Part 33: Episode 33: Corpse Whisperer
This update covers:Naomi Kimishima 5 - Crime of Passion (part 1 of 2)
Introduction
LG: That's right. I've also sent you a witness statement from the victim's manager.
Naomi: All right. Let's begin.
Man, the last Naomi case was ages ago. Let's get our investigate on.
Naomi: Studying the pattern of these wounds may help us determine how far the victim was from the explosion. There's also a piece of metal lodged in the corpse's body. That's probably because
Giving the rest of the body a closer examination yields some more interesting finds.
Naomi: It's peculiar. Further research may tell us more.
Naomi: This indicates repeated application of pressure, force, or friction to this area, a condition commonly known as a "callus." If I recall correctly, he was a tennis player. This means he was right-handed.
We're done with the body. Let's listen to that recording.
She's lucky she wasn't caught the explosion, I guess.
Ferrel: Y-yes, I'm all right. I've calmed down, now. Yes, I'd heard that the next target would be an athelete, but I never imagined that Aiden would be murdered. We'd just had the security on his home increased, after all. He didn't want to do it, but I convinced him. The more famous you are, the more danger you're exposed to. On the day it happened, I was going to go over some arrangements with him. I called him about an hour before. He seemed perfectly normal then. When I parked in front of his house, it suddenly exploded. Huge flames just burst out of the windows. It was all so sudden. I thought that there had been a gas leak or something, and that I had to rescue him! I managed to force the door open, and I saw him on the floor. I pulled him out by his legs, but by the time I got him out the door, he wasn't breathing anymore.
LG: By the way, about the manager: There's almost no chance that she's the culprit. We've done a complete background check on her, and her home has been searched thoroughly.
Naomi: Is the bomber a magician, then? According to her testimony, the victim's security was perfect. How did the bomber plant a bomb is his house, arm it, and time it perfectly to kill the victim?
LG: Good question. The only thing we can say about the bomber is that the victims were killed by bombs.
Brilliant deduction.
Naomi: Well, it's my job to solve cases like this. Where's the other recording?
LG: You mean the bomb threat, right? I can send it to you right away.
Naomi: This makes no sense. He actually allowed his voice to be recorded?
LG: Uh, well, he calls himself "the Revolutionary" in his message, but he gave specific details about the bombing before it happened. It has to be him.
Naomi: He's either an idiot, or he's confident that he won't be caught.
Good of the FBI to include a big question mark picture with the recording so we don't get confused and think we know what he looks like.
Revolutionary: Hey! You listening!? It's the Revolutionary! You guys must be total idiots! I win again! Three out of three! Sweetdiculous! Seriously, the police here are a joke! But, still, now the big boys are listening, yeah? Stepping up to the plate? Who is it that's in the newspaper, The Corpse Whisperer? Yeah, that is one smokin' hot tomater! She is definitely my type! Now that she's paying attention, I'll be nice and give this my best shot, too. Ready? Okay, it'll be a white guy. That's my only hint! You'd better try your best! She's supposed to be a real firecracker, right? Hahaha... I'm looking forward to this!
Sweetdiculous?
Naomi: What a lunitic. He's disgusting.
LG: All this murder is just a game to him. Sick bastard... Well, it's not like we're ones to talk.
Naomi: Remember our promise, Little Guy. So, was the voice processed at all?
LG: We've run a spectrographic analysis on the voice from the recording. It doesn't look like there's any audio manipulation being applied.
Naomi: So that's his real voice, is it? If that's true, then he's a young male.
Obviously that one is difficult to answer without hearing it
Naomi: He also said that his next target would be a caucasian man. That's a little vague.
LG: No kidding. We're doing what we can to narrow down possible targets.
Naomi: Good. We don't want any more deaths from this maniac's hands.
Okay. Now, it's time to sort through the clues so far.
All we can really do is have some things analyzed. Take this piece of metal, for example.
LG: It's a piece of a steel type. You could find this anywhere. What do you want me to check?
Naomi: It was lodged in Aiden's corpse, probably propelled by the blast.
