Tessa Road’s 48 hours were not over yet. It still hasn’t reached game over.

That was why Detective Merlin made his way to the city morgue. As much as he trusted the system to deliver him a full report, he felt even waiting for 30 minutes would be a moment of life and death.

After rushing to put on a medical gown, gloves, head cap, booties, mask, he stumbled into the autopsy room that was already occupied.

“Dr. Grace I—Oh my geeeeerd!”

Merlin stared at a familiar corpse, the chest torn and hanging open like some messed up pop-up story book. Even with a mask on, he couldn’t fight the urge to cover his mouth with a hand. Still he stumbled over to assess the—Oh god, he can see the kidneys and liver!

“Oh! Detective Merlin, what a pleasant surprise!” The coroner Dr. Grace pulled her arms out of the body, slathered in red blood, yellow human fat, and whatever the hell colour works with viscera. When she waved, the detective gasped hard as if it was jump scare in a horror movie.

“Good doctor,” He gagged, “What did he ever do to you?”

“Huh?” Dr. Grace turned to the body, and remembered the chest was gapping open. “Oh that. Well, you can never been too careful. I can confirm he suffered no previous beating to his body, or ingested any poison. The cause of death is definitely several blows to the head, causing internal bleeding in the brain.”

“...That’s really it?”

“Hmm...” Dr. Grace looked left and right, trying to figure out the meaning behind the question. “Were you expecting something more?”

“Yes, actually.” Merlin walked over, but kept out of arms reach of Dr. Grace’s gloves. “I’ve hit a dead end in the case. I wanted to know as much detail on the victim as possible. Specifically the wounds on his head.”

“I would be more than happy to help. Just that, I heard the inspector closed the case.”

“...Like you said it doesn’t hurt to double check.”

“Oh! Good one, Detective. I agree.” Dr. Grace chirped a nod and she gestured him to take a look. Merlin avoided the open chest cavity and tried to listen to the coroner. “I would like to make a correction to my initial assessment. Liam Ferguson was clubbed two times across the front of the head, not once.”

“Huh?” Merlin leaned down to get a better look. “Two times?”

“Yes. After thorough examination, I see two different bruising on the forehead.”

“Different weapon?”

“No. Actually, same weapon, but different intensity. Like this.” Dr. Grace would jab an elbow into Merlin’s side, to make him flinch. She jabbed again to make him gasp in pain. “One of them would be enough to make someone confused. The deeper one is enough to stun someone into total submission. Total black out. They may not even know they were being clubbed to death.”

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“Wh-which came first? Ooow.”

“Unfortunately.” Dr. Grace shrug. “Both wounds might have been made close to each other within the same time interval. I can’t tell which was first. If, by common sense, the victim was hit once with a light jab, to throw him off but not enough to give him brain damage. He would most likely still talk and walk with a stagger, albeit a headache. The other would most likely cause him to black out and rendered defenseless.”

Merlin rubbed at his masked chin. “The suspect said she only clubbed him once. Let’s pretend it was the lighter one. After she hit him, she ran away. Meaning the second, and maybe the wounds in the back, were all done AFTER she left.”

“It could be possible.” Dr. Grace nodded. She then pulled off her sleeves and gloves, to wash her hands in a sink nearby. “There is one other thing I noticed. It showed up several hours later.”

“What is it?” Merlin watched as Dr. Grace flung the water off her fingers into the sink and wiped them on a paper towel.

She sat down in front of a computer covered up in a plastic wrap and woke it up with a click of her mouse. A few touches of the keyboard and wiggle of the mouse, she brought up a digital photo. It was the picture of a bare human back, the center had a greyish bruise.

“I found this on the back of the victim.”

“He was struck in the back?”

“No. This type of bruising suggest it was slow and long application of weight. Meaning something pinned him down and it was heavy, enough to crunch a bit of his spinal column and do nerve damage.”

Merlin tilted his head. He stepped back and leaned over, one hand suspect down in the air. Then he made swinging motions with his other arms, as if punching someone on the ground.

Dr. Grace shook her head. “Not a hand print.”

Merlin thought it over. He tried doing a squat, as if sitting on a horse as tall as two inches off the floor. The coroner shook her head. Then he had the idea to go down on one knee to the ground, and repeating his swinging motion.

Dr. Grace gave a slow nod when she saw the picture. “Either the killer used something heavy and dull to pin down the victim, or used their own body weight to do so. Possibly knee on the spine as it matches some traits. Then clubbed him to death, repeatedly.”

“How heavy of a murderer we talking about?”

“Judging by the size, shape, magnitude, distribution of weight...Based on Tessa Road’s built, frame, and her measurements, she wouldn’t leave that large of a bruise on Liam’s back. In fact if Liam was still conscious his body mass alone would be enough to throw the suspect off him and retaliate. I examined Tessa Road, when she passed out from her arrest. She had carpet scrapes on her knees, which match the patterns of the couch and floor. My guess she got them from trying to escape, but nothing complicit to kneeling on a human body.”

“So, it’s not Tessa.”

“All I can say, it’s not exactly Tessa who pinned Liam down when the murder happened.”

Merlin snapped a finger with a frown. “I doubt she has an accomplice. She’s never been to the Diamond Hotel until last night.”

Dr. Grace eyed the bruise on the photo, zooming in. “I can’t say for sure if the murderer is male or female. Anyone with the right mass, and large knee, could leave this mark.”

“This is a stretch Dr. Grace, but any chance this could be done by three murderers?”

“Th-three murderers?”

“Lets just, entertain the thought.”

Dr. Grace shook her head. “The two bruises on his head were different, in position and severity. The back of his skull however had a series of traumatic blows that are more or less accurate with each hit. Not something three people can replicate, even if they take up similar angles. Based on my current findings, all 12 strikes were done by the same hand.”