episode_0152

Episode 152. Headless Corpse (2)

****

Life is full of drift.

“I have never killed anyone, nor have I ever cut off a person’s head and hidden the body.”

The lives of patients are even more so. I thought he had evaded taxes or something because he was a high-ranking government official. He cut off his hair?

Let’s move on for now.

“If it’s pneumonia, there’s a chance it can be cured with antibiotics. We’ll try two types of antibiotics first. If it gets better with those, that’s great. If not… … . We’ll try something else.”

The old man nodded.

“Can it get better?”

“That’s what I see now.”

It might be worth a try. I placed a small glass plate next to the patient’s bed.

“Patient. What is that? When you spit out phlegm later, don’t mix it with saliva, and spit a little bit into a plate. We need to check what disease you have.”

The patient nodded.

“Can you tell what disease it is just by looking at the phlegm?”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

My intuition was telling me.

It’s not something that can be solved by just using antibiotics. Some have strong allergic properties, and the coughing sound is different from typical pneumonia.

We also need to check what the heck the severed head corpse is talking about. Whether or not it’s related is still a mystery…

“Colok! But I was able to meet the best doctor in the empire. I did everything I could. From now on, it’s the domain of God, no, the teacher.”

“I will do my best.”

“Oh, teacher. If you survive here, I will make sure that you don’t regret it-”

The patient stopped talking again after coughing. I was worried that he might vomit blood. I nodded.

I guess I’ll have to add some cough medicine later.

****

Father confirmed, and now it was mother’s turn. Since they shared a hospital room, I could hear other family members talking next to me.

I looked at the middle-aged female patient.

“Hello, patient.”

“Yes… … .”

In the medical records, it was written that my mother’s main symptom was severe skin rash. I don’t know if it was severe. She had a skin rash.

There are many different types of skin rashes.

You may have a boil, a red spot from subcutaneous tissue bleeding, peeling skin, or signs of infection.

If you just say it’s a skin rash, it’s hard to know what the disease is. You have to see it with your own eyes. I definitely have hives all over my body…

He didn’t look very sick.

It didn’t seem like a very severe case of hives.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“I heard you were really sick yesterday.”

“I had hives all over my body and it was itchy, but the temple gave me a wet towel and told me not to scratch. I drank some medicinal tea.”

Amy tilted her head from the side.

“What kind of car is it?”

“Chamomile tea.”

But it’s a blessing in disguise. If they had fed this patient mercury to cure his illness, what would have happened? They would have killed a person.

“Cough or phlegm?”

“My nose was really stuffy. I think it got a little better after coming to the temple. Not so much now.”

Are you allergic?

If it’s an allergy, symptoms may improve as soon as you stop being exposed to the allergen. That doesn’t explain your father’s pneumonia, though.

“Did the illness start suddenly?”

“That’s right. Your whole family started getting sick at the same time about a week ago. We don’t know why.”

“What’s changed?”

“Not really… … .”

At the same time a week ago. It could be that you ate something wrong or were exposed to a common toxin. Something that irritates your skin and respiratory tract.

“Right, I had to say that. Professor. Was that Professor Asterix? ”

“Yes.”

“There’s something more important than the bottle right now. Please, go to the security guards… … and convince them that we didn’t kill anyone.”

Why do you keep saying that? How do I know that, and why should the police believe me?

“I don’t know.”

“Please, I can’t go to jail and leave these sick kids behind. I might get the death penalty because I’m falsely accused of killing someone.”

“I’ll try to talk.”

****

The questionnaire is finished.

It took a while to listen to all four of them. The father had pneumonia, the mother had redness of the skin, and the two children had a slight fever and cough. It wasn’t pneumonia, though.

I took my medical records and left the ward with Amy. Amy looked in the direction of the patient with a somewhat serious expression.

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know.”

“Still.”

“Father has pneumonia. Other family members appear to have been exposed to some irritating toxic substance.”

