Chapter 11: Memory on Fire

The young woman's scream in front of the Forensic Department echoed throughout the area. He cried so much that he almost fainted on the bench. Two female relatives helped comfort her. Rin, who had just arrived at the Forensic Department at 8 in the morning, stopped and looked in the direction of the noise.

"It's Tim. She's the granddaughter of someone I know. Her husband is lying on the steel stretcher waiting for you inside." Anan, the experienced forensic staff, who stood the test of time, came in and told Rin. "He was still young. From what I heard, he got drunk and slept on a pile of garbage. Someone found him and called for him to be transported." to the hospital. He was admitted for a day and then died in the ward. The doctors in the ward cannot identify the clear cause of death."

"Okay," Rin pulled her hair into a ponytail with a hair band ready to get to work. "How many cases do we have today?"

"Three, doctor. Two other cases are from last night's car accident." Anan gave Rin a thumbs up. "Let's get to it, doctor?"

The young woman smiled slightly at the middle-aged man, "Let's do it."

Anan returned a wide smile. He was glad that the new medical examiner finally began to sympathize with him. Anan has worked with many forensic doctors before and had to admit that Dr. Rin was one of the doctors he had a hard time getting close to. Maybe because she was the first doctor Anan worked with, but that's not the only reason. Although Rin was polite and very professional, it seemed like she had something on her mind all the time and didn't interact with anyone unnecessarily. This made Anan feel like Rin had a wall keeping other people away from her for privacy. Anan missed the closeness he used to have with Dr. Bunnakit because it was such a fun way to work. However, Anan respected the distance that Rin wanted. The autopsy table was like an office desk for Rin. Amidst the atmosphere that everyone described as mysterious and terrifying, Rin looked at the three bodies lying on the bed in a strange way. which was no different from how he looked at other things. However, Rin kept in mind that these bodies used to be alive and loved by many people who were still alive today and were outside the room. The doctor in the green surgical gown was wearing a surgical cap, mask and gloves, and crossed her arms ready at the bedside of the deceased named "Mr. Ying Singjai", 37 years old. Rin moved the body's joints and rotated them to look for traces of blood that may have fallen due to the effects of gravity to estimate the time of death. He also searched for traces of injuries in detail, and Rin did not find any suspicious injuries in particular.

"Scalpel, please." Rin extended her hand to receive the scalpel that Anan prepared before nimbly cutting horizontally into the skull. After that, he cut the scalp and pulled it back and forth, showing the beautiful white skull. Rin stepped back so Anan could use the saw on the skull and open it to see the brain inside. He carefully used the sharp scalpel to sever the meninges and cut the spinal cord from the brainstem to remove the soft, fragile organ as completely as possible. He checked the bone structure at the base of the skull to see if there was a fracture or not before carefully placing the brain on the tray.

Rin made an incision to open from the pubis to the chest and separate the layer of bright yellow fat down to the muscle. The incision was made to open the peritoneum until the swollen intestines overflowed from the abdomen. Anan opened the ribs until the layer of fat covering the heart was visible. The doctor removed the heart of the deceased and placed it on the tray to be examined in detail in due course.

Even when all processes were completed, Rin could not identify the cause of death because all organs were normal and there were no traces of disease. Rin turned to look at Anan, who was standing and smiling as he held the equipment in preparation for the blood and urine collection, before saying, "You read my mind."

"I could tell by the look on your face. I'll send the urine for drug testing first."

“Anan, please take the blood sample too because we need to do toxin testing anyway.” The doctor took off her blood-soaked outer gloves and threw them in the trash before walking over to the body covered in injuries from the traffic accident. For this body, he didn't need to do much because he could tell at a glance what had happened. He could guess that the cause of death was due to the skull fracture that was so severe that the white brain with traces of blood flowed out in pieces.

"There must be a heavy rain on the way today since you called me*" Bunnakit said in a happy tone after answering Rin's call. "Can I help you with something?"

