Chapter 110: Suddenly [4]
“Take a look.”
I showed him the stitched wound. Even I thought it looked like something out of a ghost story. The surgery had been done in a classroom where people wandered in and out, so there was no way he had actually seen what happened. This was probably his first time seeing the patient at all, since the officer had been stationed outside.
“Huh.”
His face said it all: shock, disbelief, maybe even a little admiration. He looked like someone who had already lived a lifetime. Good. Of course, that did not mean the patient would survive. But that was not the point right now. The priority was sedating the patient and delivering information. So I started talking.
“If you look here, the width isn’t exactly narrow.”
“Uhm. Yeah, I see. It’s enough…”
“About four centimeters… maybe the width of three fingers?”
“Right. Though you keep using Korean. Still, three fingers. So what about it?”
Wasn’t it obvious just by looking? What did you think happened, magic? No, just thinking about it again made me feel torn. At first, I thought the patient was dead. And now? This guy clearly had no intention of catching the culprit. He was not even speculating.
But… most of them end up as cold cases anyway.
When I first heard about the backlog from Liston, I wondered why the police were even involved. Sure, they were good at stopping street fights or investigating when someone high-ranking died. Was this why Sherlock Holmes had to be invented? If the general public actually cared about catching criminals, maybe Holmes would not have felt like such a fantasy.
“Yes, that’s why. But I couldn’t go in that deep when I checked the wound.”
Public institutions in this era were all bark and no bite, so I said something vague to avoid drama. That was a conversation for when I became successful someday, which was still far off.
“You couldn’t stab deeply? Isn’t it just a short sword?”
“Are wide short swords common?”
“Ah… good point.”
“Something like this.”
I held out my palm to show the approximate length. Then, not stopping there, I placed it over the patient’s abdomen.
“If it went all the way in, she’d be dead. A twenty-centimeter blade? You usually die from that. Unless you’re extremely fat, but come on, in London? No one’s that fat. We eat weird food and work too much.”
“Aha… then…?”
“So the stab didn’t go all the way in. It was a beginner, someone who had never handled a knife. And there are two wounds. This one here only cut the skin.”
“Skin?”
“The belly skin. It barely broke through. It couldn’t even make a clean slice.”
“I see. That actually makes sense.”
The officer looked genuinely impressed. I should not have been surprised, but I still worried.
Never… walk around alone at night.
It really did feel like the number of vagrants in London was increasing. And vagrants could easily turn into muggers. This era was like that. Even a farmer, thinking he had money, would meet someone in a dark alley. Maybe that was why Liston spent so much. Maybe he did amputations somewhere other than the operating room…
No, that’s not it.
I shook off the thought and pointed at the patient’s feet.
“Here… You see it?”
It looked like he had not even thought to check. I understood. I had not either the first time I saw a trauma case.
“Now imagine this. Someone’s chasing you with a knife, and you’re unarmed. What’s your first instinct?”
“Run away—ah!”
“Exactly. You try to run. But look around. The place is filled with junk. If you trip over something, won’t your leg get scraped?”
Right on cue, Alfred and Colin, who had run up from that direction earlier, looked down at their pants. They were covered in grime. The officer had gotten splashed too but wore leather boots, so he was mostly fine.
“But the patient’s feet are clean.”
“Right. So the attacker didn’t chase her in from outside. She was stabbed at home.”
“Huh. You’re right!”
Detective Park taught me a lot back in the trauma center. While we waited for patients to wake up, we often chatted. I was not a detective then, or now, but I had picked up more than a few tricks.
Thanks… I may not be a real detective here, but I can still think like one.
Park had been in a similar position: stuck, powerless, watching.
“Now, look at her hands.”
“Hands?”
“Yeah. Are they clean?”
“They look clean…?”
“No. Think again. Some lunatic breaks in with a knife. You’re unarmed, cornered. What’s your instinct?”
“Uh… defend myself?”
“Exactly.”
Liston, who was nearby, suddenly acted like he was going to stab the officer with his sheathed knife. Everyone jumped back, including the officer. The patient might have even fluttered her eyelids.
“I’d raise my hands.”
