Dolls Pt. 2

[Doctor Amos]

McMourning had been the Guild coroner in Malifaux for several years now and had seen death many times. He had also performed autopsies on a fair sampling of the endless stream of dead that passed through his office daily. Before that, he had been a practicioner earthside of the same proffession and had enough experience in that regard to have been personally asked by the Governer's secretary for his current possition. Before that, he had been a medical student for nearly ten years at many of the finest medical schools in the world. He was, by all accounts, innured to the experience of viewing a deceased and completely unclothed woman and the sight of three such specimines which he now viewed did little to alter his mood or even raise his eyebrows.

C. Hoffman, however, had gone his entire life without seeing more than a glimmer of ankle and, until his recent arrival in Malifaux, very little blood. Thus, it had taken him the several hours between the making of his discovery and the arrival of the coroner to compose himself in any fashion. He had hidden his face from view of the guards whom he had posted to keep away onlookers. He bared a grimmace that was, at times, not unlike a smile.

McMourning held no such pretense. "So, what we have here?" He asked, shaking Hoffman from his stupor.

"Three." Hoffman's voice was slightly broken. He began again. "Three woman murdered. Thier bodies cut in specific patterns. Thier clothing removed."

"Hm?" McMourning looked over the bodies with his practiced eye. "Could be Seamus. They're pretty enough."

"I don't think so. I knew..." Hoffman stuttered slightly. "I knew two of these women. One was a secretary's aide, the other was a wife of an clerk. They don't fit with with Seamus' penchant for taking lower-class women."

"Interesting." McMourning had been paying only half attention. His practiced fingers now going over the bodies. "These been moved yet?"

"No!" Hoffman said emphatically. "No. They have not."

"Good, good." For the first time, the coroner's grin widened. Then, something caught his eye. He began to search each body in turn, quickly moving and flipping the bodies in a manner that Hoffman found disrespectful.

"What... are you doing?" Hoffman eventually demanded.

"I know these cut marks." There was a pause as though McMourning thought the explaination was sufficient. Hoffman coughed to indicate it was not. "They're hem-lines." McMourning explained with a slightly condecending tone. "Whoever was after these girls cut them out of thier dresses while they were alive. From the looks of it, they did it just to take the clothes.... These wounds are superficial at best, not intended to kill. Just... a byproduct of removal..."

"What perverted mind could do this?" Hoffman asked, trying his best to sound imperious.

"Hard to say. But they left you something."

"How's that?"

"Here." McMourning pointed. In a nook of the ally where the girls had fallen, there was a small object. A doll, stitched in burlap with metal leg braces. Hoffman blanched.

"Well, thank you for your work. Have your assistant move these bodies to your office. I want a full report."

"Of course, sir." McMourning chuckled and saluted with a flourish.

"Thank you for your services." Hoffman nodded, and extended a leather-gloved hand. McMourning looked confused for a moment, but then shuged and took Hoffman's hand, shaking it briskly. As he did, Hoffman's hand gripped tightly, then skittered up the length of McMourning's arm, wires trailing from Hoffman's sleeve. The mechanical hand perched on McMourning's head, and then circled a few times before laying down.

"Lady Justice told me you liked jokes." Hoffman smiled. Inside, he sighed. From the moment he arrived in Malifaux, he had regretted coming. Now, something was targetting him, and using innocents to get to him.

[karn987]

I love these stories! Very nice work Doctor, keep it up!

[Nathan Caroland]

:thrasher:

[Dumb Luck]

Amazing stuff!