That makes sense, but it’s important to know what the toxic substance is. The four of you are all showing different symptoms right now, right? It might not be the same substance.

What I’m more curious about is-

“What does a headless corpse mean?”

“That’s right.”

Istina tilted her head.

I have no choice but to ask the police.

The police officer I saw earlier, Mr. Scipio from the Public Security Department, was waiting outside the sickroom.

Scipio turned his head towards me from his palm-sized book, as if he was bored.

“Oh, the professor is here.”

I frowned as soon as I saw the police.

“What do you mean, a headless corpse?”

“I told you that these people were murder suspects, right? Right after they were admitted to the hospital, their severed bodies were found in the attic of their house.”

“Yes. I don’t know why?”

“There’s only one possible reason. Is there any other possibility than someone cutting off the head and putting the body in the attic?”

Well, that’s all I can say, but there are still a few things that remain suspicious. How long had the body been in the attic?

“That’s right.”

“I also can’t believe that these people killed someone and hid the body. But if there’s no other evidence… … . I can’t help but think that these people killed them.”

I nodded.

“Would it be possible to see the headless body or the patient’s house? Would that be difficult?”

“Looking at the house… … . It is possible. But will that help with treatment or investigation?”

It might work. If it doesn’t, then there’s nothing we can do.

****

I’ve thought about this before.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was a doctor. Diagnosis is the process of finding a disease based on clues, and let’s look for more clues.

“It’s close.”

“That’s right.”

The hospital where the patient was admitted and the patient’s home were only about a five-minute walk away. It was completely within the hospital’s control.

We followed the police into the house. The house was ordinary, but for some reason it had a musty smell. It smelled like squid.

Amy coughed a little.

“Just wait at the temple.”

“Oh, yes.”

anyway.

I walked cautiously into the empty house with the police. It was a quaint two-story mansion. The people there were richer than I thought?

“This way.”

“Yes.”

Although it was elaborately decorated with expensive items, it was not a large mansion. Even in a fantasy world, land prices in the capital city were high.

As I went up to the second floor of the mansion, the rotten smell I had smelled a moment ago became stronger. I put on my mask and looked around again.

“It was like this last time too.”

Mr. Scipio took the lead, and we were able to peek into the attic. The stench of rot was overwhelming, and on the floor… … . Ugh.

A black liquid was soaking through the attic floor, enough to show the outline of the body in which it had been lying.

I felt like vomiting.

I have a strong stomach… …. Not only because of the smell, but also because of the occasional mold and flies in the body fluids that were seeping out of the corpse.

“Do you know whose body it is?”

“No. The face is pretty much rotted away. But if I had to guess, I’d say he’s one of the butlers or servants of this family. I’ll have to look into it.”

Still, now I know what happened.

The outline of the corpse lying on the attic floor had no head. This means that it had collapsed and was rotting without a head.

The head was lying next to the body. At least the outline of the head that had rotted away was there.

There were a few ropes hanging from the attic ceiling. I couldn’t see any nooses. Were they ropes tied together for repairs? What was there?

On the one hand, the chimney ran through the attic. It would have been warm if there had been a fire.

“This is terrible. Let’s get out quickly.”

Chimney. What does a chimney have to do with this incident? The loose piece of rope, and the head lying around the body.

****

All the pieces of the puzzle came together.

maybe?

Why was there a headless body in the attic, what illnesses did the family members have, why did only one family member get pneumonia and the rest of the patients just develop allergies?

The conclusion is out.

You’ll find out if you try treatment.

The smell inside the mansion was so bad that I took the police out of the mansion first.

Back when I was an undergraduate in medical school, I took a pathology class. There was something about a headless corpse… … .

“Did you figure out what happened?”

“Yes.”

“Are you serious?”

Scipio looked at me.

I was wondering how to explain this. It was a cleaner ending than I expected. All the elements were neatly tied together.