Central Institute of Forensic Service is the place where the bodies of serial killer victims who were found two hours ago will be dissected and examined for investigation purposes. Several things that need to be found out about the body are the identity of the victim, how they were killed—the forensic doctor needs to know with what weapon the victim was killed, the length of the wound and the impact of the weapon, then whether the victim was allowed to die slowly or died suddenly, all of this is done to get time of death of the victim.

Before arriving at the office, Nam and Rebecca had researched and investigated the crime scene for two full hours. They searched for invisible traces of blood by using hydrogen peroxide and UV light to induce the luminol reaction. Unfortunately, they still don't find what they're looking for—as usual, the killer always gets her job done neatly.

The same thing happened at the two previous crime scenes. Found a body statue whose pose follows the sculptures of world-renowned artists, with the condition of a pale white body and several incisions and stitches. But there were no traces of dragging or clues that could lead Rebecca to the culprit.

The results of the CCTV footage obtained by Rebecca's team members also did not show anything suspicious. There were pick-ups and other cars, but none of them had stopped or stopped at the neighborhood of CentralWorld in the hours before the body was found.

An almost perfect crime because the police failed to find any trace of the perpetrator at the crime scene. So that further investigations are carried out with the help of forensic services. In this case, Rebecca Armstrong's investigative team entrusts the post-mortem to the forensic team that treats victims with unnatural deaths—this division is led by Forensic Pathology Doctor Orntara Poolsak or more familiarly known as Nam—which they have worked together in solving cases for the last five years.

Nam is already in the operating room where on one side there is a large mirror so that someone outside the room can see the operation. The woman was wearing a blue surgical coat with matching trousers, a pair of white rubber gloves, a hair cover, a mask, and goggles. The pale body was on the gurney, right in front of it—looking less human and more like a mannequin normally used as a clothing display.

There were four people on duty this time. Three people to dissect and examine corpses, and one person to record whatever was found and said by the forensic doctor to be included in the report. What will later be presented by investigators before high-ranking police officers—an accountability report.

Rebecca is one of several people monitoring the operation of the post-mortem. Beside her were two co-workers who replaced her securing the crime scene few hours ago—the first, a man with tall stature and neat, sleek hair, is Asavarid Pinitkanjanapun or Heng. He is Rebecca's senior who was recently given a warrant to assist Rebecca's investigation team in carrying out their duties. They think that the help of senior investigators like Heng can help Rebecca find traces of the killer.

Well, indeed Heng is a police officer who has a career 7 years longer than her. But that does not mean he is more talented or more accomplished than her. While doing field assignments or in-office investigations, Heng often makes mistakes that give Rebecca horrible headache. Such as not wearing gloves while investigating a crime scene or driving at a speed exceeding the safe limit.

Then there is Wichai Saefant. People prefer to call him Seng because of his accent and facial features that resemble Chinese descent. Seng is a member of the criminal division which deals with minor crimes such as theft and robbery. He had good connections with the traffic security division so Heng and Rebecca could easily get away from speeding tickets. It only takes one step to contact Seng, send him a photo of the traffic ticket, and the next day your vehicle will be safe and can be taken anywhere.

The operating room lights were turned off and the spotlights on the bodies were turned on. Nam put her palms together, she prayed and asked permission from the body to dissect her body. It was something she always did before performing a post-mortem operation to respect the body as a human being. Finished with her prayer, Nam walked around to get a small flashlight and opened the body's mouth. She shone a flashlight into the victim's mouth, trying to find any anomalies or traces of abuse in the victim's mouth, gums or throat.

From the brief inspection they did when the body was first found, she found two eyeballs in the victim's throat. Now she could see more clearly that there were abrasions on the wall of the victim's throat, and she could conclude that the two eyeballs were not simply swallowed, but rather the killer stuffed the two eyeballs down her throat—forcing the victim to swallow her own eyeballs.

Judging from the eyeball still stuck in the middle of the throat, it strengthens Nam's argument about the victim being killed right after the two eyeballs were stuffed into the throat. Carefully, Nam removed the two eyeballs stuck in her throat and placed them on top of the aluminum container. The next question is; with what weapon and how does the killer kill her victims before turning them into statues?

To answer that question, before performing surgery, Nam will examine the outside of the victim's body such as the head, neck, torso, hands and feet as a whole and more thoroughly. On the head, Nam found something gruesome—a seven-inch long stab wound to the side of the head, about two centimeters above the ear. It looks like the stab came from a knife thrust that was done vertically.

On closer inspection, the knife stab marks were very clean. There is no blood clot or residual blood around the wound. The killer seemed to have no problem spending her time cleaning every drop of blood that had come out of the stab wound. This stab wound was quite deep, maybe this is what caused the brain function to die instantly and killed the victim. Nam turned off her flashlight, then asked her members to take a picture of the stab wound.

