Chapter 45: Chapter 45

“Forensic Lab, SFPD, Log 1013.” inside a police precinct, a middle aged Asian forensic scientist was examining a mummified corpse placed on one of the operating tables, while wearing a pair of smart glasses besides all of the hazmat gear and narrating her procedure with them: “This is Dr. Vivian Nguyen. The body from the Prime Royals hotel was ready to be dissected and analyzed. All recording devices, functional. Audio recordings, check. Current time, 8:50 am PST.

 

“I’ll start with some preliminary examinations. The body is mummified all over, with very limited decay, very surprisingly well preserved, considering that the body was kept inside of a building's wall. The body is in sort of a cradle position, with both arms and both legs bound by the metal chains. The body’s arms are not hugging the body. Instead they seem to be clutched to the side of the torso, and connected to each other on the… pinkies? I will need some technician’s help to properly remove the chains to take a closer look without damaging the integrity of the body.”

 

Dr. Nguyen moved to one side of the table, where the head of the body was to take a closer look at the body’s head: “The body has a very visible crack on the forehead, the crack seems to reach the upper jaw and both sides are quite uneven, we’ll need to scan it with supersonic to find out if it was only the skin or the bone is also broken. And look, here, looks like a piece of metal. Let me see... ” she carefully grabbed onto the piece of metal half embedded inside the body’s mouth.

 

“Indeed feels like metal. I can feel its cool touch even through the gloves. The engravings and the shape, feel like some sort of old… coin.” Dr. Nguyen’s voice became excited, “This is interesting. To my knowledge, embedding coins inside the mouths of the dead used to be a kind of superstitious ritual in some South East Asian traditions… dammit, the coin wouldn’t come off.”

 

“Come off! Come off!” Dr. Nguyen’s voice became ecstatic and obsessive as her attempts at removing the coin from the body’s mouth became more and more violent, it was not long before she abandoned her caution of not damaging the integrity of the body.

 

Finally, the piece of coin was removed from the body’s mouth, exposing a forked tone underneath. A gust of foul smelling air burst from the body’s through, and with it, whispering voices roamed the room.

 

Dr. Nguyen stared at the coin while she took off her hazmat suit and gear and her smart glasses, her facial expression was no longer calm and serious. Instead, insanity, obsession and greed was all her face showed.

 

Dr. Nguyen opened the door of her lab, and walked straight out, all the while holding the coin in front of her.

 

All of that happened in under 10 minutes, but was still recorded by all the devices setup by Dr. Nguyen before she began her examination. And now the whole thing was just witnessed by Caroline, Jason, and two lab technicians that brought them to the lab from the recordings.

 

“What the hell? This is completely against protocol. Dr. Nguyen should know better not to do that.” Erika, one of the lab technicians, yelled as soon as she saw Dr. Nguyen took off her hazmat gears then froze and almost freaked out as she saw the look on the doctor’s face.

 

“How can we find her? ” Jason asked the technician named Jeremy on his side, who was also frozen at the sight of Dr. Nguyen’s change in facial expression, “Hey Jeremy wake up! How can we find her?!”

 

“Uh, umm… I think...” Jeremy seemed really clueless on what to do and struggled to answer.

 

“Dr. Nguyen’s not picking up. We can check the security cameras - have footage all over the precinct. Let me ask the captain first.” Erika cut off her call to Dr. Nguyen’s phone and dialed another number.

 

“That would be too slow.” Caroline grabbed Jason and rushed to exit the lab through the door Dr. Nguyen walked out, and started asking people around.

 

“Hey, have you seen Dr. Nguyen?” Jason found a janitor and asked: “You know, the lead forensic scientist in the lab?”

 

“Sorry, no.” the janitor shook his head.

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“Has no one seen Dr. Nguyen?” Jason asked loudly, attracting attention from multiple people on scene, but no one responded.

 

“Captain’s not picking up either!” Erika came out from the lab and told both Caroline and Jason loudly: “I know where she lives, should we check there?”

 

“What’s happening here?” a detective walked up to Caroline and Jason: “Why are you looking for Dr. Nguyen? Isn’t she at the lab?”

 

“Hi, we’re the new temporary civilian consultants, we are here to help the forensics examine the body found from the Prime Royals Hotel.” Caroline was in a rush, but considering this is a police precinct, she still extended her hand at the detective, “My name is Caroline, this is Jason. Have you seen Dr. Nguyen? Do you know where she is?”

 

“Detective Marcus. I am working a case and I need Dr. Nguyen’s help as well.” the detective shook hands with Caroline: “It’s sort of related to the Prime Royals Hotel as well.”

 

“Raymond. ” a female detective with black long hair walked to the side of Detective Marcus and said: “We need to go. There’s another Corin dead.”

 

“Caroline, Jason, this is Detective Jamerson, my partner. Monica, this is Caroline and Jason, they are our new civilian consultants. They were looking for Dr. Nguyen as well.” Detective Marcus briefly introduced his partner to Caroline and Jason: “Looks like she’s not at the lab?”

 

“We saw from the lab recordings - she took something from the body and she left.” Jason said: “Is there any way we can find her? She couldn't have gotten far.”

 

“Okay, let’s go find her.” Detective Marcus looked confused but not very concerned.

 

“We need to find her as soon as possible. ” Jason said in a serious tone: “She looked… weird when she left the lab.”

 

“Captain’s still not picking up! ” Erika ran to their side and almost yelled at them: “Take me as well, I had a really bad feeling about this.”

 

“Erika, you sure?” Monica asked: “You’ve never been in the field.”

 

“I’m worried about Dr. Nguyen, okay? She’s my mentor!”

 

“Oh my god, please can we just go!? We need to hurry!” Caroline couldn’t keep cool anymore and uncontrollably raised her voice.

 

“Okay, okay, geez.” Detective Marcus was startled by Caroline’s outburst.

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