The Devil You Know, Part 3

December 09, 2015:

Matt Murdock visits Doctor Moore to get more information on Katelyn's death - and Liv provides alot more than she thought she could.

11th Precinct Morgue

It's a morgue. Olivia works here.

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Mood Music: [*\# None.]


Fade In…

Saturday evening.

After being visited by Foggy, being told that the young victim she had just worked on was a murder victim and that her parents didn't even want to visit because of their despair, Olivia felt she had to do.. something. She had used her abilities before in Seattle. She had helped the Seattle Police Department in several cases before she had to make a change of her life completely.

She had said she wasn't going to do it here. That this was a new life, a needed change. She didn't need to know these things. And then Katelyn Larsen arrived in her morgue. As she unlocked the drawer to the young girl's drawer, she slid it out and pulled her fingers through her blonde hair. "Okay, Katelyn.. Kate? You totally went by Kate, I bet. But I know this isn't how you wanted it to end. Another victim of a crime that claimed too many victims. But I want to help. But to help, I need to take something for you. And I've never done this with one so young. I'm sorry, Kate. But I need you around.. for just a few more days."

With that, she took her to the table to start the process of removing the young mutant's brains to put away. Her first bites were guarded, careful. She didn't want to develop a taste for the young, which was her biggest fear. She eventually had half of Katelyn's brain with fried rice.

The next day she woke up with a want to watch J-Pop and K-Pop videoes and a near encylopedic memory of alot of songs she didn't know before and a working knowledge of a third grader's Korean.

But the visions hadn't come yet. She hadn't found a visual cue to trigger it yet.

Wednesday Afternoon.

Katelyn's body was removed on Monday for the funeral services. But her presence is still around. Olivia mixed the remainder of the brain with a strawberry boba tea to enjoy. In her office, bright and cheerful J-Pop plays as the Medical Examiner is practically bouncing about as she goes about her usual duties of cataloguing and investigating the dead.

Matt Murdock makes his way, meekly and gingerly down the long musty walk to the morgue. He's had it kind of rough recently. By rough I mean shot. And by shot I mean in the side. It wasn't as bad as the victim got it, but just like her, he would also survive.

Foggy had already been here, but Matt wanted to talk to the Coroner as well. To figure out if she knows anything. Anything more than he already found out when he came face to face with the killer.

Unfortunately, coming up with a composite sketch from a blind man and a young woman in a coma is not going to happen. There's going to have to be a different way to track this killer down. How he's going to go about it is what he's working on now.

There's a rapping upon Olivia Moore's door and Matt waits paitently outside it. He can hear the pop music; he can hear almost everything that goes on in the room presently as he waits to be let in.

Oddly enough, as Matt is listening through the door, his senses will pick up some readings that shouldn't exist. At least, not in a living, breathing, flesh and blood girl. There's a single thump of her heart and then silence. No breathing or sinus rhythm. In fact, if it wasn't for that single heartbeat, it would almost be that a corpse is tending to the corpses.

Opening the door, Olivia is dressed in a bright pink t-shirt that reaches down to her knees and a white pair of leggings with rose prints on them, and over it, her medical coat showing her as the Medical Examiner for District X. She's dressed similarly to the very girl that Matt so valiantly tried to save.

"May I help you?" she starts to ask, and then blinks, vision blanking for a moment as she takes a long at the man's jawline and features. Something is familiar, she can't touch exactly what it is, as connections start to be made with the nerves of her mind, connecting her own emotions and memories with those of her 'victim'; as it were.

"Oh! Right!" she finally offers cheerfully, "You're the guy from the billboards.. your partner was here a few days ago.. uh uh.. Nelson, right?"

"That's correct ma'am. Foggy Nelson. He's my partner. My name is Matt Murdock, I'm representing Katelyn Larsen's family, and I wanted to discuss with you some of the specifics of the case, if you have the time. I apologize for not having called in advance; I did not realize that I would be in this part of town today."

Matt reaches into his coat with minimal effort, producing his business card.

"I'm hoping you could go through the whole case with me. I understand that you've already spoken with Foggy, but I wanted to talk to you directly in order to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding."

"Yes, of course…" Olivia sombers marginally, taking a long draw from her drink in order to finish it off. 'Okay, Kate, if you have anything to say, it's showtime.' Liv thinks to herself as she accepts the card. "Olivia Moore, it's nice to meet you, Mister Murdock. Please, come in, I can pull up her file." she says while putting the card away in the side pocket of her coat.