Nam now turns to the body. With the help of two other people, the stiff body of the body was turned very carefully, and Nam began to pay very close attention to the stitch marks. The thread used is black thread. Nam took the scissors and took a small piece of the thread and put it on the microscope slide. The thin fibers that were clearly visible through the microscope glass made Nam sure that the thread the killer used was ordinary sewing thread.

Back at the body, Nam asked one of her members to take a picture of the incision before returning the body to its original position and continuing the external examination. Its function is to look for DNA other than the victim's DNA—in other words, the DNA of the perpetrator or other people who may be involved in this case. A few minutes of silence passed and it was broken by Nam's strange behavior. The woman suddenly fell silent in front of the body, still clutching a tool with trembling hands.

She then approached one of her members, whispered something while pointing at a part of the body as if she was asking her member to do something with her. Nam then walked away from the gurney, approached a computer, and stood in front of it, doing nothing. The member who had been given orders by Nam walked over to the mic, tapped on the mic and made the three police officers who were outside stare back questioningly.

"Doctor Nam found DNA other than the victim's on the skin. We will do a test and include it in the report. After that we will match the DNA in the Polaroid photo." The forensic team member's words were like a cold breeze that eased the heated heads of the three policemen. They exhaled, feeling their shoulders a little weak after an hour of watching the halfway finished autopsy.

Rebecca crossed her arms over her chest. Her lips were tightly closed in a straight line while her chest was rumbling loudly because of some reason. Is it true that they managed to find DNA other than that of the victims there? The discovery of the two previous statue bodies left no traces other than the victim's own DNA. There was a slight difference in the third body and it was very strange in her opinion.

It is impossible for a killer who is so clean and thorough in executing her victims to have committed the slightest mistake that exposed herself. Therefore, in contrast to Seng and Heng who were smiling happily, Rebecca still kept her serious and firm face.

Back at Nam, the woman leaves her computer. Her fast steps and movements that looked panicked certainly made the two members feel strange but chose to continue to ignore and focus on the task given. Maybe that makes sense, because Nam is now taking the two eyeballs that she initially let go. She held the eyeball and turned it carefully.

At the back of the eye, close to where the nerve was cut, Nam found a letter carved into the surface of the eyeball.

Letter M.

Nam remember. In the autopsies of the two previous statue corpses, she also found letters as well. On the sole of the foot of the first body, there was the letter A. And on the tongue of the second body, there was the letter R. And on the body she was autopsying now, she found the letter M.

ARM. With those three letters, it's clear, the killer is trying to give a message or show a pattern to the police who are investigating this murder case. She may have wanted to challenge the police to see if they could catch her before a fourth body with further letter carvings was found. With that, Nam asked her members to take pictures of the engraved letters to be included in the report.

The autopsy process is still very long. There was still a lot that she hadn't researched so her day would still be very long. Giving a sidelong glance at Rebecca who was standing in front of the mirror, Nam exhaled and took a scalpel from the tool tray.

--0--

A closed meeting with high-ranking police officers will be held at 12—right at lunch time and a time when people are getting tired and sleepy. Rebecca was now standing in front of the coffee maker in her divisional office, waiting for her white mug to fill up with black coffee. She needs an energy boost, that's why she doesn't add sugar to her coffee.

One hand holding the autopsy report file that Nam gave her at 7 this morning—thirty minutes ago. Just looking at the writings and photos on it made Rebecca want to drop her head on the table. Of course, she didn't sleep for two days and kept working non-stop—she wouldn't be surprised if she died young because of this—so she immediately made bitter black coffee to wash away the sleepiness.

She returned to her desk with a mug full of coffee in her left hand, her right hand holding a report and dropped it on the table to read again.

Rebecca caught all her reports in an instant. So she remembered a few points, especially about the pattern of the killer who engraved one letter on each of her victims—until the third victim, there were already three ARM letters which she didn't understand what they meant. DNA test results found on the victim's skin and Polaroid photos also did not help. Because all the DNA belongs to the victim herself.

If Heng and Seng had known about this, they might have hit their head to computer monitors.

Rebecca took a sip of her coffee. The bitter sensation immediately entrenched in the mouth and stuck tightly to the tongue—not good, to be honest. But somehow it made her drowsiness lessen a bit. Just as Rebecca had opened another page of the report, she was startled to death by the door to the room that suddenly opened. The loud screeching sound of the hinges that had never been lubricated made her flinch and almost spilled coffee on the paper.

"Good morning, officer!"

Saint—the head of the criminal and crimes division—suddenly opened the office door without knocking and entered with someone who was foreign to Rebecca's eyes.

A woman with long ponytail hair. She is tall and slender with cold and sharp eyes—a look that could make anyone tremble the moment they met her eyes. She stood one step behind the Saint with an upright body position, both hands kept behind the body.

