Novel Sample

The Following is a sample of my upcoming novel. Enjoy it. Steal my characters and I'll cut your fucking nuts off.

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Amanda Cho was in the environment she was most comfortable in, the morgue. The air was crisp, the meat was cold and the thick chemical smell brought home comforting thoughts of cleanliness and sterility. It was a very neutral, familiar environment.

Today the good doctor didn’t actually have a body to examine. What she had was a large bucket of gore left out by the LAPD and transported to her laboratory in Langley. Pressing a button on the tape recorder, Amanda proceeded to apply on elbow length rubber gloves and protective glasses. “The date is January the second, nineteen ninety-four. This is Doctor Amanda Cho of the FBI forensic sciences division. We are proceeding today with an autopsy.”

The older woman stepped methodically and reverently towards the bucket of gore on the autopsy table. “The subject was masticated completely, thrown into the spinning rotors of a police helicopter according to eyewitness reports.”

Placing a surgeon’s cap over her hair, she adjusted the bands until almost uncomfortably tight. “Mass recovered from the side of the police helicopter accounts for roughly thirty five pounds of mass. On initial visual inspection there seem to be undamaged teeth in the slurry; at point we cannot rule out the possibility of dental identification.

She grabbed something on the table that looked like an ice cream scoop.

Squealch!

Amanda took a thick wad of human matte rout of the bucket and began to spread it on a large metal tray. The wad had about the same thickness and consistency as soft serve ice-cream; it stayed lumped together and resisted being spread around without being too solid. Even the average size of the bone and teeth fragments was roughly the size of pecans in pecan-caramel ice-cream. “Removing first hundred ounces of the sample reveals human teeth in varying states of fragmentation; possibly dental identification may be ruled out. Bone fragments are consistent throughout the mixture.”

The doctor took another scoop of meat-cream. With great precision and gentleness she spread out that scoop, documented the contents and moved on. It was around the fourth and fifth scoops of human goo that she began to find things of interest. “At 14:57 an artifact is discovered distinct from human viscera and refuse.” She put down her scoop and stuck her hands into the small pile of shredded meat and shit, “A wedding band the subject likely wore has been discovered. Ring appears to be ten karat gold or less, with two stones; a diamond and a blue sapphire facing in opposite directions. The ring has no brand name on the underside; it will be tagged and cleaned for more in depth investigation.”

Just like that, the ring was washed off in a distilled water solution, bagged, tagged and the autopsy went on.

The next find was something a little bit larger. “One of the subject’s shoes is largely intact; though it has suffered some lacerations from the rotors it is still recognizable for what it is.” She held up the shoe in the light, ignoring the human hamburger slowly leaking out of it. “Shoe seems leather with a brass buckle; appears on closer inspection to be hand made.”

Amanda continued to scoop out of the bucket and onto the tray until there was no more room. With that, the tray was placed in a specialized refrigeration unit and another tray bottomed with wax paper was produced. This slow, uneventful dance went on almost until she’s reached the bottom of the bucket when a patch of cloth grew larger and larger.

“I’ve uncovered an article of clothing” reaching in with her bloodied hands, she grabbed the stinking, gore soaked rag which had time to marinate in the dead subjects digestive juices and brain fluid. For once Amanda was a bit stunned by the revelation of what it was. It prompted her to take it over to a mobile magnification screen. “Object appears to be a bicorn hat with a gold trip and velvet surface. The hat has avoided mutilation by the rotors and other than blood stains seems to be in fairly intact condition. Interior of hat has stencilled initials, NB in gold filigree.”

She was about to bag and tag the hat when someone distracted her by invading the sanctity of the morgue. “Who are you?” there was a hardness to her voice on top of her characteristic coldness.

A middle aged Hong Kong woman in stained overalls pushed a mop and bucket forward. “I was here to clean up the floor. The front desk said you were done.”

Cho’s eyes narrowed behind her face mask and visor. “I am almost done; but there is a universe of difference between almost done and completely done. As it stands I have at least three more hours of work to get done. Your presence here could corrupt the evidence. Did you know that at this moment you are releasing hair into the environment which could render this evidence inadmissible for court?”

The janitor woman shrugged, running a hand subconsciously through her greasy hair. “I don’t know, I never went to school.”

She licked her lips from behind her surgeon’s mask, frustrated with the janitor. “I would advise you to leave now unless you wish to be terminated from your employment.

“You want me to leave,” said the janitor lady, chewing on a toothpick and leaning on her mop.

A migraine caused Amanda to wince from the stress. “I’m going to take a pair of forceps and bury them in your eye unless you depart post haste.”  

“Alright, I’m going, bitch.” The janitor barely started pushing her mop and rolling bucket when a rubber wrapped hand coated in blood took hold of her throat and slammed her against the wall. Her head rang and her vision went dark from the impact.

When her eyesight came back, she was greeted to the sight of Dr. Cho behind a mountain of surgical protective gear with rage burning in her eyes. “Disrespect my place of business or insult me personally again and I will end you. Do you understand?”

The janitor nodded, struggling to breathe.

Dr. Cho turned around, taking deep breaths to calm herself. “You should get showered. I inadvertently contaminated you.”

The janitor didn’t stay to snark, she just left with her bucket and Amanda was left to her blessed work and blessed silence.

Silence did not last. Amanda put away the hat, tagged and bagged it for forensics. It would have been washed in a saline free solution to strain the DNA covering it and then analyzed by other talented forensic scientists.

But the ring was missing.

Amanda saw that the ring, her first major find was missing. Her eyes froze on the empty spot on the operating table.

The ring was gone.