Life in North America, you call this an autopsy officer?!

Brian pretended to wave away the charred smell emanating from the body and shattered the small red ball of obsession.

As the red ball turned into countless light spots and entered his eyes,

a new message of obsession emerged in Brian's mind: to let Shaina no longer sink into decadence and to live a happy life.

Shaina?

Was she the girl the deceased adored?

Brian was disappointed after reading the deceased's obsession.

Just by reading it, he knew it had nothing to do with the murderer.

The most absurd part was,

the obsession still wished someone a happy lifetime.

He also wanted to live a happy life.

But was it possible?

This ridiculous obsession could never be fulfilled!

...

After countless disappointments,

Brian had grown accustomed to it.

He began to work according to the autopsy procedure.

Unaware that Brian was collecting obsessions, Susan watched Brian's work with keen interest, acting merely as a token assistant.

To ensure impartiality,

current autopsy procedures do not allow a single person to carry them out.

That was why he needed an assistant.

Not for help,

but to have a token person to ensure the legal compliance of the autopsy procedure.

The first step of the autopsy was to confirm the identity of the remains.

Brian glanced at the register, and after verifying the identity tag on the corpse's foot, he announced to the camera, "The deceased, Kenneth, male, 22 years old, time of death: September 30, at 1:56 PM, identity of the deceased confirmed. Autopsy Officer Brian, beginning the body examination."

Autopsy,

somewhat similar to diagnosing a patient.

After confirming the identity of the deceased,

the second step wasn't to make incisions but to examine the body.

Brian started by visually inspecting the body, followed by checking the deceased's charred limbs, mouth, nasal cavities, ears, and other private areas. Finally, he carefully removed the leather apron that was stuck to the flesh.

"Ah!"

Susan, curiously inspecting, exclaimed after seeing the chest, "There are deep purplish-red marks here!"

Brian glared at Susan to silence her, then spoke to the camera,

"The deceased's body was severely burned, with a large amount of soot inhaled into the nasal cavities, collapsed chest, multiple rib fractures, blood accumulation in the mouth, and suspected internal organ damage.

Additionally, there are large circular purplish-red marks on the chest with several hole-shaped indentations in the middle, suggesting the deceased might have been struck with some kind of blunt, circular object before he died..."

After saying this,

Brian turned to Susan, who covered her mouth, "Wasn't the victim supposed to have died in the hospital? Why is his leather apron still on him?"

Before the autopsy, he had thought he was going to dissect a badly done surgical body.

Susan explained,

"When the victim was brought to the hospital, he had already passed away. The reason I stayed and allowed the hospital to hide this fact was at the suggestion of Ivan and Glenn. Typically, after committing the crime, the murderer might appear at the crime scene or the hospital to check on the victim's status.

I agreed because the cause of death was quite clear."

Brian: ...

That was actually a serious violation.

Ivan and Glenn's way of handling things was somewhat reckless.

This group leader was also a bit foolish.

Brian could only educate this rookie leader, "Often, the method of death one sees might just be a deceptive ploy by the murderer to obscure the truth and delay the autopsy. It's not a smart move."

Susan seemed receptive to advice and nodded, "I won't do it again, but how should I write the report for this case?"

Brian spread his hands, "If you solve the case, no one cares; if you don't solve the case and fail the assessment, there is no need to care either."

...

Due to some of Susan's inappropriate comments,

Brian had to change the camera's card and restart the procedure.

After completing the recording once again,

he began to examine the clothing remnants on the victim.

The victim had suffered severe impacts and burns just before death, and almost all his clothes were destroyed. Even with olfactory enhancement activated by Brian, aside from the smell of burning, there were no other findings.

One might say, combining murder with arson made sense.

Without findings,

Brian could only proceed to the next step of dissection.

Still using the most common "Y-incision" method.

Brian expertly used the extremely sharp tools to open up the entire chest and abdomen of the deceased, gruesomely exposing the internal organs.

"The left side of the deceased's chest, ribs seven, eight, and nine show traumatic fractures; damage to the heart and spleen..."

Heart damage...

The cause of death was found.

After examining those aspects, Brian turned his attention to the flesh on the victim's chest. "The victim must have been a disciplined individual, as there are clear signs of exercise on his body. Additionally, the circular scars on his chest seem to have been there before his death."

"Why?" Susan asked, curious about Brian's reasoning. "Couldn't it have been caused by something hitting him during the explosion?"

Brian shook his head:

"If it had been caused by an impact, there would be corresponding marks on the ribs in that area.

Moreover, the deep purple scars on the victim's chest are not congestion from halted blood flow, but rather the manifestation of coagulated blood.

This means that the victim was injured here before he died.

However, the injury wasn't serious.

At least it didn't prevent him from continuing to work."

"It's giving me a headache," Susan said, tapping her head, as she directly asked, "So, did this autopsy yield any findings?"

Brian continued to shake his head:

"The victim indeed died from the impact and burns caused by the explosion.

We can only confirm that the victim fought with someone before his death.

Given such a public place, the amount of homemade explosives the perpetrator could carry wouldn't have been substantial.

Shielded by the food truck.

It's hard to kill someone.

Therefore, the perpetrator must have chosen a clever placement for the explosives, knowing enough about demolition and having investigated the food truck's structure.

In fact, after I graduated from high school, to earn money, I studied the business model of food trucks for a while.

Depending on the habits.

The interior layout of food trucks varies greatly.

Generally, nobody notices these.

So I believe this was a premeditated murder!"

Susan picked up on the key point: "Are you saying that the perpetrator intended to kill the victim right from the start?"

"Yes!" Brian nodded emphatically:

"Ordinary grudges wouldn't involve explosives!

But I can't understand why the killer would choose to use explosives?

After all, it attracts too much attention.

If it were me wanting to kill a food truck owner,

I would pretend it was a robbery shooting.

The food truck owner had a booming business, probably high daily earnings, and all in cash.

A robber targeting him,

would be completely plausible.

This way, you can kill someone without drawing much police attention.

After all, many robbery shootings occur in Los Angeles every year.

There are far too many suspects."

In terms of the autopsy,

Brian was indeed unremarkable.

But once he put himself in the killer's shoes, he immediately spotted something wrong with the case.

Perhaps this is talent.

"Why do I feel like you know a lot about crimes?"

After pondering for a moment, Susan almost scared Brian to death with her words.

Brian rolled his eyes, "If you hear about various crimes every day, you'd become like me."

"Okay."

Susan rubbed her tired neck: "Premeditation implies that there was definitely some connection between the victim and the killer. It seems our investigation should focus on the victim's social relationships."

Brian nodded in agreement.

They hoped that Ivan and Glenn, two former detectives, could bring some surprises with their investigation.

The scene was cleaned up.

They locked away the autopsy records and other items.

Together, they left the chilly morgue.

...

As evening approached.

Old Hardenn brought back a printed photo.

A very common plastic bottle appeared on the photo.

"This should be the bottle the killer used for the explosives. Moreover, the testing department identified the substance on the plastic debris as triacetone triperoxide, a chemical commonly found in household items and easily obtainable from places like furniture factories."

The news Old Hardenn brought back formally characterized the explosion as a premeditated murder.

Not long afterward.

Ivan and Glenn returned to the police station with their findings.

"These are some basic details about the victim, Kenneth, and his visible social connections that we could find. There are two people we should pay close attention to, as I suspect they have motives!" Ivan said solemnly, handing over the printed documents to everyone.

Everyone picked up the documents and began reading them intently.

Soon,

Brian's eyes locked onto a name: Audlin.

This guy, the suspicions are strong!