Burton Chow, the soon-to-be-retired captain of the Eastern District Crime Unit, grabbed John by the collar of his uniform and growled in his ear.
"Are you so happy to be taking over that you can't find your way around? What's wrong with you? How come you caught the wrong person when you're on an operation? Release him now! How am I going to explain this to Dr. Fung?"
John is in a daze.
Wrong person arrested? What does he mean by explaining to Dr. Fung?
He honestly questioned, "Captain, hasn't Ming Jr. already confessed to the crime? He opened a nightclub for illegal prostitution, sold 'candy' and 'powder' under the table, and illegally held several men captive in his villa, he is the right person arrested, isn't he?"
Burton's voice was as loud as always, and he took out his mobile phone and put it in front of John's face.
"THAT Dr. Kingswell Fung - you must have heard of him! He was the head of the A&E department at the Eastern Hospital in my day! The dear old friend of mine is asking me if his adopted son aka the forensic pathologist has reported for duty at the police headquarters! And damn it, you've held him in custody!"
There is a photo of the ID card on Burton's phone.
Unlike most people who are photographed in a stony manner, the person in this photo looks like a mixed-race model, with hair that is lighter in colour than that of the average Hecticans, with some natural curls and a casual hairstyle, and a pair of azure blue eyes behind half-rimmed glasses, reminiscent of the colour of the sea in foreign landscape photographs.
However, he didn't really look like a male model posing for a photo, nor did he wear any trendy fashion to attract attention.
The collar of his white shirt was firmly stretched, and the top button was undone, revealing a section of his white neck, while he smiled slightly at the camera with the corners of his eyes curved.
Elegant and untrammeled at the same time, the photo perfectly captures the glamour of the gentleman.
There are a few messages under the photo:
Kingswell Fung: My old fellow, my adopted son said he missed me so much and he finally decided to return to Hecticity! Do you envy me, old bachelor?
Burton Chow: What's the big deal about having an adopted son? So you think you're not a bachelor because you have an adopted son? Lemme tell you, I have a godchild - Look at John, he's so smart and promising!
Kingswell Fung: [Screenshot: A newspaper headline "Promising to Promissing - Kid Remaining Missing after Escape from Tiger Mother" ]
Kingswell Fung: At this time, my son should have reported to the SCIU under your supervision, but he did not call me. Maybe he is fooling around, maybe he has an accident, I'm not sure. Attached is his photo, I'm sure Captain Chow would do me a favour and take good care of Francis.
Kingswell Fung: [photo]
Burton Chow: Darn it! No need to give me the photo at all - how could I not remember him? All these years you keep reposting pictures of him! I will have John to take care of your son, and I've even arranged for him where to live!
Kingswell Fung: [An old-fashioned GIF: Buddha with a golden smile and colourful text "May you have a peaceful life"].
John's face almost stiffens to the point of cracking.
"Sir, are you sure this person is the, uh, forensic pathologist you mentioned? The one who holds a double doctorate in forensic pathology and criminal psychology from the University College London, the specialist recruited to assist our SCIU...?"
"Duh, you brat!"
Burton raises his hand and shoves John.
"On the day of my retirement, I still have to contact the Police Public Relations Division for you, so that they can negotiate with the media to pixelate all photos that will appear in tomorrow morning's newspaper! At least no face should be shown! The operation is over, now you have plenty of time, so just go and releas-"
*Desk phone ringing*
"Ah shucks, why am I saying "having time" again? Whenever we cops say that something would definitely happen!"
Burton picks up the phone in a bad mood, listens to it for a while, and then throws it back with a snap.
"Sir-Shaw-the-Captain-to-be, hurry up and release Francis! Now!"214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIAKzl28vWM
"But, but according to the procedure, he has not been questioned yet - even if he's a professional hired by the police, it's not quite appropriate to -"
John's straight talk makes Burton jump to his feet.
"What's the point of asking? Arrange for the medical examiner's outfit and take him to the scene!"
"Wait, what - You mean crime scene?"
"A naked body has been found in a sub-divided unit of Room C on the 7/F of Choi Fung Building. The murderer was ruthless enough to slash her face and her private parts, and even left the body there until it reeks! Before the report is received, the scene was already in a mess, so you better hurry and lead the team to tape off the scene and investigate at once, to save as much evidence as you can!"
On the way out of the scene, John and Francis, the forensic pathologist, whom he once thought was a pervert, sit side by side in the back seat of the car.
John is too guilty to look at Francis, so he stares at the driver's seat with a straight back.
