American forensics, but the gourmet system

The winter sun shines through the bare branches, casting a warm glow on the ground.

But Chief Hunter felt a chill run down his spine.

The rotten, fallen oak tree had been completely moved aside, and Russell was squatting on the ground, carefully handling several pieces of white bone that he had just found under the tree.

Even though Chief Hunter had seen only a handful of corpses in his life, he could tell that the bones Russell was piecing together were those of a hand, along with its forearm.

Chief Hunter was transferred to Highland three years ago. In those three years, the biggest case he handled was a fight that resulted in people getting bloodied and bruised.

But in less than 24 hours, first there was a murder, then half an arm...

Chief Hunter is already considering whether to invite a pastor to conduct some kind of blessing ceremony.

Russell calmly pieced together the bones from half of his arm, squatted there, staring at the bones, lost in thought.

"Dr. Russell...?"

Chief Hunter spoke cautiously.

"There are 23 bones here," Russell said, standing up and pointing to the half-arm on the ground. "A normal person has 29 bones from the forearm to the hand. This one is missing the pisiform and triquetrum bones from the wrist, as well as four phalanges..."

For Russell's level of forensic anthropology, which beat 84% of its competitors, these missing bones have little impact.

He was still able to make analysis and judgments based on the remaining bones.

Chief Hunter listened with a blank expression, only half understanding.

Russell took out his phone and opened the calculator to check something. Chief Hunter didn't dare to disturb him and could only stand there helplessly.

The sound of hurried footsteps came from afar, and four or five uniformed agents walked in from outside the woods, surrounding a middle-aged man who looked to be about 40 years old.

Russell looked up and guessed that it was probably reinforcements that Director Hunter had called in.

"Forensic pathologist Russell, this is Sheriff Monroe from the Ulster County Sheriff's Department's Criminal Investigation Division," Chief Hunter quickly introduced.

"I was just interrogating the murderer of Dr. Simmons," Monroe said, noticing the severed arm on the ground. "I came right away after receiving a call from Chief Hunter..."

"Dr. Russell's friend found a raccoon skeleton here, and then discovered these human bones..." Chief Hunter said anxiously. "That's all I know. Dr. Russell is still studying these bones—"

"Female, approximately 20 years old, no more than 1 year older or younger." Russell suddenly stopped his calculations and interrupted Director Hunter.

Russell paused, then continued:

"She was between 165 and 167 centimeters tall and died 14 months ago... If you ask me why I'm sure she's dead, it's because her arm was dragged from somewhere by a raccoon while it was decomposing, and you can still see raccoon teeth marks on some of the bones... The raccoon bones my friend found were probably from when that unfortunate raccoon was gnawing on a finger and got its trachea stuck in its finger bone."

Monroe and Hunter stared at each other, neither saying a word for a moment.

  

"That's all I can tell from these bones," Russell shrugged and continued, "Can you recall any similar cases of disappearances or other heinous crimes committed about 14 months ago?"

"no."

"No……"

Monroe and Hunter answered somewhat haltingly.

"Then we'll have to send it for DNA testing." Russell pointed to the bones on the ground. "Is Officer Andre back? He has to go to Brooklyn again..."

Andre was the police officer who assisted Russell and Dr. Simmons in conducting the autopsy last night. He sent the physical evidence to the forensic center for identification overnight, but the evidence was not used to ultimately identify the suspect.

Now, he has to go to the forensic center again.

Russell crouched down and separated the bones on the ground, putting them into two evidence bags.

A small evidence bag contained several finger bones and wrist bones, which needed to be sent to the forensic center for biological identification.

A large evidence bag contained the longest ulna and radius bones, as well as the remaining bones, which did not need to be sent to the forensic center.

"Okay." Monroe nodded simply, then gestured for the agent behind him to take the evidence bag from Russell's hand.

Russell took off his nitrile gloves, crumpled them up, and stuffed them into a small evidence bag:

"By the way, what was the killer's motive for murdering Dr. Simmons?"

"An economic dispute," Monroe said in a deep voice. "The murderer, Amy Fabian, had some financial dealings with Dr. Simmons, and probably owed him some money. The murderer invited Simmons to come here for a vacation, hoping to discuss the debt repayment. The two couldn't reach an agreement, so the murderer killed Simmons."

"What a pity," Russell remarked. "By the way, could you also tell Officer Andre to have Dr. Smith at the forensic center's biology lab do a DNA extraction and comparison? Tell him I asked him to get the results quickly..."

……

In the frying pan, green peppers with tiger-skin patterns and slightly browned slices of meat danced merrily, releasing a vibrant aroma.

Russell held a wok in one hand and a spatula in the other, stirring constantly until the flavors of the green peppers and beef were completely blended.

Quickly remove it from the pot, plate it, and serve it on the table.

After the murderer was arrested, the farm regained its freedom of entry and exit, but there were very few customers left in the farm restaurant.

It is foreseeable that the number of tourists visiting this place will continue to decline in the near future.

"It smells so good..." Aina's blue eyes lit up. She quickly picked up a piece of beef and put it in her mouth. She gasped for breath because it was so hot, but she still gave it a thumbs up.

The beef was chewy but not tough, and the green peppers were stir-fried until fragrant and slightly spicy.

One bite and you can eat three mouthfuls of rice.

However, Mr. Clarkson, who was sitting to the side, seemed to have a poor appetite.

He showed little interest in either Russell's stir-fried green peppers with pork or the restaurant's grilled beef ribs.

"You really found another body?"

Clarkson asked for the fifth time.

"It's half an arm," Russell corrected. "And it's not quite complete; six bones are missing. We can only determine that it was a girl around 20 years old, 165 to 167 centimeters tall, and that she died about fourteen months ago."

"But... how can so much information be gleaned from just one arm?"

Mr. Clarkson remained convinced that Russell had found a body.

"It's half an arm," Russell corrected again. "Actually, you can see a lot of information from the skeleton. You can determine the sex by the thickness of the bone walls and the thickness of the bone shaft, you can determine the age by the degree of epiphyseal closure and the degree of wear on the joint surfaces, and you can calculate the height by the length of the ulna and radius..."

Russell did not lie to Clarkson.

For ordinary people, half an arm is just half an arm; it doesn't look good and can even be a little scary.

For Bertrand Russell, whose forensic anthropology surpassed 84% of his competitors, half an arm could tell him a great deal.

"Okay...okay..."

Clarkson's expression looked slightly better.

Russell asked curiously:

"Why do you seem a little unhappy, Mr. Clarkson? Is it because I found the body?"

Clarkson glanced at Kawhi Leonard, shook his head, and sighed dejectedly.

"It's not because of you, it's because of Ka... To be honest, what's happened these past few days has made me a little suspicious that Ka might be able to see some ominous things that we can't see..."

Little Ka sat by the dining table, wagging its tail innocently.

Russell chuckled.