Page 38 of Night Call

“Body appears to be in a state of incomplete transformation, with a light smattering of brown fur across several areas of the body, end sentence. Lupine shift appears to have beenpartiallyrendered, with moderate haemorrhaging of the blood vessels in the eyes.”

Blake’s attention perked up. Had Zayne been attempting to shift? He didn’t have a chance to confirm as the examination began to quickly unfold. Chichi and David worked with incredible efficiency to remove and examine the organs. Duncan, to his credit, also moved diligently around the others, but it was Pember that Blake couldn’t take his eyes off.

His dark brows were knitted together in intense concentration, taking in all of Chichi’s instructions and carrying out the work without question. The forensic suit clung to his thighs when he bent over, and Blake’s mind began to wander back to those tiny black pants.

“Interesting,” Chichi said, her voice like a shotgun shoved against Blake’s back. He flicked his eyes back to the clipboard, trying to figure out if he’d missed anything. “Whilst it was most certainly the slashes to the heart that killed this poor alpha, I’m slightly concerned about the condition of his adrenal glands.”

Blake cleared his throat. “Meaning?”

“Meaning that alphas’ adrenal glands—as in the organ that produces adrenaline—are much larger than any of the other sexes.” She inclined her head towards Blake. “It’s so you can fight harder and longer if your mate’s in danger. This chap… well, his are almost completely congested. See here?”

She brought a tray over to Blake that contained the blackened remains of something fleshy.

“A healthy alpha gland should be as large as the kidneys. Helps pump more adrenaline to your eyes, heart and lungs. His are degraded, and appear to have no decrease in lipid content, which we would expect.”

Blake raised an eyebrow. “In layman’s terms, Chi.”

“Sorry, sorry,” she said, walking back over to the workbench. “It means he didn’t appear to be under duress when he died. Granted, his body attempted to shift, but if his brain had kicked his sympathetic nervous system into fight or flight, we’d expectto see a massive decrease in glandular lipid content. But here there just… isn’t. Like he wasn’t in a state of stress at all. Given the number of defensive wounds across his arms, I’d have expected him to have entered that state if he was literally fighting for his life. But then again…” Her words trailed off.

“He has no defensive wounds on his hands,” Pember piped up.

Chichi nodded. “Correct. Which might suggest he didn’t put up a fight at all. In fact, I’d be very interested to have a look at his blood readings.”

Both Pember and Duncan were nodding along, making Blake feel like he was being left out of some super-secret science party.

“I wonder if he took something in the lead-up to his murder. Something that blocked the function of his adrenal glands. Or decreased his heart rate,orsignificantly lowered his blood pressure,” Chichi continued.

“Like some kind of anxiolytic?” Pember said, moving to stand next to the other omega.

Blake’s mouth twitched. “You mean beta blockers?”

They both looked up. “Yes!” Chichi said, folding her arms. “Get these bloods processed ASAP; I want to know what we’ve got here.”

Pember nodded and slipped the sample tubes into an evidence bag.

Blake’s mind was racing as he processed the new information. He knew Zayne had been drinking on the evening of his death, but CCTV at the pubs he’d frequented was extremely poor quality, and the other patrons were less than helpful. If he were feeling spiteful he might report the pubs to licensing for failing to uphold their security obligations, but he parked the thought for the time being.

Pulling out his phone, he sent a message to the other sergeants in the group chat.

‘Possibly took something in the lead-up to his death. Have we had any positive hits from CCTV or house to house?’

His phone pinged a moment later, and Blake almost rolled his eyes. It was Mark fucking Matthews, the most useless DS to ever exist.

‘Not yet. One witness said they saw him chatting to a pregnant omega earlier in the night, but that was about it.’

Blake sighed and slipped the phone back into his pocket. There was no intel to suggest he had a pregnant mate, but then again he might not have told his family if the person in question wasn’t Roma.

It took another half hour for the body to be closed and locked back in the storage unit, and there was an air of excitement between Duncan and Pember as they made their way back to the locker room.

“What do you think, Pem? Could it be amitriptyline, doxepin or imipramine? Oh, oh! Maybe he took some kind of souped-up cannabis, or maybe ketamine?”

Pember’s head bobbed along as they stripped off their suits and boots. “Hm, I’m gonna say some kind of benzo, or gamma-hydroxybutyrate. Or maybe even Diazepam if he was feeling fancy.”

Blake sniffed as he peeled off his own forensic suit. Despite the chilliness of the morgue, the material still made him sweaty as hell.

Something twisted in his gut as he listened to Duncan and Pember chatting away, something intense and irrational. He had the mostabsurddesire to slap Duncan across the back of the head with his clipboard and bundle him into one of the corpse containers. He wouldn’t, of course, but he did take some pleasure in imagining how he might do it.

“Are you… okay over there?” Pember said, hanging his forensic suit over a peg.

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