"You look happier than usual, Bunn," Rin turned on the speaker and placed the phone on the computer table while her eyes looked at the medical records that were scanned into the hospital system on the computer at the same time.

The forensic professor on the other end of the line laughed: "Are you being picky with me, hmm? Tell me what you wanted to ask."

"When you worked here, did you ever do an autopsy on a patient who died in the hospital and found that the cause of death was unclear?"

"Um...did he die in the hospital? Usually deaths were clearly due to the illnesses they suffered from."

"There had to be some cases that stimulated your sixth sense to get you to work." Rin pulled up a patient's medical history on the computer screen in the Forensic Department's office, "You usually get it right when it comes to things like this, don't you?" Bunnakit sighed, "Not always, Rin. At first I had that confidence too, but lately I try not to use my sixth senses to judge quickly because it has created too much chaos."

"To the point that if you could sense something strange, you would ignore it just like that?"

"That's very unlike me, isn't it?" the doctor said in a softer tone. "But if it had been me at the time, you would understand. I had just been through bad things, I was going to change my workplace, and I also have someone I love and need to take care of."

"Then you must have felt something was strange." Rin stood still thinking about what to say for a moment and said, "What is your opinion on the conclusion of the euthanasia case?"

"I knew you were going to ask about this." Bun took a deep breath. "Actually, I don't have any information that contradicts the conclusion that the patients were euthanized and I wasn't the one who performed the autopsy on Professor Somsak at that time because I had already moved on. You hadn't arrived yet either, therefore his body "He was sent for autopsy to Chiang Mai. The presumed cause of death was due to mucus obstruction."

"Which is strange…" Rin interrupted.

"Yes, strange." Bun continued. "The professor went into arrest shortly after moving from the ICU to the surgery room. CPR was performed on him for 30 minutes. If during that process the mucus blockage was resolved, something that was unlikely the equipment in the room would fail , the patient must have presented return to spontaneous circulation ROSC. So I asked Anan to take a photograph of Professor Somsak's history. Actually, his symptoms were in a trend of recovery without complications. Therefore, it was a little hard to believe that he would really die from this cause.

"The toxin and drug results didn't show anything either, right?"

"Nothing was found." Bun was silent for a while. "Don't tell me this is the answer you were looking for and told me about."

"No, it's not." Rin quickly rejected him. "I won't bother you anymore. Goodbye."

"You call when you want and you hang up when you want," Ban laughed. "I also have to go to a scene. Some people stabbed themselves to death, creating work for me every day without fail."

"Good luck, let's talk again later." Rin hung up and absently looked at the medical records he opened on the computer screen. The name of the owner of that medical record was called 'Dr. Somsak Lahamornchai'.

Rin walked towards the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU). Nurse Mayuree turned to look at her and gave the medical examiner a friendly smile, which she is now getting used to. There were many cases where her unit requested a consultation from Rin to examine the wounds and evaluate the symptoms: "There are no new consultation cases today, doctor."

The doctor was standing looking at a patient in one of the beds who was being transferred to a stretcher with wheels. There were two nurses and a thin male orderly helping with this transfer. Mayuree walked over to stand next to Rin, "The patient who was shot last week has made a great recovery and will eventually be transferred to the General Ward."

"Who usually accompanies patients during transfer to the Ward?" Rin asked the nurse.

"One of my nurses and other stretcher staff will go," Mayuree looked curiously at Rin. "Is something wrong, doctor?"

Rin decided to ask the question on her mind without hesitation because the other party already knew her a little: "Can you remember who was with Dr. Somsak when he was transferred from here to the General Ward?"

Mayuree seemed a little confused when Rin asked about this, "Do you know Professor Somsak, doctor?"

Rin nodded, "I know him."

The nurse was a little taken aback, but responded in a well-mannered manner: "He's asking as if he knew I was on duty that day. I was the one who made the call for the transfer. As for the person who went with him..." Mayuree He closed his eyes and thought, "It's Jeep or Ying. I'll ask him about you. Ying!"