"Well, so as not to waste time. Last night an internal meeting was held by all division heads to determine which division the new member from Chiang Mai would be assigned to," Saint explained. "And based on urgency and several considerations, it was finally decided that she would be assigned to the serious crimes division and would be included in this team."

Saint turned his head to the back, signaling the cold-faced woman to introduce herself. She nodded and stepped forward.

"First Lieutenant Sarocha Chankimha. From the crime division of the Chiang Mai Police," she said. The woman lowered her head for a few seconds before raising her face again and looking at the members in the room one by one. "As a colleague you can call me Freen."

Saint smiled briefly. Realized that some of the team members' responses were anything but lively and enthusiastic—considering that most of them hadn't slept in days so that would explain why their faces looked scruffy and bum-like. So to overcome the silence, Saint continued his words.

"So... Lieutenant Sharocha is a member who bears the title of best police officer in Chiang Mai. She has an excellent record in carrying out her duties and every case she handles almost never fails. With her arrival here, let's hope that the case you are currently working on can be resolved soon and you can catch the culprit soon. Right, Lieutenant Sharocha?"

"Of course." The woman answered briefly.

Saint then walked forward towards Rebecca's desk and Freen followed behind him. "This is Chief Sergeant Rebecca Patricia Armstrong, the person in charge of this investigative team. She looks like a foreigner, but don't worry, she can speak Thai very well. You can get all the information about the serial murder case from her to catch up," Hearing Saint's explanation, Freen nodded without saying anything. "Okay, then I'll be going now. Don't forget about the meeting you will be attending at 12. Maintain a good relations with Sharocha. She can be considered as your senior even though she is a member of your team."

Rebecca groaned a little, not bothering to look at Saint who had walked a few meters towards the door. "Yes, sir." She replied.

After the Saint left, Rebecca breathed out heavily. Here she is, the new member who is very talkative. At least she doesn't talk much like the previous members. She pointed at an empty table next to her desk. "You can occupy that table." Rebecca looked down, opened one of her desk drawers and took out three bundles of autopsy report files. Staring at the taller woman, she handed the file to Freen. "And read all of this by yourself. I don't have time to explain everything to you. I have a meeting to attend a few hours from now."

Freen took the pile of files. A little surprised because apparently, the three bundles of files were quite heavy. "All of these papers?" she said after placing the thick file on the table. Staring at Rebecca with a tilt of the head.

"Of course. For now, I can't help you, sorry. I am busy." Without even looking at Freen, Rebecca answered as she sat down on her chair—picking up the coffee cup and taking a sip.

"Then I will help you."

Freen's answer made Rebecca reflexively look away, looking at the long-haired woman with a pair of tightly knit eyebrows. "I'm sorry, what? You can help me by sitting there quietly and studying the file yourself. What else?"

"Oh, my God," Freen snorted. "Your meeting. I will help you."

"What? Hey, this is my case. I can't let other people meddle in this important matter, let alone you who is a member who just joined a few minutes ago."

"Officer Armstrong, you should know that this case is the responsibility of the team—I mean, all of us. Everyone who is here. That way, I am also responsible and have the right to speak at the meeting later. Don't worry, studying these files isn't a big deal for me."

"But—"

"Listen," Freen held up her index finger to her lips, telling Rebecca to be quiet so she could continue. "If you could see your own face now, you would be embarrassed and go straight to the toilet to wash your face. You don't want to go in front of the boss with a crumpled face like that, right? Here, I intend to help you. Why don't you stop arguing and just say yes already?"

What is this? Had Freen just mocked her in the face even though they had only met for... ten minutes? Wow, that's doesn't sound right to me. Rebecca growled. Fatigue makes it easier to provoke anger, especially when she is dealing with someone who is this stubborn. If only she couldn't hold herself back, she could have spilled hot coffee on Freen's head at that moment.

But considering that the two of them had different ranks and because of their professionalism as co-workers who would certainly need each other one day, Rebecca failed to do so and decided to nod her head even though she felt like she wanted to release her emotions now.

Let's look on the bright side. If Freen took over the meeting later, Rebecca could spend the time now sleeping and recovering her stamina which was already at a critical point. If she kept pushing, it was not impossible that she would faint during the presentation in front of the higher-ups later—and she didn't want to risk her pride.

"All right, all right. Consider this as your first assignment." Finally, Rebecca replied. She turned her neck to the right and to the left with her right hand pressing on the nape of her neck. Her neck muscles were very tense, and she needed to rest now.

"Good. I don't want to work with the undead like you. So, just go and sleep anywhere as long as it's not in front of the door. Now, go."

Rebecca pushed back her chair in annoyance. Between breaths, she uttered various kinds of expletives aimed at the long-haired woman sitting reading papers beside her desk—First Lieutenant Sarocha Chankimha.

Geez, a fucking senior.