KRISZEL removed the chest plate gently, careful not to bump with any tissue around the victim's chest. She sighed when she confirmed the cause of death by just seeing the heart's situation.

"It must be really hard to die in drowning," her autopsy assistant, Sean, commented.

Kriszel nodded. "Drowning is the most painful way of dying," she said. "You can feel your lungs being filled with water, making it hard for you to breathe. You'll die slowly and painfully."

Sean shivered as if scared of what she said. "I'd rather hanged myself—"

"Yeah, and make our jobs easier," Kriszel cut off. "Sew this part, then clean the table."

Sean's brows furrowed. "That's it? Case closed?"

Kriszel arched a brow. "Are you in doubt? I can see it clearly. It's murder."

"Homicide."

Kriszel and Sean looked up and saw Carlos peeking over their heads. He was towering them with his six-feet and three-inches height. A height that could have been the center of a basketball team if he didn't take pathology and law in college.

"The killer waited for the victim to come home at eight p.m, and then invited her to have a quick swim. After some drinks, he put up a fake argument with her and intentionally pushed her to the pool. When he saw that she was about to rise from the water, he jumped and strangled her until she got drowned," Kriszel explained in her deadly tone that she often used in court trials.

Carlos smirked. Kriszel can see his annoying smile behind his surgical mask. "That's what we saw on the CCTV. And, it was a clear case of homicide, Kris." He said and moved to the other side of the autopsy table. "Where did you get the idea that it's murder?"

Kriszel arched her brow to her colleague. "Crime of passion, Dr. Santiago," she said as she removed her latex gloves. "The killer was the victim's boyfriend. Before meeting him at her house, the victim was with her other man. When she went home, the killer was already in her house. I've talked with the killer, he did it because he saw in the CCTV footages that her girlfriend was always with somebody during weekends."

Carlos' brows raised. "Why I felt these chills every time you're calling me 'Dr. Santiago'?"

Sean, the mortuary tech, snorted. "Everybody does, doc."

Kriszel rolled her eyes. "This is not your post, Carlos. Get the fuck outta here."

"Wait, don't be mad at me, Kris." Carlos pulled down his surgical mask. "I just want to ask if you're also in charge of the Supergirl's post?"

"Do you think I'm buying that reason of yours?" Kriszel took off her mask and was about to go to the changing room when Carlos called her again.

"Give her to me," he shouted. "I don't want to perform the floater's post—"

Kriszel looked over her shoulders. "Then quit your job."

Kriszel Mercones is one of the skilled medical examiners of Manila Coroner's Office. She was a fresh graduate of law and was about to get her physician's license when the City Coroner sent her an invitation letter to join the Academy class, where the Chief Medical Examiner was the program's current speaker.

At first, the deputy wasn't convinced that she wanted to be a medical examiner. She was so young back then, a twenty-five-year-old fresh graduate of law—but often mistaken tourism graduate. With her five-feet and five-inch height and slim body, she was always the campus first choice to be the reigning Miss University—that she often refused because she's not into crowds and publicities. Kriszel usually spends her spare time in her house, mulling over the backlogs from her thesis.

Since the death of her Aunt Madel, she chose to live alone. Her Aunt left her all their family's properties in Bulacan and some investments. But, Kriszel distributed them to their housekeepers that did their job until her Aunt's last breath. They never leave her Aunt's side during those times. Unlike the man that her Aunt chose to pour all her love, her dad did it to her mom. She heaved a sigh. They're all the same.

It's been eleven years since her Aunt's death and nineteen years since her mom's end. Both of them died because of loving a man who betrayed them, left them, and forgot them.

"I'm starting to get jealous of those dead bodies in the compartment," Carlos commented when Kriszel found him in the corpse storage. "You're paying them a visit from time to time."

Kriszel passed by him when he tried to meet her. "Those cadavers are my life, you know."

"How sweet," he said. "Did the papers of the floater made you change your mind?"

"Let me see the body first," Kriszel said, pulling open the steel door of the compartment 104.

"Wait!" Carlos pushed back the door. "It's not safe for our nostrils to open the compartment."

Kriszel knotted her forehead. "Odors are important—"

"Yeah, I know. But the right place for that is inside the autopsy suite," Carlos said hastily. His gloved hand remained on the compartment's door. "It might affect the cooled air here."

Kriszel arched her brow. "Really?"

She's been working with this team of medical examiners for four years, and have known the personalities of each and every one of them. Kriszel knew that Carlos was just baffling. This big guy hates the odors of decomposing bodies.

"It might spread bacteria in the air that can cause airborne diseases—"

"Then, this case is perfect for you. You specialized in internal medicines, right?" Kriszel said and moved away from the compartment. "I'll stick with the woman that jumped from the thirty-sixth floor of her condo."

Carlos groaned. "Kris, please give me a break—"

"I need a break, too."

"Then come with me tonight," Carlos said suddenly.

Her brows furrowed. "Is that your way of asking a date? How lame."

"Don't assume," Carlos said with a chuckle. "Lalaine, Ardin, and Detective Albert will join us."

"And, all of you will persuade me to trade my post with your floater," she said and crossed her arms. "I know better—"

"No, it's not like that, Kris. It's my dad's death anniversary today," he said in a low voice. "I just want to reminisce about his lost with my friends."

Kriszel's brows raised. She turned her back and held the door handle. "Okay, just send me the details."

She opened the door and walked out of the room. She heard Carlos called her, begging to trade posts with her, but she ignored him. Kriszel wasn't a fool, his father's death anniversary wasn't today.

***