Hello, I have to do a short story on crime, but we were told to make it modern and subversive, so I chose to do a medical crime.
Let me know what you think, I would really love some feedback
Thanks.
The snapping of the cameras pulled my mind back into focus. Another murder, what’s new?
“Sergeant! Through here.” He motioned towards himself briskly, I stepped into stride beside him, his jacket billowing behind his muscular frame.
We walked in silence for what seemed like an hour, a stern countenance jammed on his face. I shook my head in frustration, I was so sick of this crap.
“Look Jock, cut the crap and stop acting like your 12. I haven’t got all day, so whatever your problem is with me, get over it and brief me in.”
I had been called an asshole, intimidating and rough, but he didn’t even flinch. He ignored my gaze, staring at something I couldn’t see, words spilled out of his mouth.
“We got a Jane Doe case here Serg. The beam cut straight through her heart, turned her into chopped liver.”
And I thought my day couldn’t get any worse.
“How bad is it?”
He raised an eyebrow and grimaced,
“See for yourself.”
I stepped into a familiar scene, with unknown faces staring back at me. Forensic officers were busy finding whatever they needed, evidence tags flooded the room. I stepped under the crime scene tape, and was thrown back by the stench. The rancid smell ate at my nose, burned my eyes and intensified as I nearer to the body.
A medical examiner glanced towards me and faltered away in one steady motion at my appearance, sensing the warning.
She was beautiful. Too bad all the good ones are taken. I laughed internally at my own bad excuse for a joke. Perfect hands. Her face, angelic, but it glowed with the shade of death. Her hair lay in perfect silk black curtains around her heart shaped face. I wanted to see what colour eyes she had, but they were dead to the world, and to me. It was always the same.
Her body was intact, save for a colossal gaping hole that was meant to be her heart, her flesh charred at the edges. It reminded me of a black hole in an infinite galaxy.
She was lying on a cold metal bench, with a machine towering over like a cloud ready to thunder.
“So what am I standing in here, Doc?”
The examiner looked at me intently, squaring his shoulders, getting ready to impress me. He slapped the machine with his hand like it was his buddy.
“This here is a radiation therapy unit. It works by emitting gamma radiation from a radioactive isotope, Cobalt- 60. The gamma particles are concentrated into a beam that is carefully focused on the cancer-affected area, killing the cancerous cells.”
He looked pleased with himself, but I wasn’t satisfied.
“So, what? She had cancer in her heart?”
He sighed heavily and grimaced, making his youthful face look twenty years older, his blonde hair dancing in waves around his face.
“That’s the thing, as well as having the ability to kill cancer cells; gamma particles can also kill healthy cells. She didn’t have cancer in her heart, and this was no mistake. She was brutally cooked to death.
I looked down at her in pity, and noticed small red rings around her wrist. I was disappointed in their stupidity; did they think I was a fool? The killer had obviously tied her up, fried her little heart out, and made it look like an accident.
The machines beams stared down at me with scathing eyes, it would probably take me a year just to work out how to turn the damn thing on. I was absorbed in my own thoughts.
“So, Doc? What you’re saying is that someone came in here with extensive knowledge on how to operate this, with the intention of frying this woman to death?”
He looked up at me questioningly,
“Well, ofcourse, Serg. Someone inexperienced could have easily killed themselves.”
I looked warily around the room; unease drifted through me and shook me to my core. I hated hospitals.
“Sergeant, is there anything else? I need to continue my work if you don’t mind.”
I took the hint, and lumbered back towards Jock. Crawling through the mess of people in the cluttered room, I looked back at the girl. I wondered what it would be like to be dead. Would I be better off than I am now? I shook my head and made my way towards Jock.
“Jock, find me the person in charge of this radiation unit, and now. I need a whiskey.”
He looked up at me in disbelief,
“Well, here’s the problem. No one has been able to contact her, and no one knows where the hell she is...”