With that, she pauses as the song changes. "Oh my gosh, that is totally my new jam!" There might have been a little squeal of delight as she bounces on her toes as she shimmies in her office to the pop beat and Japanese lyrics before she remembers that she is indeed a doctor and turns down the radio, before clicking it off. "This job can be just a little.. tedious?" she holds up her fingers scant millimeters apart. "So finding releases for the hum-drum is a total most."

"The humdrum? I'm afraid I don't follow you, Miss Moore," Matt says. He of course is oblivious to the fingers she holds away from each other. "To be honest, I've never heard the song, but I'm really more of a classical music sort, I must admit."

He walks into the morgue and begins taking in all the beautiful sounds and smells. More of the latter. Always an interesting place to go when you have his suite of senses.

"We can start wherever you like; I'm most interested in the murder weapon and whether or not any police officers have been following up on the case. Have any come down to talk with you? And if so, do they have any leads or hypothoses?"

"Doctor Moore, please. I didn't spend four years of college and four more years of medical school and put myself in a ton of debt just to be called miss." Olivia corrects, pausing. She doesn't usually correct so blatantly. "Oh, I usually have jazz going on in here, but there's nothing wrong with a little change of pace." the young woman takes a seat and gestures to the one across from her as she brings up the file on her computer.

The smiling young girl's picture from a school photo is a stark contrast from the slab photo that was taken when she first arrived in the morgue. It lists her address in one of the apartment buildings in the district, a student at the local school. "Other than the usual brush over by the 11th precinct, not much. It seems that murders happen a lot down here, and in a city where the unsolved crime rate is exceptionally high…" she trails off as she continues in the file. She doesn't bring up the autopsy photos, as she just now realizes that he can't see her. At least not in the convential sense.

"Brought in by paramedics, she was pronounced DOA on the scene of several gunshot wounds. Of the six she took, all but one of them would have been fatal. The most fatal of them was a shot that scraped her aertioral cavity before passing through her right lung and through her seventh and eighth ribs." As she reads off the facts, she starts to feel a pang. Something's there. A passing glance. A thought. An image.

She pauses for a moment and reminds herself that she needs to at least try to breathe to pass off being normal. "…the rounds were Russian, I believe. A black tip was on each of the ones I found in her. But there was only three - the others haven't been recovered yet."

"Yes, of course. I'm sure you went to school a very long time." That lack of a heart beat thing has Matt on edge. Is she an alien? Is she something else? Perhaps something created via magic. He's not quite sure, but he keeps the proverbial distance anyway.

"Was there any other evidence of foul play that was found on the person? Or any physical evidence, other than the bullets?"

Usually, Olivia gets the same sort of reaction from the people that see her - with her white hair and pale skin, she does a look quite a bit like death herself. But to get that reaction from a blind man. Well, way to bring down a girl, Murdock! She deflates a little, blowing an unneccessary breath through her nose. "I apologize, Mister Murdock. I did work very hard to get where I am, and there's a reason why I chose this job." Perhaps explaining that she might be a mutant herself would help with his unease.

"Well, let's see." She brings up the bullets to bring up their files. "All the same calibre - the shooter was aiming to empty the clip, honestly." As she explains this, she continues, "However, it looks like one of the bullets had a packet of some kind. I have it processing still - but it was a DNA…"

Then Matt notices that everything stops. She stops acting like she breath, as if she has a heartbeat, her eyes widening as the vision hits her. Her right hand flutters to her heart as she feels the bite of the bullet entering Katelyn from the front, knowing that death was coming soon. She winces in pain, a quiet cry of panic rising from her. She stares up at a face that has been ripped and re-arranged, stretched to grotesque propotions, and tufts of blonde hair, with a muscular build and an arm that looks like it has had a gun grafted into it, with the smoke rising from the barrel as he half-snarls, half-grins manically down at her.

It's quickly drowned by a sharp intake of air as she forces herself back to the here and now and grabs a hold of her desk to steady herself. "Mister Murdock?" she manages to ask, voice shaky for a moment. "I have an ability - yes, I'm sorta.. one of them." Liv admits. "I get visions, usually of those that I worked on, and.. I just had one about Katelyn." she manages as he grabs a bottle of water to take a drink from it.

"It looked like.. one of those things from the news, the half-mecha thingies that are calling out superheroes as of late." she admits. "But not.. exactly the same."

"You certainly don't need to apologize to me, Doctor. It was my mistake. I meant no offense," Matt says with a reply, trying to diffuse the situation. He holds his hands over his front and his cane off to the side just a bit as she begins to discuss the case. And the lawyer feels a bit more at ease, coming to the conclusion she must, in fact, be some sort of mutant.

"A DNA…" Murdock's voice trails. Through sounds and shifts in movement, as well as the emanating heat, he had gotten the impression that the gun was actually part of the shooter. This evidence seems to agree with that thought.

