Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch [23]
‘Dr Walid handles all our special cases,’ said Nightingale.
‘I specialise in cryptopathology,’ said Dr Walid.
‘Salem,’ I said.
‘Al salam alaikum,’ said Dr Walid, shaking my hand.
I’d been hoping that this time we’d used the remote monitoring suite, but Nightingale didn’t want a visual record of this stage of the autopsy. Once again in aprons, masks and eye protectors, we entered the lab. Brandon Coopertown, or at least the man we thought was Brandon Coopertown, lay naked on his back on the table. Dr Walid had already opened up his torso with the standard Y-shaped incision and, after rummaging around for whatever pathologists look for in there, closed him back up again. We had confirmed his identity via the biometrics on his passport.
‘Below the neck,’ said Dr Walid, ‘he’s a physically fit man in his late forties. It’s his face that’s holds our interest here.’
Or rather what was left of his face. Dr Walid had used clamps to splay open the torn flaps of skin so that Brandon Coopertown’s face looked horribly like a pink and red daisy.
‘Starting with the skull,’ said Dr Walid, and leaned in with a pointer. Nightingale followed suit but I contented myself with peering over his shoulder. ‘As you can see, there’s extensive damage to the bones of the face – the mandible, maxilla and zygomatic bones have been effectively pulverised and the teeth, those normally reliable survivors, have been shattered.’
‘A heavy blow to the face?’ asked Nightingale.
‘That would have been my first guess,’ said Dr Walid, ‘if not for this.’ He used a clamp to seize one flap of skin – I guessed what had once covered the cheek – and draw it over the face. It reached right across the breadth of the skull and flopped down to cover the ear on the other side. ‘The skin has been stretched beyond its natural capacity to retain its shape, and while there’s not much left of the muscle tissue, that too shows lateral degradation. Judging from the lines of stress I’d say something pushed out his face around the chin and nose, stretching the skin and muscle, pulverising the bone and then holding it in position. Then, whatever it is holding it in that shape vanishes, the bone and soft tissues have lost all their integrity and basically his face falls off.’
‘Are you thinking dissimulo?’ asked Nightingale.
‘Or a technique very like it,’ said Dr Walid.
Nightingale explained, for my benefit, that dissimulo was a magic spell that could change your appearance. Actually he didn’t use the words ‘magic spell’, but that’s what it amounted to.
‘Unfortunately,’ said Dr Walid, ‘it essentially moves the muscles and skin into new positions, and this can cause permanent damage.’
‘Never was a popular technique,’ said Nightingale.
‘You can see why,’ said Dr Walid, indicating the remains of Brandon Coopertown’s face.
‘Any signs that he was a practitioner?’ asked Nightingale.
Dr Walid produced a covered stainless-steel tray. ‘I knew you’d ask that,’ he said, ‘so here’s something I whipped out earlier.’ He lifted the cover to reveal a human brain. I’m no expert, but it didn’t look like a healthy brain to me; it looked shrunken and pitted, as if it had been left out in the sun to shrivel.
‘As you can see,’ said Dr Walid, ‘there’s extensive degradation of the cerebral cortex and evidence of intracranial bleeding that we might associate with some form of degenerative condition, if Inspector Nightingale and I were not already familiar with the true cause.’
He sliced it in half to show us the interior. It looked like a diseased cauliflower.
‘And this,’ said Dr Walid, ‘is your brain on magic.’
‘Magic does that to your brain?’ I asked. ‘No wonder nobody does it any more.’
‘This is what happens if you overstep your limitations,’ said Nightingale. He turned to Dr Walid. ‘There wasn’t any evidence of practice at his house. No books, no paraphernalia, no vestigium.’
‘Could someone have stolen his magic?’ I asked. ‘Sucked it out of his brain?’
‘That’s very unlikely,’ said Nightingale. ‘It’s almost impossible to steal another man’s magic.