On the driver's seat is the newbie of the SCIU, Todd Tang, nicknamed Toddler, shivers from the stare of John, and says, "Sir, if you keep staring at me like this, I cannot focus and will easily get into a car accident..."
He then received a light blow from John on his head.
"Touch wood, never say that again."
Francis is holding a silver toolbox, wearing a long trench coat and a scarf, wrapping his neck tightly. When he hears this sentence, he snorts coldly and goes against John.
"Hmph, that's superstitious."
Unfortunately, no matter how he tries to raise the volume of his voice, there is no threat at all. His voice passes through the burning throat and stuffed nose and barely sounds like a grumbling complaint.
Ah, he must have caught a cold... John becomes more embarrassed.
Before he led the team out, Burton repeatedly told him to quickly overcome misunderstandings and get along well with the new colleague.
But how?
When John went to the custody suite to release Francis, the poor detainee was still wearing the bunny costume and covered in a blanket, his nose and ears red from the cold, and the way he looked at John seemed to be accusing him of being a scum forcing him to be on the game.
As John often stays up all night to investigate cases, he has several sets of clothes in his office wardrobe, and it just so happens that all of them including underwear are newly purchased, so he took a set of them to the custody suite.
He sincerely introduced himself, apologized, and then handed over the clothes with both of his hands, almost as if he was guilty of some kind of serious crime.
Francis's face softened a bit, but John still could not help but try to figure out why he appeared in the nightclub in such a magical way.
When asked, Francis immediately flipped out again. Using completely profanity-free British English, he spilled out the unfortunate events that had happened to him since he came to Hecticity, and could not help but lose his temper in front of John.
To avoid misunderstanding, Francis even mixed in the Hecticity dialect, and the more he scolded, the more fluent his first language became.
"Do y-you know w-what you've done? Let me tell you, the porniest thing I've had over the past thirty years i-is-- I, I, over the past thirty-two years, the most 'indecent' thing I've done is to store photos of male underwear models and my nude selfies!
"Well..." John was tongue-tied.
He could swear that he really didn't need to, or want to, know that this guy liked storing photos of male underwear models and nude selfies.
"I'm a top and there's no doubt about that!"
Francis stressed over and over again.
"You think I like wearing that damn slutty bunny boy outfit? If I didn't lure Ming Jr. into the VIP room and wait for a chance to fight back, do I have to act like an idiot, resist him right in front of everyone, and then be raped and killed by those gangsters?"
"Perhaps, I mean perhaps, we might need to talk about something else first..."
Francis interrupted him, accusing him endlessly.
"I caught the suspect, you didn't thank me for this, but arrested me and escorted me to the police car instead, still wearing this ugly costume without a black hood covering my face? You made me look like a prostitute caught in the act and publicly humiliated - the media has taken a bunch of high-definition and non-pixelated photos and videos of me!"
"W-well, yes, we admit that we haven't thought this through very well, and we're taking it very seriously, and I can assure you that the media won't disclose your face..."
"But I remember VERY clearly that you said that I committed "gross indecency"! That is an insult to my character! I'm mostly affronted by your offensive comments!"
The two policemen on duty at the custody room were snickering.
This scenario and tone of voice, was just like when a wife catches her husband cheating on her with a mistress, grabs the cheating husband, and well 'serves' him with a round of hitting and slaps on his face.
John was so head spinning from the criticism that he had to interrupt in a particularly business-like tone.
"Dr. To, there's a new case. We have to go to the scene."
"Phew... What? To the scene?"
Looking at Francis sickly panting, John's sympathetic but throwaway remark blurted out unintentionally.
"The corpse was in a tragic state. Can you handle it?"
Francis gaped in shock, taking John's concern as a provocation as if his integrity was again badly insulted.
"Piss off! Why the hell would a forensic pathologist be afraid of a corpse?"
This was followed by coughing, bringing the unharmonious dialogue to a rough end.
John feels hopeless now. He thought, it was over, and he was afraid that the conflict would never be settled.
He glances at Francis from the rearview mirror.
Francis has a stern look on his face with pursed lips and does not say a word. Now he is not scolding anyone and has switched to a cool and professional style, looking at the rainy night out of the car window. But he just doesn't look at John and doesn't say a word to him.
John is so used to taking care of others that he quickly notices Francis's pale lips and sweaty forehead, which means that he is probably having a fever.
Yesterday he saw this guy has a bit of workout muscles and does not appear to be this frail... How come he got sick in the wind and the rain? It should be much colder in the UK!
