Sergeant Yates says "This way please Sir" and ushers you out of the police building to a waiting car and the pair of you are whisked away to the hospital and you are taken to the autopsy suite. When you enter, the dour Sergeant Yates calls out "Professor?"
A half familiar voice sounds out "Ah Yates good man, did you bring young Huckleberry?"
The figure that comes from the office is no-one other than Professor Julian Gorman, one of your father's closest friends. The fast talking, never quiet professor looks at you with a broad smile across his face
"Ah Joseph, young man ... how long has it been? I don't think I have seen you for the last three, or is it four years, How's your parent's keeping, are they enjoying their holiday?" By this time he has crossed the floor and is enthusiastically shaking your hand. "Enough of that small talk for now!" he says before you can answer. "Let's get scrubbed and see what you make of this." He shakes Yates' hand "Good to see you Sergeant, how is Mrs Yate's, is that medicine I got for you working any better? I reckon you'll be joining us in there for this one ... you will have done as many autopsies as I have pretty soon. As I said let's scrub up and I'll talk you both through it."
"Mrs Yates is doing a lot better thank you Professor. You know I find your work fascinating Professor, and none of your assistants will let me watch like you do. Lt O'Grady told me quite specifically to stay with Dr Huckleberry until we are finished here." You can see that Yates is well used to the Professor's mannerisms, as are you having known him most of your life, yet he still throws up his hands in exasperation before catching you watching him, a smile on your lips.
Prof Gorman had already walked off as he leads you through to a scrub room and flicks on the lights and in the next room you can see three tables, but only the middle one is occupied. The body is covered by a sheet at present.
"There is our mystery woman there. I say mystery woman, mainly because what identity she carried marked her as a Felicity Sorrell. However there neither was nor is any Felicity Sorrell born in this or any of the neighbouring states since 1795." He smirks to let that sink in, but before you can respond, and you can tell that from his deep sigh, Sergeant Yates wants to get a word in edgeways - but cannot. "Anyhow, as you will no doubt guess I don't get to do autopsies as often as I'd like to any more, damned bureaucracy you understand. Accordingly I tend to delegate them to my assistants, but I look over the paperwork as it comes in."
"Now imagine my surprise when I find my close friend's son named in a report attached to this procedure. I was a bit concerned to say the least. As my assistant started the autopsy, he observed something rather strange, which even after I have seen it twice already, frankly I am at a loss to explain. As a result I asked you to join me to see if you can shed any light on this strange case, if for no other reason than you were there. "Shall we?" he says as his assistant opens the door to the room.
You all head over to the central table when with a flourish Prof Gorman reveals the part autopsied body of a young, very well built female aged about twenty-five.
"Now then young Huckleberry, the autopsy revealed that the deceased died from a massive embolism to the brain, certainly large enough to kill her. We then rolled back the chest wall and eviscerated the corpse, but found little that could be described as unusual, other than her strong physique. However when we then opened the top of the skull and rolled back the skin of the face to take a look at the brain, we noticed that there was much more cerebral fluid in the skull than there should be. About three times as much as is normal." The professor dismisses his assistant.
After some hesitation, the Professor removes the top of the skull before he continues. "To put it simply, I can only conclude that this brain is too small for the skull it is in as you can see!"
The Professor then removes the brain and shows the investigators the damage caused by the embolism, "Here and here are the marks of the embolism, quite obvious. There can be no doubt that this killed the this poor unfortunate. However, there is something else. What do you make of this then?" he asks as he turns the brain over to show them something else. At the back of the brain is an odd structure, a band of pliable, grey-orange substance covered with odd lines and grooves. It joins the brain to the spinal cord. "My assistant has taken sections and stained thin slices of the brain and has prepared slides. Take a look at these under a microscope and then my friend, you can tell me and Sergeant Yates exactly what you are mixed up in." As you peer in through the lens you can see filaments of the same orange-grey substance plainly run through the entire brain.
