The Cleansing

            by Greg Specht

 

The sun beat down on my back as finally got off my bike and walked up to the Officer waiting in front of the caution tape. "That's a pretty sweet ride you got their sir."

"Thanks. My car broke down this morning so I had to take a bike cops bike. So what’s the situation"

"A mother and her kids were playing in the sand in the playground when one of the kids found the body."

"OK."

"The cornier is over there with the body."

I walked over to the jumble of fuzzy green mass of what I could only assume was the body. The coroner was standing just a little to the left jotting something down in her sparkly pink notebook. She was Asian and she was medium height for a girl, maybe on the tall side, with dark hair. She looked to be about six or seven months pregnant.

"Hi detective Reed Berkeley PD. What can you tell me?"

"Well all I can tell you right now is that you are late and you need a new tailor.”

“About the body, not me.”

“The victim is a female approximately twenty or thirty years old. The body is about a month or so old based on the amount of fungal growth."         

"Any ID?"

"Nope. Look why don't you just let me take her in to the morgue and I’ll give you a full report."

I waited around for the crime scene unit to show. By the time that they arrived the coroner had already loaded her stuff up and driven off. I rolled up my right pants leg up and rode my bike back to the station.

(The next day)

 

I was sitting at my desk eating a donut and a hot cup of coffee when the coroner’s report showed up. The victim had no name and was therefore titled Jane Doe. She was a little over 5 months pregnant when she died. She was short, about four foot ten and the joints in her legs were extremely worn out. So I would say that she might have been a gymnast. I flipped past the grizzly photos of the body and finished the report. At the end of the report the coroner left a note. "Please see me in my office." I got up grabbed my jacket and started off towards my new replacement car. I haled myself out of my new car, a Buick Lisbon, and walked into the waiting room of the morgue. "There you are officer."

"Uhh its detective."

"Sure it is officer. You are here for our Jane Doe right?"

"Yah the one that was found in Cedar Rose park yesterday."

"Oh yeah the fuzzy one right. Yah she was really interesting. Here I should show you what I found out about her." She pulled open the stainless steel doors of the corpse fridge, as we call it, and reached inside the fridge and pulled out a dinner spread, ham, beer, and cheese.

“I can tell that you are a true professional.”

“What, damn, well you want anything to eat or do you beat officers only eat donuts?” She snapped as she closed the fridge and reached for the next door. She pulled the body out. Jane was now stretched out and most of the fuzz had been removed from her body, she was mostly just bone. 

“Do you have any idea what the cause of death could have been?”

“Yah it looks like her stomach was sliced open, from top to bottom in a circular motion. You can tell because the ribs here” she paused to point at the lower couple of ribs. “Those ribs seemed to be sheared like part of them were just cut away.  “You can see that same type of damage here on the pelvis too.

“I thought you said that she was pregnant what happened to the baby?”

“Well it looks like the baby is gone, removed after death, but I think that what ever killed her defiantly killed the baby. I found little pieces left inside her.”

“Wow”

“Yah you see this kinda stuff in my field, officer.”

“I’m not new at this, and its detective. Do you have any idea what could have made a cut like that? “

“That’s not my job that’s yours Officer.”

“I hate you too.”

“See you with the next corpse I guess.” She was weird like that I think that she had been working at that job a bit longer then she or another person should. I left Debby alone with her cheese and beer and went up to the Crime Scene unit. I walked in and went over to my favorite teche. She was bent over a microscope. Her black hair was in a poorly constructed bun as usual. She was pale but in a beautiful way like a princess.

 “Hey Maggie are working the Jane Doe from Cedar Rose Park?”

“You know that they won’t let me handle your cases any more..” She quipped at me. She was looking right at me her dark brown eyes pierced my soul I wanted I needed her.

“Oh yeah I forgot about that… sorry.” After a few seconds of awkward silence “Do you know who has all of my stuff?”

“John.” She went back to her microscope. I walked over to John’s workstation where he was mixing solutions and putting them into small test tubes.

“John are you working the Jane Doe from Cedar Rose case?”

“Man I have no idea anymore… hold on let me check.” He removed his latex gloves and walked over to the clipboard at a nearby desk. “Yes I’m working that case. Are you the lead?”

“Yes.”

“Ok so I’ll have your labs soon and I will give you a call when I have the results.”

“How long are we talking.”

“I might be able to get it done before the end of the day.”

“Ok I want it soon.” I turned on my heels and walked out. I walked down to my car and drove back to the department headquarters. I checked the missing persons reports. Nothing. I waited for John to call. At 4:55 he called.