"Dr. Moore…" he asks as it seems clear she's going into some sort of shock or epileptic seizure.

His head cants slightly as she begins to come out of it. "Half Mechas? You mean, like a robot?" It's important to Matt that he doesn't remark in a negative way toward Olivia declaring she's a mutant. He himself is somewhat similar, his genes being mutated by an outside force, only to replicated through cell reproduction. "Are you sure?"

If only the truth was known - that she's a virus carrying undead that feasts on brains and solves cases with them! But that's not something to be shared at this jucture - or possibly ever. "Yes, yes, like a robot." Liv considers for a moment and then fumbles around her desk to find a legal pad and a pencil. "I can draw a picture; wait, I can draw.. I guess I can!" Thanks, Katelyn!

As she starts to work on the drawing, she considers. "It took a long time for the Seattle Police to believe me.. but there is a detective there; Clive Babineaux, he can vouch for me." Quickly explaining exactly what it is. "The memories aren't permament, I'm afraid.. and with Katelyn gone, they won't last much longer. But I can at least try to offer this. Considering she had the last of her brain just now, there's maybe seventy-two hours left to Katelyn's abilities and memories.

She continues to sketch, and finally comes up with a rather anime-ish version of the figure she saw in her vision. Yellow eyes, putrid and pulled skinned, tri-barreled gun. "…here. I know you can't see it, but it's something." she promises. "I think the DNA test should be about done, if you want to hear the results with me?" With that, she stands on her feet to head towards the lab.

"I believe you," Matt replies. It's rather hard to pretend not to have a heartbeat. Dr. Moore is obviously a mutant, but he surmises that she must be able to read some sort of residual effects from their skin. Something like that. Stick showed him some pretty crazy things back in the day.

Besides, everything she says is in complete agreement to what he sensed just a few nights ago. That's far more compelling than any other reason, truth be told

"I would very much love to," Matt responds, beginning to shuffle along behind her with use of his cane. He walks slowly, apparently very careful not to run into anything.

"Watch for the tables. Things are pretty orderly, but they might jump out on occassion." Liv offers as she maneuveurs her office to head to the lab that was set up in the back corner. Her heart has settled back into that lazy one beat per minute that is her new normal as she heads to the printer to start to bring up the results from the DNA from the bullet.

As she waits for the information to process and print, she asks quietly finally. "How's her family taking this? She didn't mean to take the shortcut." Liv offers quietly. "She knew there would be fresh apple pie after dinner and was just trying to get home to wash up. She loved apple pie."

"They're understandably devastated. Mrs. Larsen will not stop crying; Katelyn was their everything," Matt begins as he waits behind Dr. Moore. "I think once they deal with their grief, they will focus on finding her killer. This, mecha or whatever he is."

Grabbing the reults, Liv frowns. "Well. That's special. I ran it through local, state, and federal databases. Nothing. No matches anyhwere. Either this guy's pulling off his first murder ever.. fat chance of that.. or he's been wiped clean by something." She sighs as she prints off a second copy of genetic markers to offer to Matt. "Your partner said that there was a chance that this wasn't the first case of this?" she asks finally. "I'm still new to the job and have a hell of a backlog, but I can keep my eyes and ears open for anything that comes down the pipe." It's an offer; not empty, she's just not sure what else she can present to Matt at this time.

"Yes," Matt says faintly, before turning his attention more fully on Olivia. "We feel as though this may be part of a larger string of murders. It could be that mutants are being targeted. As of yet, we're just not sure. If you have a card, I'd be happy to keep you updated with whatever I find." Matt is about to say something else just as his phone goes off.

"Yes."

"Yeah, I understand. I'll be back shortly."

Card. Oh! She just got those. "Right, card." Leaving the lab to head back to her office, Olivia plucks out one of her cards from the box on the table and comes back to meet Matt near the door. "Here you are, Mister Murdock." she says as she offers up the card. She frowns a little. "I know it doesn't mean much, but tell Missus Larsen.. that it was pretty painless." the doctor finally offers. It's a lie, not that it's easy to tell with Liv's unique physiology, but Matt was there, and he'd know it as well. But to have a doctor saying it - perhaps it would help.

Matt nods soberly a few times, "I'll let her know. Thank you for your help, Doctor. I'll keep in touch. And I'll see myself out. Thank you." He gives her a faint smile and heads off towards the doorway, perhaps a bit easier than he came in. And armed with a sketch. It's a lot more than he had to go on when he came in.

After watching him leave, Olivia lowers her head, setting her hand on her stomach, almost protectively. "You did good, Kate. Thank you." she says quietly, before she returns to her duties. More tests to be run, backlogs to be checked - possible connections to be found.

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