The Chivalrous -Pilot Episode 28-

Scene 7

O.S.I Headquarters, Quantico, VA, 12:40 pm

"Victim #147. Hannah Lucille Joyce. Sex: female, nationality: Filipino, age: 34. Dirty blonde hair, gray eyes, height and weight, 5'2, 108. No record of past health issues, or any medical procedures besides a prior C-section fourteen-years-ago," Caroline read, aloud, the information on their victim's Air Force health file. She had received it by fax from the Naval Base in Norfolk three hours after she asked for it. Though irritated, Caroline knew they had not been expecting an undeployed Pilot's health file to be pulled by a Prosector, such as herself, at least not anytime soon; ergo she extended them grace.

All the information they had sent seemed to be accurate. Warrant Officer Joyce was in perfect health. She shouldn't be there. She should be back in her bed ready to enjoy a workless weekend, but inside she laid on the waist-high, aluminum table before Caroline, ready to undergo an autopsy.

Caroline set the newly composed file on the edge of the table, her eyes, all the while, scanning the stiff, lifeless body of the victim. It laid naked on the table. The head supported by a plastic brick-like pillow, fostering the illusion that the victim was sleeping. Peacefully sleeping. That was one of the beauties Caroline saw in death; the corpse looked more peaceful with death then it had with life.

She sighed heavily, "Peace and self-resolution." If only one could obtain and bear them while breath was still inflating their lungs, then, to Caroline, death would have no upside, whatsoever.

Picking up a large, sharp scalpel from the autopsy tools displayed on an extension table, she decided it was time begin the autopsy. She had already examined every inch of the corpse for the last hour, documenting every scratch, scar, and mark that was edged into the victim's skin. Caroline was now ready to discover just how each mark had come to arrive on victim #147's tan, clammy skin. With only sharp breaths between movements, taking no time to dally, she penetrated the multiple, thin layers of human skin with the scalpel. The incision was deep, reaching the rib cage underneath the victim's skin, but caused very little blood to escape besides a drip or two. The body had already drained most of its blood back at the crime scene from the bullet and stab wounds. What little blood was left was held down by gravity, since the heart stopped pumping it through the body hours ago.

Caroline started lacerating on the victim's right shoulder, and at a slanted angle, she curved the incision down and around the victim's breast. Slicing back to the center of the victim's chest, she stopped at the tip of the xiphoid, then repeated the process on the left shoulder, connecting the two incisions in the end. She took her blade down the torso to the pubic bone, only deviating off course to avoid slicing through the navel and any stab wounds in the abdomen.

When she had finished, she placed the scalpel next to her tools and plucked up a smaller sized scalpel to accomplish the next task in an autopsy: pulling the skin, muscles, and tissue off the rib cage. She inserted the scalpel between the ribcage and the hypodermis and began to peel the victim's skin and breast back to fold over the face. Caroline was stripping the bones of its skin and tissue when Audrey's arrival was announced by the motion-activated doors.

"Your visit is premature; I am, just now, opening her up." Caroline didn't need to look up to know it was her Boss.

Audrey was known for expecting information three hours before it was due. A habit that made her a damn good agent, but an intolerable human being. While others were waiting for forensics to process or an autopsy to conclude, she'd be off interrogating the criminal. Caroline wasn't sure how Audrey always got them to talk. Whether she broke their fingers and pulled out their nails, or flashed them her fury-filled glare, Caroline would never know. But as long as a suspect never ended up on her table she wouldn't concern herself with half-fact suspicions.

Audrey snickered, "Not as premature as your assumption, believe me. I'm here to inform you that there's a substantial possibility that the victim is pregnant, and I presumed you would want a forewarning."

The surprising information provoked Caroline to look up from her project. It took her a moment to compose a response, and when she had she went back to her work.

"Well, I'll draw more blood for Scottie to check her levels and see if there's a sack. I will inform you if I find further evidence."

Audrey nodded and neared the corps. As if she knew why Caroline disposition changed, Audrey decided to lighten the mood; something that she was not known for, "You really got nothing yet?"

To this, the Pathologist laughed, "Well, I think I can rule out suicide," she teased, as she finished peeling the victim's chest off the rib cage. Caroline stretched the flap of skin and tissue as far back as it would go, pulling right over the victim's face while exposing the top of the rib cage. When Caroline had made sure the flap of skin would stay back, she began to repeat the process on the tail of the Y incision, starting with the left side.

"I'll get tissue samples for Scottie when I extract the urine and vitreous gel from her eyes, but you really did come down here early. I haven't even finished pulling the skin off the rib cage, let alone getting to check for blood clots."

"'Clots'?"

"See, if the stab wounds clotted, then I could safely assume they occurred before she was shot. But if I don't find evidence of, even a start of a blood clot, then the body didn't have time to respond to the damage. In that case, she was most likely shot first, like I was coerced to conclude at the crime scene." Caroline rubbed the scalpel's blade against the last rib with skin still attached to it on the left side. As she finished she pulled the strip of skin back and let out a deep sigh, "I would give it an hour or two before coming back. At least then if I had nothing to report, I can always reiterate what I just told you, but with more confidence."

"Okay. I'll check with Scottie then," Audrey agreed, turning to the exit.

Caroline nodded, getting back to stripping the ribs on the right side of the incision of its skin and muscles. While her knife brushed up against one of the ribs, it caught. The Prosector frowned, removing her instrument from the victim's stomach she peeled the skin back, by hand, to get a glimpse of what her knife had gotten itself caught on.

As her eyes ran over the rib she called out to Audrey, interest peaking her voice, "I guess I'm the one that spoke prematurely."

Her Boss stopped at the open Autopsy doors and turned back around, "Hmm?"

Caroline didn't answer, she was too preoccupied with grabbing her Toothed Forceps. They were pretty much a larger version of tweezers with a toothed end in order to aid any plucking or pulling required in an autopsy, and right now plucking is the skill that it would be obliged to aid in.

"What is it?" Audrey's voice showcased concern as she approached Caroline and the corps, once again. She tried looking into the body but whatever had caught Caroline's attention wasn't big enough be visible from that angle.

After a moment or two of Caroline wrestling with the Toothed Forceps and the mystery component, she retracted the large tweezers and displayed, what looked to be. a small piece of metal.

They both just stared at it before Audrey broke the silence, "Okay. I give up. What is it?"

Caroline's eyes looked to her excitedly, "This is an unexpected finding. And this finding might, very well, help us solve this case."

"Wana explain to me how?"

Caroline frowned, disappointed that her Boss didn't see the potential that she did in the small shard. She dropped the piece of metal in a glass container before she began to explain.

"When the killer was stabbing our victim, he did so very carefully. But in the high of the kill, he got a little excited and knicked his knife on this rib. He left a piece of it in the bone. This shard will help Scottie determine the type of knife used and narrow our suspect list."

Audrey hid her surprise with a chuckle, "You underestimate yourself, Caroline. You can come up with a lead, even three hours early."