Shades of the New World

Chapter 80: Death

As time passed, the old coroner finally decided that he had taught her everything he knew and decided to set her up as his successor with the police force. The police knew of the old coroner's daughter, but did not expect the talented coroner to teach his ways to a woman. As the times back then were heavily biased towards men, the police did not wish to accept the female forensic coroner. But they still shamelessly asked the Layla's father to prepare a new successor, with the excuse of the betterment of society.

The old man certainly did not take the matter silently, cursing at the policemen for being "idiot pigs" in his loud voice. In truth, he did not mind if his daughter worked as a forensic coroner or not, but he could not let his efforts of teaching and her talents to be wasted in such a way. He decided to contact some of the authorities he knew, ones who were indebted to him, ones whose cases were solved thanks to his reports.

After a few meetings, mostly consisting of the old man's deafening shouts, he finally managed to have his daughter replace him. It would've been something to celebrate, but the old man was not an idiot. He knew that his daughter's new coworkers would not accept her so easily. He sat her down and started talking to her about her future.

"Layla, you will find life to be unfair and difficult simply because you are a woman. Although I'd love to stay with you and watch over you, we both know that my time is nearing," the old man said in a raspy voice.

"Don't worry father, I will do fine. You know my skills in forensics are second to only yourself," Layla replied, holding her father's hands.

"You don't know how those animals think, your excellence will only spark their jealousy. I don't wish you to meet with violence because of the envy of others, so stay low. Do only the bare minimum that is expected from you. You can even fail some cases that you could have solved. Those idiots would scorn and belittle you, but I know that the words of others do not affect you,"

"But father," Layla began but was interrupted by her father.

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"Silence. I know it is irresponsible and I know that it was I who taught you to keep a professional standard, but it is a small sacrifice in exchange for your safety. Promise me that." the old man said with finality.

Layla nodded with a heavy face.

"Good. Also, find someone to marry, get a kid and perhaps teach your methods to the child. I suppose a boy would be best, considering the latest circumstances," the old coroner joked.

"Father, I wish only to better my methods, I don't have time to waste on children," Layla protested but a swift slap from her father forced her to reconsider her words.

"You fool! Then should I have spent all my time working with dead bodies instead of raising you and let the history of my family die?! The Lockhoover history is sacred as it is crucial. Our family was the pioneer of Forensics for the past three hundred years, and that should be the case for the next three hundred! I don't care if you have to birth an ape to teach it your methods, but you MUST leave your legacy in this world!" the old man's voice reverberated in their house.

"I'm sorry, father," Layla hurriedly apologized for her mistake.

A sharp cough came out of the old man's lungs, his face pale and sweaty from his latest outburst. He soon calmed down and received his daughter's promise to lie low and train an heir.

Evan watched everything with interest, but when it came to the talk of marriage, his face started paling. Worry and jealousy filled his expression, and beads of sweat dripped from the spirit's forehead. It was an unnatural reaction. What right did he have to dictate who the girl married and who she rejected? He was dead, and that was the end of it.

But even after the talk finished, Layla did not waste her time looking for suitors of her liking, giving Evan some pointless hope. She would mostly stay in the house and take care of her father, while doing the occasional jobs that came from the police. The old coroner was not a needy patient, only requiring a clean environment and good food. He would occasionally instruct Layla on how to better lie in the forensics report.

"You can chalk that one up to hemlock," the old man was saying from the bed after hearing the symptoms before the death and hearing Layla's thoughts on the dead body.

"Although we both know it's actually a poison that comes from pufferfish, most policemen don't know about it. Even if you tell them that it's from pufferfish, those idiots will either brush you off, or simply argue that it's hemlock. Don't waste your breath on those apes," he explained.

Layla thought about it and figured that her father was right. Such things happened often after she took over the job, where someone from the police would come and start arguing about the results of the forensics examination.

Layla learned that it was best to humble herself in front of such people. She did not know why they so heavily insisted on

"You are absolutely right," was her go-to answer, but she would always ask to remove her name from the new forensics report, as per her father's instructions.

"A wrong forensics report can lead you to get persecuted for the crimes of others. Most likely those policemen received some money from the actual suspect and wanted to clear the clues that led to him. Since everyone knows who the suspect is, but pretends not to Just follow their lead and act blind. But when something goes wrong, their first reaction would be to shove the blame to others. This is why I tell you to always create extra copies of the forensics report and to never put your name and signature on works that you haven't done yourself," the old coroner said.

Layla was learning a lot about how real life worked for these past few years. During the first twenty years of her life, all she did was learning how to dissect bodies and find clues from their state. Her father's constant yells were also becoming non-existent as of lately. Coupled with the interesting things that he talked about, Layla could only hope that her old man would live forever.

But alas, time was cruel and the old coroner passed away silently on his hard, wooden bed. None came for his funeral as his whole life was devoted to his profession. Only Layla silently began her work of immortalizing her father.

Through her tears and snots, she washed her father with a disinfectant and removed every organ from his body. She then began her work of replacing his bodily fluids and gasses with preservation chemicals. Then came the long task of mummifying the body.

First, she had to dry the body completely, before wrapping in special linen. She uniformly applied a kind of salt to every part of her father's body and left it in an airtight coffin. After three days of constant working, the most important part of her work was finally done. Now she only had to wait and see. And after the body dried enough due to the salt, she would wrap his body with linen and resin and her job would be finished.