Daringly Decapitating Dexter

Another Day For Dead-Inside Dexter

I awoke to the sound of my alarm about six hours later and got dressed in the usual, pants, shirt, grabbed my satchel and headed off to work. Dexter the donut guy; part of my daily routine but not today. Today I brought a box of buns from a new vegan cafe in Sunset Cove; iced buns, cream buns, puffed buns, strawberry buns; chocolate buns. All fully vegan. I arrived at work and like usual wore a goofy smile across my face as I held my box of confectionary out for my colleagues. Salt of the earth these people and they work hard, but with the solve rate for murders in Miami at 20%; Miami is a great place for me. A great place for me to home my craft. Vive Miami. A couple of detectives passed me, grabbing a bun as they went by. "Thanks, Dex". "No problem, Bob, Dan. How're the families" "Yeah, good" they said with full mouths. I continued my journey to the homicide department. "Hey socio, I'd kill for a donut". "You'll have to make do with a bun, Angel. They're vegan" "Gracias, Amigo". I walked towards my office and prepared to check for any new reported homicides. "Dexterino, how are you doing, buddy?" "Doing good, Vince. Bun?" "Don't mind if I do" he said as he picked up the lemon custard bun; I'm not the only one with a daily ritual." "Dex, heard about the homicide down by the keys?" "Don't think I have Vince". "It's pretty brutal, got a beheading. I mean I love getting he.." "Let me stop you there, Vince. I'll grab my kit." Blood. Sometimes it sets my teeth on edge; other times it helps me control the chaos. But Vince was right, this was a brutal. And sloppy. Not something I'd do. "What are you seeing, Dexter" "Well, the vic was attacked by a singular assailant, first with some kind of blunt object; I'm guessing that brick. You can see from that circular spatter he took quite a beating. You see that, Angel, that's blood misting, emitted during a beating, and that space is a void, where the assailant was standing. You're looking for a male perp, about 6'2", likely pretty muscular". I turned my attention to another pattern of blood on the wall. "Now, that's projected blood from a stabbing, specifically arterial spurting. The perp severed the vic's carotid artery; notice the long, heavy drops of blood. They come from a large, heavy bladed weapon; likely a machete." I took another step towards the crumpled body on the ground. "It looks like the perp used another knife over here, something smaller, lighter. Notice the clean sprays of blood over here; no droplets or splashes. That probably came from a small, sharp knife; maybe a fillet knife." "And Dex, how about that" "That's cast off, likely from the machete. You see the long droplets of blood with a backward-pointing directionality. The perp was standing about here and flicked back the machete, causing blood to impact the wall. You can tell the direction of flight by measuring the angle of impact and directionality angle." I finally approached the now headless body and crouched down in front of it. "Poindexter, what do you make of that" said or rather laughed Vince Masuka. "The vic collapsed from blood loss and was on the ground when the perp used the machete to sever the neck. Look at the pattern, you can see the long droplets with a forward-pointing directionality in a wave-form. That's from the heart pumping blood through the carotid artery, meaning the vic was still alive during the beheading." Images flashed before me of yesterday's extracurricular activities, a reciprocating saw in saw in hand as I severed Peter's neck. But not like this. I'm a very neat monster; whoever did this was sloppy, messy. And if there's one thing I can't stand it's mess. I carefully lifted the body up, examining the large pool of blood underneath it. "This is passive pooling resulting from the several stab wounds and severed carotid artery. You can see it has several points of origin from wounds all over the body; most of this blood was emitted after death." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a spot of blood. "The perp moved the severed head after death, causing transferred blood here and here. You can see the swipe pattern is from the head being wiped on the wall and" I paused "Angel, meet your killer. He was considerate enough to leave a clear bloody fingerprint right where we would find it in this transferred blood pattern. "Well drone, socio, we'll nail his ass to the wall. Can you have your blood report ready by tomorrow" "I'll have it on your desk by this evening, Angel". "Good job, Dex". "Why do you get all the sexy blood and I'm left grovelling on the floor for trace evidence when there's a fingerprint telling us exactly who our perp is?" "I don't know, Vince, just lucky I guess." I got back to the lab and tested our friends fingerprints against our database. It was a match for Alberto Talamanca; a drug lord famed for his brutality especially to those double cross him. And the vic? Carlos Gonzalez; low-level drug runner who got tempted by some extra cash and stole from his boss. Alberto's truth is that he chose to live in a dangerous world; my truth is that world doesn't need me to balance its book. As I headed out the station, I passed Angel. "Angel, blood report" "Good job, Dex, see you tomorrow."