He spent the next six hours in a fever of methodology. He ran toxicology screens that most labs wouldn't think to order for a "heart attack" victim. He looked for rare alkaloids, synthetic derivatives that mimic natural enzymes.
The results came back at 3:00 AM. It wasn't a heart defect. It was a concentrated dose of a rare neurotoxin found in specific deep-sea cone snails—something that causes total muscle paralysis, including the heart, within seconds. It was a "perfect" murder because it left no chemical footprint unless you knew exactly where to look. Unnatural Causes
by Dr. Richard Shepherd: A gripping memoir about his career as a leading forensic pathologist. He spent the next six hours in a fever of methodology
He examined the lungs first. They were clear—no signs of the fluid buildup you’d expect from a failing heart. He moved to the stomach. The remains of an expensive steak dinner were there, half-digested. Nothing looked out of place until he reached for the liver. It was slightly enlarged, with a peculiar, faint yellowish hue that didn't match the boy’s age or health records. The results came back at 3:00 AM
But as Elias made the first Y-incision, he felt the familiar prickle at the back of his neck. He had performed over twenty thousand autopsies, and he knew that "natural" was often just a mask worn by something far more sinister.
The latest "customer" was a young man named Leo. The police report was tidy: a sudden collapse in a high-end restaurant, likely a congenital heart defect or a freak aneurysm. A "natural" tragedy.