Abacus

at the hole above the right eyebrow, he turned the head over and studied the back of it.
    “Yeah , no exit wound,” Randall said. “Mmm… you’re right, interesting, looks like we will have to retrieve this one. Well, let’s get on with it,” he said with scalpel at the ready. The doctor went to work on the head, making a long incision at the rear of the skull and peeling the face back from rear to front, effectively de-gloving it from the skull. Using a small grinder, he then sawed around the crown of the skull.
    Leanne leaned across to Randall and whispered, “I hate this part.” Once he had finished the circular cut around the circumference of the skull, he picked up a small hammer-type object. Sliding the claw end of the implement into the cut, he levered the bony cap away from the remainder of the skull, making a cracking noise. The cap popped off, exposing the top of the brain.
    “We have significant injury to the b rain from the projectile,” the doctor said, pointing to various areas of bleeding in the brain. After noting and photographing the trauma the projectile had caused in the brain, it was removed and weighed. The doctor slowly dissected the brain on the bench, cutting it into thin slices until the small projectile was found deep inside the rear lobe. He casually dropped the distorted slug into a steel kidney dish, which made a loud ding .
    “ It’s a twenty-two,” Brian called out merrily, like he was running a bingo tournament.
    “And you can see here and here where it has bounced around the skull,” the doctor said , pointing to small marks on the inside wall of the skull.
    “There is considerable dama ge to the brain. The projectile ricocheting around the skull would most certainly have been fatal,” he said as he took a number of swabs. Looking closely at the neck area, he commented into his hand-held recorder. “There appears to be a combination of clean cuts probably caused by a sharpened object, consistent with a carving knife as well as heavy force with a blunt object to crush and sever the spinal cord.”
    Feeling a little confused R andall asked, “So just to clarify, Doctor, you are of the view it is a combination of tools used to sever the head? Because we thought it had just been hacked away with a crude instrument.”
    The doctor looked at t he sinews hanging down. “The jagged flesh I would expect after submersion in a river, with predation and the breakdown of flesh, but if you look here…” He pointed to some severed neck muscles. “You can see these are neat cuts.” The doctor pointed to the spinal cord. “You can also see here, they have tried to cut through the cord with a knife or similar, but couldn’t, so they have smashed it some other way.”
    Randall looked closely and could see fine cuts on the spinal cord just above where it had been smashed through.
    The d octor turned off his recorder and turned to Randall. “All right, we’ll just get the dental stuff done and we’re finished here.”
    * * *
    Back in the detectives’ office, Randall had just spent a solid hour repeating himself to the hierarchy and the media about the homicide investigation, when he waved Leanne in. “Leanne, can you do the ring around to the boys and find out how they are going? I want a briefing in an hour.”
    Randall leant back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. This murder investigation had come in at a very inconvenient time, as he knew the next DL assignment was just around the corner. After some thought, he made the decision to hand the reins of the murder investigation over to Jesse who was more than capable of leading it. While this was not his preference, he just couldn’t take the chance that the murder investigation would be put in jeopardy due to his DL commitments.

CHAPTER 13 – PUTTING A NAME TO A HEAD

    Randall busily scribbled on the whiteboard in the task force office as Leanne leant through the doorway. “Boss, looks like Sheik may have found a witness who saw someone near the bag earlier today. He is on his way back to get a statement. The divers are still in the water, but they are running out of light. They are going to extend their search early tomorrow morning. Oh, also, the line search on land has not found anything. They will all be back in about half an hour.”
    “Thanks , Leanne,” Randall said, looking up briefly from the board before writing again.
    “Oh yeah , boss, also, we got our task force name too.”
    Randall g ave up