“Hey I just got back your labs.  Basically the only lab I could run was one to check what kind of fungus was growing on the body. It showed a rather high amount of ammonia in the fungus, which I can’t really explain. But that is it.”

“Thanks.” I hung up. Ammonia… I got up and got some coffee, no donuts. I went back to my desk and looked though the missing person’s reports for the last week or so.

(The Next Day)

I got in to the office and was just finishing up checking my messages when I got a call. “Detective Reed.”

“I know who the fuck it is I called.” It was my boss; he was a total hard ass. Everything about this guy was hard his drinking, his smoking and his language. “Get the hell down to Cedar Rose park They found another body!” I went to go get my car. I got to Cedar Rose about five minutes later and I could see why my boss was pissed. There were media vans from every channel even ESPN had a van here. I adjusted my tie and made my way to the crime scene. There are two playgrounds in Cedar Rose park one is an older play ground which under construction. The second body was found here. I walked up to the coroner, I think she had to be the only one in Berkeley. “So what’s up?”

“Oh officer, I’m glad that you finally showed up. I think we found your baby.”

“What?”

“Yep it’s a very dead, very young child. It fits the age range of the baby that was removed from the Jane Doe that we got 2 days ago. Also we found this with the body.” She held out a note, which read “the purities of a culture can only be based on the purities of the people.” Attached to the note there was a small knife.

“This is an interesting development.” I mumbled

“Meet me back at the coroner’s office in about 2 hours, I want you to sit in on this.” She wasn’t asking.

“I really hate these things.”

“I hate these things too.” A tear ran down her face. She walked off.

 

It was about twelve when I finally got up the guts to go over to the coroner’s office. I walked in, she was waiting for me this was the second autopsy that I had watched I don’t like autopsies. “Well lets get started, babies don’t usually take that long...”

“That is truly something I never wanted to know.”

“It’s not something I enjoy either officer.” There was a ringing sound that came over the PA system in the operating room. “Company, I wonder who that could be.” She walked out. I looked down at the baby... why are people so goddamn sick. A loud thump could be heard from outside the doors. I turned; there behind me was a bloodstained Sword. The man wielding this implement of death spook softly and clearly. “Hello.“ The cold dripping steal burned my skin as he slapped me across the face with the flat of his sword. I fell to one knee when a blinding pain coursed though my skull. I sank to the floor and lay there unconscious, blood flowing from my face and head. I awoke late that night. The blood was caked to my hair and I was lying in a pool of cold blood. My brain ached, my face hurt. I hate blood. As I walked into the entranceway he was still there, he was in the process of cutting open the coroner’s stomach. He rose to his feet and strode towards me. I went straight to my revolver, which was no longer in its holster. I turned and ran back into the operating room. He continued after me, walking with calm patient strides. I ran I groped around for anything that I could use against him. I grabbed a stainless steel basin and threw it at him, and missed. I ran back further into the room. My back slammed into the corpse fridge. I opened it just to find a place to hid I climbed in headfirst and slammed the door closed after me. “You know that will not protect you from my wrath.” I groped around me, what was in this fridge. A cold metal cylinder, a flat ceramic plate. It was the coroner’s fridge; I grabbed the ham next to me. The Samurai opened the door. I smacked him in the face with the ham. “I was going to make it a quick and painless death for you until now.” He drew a short knife, then reached in after me. I grabbed the plate and smashed it on his hand. He dropped the knife. I lunged forward and grabbed the knife. I stabbed the samurai’s hand, and pulled the knife out. He fell back swearing as blood seeped though his glove. I leapt out of the fridge. He clutched his hand and stumbled backwards, his retreat was halted when he backing into our Jane Doe. He cursed under his breath he went to draw his sword. I knew if he got his sword out he would make quick work of me. I jumped on him I impaled his good arm to Jane Doe. He screamed out in pain. I backed off; he would not be moving soon. I walked slowly to the reception area. I walked though the blood and gore that was the coroner. I grabbed the phone from behind the desk and called nine-one-one. I walked back to the samurai. He was still sitting but now he had a far off look.

“Why did you do it, why did you kill all of those women?” I asked.

“They were destroying our heritage, our people. Their child would be imperfect a mutt a fucking dog.” He spat “They must all be destroyed.” Hate crimes, those are the worst. I needed some air. I turned and I walked out of the building. I got outside just as the first squad cars started to arrive. I turned back to show them where he was.

“Holy shit, what the fuck happened here?” One officer asked.

“Believe me you really don’t want to know.” I responded. As I walked around the bed where Jane Doe rested I looked down on the Samurai, he was dying, and the knife lay at his side and his intestines on the floor. He had committed suicide. I would have to give a statement. I walked outside to wait for the new detective to arrive.