examining the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage, he found no signs of fractures or damage, confirming his initial hypothesis.
He then opened the esophagus and stomach, where both the cardia and pylorus were in a normal state, with no traces of fluid associated with drowning.
The chyme in the stomach contained remnants of relatively fresh green vegetables and particles of a reddish-orange hue.
Larry carefully picked up each fragment, placed them under the magnifying glass, and brought his right eye closer to examine them attentively.
"The dinner included broccoli, shrimp, and carrots… We’ll collect these liquid residues, and if my assumption is correct, this is red wine. Then, we’ll conduct a toxicology test."
"I’ll take care of that." Doakes knew where to start, what to do once people began their new day, and where to find some clues about the killer.
"My details are precise. Use them." Larry noted in a personal document the tools Doakes would use for the investigation and how he would track down the murderer.
The deceased’s last meal must have been a seafood-based menu at a high-end hotel.
Judging by the degree of digestion of the stomach contents, the deceased died an hour after eating, meaning he died right after dinner.
That romantic dinner became the last meal of Derek Shepherd’s life.
"Since he didn’t defend himself, the assumption that the victim knew the killer gains strength. In that case, now that we know about a possible woman and a romantic date, I advise investigating all of the deceased’s lovers as soon as possible."
"Don’t tell me…" Doakes was about to say the same words as before, but upon seeing that Larry's advice had solid foundations, he left the room, not before handing the camera to Max.
"Write a detailed report. We’ll hold a meeting first thing in the morning."
Once he left, Larry proceeded with the next steps, shaving the victim's hair, opening the skull, and finding no abnormalities in the brain tissue.
He also dissected the back and found no abnormal subcutaneous injuries, except for livor mortis fluid.
Finally, the wounds on the deceased's body were carefully and firmly sutured.
Larry always sought to preserve the last dignity of the victims by leaving their bodies intact.
After finishing and sending samples to the upper floor for analysis, both went to their respective showers to clean up.
It was June, and the weather was starting to warm up. Even though it was early in the morning, they were completely drenched after wearing non-breathable isolation suits for several hours.
After that shower, Larry changed into lighter clothing and went to grab something to eat.
Larry organized the information he had gathered so far from the beginning.
At 9:30, Masuka from the Pathology Department called to inform him that the test results were ready.
Indeed, red wine was found in the stomach contents, and ketamine was detected in the blood from the heart.
As for the various blood samples sent by Max and analyzed by Dexter, tests revealed they came from two individuals.
One was the murdered man, and the other was unknown.
The database comparison was still ongoing, but no matches had been found yet.
Sergeant Doakes, reviewing the results with Larry, said, "Although we can obtain DNA samples, they can only be used as identification evidence. We haven't found the murder weapon, and there’s no conclusive proof. Now, all we can do is wait for the hair sample you found, which is currently being analyzed."
"Yes, it might lead us to the accomplice."
"That’s pretty good. Have you tried reconstructing the crime?"
Larry nodded. "Wait until the others come down. Then, we’ll go to the meeting and discuss it in detail."
"Yeah, we need to wrap this up quickly. I fear this case will attract public interest." Doakes knew that the murdered man would soon be thoroughly investigated.
Forty minutes later, three people appeared in the task force's meeting room.
Everyone in the room was holding a cup of coffee, and as the air conditioner blades oscillated, the smell of coffee spread to every corner of the room.
Larry rubbed his nose. He found it hard to get used to the police special project team meetings, as the coffee scent was everywhere.
Although he also drank coffee and smoked, he never did so during work hours.
But most of the detectives here were constantly working overtime, so a cup of coffee was absolutely essential for them.
For this particular case, Lieutenant María LaGuerta introduced the individuals who would participate externally to ensure the case was solved. In the meeting room were the Director of the Public Security Bureau, high-ranking political officials, and legal representatives.
"Alright, Luk, I’ll leave it to you," said María as she stepped aside.
Larry nodded to everyone.
"Forensic Doctor Luk, we just want to hear the investigative opinions of your criminal technology department. On our end, the investigation has reached a dead end because we have absolutely nothing conclusive."
"So far, what we know is that the apartment building’s surveillance cameras were broken, and the only footage we recovered came from some nearby establishments, but it’s not enough."
"Additionally, the murder victim was a relatively well-known manager in the real estate industry. There’s a lot of pressure from all sides. It would be great if we could reconstruct the crime scene."
Larry nodded, clicked on a folder on the computer—now connected to the projector—and opened the investigation and autopsy photos.
At the moment he lowered his head, Larry saw Max beside him using a wallpaper cutter to cut the plastic ties wrapped around the electrical cables.
His eyes lit up, and he instantly understood his previous doubts.
"After investigating the site and conducting the autopsy, I have concluded that this was a crime of passion."
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