The Immortals

TWO - Autopsy

Alice paced thoughtfully in her office. She completely tuned out her surroundings, not noticing that someone slammed a thick file on her desk. Since the gruesome murder that took place at the edge of the forest near her small town two weeks ago, she has had so much work and paperwork that she has hardly been able to keep track of her weekly tasks.

The day before yesterday she was called by her dentist because she missed an appointment. Because the said murder case was as good as unsolvable. There was not a single lead, nor a suspect, nor any witnesses. Nobody knew anything until a hiker found the body.

Alice and her colleagues puzzled and puzzled, but to no avail. A bloodless and literally heartless corpse, with no sign of a murder weapon, no fingerprints, and no suspicious footprints in the area either, other than that of the hiker who found the body. The first major case in the area in years...

"Alice? Detective Anderson?"

Alice looked up. Her partner, Sam Collins, held out a note to her. She took the note and read it.

"Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - Antonia, Mary's Diner"

Partner Collins explained to Alice: "Dr. Wolff found this note in the victim's pocket."

"I see. Well, something at least", Alice said, putting the note in her file. "I'll speak to Dr. Wolff myself."

Sam nodded in acknowledgment and walked to his desk while Alice made her way to the pathology.

Once there, she found the pathologist working on the latest body. When the doctor noticed her, she gave her a friendly smile.

"Good afternoon, Detective Anderson. I assume you received the note I found?" Dr Wolff greeted her.

Alice nodded. "I did. Meanwhile, can you tell me more about the victim? Any clues as to the identity or the course of the murder?"

Dr Wolff eyed the body, inspecting it. "Well, as you already knew, the heart was missing. Upon closer examination, I found that the heart..."

She hesitated. "How shall I put it? Not 100 percent missing, but... eaten up, nibbled."

Shocked, Alice looked back and forth at the doctor and the corpse. "What? Eaten?"

Sighing, Dr Wolff added: "Yes. I mean like about three quarters of the heart is missing. A little bit is still there."

She continued to point to the corpse's neck. "It's also missing a big chunk of the neck. I'm guessing it started as a bite, then bit by bit the throat was ripped open. There's a lot of flesh missing and if you look closely you can almost see the cervical vertebra."

Shaking her head slightly, Alice asked, "What do you think happened? I doubt a human could do that."

"I'm not sure. A strange animal, a wild one, I would assume. Also, one of the strange things is that the blood was most likely drawn from the neck wound", Dr Wolff replied, shrugging.

"A corpse with no blood, no heart - pretty much, anyway - and a gnawed throat. I have to say I've never heard of anything like it in my entire career as a law enforcement officer", Alice said with an almost desperate look on her face. "The only clue I have is the note you found."

"Well, I wish you the best of luck with your investigation. I hope this note is of some help to you", the doctor said and Alice thanked her, then made her way back to her office.

Later, Dr Wolff finished her work in the afternoon, made her final notes, then packed her handbag and set off.

***

It was a cool autumn afternoon, the cloudy sky didn't let any rays of sunshine through, but it didn't rain either. Tom favored weather like this. It was neither too warm, as it would be in summertime, nor too cold, as it would soon be in winter.

On days like this, Tom liked to sit on a dark wooden bench at the edge of the small town park not very far from his home. When alone, he usually scribbled in his little notebook, pondering the extent of his powers, whether he could do more than just wreak havoc on the house when he has outbursts of anger or light a candle after a few beers.

When he's not alone but with his friends Eliott and Celine, his thoughts weren't that deep as he was more busy laughing at Eliott's jokes or having less serious discussions with Celine.

Today it was supposed to be the latter, but he was still waiting for the two of them. Nevertheless, he didn't scribble in his notebook today, because he suspected he wouldn't have to wait too long.

And he was right.

Looking up, he saw Eliott and Celine walking around the nearest block into his direction. With only a road and some grass separating the three, Eliott began ecstatically waving and calling across, "Yee-haw, Tommy, you want beer?"

A few passers-by glanced over at him as he caught their attention with his shouting. Tom had to smile, even if he would prefer Eliott not to do such things.

You could see Celine agreeing as she took a step away from Eliott and happened to look elsewhere as if she didn't know him, though she couldn't help herself, unable to hide a smirk.

After a few minutes, the pedestrian light changed from red to green and the two crossed the street. As soon they got to Tom, Celine immediately planted herself on the bench. Eliott had to throw Tom's backpack off the bench to sit down, then rummaged in his own backpack for beer.

"No beer for a day?", Celine shoots a cynical comment to Eliott, who just grimaced and said, "Better beer than daily schnapps."

"Poor liver," Celine mumbled dryly.

Ignoring her, Eliott opened his can and took three large gulps.

Meanwhile, Tom looked around. Today there were only a few people walking around, sometimes someone in simple jogging pants, then another lady in a pantsuit and briefcase, then a guy, all in black and a leather jacket.

Wait, thought Tom, and paused as he looked back at the lady in the pantsuit. Her suitcase was not completely locked and some paper sheets slipped out. Not noticing anything, the lady hurried on.

Tom jumped up and ran to the papers on the floor to pick them up.

"What are you doing?" Eliott called after him.

Waving the papers in his hand, Tom just sarcastically replied, "Laying eggs, you know?"

He sat down again with his two friends.

"A woman ran by earlier, she lost this."

Celine got up quickly, grabbed her backpack and scolded him: "Then why are you sitting down again? Come on, after her. Maybe this stuff is extremely important to her!"

So Tom and Eliott, this one rather reluctantly, also got up and together with Celine, they followed the woman with the briefcase ...