Reginald Hill - A Killing Kindness

The police pathologist was a swift, economical worker who never took refuge in the kind of ghoulish heartiness with which some of his colleagues sought to make their jobs tolerable. Pascoe was glad of this. He liked to enter an almost trance-like state of professional objectivity on these occasions and had already offended the Mortuary Superintendent and the nervous new Coroner’s Officer by his brusque response to their efforts at socialization.

The pathologist examined the neck first before asking the Superintendent to remove the clothes which were then separately packaged and sent on their way to the laboratory. After a further careful examination of the naked body, turning it over on the slab so that nothing was missed, the pathologist was ready to make the median incision. As the scalpel slipped through the white skin, the Coroner’s Officer swayed slightly. This was his first time, Pascoe had gathered from the man’s nervy conversation with the Mortuary Superintendent. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a notebook, and tapped the man on the shoulder.

‘Borrow your pen a moment?’ he asked brusquely.

‘Yes, of course,’ said the man.

Pascoe scribbled a few notes, then returned the implement.

‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘You’d better have it back. Your need’s greater than mine. Your boss is a stickler for detail in all these forms, isn’t he?’

The man managed a pale grin, then began writing at a furious rate.

After a while Pascoe took his own pen from his pocket and followed suit.

There was another disturbance, more obvious this time, about thirty minutes later.

Voices were heard distantly upraised. After a while the door opened and a porter came in and spoke quietly to the Mortuary Superintendent who relayed the information to Pascoe.

‘There’s a woman outside with a man. She says she’s the girl’s aunt and she’s making a fuss about seeing the body.’

Pascoe looked at the cadaver on the examination table. The sternum and frontal ribs had been removed and the omentum cut away so that heart, lungs and intestine were visible.

The pathologist continued with his work, undisturbed by the interruption.

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