novelzi Chapter 249 - 246: The Pink Hippo
Chapter 249 - 246: The Pink Hippo
The autopsy of a corpse is an act of near brutality, even cruelty.
Unlike surgeons who use scalpels to cut into patients’ bodies to treat and save them, forensic pathologists use their scalpels on the dead to uncover the cause of death, often cutting out various parts of the deceased’s internal organs to preserve as samples.
In East Asia, where there’s a cultural preference for burying the complete body and resting in peace, dissecting a person after death, leaving the body fragmented and dismembered, is something very difficult for families to accept.
In China, which once vigorously promoted the destruction of the "Four Olds" and cremation, forensic autopsies are somewhat acceptable if they are meant to bring justice to the deceased. However, in Japan, a nation with a more conservative culture, this practice is much less acceptable, which is one of the reasons why the autopsy rate is so low there.
After all, accepting that their loved ones will be disturbed after death is indeed a very hard thing for the Japanese to accept. Moreover, private autopsies, if not judicially ordered, can be very expensive.
As for the samples cut off, they are usually preserved in formalin to prevent decay, because the body decomposes very quickly. Without such preservation, it would be difficult to keep the samples, even in cold storage, let alone use them for testing and analysis.
But for the same reason, if a perpetrator injected a low concentration of formalin into the victim’s body to kill them, it would also be very difficult to detect, because unless particular attention is paid, all samples sent for testing would be immersed in formalin, so the presence of formalin is both very normal and easily overlooked.
Similarly, if someone did specifically test for the presence of formalin, it is a substance that is quite easily detectable, but it’s the very commonness of it that leads to it being overlooked.
"But this guy changes his modus operandi every time. Even if we know he’s using formalin to kill people, it’s hard to connect him with previous cases. The important clue is still the red goldfish in the mouth," Dr. Nakado said after reading the report, feeling somewhat powerless, and threw it onto the table, pounding his fist on it.
Although they had found the method of the killer, Dr. Nakado had already discovered other bodies with the red goldfish mark over the eight years. Each time, however, the killer’s methods were different, and the only reason he could connect these cases was because of the sole common point of the red goldfish. But such a mark, easily mistaken for a canker sore, was not enough to convince the police.
"About that, I’ve reconstructed it using 3D modeling, and the mark seems to be from a ball.
The killer likely used a toy ball to stuff into the victim’s mouth as a gag," Kube Rokuro suddenly spoke up, lifting his laptop and displayed on the screen a ball riddled with fish-shaped protrusions: "And according to its shape, I’ve searched, it’s a kind of animal-specific toy ball produced 20 years ago, which has been discontinued."
"Damn it!" Dr. Nakado cursed. With this, finding clues just got a bit harder.
Just as everyone felt perplexed, Misumi Mikoto’s phone rang, displaying an unfamiliar number.
"Moshi moshi? This is Misumi Mikoto speaking, who is this?" Mikoto answered the call, and although the number was unrecognizable, she didn’t hang up right away.
"Hello, Dr. Misumi, I have some information about the red goldfish. If you’re interested, come to the building that caught fire. I’ll be waiting for you near Kosei Real Estate," the voice on the phone made Mikoto feel somewhat familiar, yet she couldn’t recall where she had heard it: "If you’re not comfortable coming alone, you can bring Dr. Nakado with you. You can tell him there’s a pink hippo here."
After saying that, the caller hung up, leaving Mikoto holding the phone, somewhat perplexed, but she still turned to Dr. Nakado and asked him, "Dr. Nakado, do you know what a pink hippo is?"