"Yeah?" A young nurse who was suctioning phlegm from a patient responded.

"Were you the one who went with Dr. Somsak to the male surgery room?"

"Yes, you are right." Ying put a probe back into place properly before walking towards Mayuree. "Is there anything that's important?"

Rin immediately asked Ying, "Let me ask you something. When you went to send Dr. Somsak's case, was there anything strange along the way?"

"There was nothing like that," the nurse tried to remember the event that occurred six months ago. "That time I went with a stretcher. There was nothing except that the stretcher staff was new."

Ying turned to ask the head nurse, "Actually, I have never seen the stretcher staff again. What about you, Mayuree?"

Rin's expression changed slightly to one of surprise. Mayuree's expression, on the other hand, seemed as if she had suddenly thought of something. "That's true. I've been here for a long time and I can remember everyone, but it seems like I've seen that stretcher staff only once. We were even making fun of each other that he looked good and we wanted him to transfer our patients with frequency". The doctor stood still for a long moment before turning to bow slightly to the two nurses as a gesture of thanks and quickly left the SICU, leaving Ying and Mayuree looking at each other in confusion.

Rin strode down the corridor that was the path for transferring patients from the SICU to the Male General Surgery Ward which has to pass through the connecting corridor. He pressed the elevator to go up to the fifth floor. Since Rin has been working here for a while, she was starting to get used to the people and the place, and this was the right time to start looking for the answer that was her real reason for coming to work here.

The first thing he did was raise his head to look for the CCTV.

"You will not find what you should not have found."

The doctor's words still echoed in Lieutenant Kong's head as he stood looking at the bed that, until yesterday, belonged to Ying. However, at that moment it belonged to the new male patient whom he did not recognize. Kong clenched his fists and released them to relieve the frustration choking his chest. He felt as if everything beautiful around him was falling apart. Kong quickly turned around and left the patient room. Lieutenant Arsha wasn't sure what he was fighting against, but he felt that he needed to quickly find the answer before it was too late, or before that person made the answer hiding in a dark corner disappear before he could find it.

Kong went directly to the Forensic Department to ask Dr. Rin about Ying's autopsy results and then he would go to the field to look for Van as soon as possible. Of course, this should not be beyond the ability of the Thousand-Eyed Detective like Arsha.

[Tonight I will not sleep at your house again.]

[Where are you going? You're not on duty today, right?]

[I'm going home, my mother asks about me. I'll rush back to you tomorrow, darling.]

[Okay, please say hi to your mother for me.]

[Okay, I'm going to drive now.] Kong closed the phone screen after sending the last message to her boyfriend.

(Del: You're a pure liar here, damn, don't complain after a while that Tum and Wasan are leaving you)

"Sorry, I'm lying to you again." The police officer said quietly to himself before putting the phone back in his pocket. He looked up and used his sharp eagle eyes to peer through the darkness of the night. He stared at the two-story half-wood, half-cement house in the middle of the longan orchard that didn't have any lights on. Kong took out his gun and held it tightly. He tiptoed out of the hideout and headed towards the house that his spy in the drug business told him was the house of the drug dealer named Van. Kong tried to listen to the movements in the house. After listening for a long time, Kong was sure that there was no one inside.

Kong silently slipped towards the wooden window that was kept slightly open. Inside the house it was completely dark. Kong opened the window and quickly walked in and turned on the flashlight he prepared. The house was full of things scattered everywhere with a musty smell. The police officer slowly explored the house, finding nothing very useful other than the fact that Van must have been a dirty person to some extent.

Click...

It was the sound of something falling to the ground behind him that made Kong turn around and point his flashlight and gun in the direction of the sound. Kong could hear the squeaking of a huge black rat running in front of him towards a dark corner of a wooden closet. But that wasn't what gave Kong goosebumps but what he was seeing at the same time. The police officer widened his eyes at the image in front of him and took steps back.