LG: I see. I'll do a chromatographic scan, then. Hm... there's black powder on it. It was probably used as the propellant in the explosion.
Naomi: Then that piece of metal is shrapnel from the bomb. We're one step closer to finding out how this bomb was made.
Now, we'll want to find out a bit more on the wounds themselves.
LG: They spread in a radial pattern. Looking at the angles, it seems they're centered on the abdomen.
Naomi: Hm... in an explosion, the blast travels in a sphere from the point of origin. Parts of the bomb and surrounding materials are caught in the shockwave. If the bomb caused these wounds, it must have been within a meter when it went off.
After all, there are no wounds on the lower body.
LG: Yikes. I'd never want that to happen to me.
One last thing: we want to take a look at the mysterious substance on the victim's little finger.
LG: I'd assume it was something that was carbonized by the blast. Huh? No, wait... this isn't soot or a remnant of something burned. This is carbon dust.
Naomi: Why would something like that be on the victim?
LG: I don't have a clue.
Naomi: Tell me why they hired you, again?
LG: Hey, people don't just run into carbon dust in their daily lives. Using it as a component in a bomb is unusual, too. Honestly, I just don't know.
Naomi: We'll keep it in mind for later, then.
If you've already figured this out, remember that it's THE FUTURE in the Traumaverse. That's all I'll say about it at the moment.
Naomi: Another one? What are you talking about?
LG: The newest victim. There's been another bombing.
Naomi: The Raging Bomber again?
LG: Yes, apparently. The corpse is in the autopsy room. Please investigate it when you have time.
So much for "no more victims." Well, off we go.
Naomi: How many more will there be before this is over?
As usual, Naomi's phone goes off.
Naomi: So he died before he was able to say anything about his death.
We get his voice card, but we don't even have a name to go with the body yet. Let's take a look, though.
Naomi: These wounds look very similar to the ones found on Aiden's corpse.
Naomi: It was on the previous body's little finger. However, there's a difference: the
That's all for this body. Back to the office.
LG: His name is Stephen Eldred. He's 20 years old and is a student at a local college.
Naomi: And a caucasian male, as in the bomber's warning?
You were JUST looking at him!
LG: Yes, but we still don't know if this was "the Revolutionary's" doing or not.
Naomi: Well, finding out shouldn't make us any happier. It's still another life lost.
LG: Right. This might sound morbid, but we got lucky with this explosion. It didn't cause any fires of structural damage, so the crime scene is still more-or-less intact. This gives us a better opportunity to find out who did, no matter who it was.
Naomi: That's true. Investigating the crime scene may help us progress.
LG: I've sent the information to your computer. I'll get a recording of the original bomb threat, too.
We can now investigate Stephen's room. We'll do that in order to get as much information as we can before going through the evidence.
Naomi: The explosion was concentrated on the right side of the room. The left side was almost untouched. Hm?
The phone starts ringing. The ancient phone in the back that is outdated even by today's standards.
Voice: Excuse me, but isn't this Mr. Eldred's residence?
Naomi: That's correct. And you are?
Voice: Michael Lang. I'm from Loan & Taxes. If you are aware of our business model, then you must know why I'm calling.
Naomi: You're a loan shark. Does that mean Stephen Eldred has a debt?
Lang: I will not divulge any of my customers' personal information. Please let Mr. Eldred know that we're trying to contact him. Well then...
Naomi: Was that really a call from a loan shark?
Naomi: This may have some information we can use. Let's power it up and see what there is. ...Odd... the screen isn't turning on. It's not accepting any input, either. Could it be broken?
Naomi: It appears to stand out, compared to the rest of the room.
Too bad it's broken; we could play some sweet riffs. We'll just have to check the other side of the room instead.
Naomi: It's embedded rather deep. It was most likely launched by the force of the explosion.
That's all we can do here for now. Time to sort through all of this...
Next time: Can we catch the Raging Bomber?
Medal Challenge:
In Stephen's room, we can find the medal challenge of Endoscopy. Getting these wrong would be against the Way of Honor! ...Which probably means we're screwed. Anyway...
