Sam Gray

Morgue, Guys Hospital

Sam had seen several bizarre, cringe-worthy things in her 11 years of practice, usually involving many intriguing occurrences in the morgue.

Like, seeing a woman knelt in front of a man, and a man knelt in front of...yes, another man.

It's all cool with her.

Or that one time in Medical school, when she caught her teacher masturbating next to a corpse.

She remained unfazed even then.

Even at the face of horrendous murders, in all shapes and sizes. Grated, butchered, chopped to pieces, pulverized. But this was a different level, enough to break her usual Cool demeanour.

Two men.

One, incredibly tall (2m) brown-haired man with a thick beard, holding a cadaver's leg lying on the examining table.

Beside him was another tall man (1.97m), with slick blond hair, wearing a crisp burgundy suit with an electric saw in hand as he cut halfway through the corpse's limb.

This blond-haired man she recognized as Levi Jackson; criminal psychologist, private detective, businessman, and the man with him was none other than Dr Marco Evans, a General Practitioner. She met them a few weeks ago.

The dyed bluette stood on the sideline; she felt her throat turn dry. And she froze in her spot seeing her crimson-haired superior enter the morgue at 2 in the morning. "Dr Gray!" she squeaked, causing the two men to stop and turn to the redhead waiting for her reaction.

Marco half expected her to scream profanities or even faint. But she did neither, she simply stared at the group, face devoid of emotion.

Blinking, Sam tilted her head, processing what was happening.

Marco knew a late night with his friend/business partner will most likely result in an arrest, if they were lucky. And he was right, how they manage to get themselves in all sorts of trouble was beyond him. But all he knew was that Levi was the common denominator.

"I can explain!" the forensic assistant tried to reason.

Marco frowned at the thought of his friend getting fired on the spot, and he questioned himself for ever introducing her to his best friend three years ago. Come to think more of it, Marco reckoned she'd be quite lucky if she only got fired. He was confident they were breaking the law by disrespecting the dead. Again, Levi was the common denominator.

Sam raised a curious brow at Janet, giving her a moment to explain the current scenario they were in. What lies they would concoct for this not to turn out to be another felony on Marco Evans's criminal records. Lisa, his wife, would kill him after bailing them out, he imagined.

"We are..." Janet's voice cracked, not knowing what to say next.

"Yes, cutting a corpse's leg." the redhead provided kindly, and Janet grimaced at the sound of those words. Janet knew her superior was not trying to be offensive; she was simply stating a fact.

But hearing it gave her a sense of dread, the things she does for friendship's sake, she thought.

Sam moved closer towards them, looking at the electric Saw halfway through the knee joint.

"That, I see clearly. But why? Is what I do not know." Sam thought out loud.

The room became eerily silent, and for a second or two, Janet was confident she'd be fired on the spot.

Marco simply shut his mouth lost for words, not wanting to make the scene any worse than it already was.

On the contrary, Levi spoke casually, with his signature fake smile plastered on his face "I am planning on examining how long the human flesh is going to last after exposure to a different set of chemicals."

Sam nodded, thinking about it, fingers on her chin, genuinely intrigued by the notion of this experiment.

She turned to Levi, "What chemicals are you going to use?" she asked.

"Different household surfactants commonly used for cleaning," Levi answered, still holding the electric Saw.

Sam hummed, considering his statement while moving towards the conveyors. "Interesting," she said and paused halfway towards the conveyor and turned to face the three.

"Okay." She said, turning her back as she stood in front of the conveyor.

Marco and Janet were taken aback, and they exchanged looks of confusion, wondering if they heard the redhead right.

"Okay?" Janet asked in disbelief.

Sam pulled a conveyor and unzipped a body bag. "Yup." she said, popping the 'p'.

Marco looked at her, his brows furrowed together in confusion. "Ahhh...we are dismembering a body. And you are okay with it?" he asked, stunned. Was she serious? Or was she simply playing with them?

Sam turned to Marco, looking back at his stunned expression. "Well... I'm well aware that this is against the law per se, but I am curious. The body belongs in the Potter field, right?" She said Janet nodded vigorously in confirmation.

"Alright," she muttered.

Sam turned and locked eyes with Levi, "Hopefully, when you're done with the experiment, you'll share what you learn, yes?" she said.

The blond psychologist was surprised but didn't show it. He had never met anyone with his level of curiosity, and he nodded in response.

Addressing all of them, Sam said, "Okay. I trust you will dispose of the limb properly, better yet, return it so it could be disposed of properly when you're done. I don't want to read in the newspaper about severed limbs on the streets."

"Okay," Marco answered, still dumbfounded as he continued to stare at the redhead while she was pulling a can of coke from one of the dead bodies.

Janet noticed the folder in the woman's hand, "Anything I can help you with, Director?" she asked, ultimately relieved that she was still employed.

"Nope. Not really." Sam answered with a smile.

The three looked at her oddly, as she wiped the lip of the can with an antibacterial wipe, and sipped her coke.

Gesturing to the coke in hand, she said "Actually...can you not mention this to anyone...especially my lovely assistant?"

Taking everyone's silence into submission, Sam smiled and turned to leave. "Well, then. Ciao."

"Bye," Marco muttered, still gobsmacked, while Janet waved awkwardly at the young Director.