The light from the flashlight reflected on the gray cement wall, allowing us to see the large message written in red permanent marker, "The Angel of Death dressed in white, Kantapat, Ornanong." Kong moved the flashlight down and saw another message that said, "Kill and silence Dr. Somsak" and when he moved to the right, he saw a message that made his blood run cold, "Euthanization of Terminal Patients."

"What the fuck is this?" Kong didn't allow himself to waste too much time here. He quickly searched for more information inside this house as much as he could. There were so many questions inside the policeman's head. Why did Van's search lead him to the stories of the euthanasia case when everything was supposed to have ended long ago? What was really happening?

Kong walked and found an old wooden table with papers scattered on it. He picked up a piece of paper and found a letter written with a pen that said, "Hello, the Angel of Death in White." Kong found sheets with this same message all over the table, no less than 20 pieces. When he rummaged through the pile of papers below, he found a book. Kong quickly opened it without hesitation. Inside the book was a memory that was probably written in the handwriting of the person who lived in this place. "My life is ruined."

"I was fired, I can't find a job or money, so my wife left me. My wife took my son out of the house and never saw me again."

Kong turned to the next page.

"Ornanong was the one who tricked me into walking and seeing her behind the building."

"Ornanong?" Kong frowned curiously, but when he read the next line, his curiosity disappeared.

"Ornanong was the nurse who worked for Dr. Gunn. Together they euthanized the patients."

Although it was just a handwritten note and there is no way to prove how much truth it contained, Kong was still curious as to why the owner of this writing wrote these messages.

Suddenly, Kong could smell something strange coming with the wind. He took some time to consider what it was, but as the smell grew stronger, it became clear that it was most certainly kerosene. The police officer's eyes widened and he quickly closed the book and held it tightly before running back to the window where he entered the house. Kong could see someone's shadow crossing the window.

Who was that? The young man raised the gun in his hand and slowly walked towards the door as the smell of kerosene became stronger and stronger as time passed.

And something Kong feared happened. He saw the bright flames licking from the window to the wooden ceiling. That window was supposed to be his exit. The flame spread quickly because half of the house was built of wood. In the blink of an eye, Kong was in the middle of a terrible fire. Kong looked for other exits he could use. He opened another window and found flames almost reaching his face. The smoke began to burn the young man's eyes and nose, in addition to suffocating his chest, making it difficult for him to breathe. The policeman ran to the front door, which was an old wooden door. Although it was not locked from the inside, Kong still couldn't open it. Probably because it was locked with a padlock from the outside. Kong moved away from the door, gathering all his strength and ran towards the door using his shoulder and body to hit it hard. When he didn't succeed the first time, he tried again many times. However, it was becoming weaker and weaker. He stumbled back to look at the door with blurry eyes. If you can't leave this house in the next few seconds, it will probably be in this house that you will lose your life.

"Our last day usually comes unexpectedly. That's why we always have to think of a plan, because death is another fact of life that we can't run away from."

Doctor Gunn used to say this phrase when Kong, Tum, Wasan and Gunn went out to party at restaurants at night.

"But that doesn't always mean you can't personalize your own death."

"Customize I still don't want to die!" Kong roared loudly and gathered his last strength to hit the door with such force that the old, fragile door frame broke, causing both Kong and the door to fall forward. Kong stood up as the flames inside the house were about to burn his back. Kong ran as far away from danger as possible before leaning against a tree and beginning to breathe heavily. He dropped to the ground and stared at the house where he almost lost his life while he was grateful that he could get out of there just in time. Kong looked at his own hands, it looked like he had left his gun in the flames, but what he pulled out with him that was still completely intact was the book full of notes, most likely written by Van or Mr. Kitti Pohnuma. .

The young lieutenant was still not sure what this book would lead him to, but his instinct told him that it couldn't be good.