John is somewhat anxious and wants to ask Francis if he's still okay. If he's not, he'd better leave it all to the Identification Bureau (IB) and admit that he is going to get a deep freeze from the IB.
In Hecticity, when investigating crimes, the most impressive one is always the Identification Bureau. The public perceives the Identification Bureau as a group of professionals wearing lab coats and goggles, operating high-tech equipment in a clean laboratory to test DNA, fingerprints, and exhibits.
In contrast, no one in Hecticity is willing to become a medical examiner because it is taboo in Hecticity to touch blood or dead bodies, and the local universities do not offer any programmes in this field.
There is only one old forensic pathologist surnamed Chan in the public mortuary, who occasionally examines those who have just passed away, and proves to their friends and relatives that the deaths are not medical malpractice.
When it came to bodies involved in criminal cases, the old forensic pathologist, Dr. Chan, was utterly apathetic, claiming that his eyes were blurred and his hands were shaky, his lungs were not in good condition, his feet were suffering from rheumatism... that he was not capable of taking up the delicate task, and had to excuse himself from investigating at the scene.
In recent years, the Serious Crimes Investigation Unit has been handling some cases of discovery of dead bodies. However, if they are clueless and no one is available to conduct an autopsy, the cases will eventually be shelved.214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡciaBeaTq7D
This special recruitment of a medical examiner is to complete the missing piece of the puzzle.
Is this man capable of that?
If he can't handle it, John feels that he should have said so. The SCIU will try to persuade the old medical examiner in the public mortuary to take a look at the body.
Yet he worries that questioning Francis's professional qualification would result in a scolding again which further worsens the relationship between him and his colleague. He weighs the situation and decides to remain silent.
He was worried about Francis' health, but on the other hand, he couldn't help but have a little doubt about the man's ability to be a "specialist in forensic pathology".
Francis seems to be only a few years older than him, probably in his early thirties. With a weak body and a real temper. Not to mention that he lost everything at the airport... Does he really have a doctorate in the field?
Bernard Law, head of the Identification Bureau, also holds two doctorate degrees, but it makes more sense as he is over 40 years old and has studied hard for many years before achieving success. The hairless "Lord of Light" is already sitting in the office as the chief director of the bureau, and seldom goes out to the scene in person.
Is there any chance that Burton the old commander arranged the recruitment out of friendship with Francis's dad, got the SCIU a creampuff, then slipped away into retirement?
John has made up his mind: One size does not fit all. He himself will not be prejudiced because of Francis's sexuality and the terrible visual shock of the bunny boy costume, but if this man is not a qualified specialist at all, he must not be allowed to step into the scene and be a drag on the scene.
Francis didn't pay any attention to the changing facial expression of the person beside him, his attention was on his empty stomach.
In fact, compared to the cold and fever, it was the hunger that was more difficult to bear.
He had a meal and a Gin Martini on the plane, around the time for lunch in Hecticity's time zone, and has not eaten since. Now he had to go out to the crime scene in the middle of the night.
Thank goodness he is not spoiled.
When he chose forensic pathology at the University College London, his adoptive father, Kingswell Fung, who wanted him to be a surgeon, argued with him several times on the phone across the ocean.
Kingswell let him do whatever he wanted when he was a child, but at this moment he was very insistent. Even though he finally gave in, he cut off his adopted son's daily expenses for a year and said only after survival for a whole year would he pay for him to go all the way through to his doctorate degree.
Francis had to work very hard for his dream career.
He studied and worked part-time during his freshman year of college and stripped off the squandering habits developed in the elite boarding school. Plus the fact that he was trained to be a professional forensic pathologist, his whole temperament has been greatly enhanced.
What's the temperament of a gentleman?
It's probably wearing a tailor-made suit tasting Gin Martini at 30,000 feet up in the air, and staying up all night with a fever and hunger for work, which is also fine.
When he is dealing with a corpse, he will never act like some unprofessional actors in detective TV dramas laughing and eating to be "fearless", and will neither be like a frail little newbie fainting and vomiting at the sight of blood until someone comes and help him.
Keep calm and stay cool...
Francis silently whispered in his mind.
He, Francis To, a mature, prudent, gentle forensic pathologist, a refined gentleman, has to focus on work on the scene. Let's forget about this little puppy.
But this is just for the time being, surely just for the time being ......
After that, we'll wait and see!
Thank you for reading! 214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcruTgM1VFn
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