“Right. We instinctively raise our hands. And when we do, we usually get defensive wounds. But this woman? Her hands are clean.”
“…Then what? Did she stab herself?”
That one was dangerous. I nearly smacked him for how stupid it sounded. Common sense, please. If someone stabbed themselves, the knife would be right there. Also, stabbing yourself in the gut was not easy. Japan had all those stories about seppuku, but in reality, most people could not do it.
“So no. She wasn’t holding the knife. She didn’t even wash her hands. There’s no way they’d be that clean.”
“Aha.”
“And think about it. What if someone you know suddenly stabbed you? You might not have had time to react.”
“Someone she knows…?”
“Exactly.”
I jabbed the officer in the stomach with my finger. Totally caught off guard, he froze, looked down, and clapped his hands in realization.
“That’s it! The culprit is someone she knows!”
“Very likely.”
“Yes! This is great! I think we can catch the culprit now. Thank you!”
The officer dashed off excitedly. Watching that made me silently vow not to go out alone anymore. Just as I turned back to the patient, Liston spoke up, gently placing his hand near the woman’s nose.
“She’s breathing well. You did a great job.”
“You’re exaggerating. It’s because you taught me.”
“I’m not sure how you learned things I didn’t teach… but thank you for saying that.”
The doubtful look he had been giving me lately softened.
“But still…”
His expression turned serious.
“It’s a good thing we saved her, but… where are we getting the bodies from?”
“Ah.”
Right. I had not gone there to save anyone. I went to secure a corpse, for teaching, for future surgeons, for better training. But that did not change the fact that we needed bodies.
“You… said you needed a cadaver?”
“Huh?”
Another officer, who had stuck around to check on the patient, spoke up. He seemed lower-ranking than the first guy, but since he was still police, I figured it was worth hearing him out.
“A cadaver?”
“Yes. If you need a corpse… why not use a criminal?”
A criminal?
His nose was red. He looked like he drank a lot. That alone made me suspicious.
“What are you talking about?”
Liston, never one for niceties, jumped in. He had just swung a sword around earlier, so he already looked intimidating. No one was going to argue.
“Execution. There are prisoners on death row.”
“What? No, I’m not asking for a live person to be killed for this.”
I panicked for a second. Was Liston that far gone?
“No, no. I don’t mean that. I’m saying death row inmates. They’re going to be executed anyway.”
“Ah.”
“Lots of people are dying.”
“We need ten. Will that many die?”
“Uh… by next week?”
“Next week!?”
I looked at the officer’s mouth. Was that a smirk?
“Yeah, I think we can make that happen.”
“You’re serious?”
“If we want to, yeah. It’s possible.”
That felt wrong. Was that not just speeding up executions to supply bodies?
“But isn’t that killing people who could live a bit longer?”
“They’re all murderers or rapists. They’re going to die anyway.”
“Well… that’s different, then.”
I was not saying all criminals deserved to die. But let’s be honest, with how useless the police were during this investigation, were they even arresting the right people? There was no CCTV, no black boxes, and everyone was too scared to talk. Witnesses barely existed, and when they did, they stayed silent out of fear.
“All right then. I’ll give you the schedule. Pick them up at the scene.”
Sure, they were condemned. But did I really have to go to the scene?
As I hesitated, Liston placed a hand on my shoulder.
“One thing, though. Can we change the method?”
“How?”
“I need the body for surgical practice. I’d rather not have the neck damaged.”
“Ah… so no hanging?”
“Exactly.”
“Hmm… I’ll let them know. Honestly, we’re already getting so much help from you, so the department will cooperate. Like today.”
Liston chuckled. As for me?
So then… how exactly are they going to execute them?
A chill ran down my spine.
Footnotes
Translator’s Notes
Sherlock Holmes — Fictional detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle, first appearing in 1887. The narrator references him while thinking about the lack of investigative ability in this era.
Seppuku — Japanese ritual suicide by abdominal cutting, historically associated with the samurai class.
CCTV — Closed-circuit television used for surveillance and evidence collection, unavailable in this era.
Black box — Vehicle recording device used in modern contexts to capture driving footage or incident data.