Life in North America, you call this an autopsy officer?!
Chapter 372 - 230: Monster, Found You!

Chapter 372: Chapter 230: Monster, Found You!

The town cemetery was located just outside the town.

Brian followed the scent and found the address.

Chief Flory was somewhat surprised, "Brian, how did you know the cemetery was in this position?"

"You can guess from looking at the environmental traces of activity around here. After all, most people always avoid the deceased subconsciously," Brian explained offhand.

He wasn’t lying.

Chief Flory nodded and said, "Alright, that’s very accurate, so what do we do now?"

"Verify if there’s a body beneath our feet."

"Dig up a grave?"

"No need for that hassle."

While speaking, Brian took out a long piece of wire he had taken with him upon departure and waved it around: "The soil burying a body has a distinct smell from normal soil, even with a coffin blocking it. In two years, the surrounding soil would have absorbed that peculiar odor."

"Peculiar odor?"

Chief Flory asked curiously.

"Yes, it’s similar to the smell of a corpse, but slightly different. The odor emitted from human decomposition is very adhesive and has strong penetration. Some fools wrapped bodies in concrete to dispose of them, only to have the smell of decay reveal them. That’s the reason. The encapsulation of concrete can’t block the molecules of smell from penetrating unless they are buried deep underground, but even then, the surrounding soil would be invaded by the odor, becoming very characteristic."

During the conversation.

Brian looked at the tombstones before him.

The name and other information were on the gravestone.

The campground owner was named Reinhard Cap, born in 1960 and died in 2003, which was two years ago, dying at the age of forty-three.

One could see some withered flowers around with varying times of decay.

This indicated that Reinhard’s grave was frequently visited.

The guy must have had a good reputation in town; otherwise, it wouldn’t be like this.

Seeing where Brian’s gaze landed, Chief Flory explained, "That’s why I’ve always felt it’s a shame about the campground. Reinhard was a good man. He often helped the town’s elderly and children and brought extra income to everyone. We all deeply regretted his passing."

"Maybe so."

Brian voiced something that made Chief Flory feel uneasy, walked to the flat ground ahead, and used finesse to drill the iron wire into the soil bit by bit.

In the United States, the rate of cremation at this time was not high, with the cremation rate in rural areas being roughly between fifteen and twenty percent.

The main reason was the cost.

The cremation process could cost at least five or six thousand US dollars, which wasn’t a small amount for the lower class.

Therefore, some of the deceased’s relatives, in order to save money, even donated their loved ones’ bodies to charitable organizations for organ and human tissue research.

Those charities would then offer free cremation services for the remainder of the bodies.

However, that circle was very messy, incredibly messy.

Another reason was the customary practice of burial, "returning to the earth," which was also the thought of most people here.

Brian had to thank the local burial customs. Unlike his past life, where large mounds of earth were piled on top, it was a flat structure here – at least most were a rectangular piece of flat land.

This saved him a lot of effort.

With the help of finesse, Brian’s wire burrowed into the ground, looking almost like X-ray vision, avoiding areas of hard soil and small clumps, and precisely drilling more than a meter deep into the ground.

The general depth of a burial was around two meters, not too shallow and not too deep.

This distance was sufficient.

Feeling that the depth was about right, Brian lit a cigarette and waited for the wire to absorb the odor from the surrounding soil.

...

Ellie, who had been surveying the surroundings, ultimately couldn’t contain her curiosity, "Do you suspect that the campground owner Reinhard is actually not dead?"

Chief Flory also looked over.

Brian exhaled a puff of smoke and nodded, "Yes, I’m quite sure he’s not dead."

"What’s the reason?"

Chief Flory was not too willing to accept such an outcome; it meant that the town’s regrets were nothing but a joke.

Brian took out the photo he’d found earlier, "It’s this that told me."

Ellie and Chief Flory examined the photo for a moment but didn’t quite catch on.

Wasn’t that just a photograph of Reinhard when he was young?

Seeing their somewhat dim-witted looks, Brian pinched out his cigarette, tucked it away, and explained reluctantly, "This photograph is Reinhard himself, right?"

Chief Flory nodded, "Yes, that’s him, from when he was still living in town. I can confirm that."

Brian nodded and pointed at the photo pasted on Reinhard’s gravestone:

"This photo should be of Reinhard in his forties, that is, a photograph from before his death, the same as in the police records. I saw it earlier in the CD building. The problem is if this young photo is indeed Reinhard himself, then he shouldn’t look the same as the photo on the tombstone when he was in his forties. The differences in their facial bone structures are significant."

"They do look a bit alike," Ellie said, puzzled.

Chief Flory nodded in agreement.

Brian was even more speechless.

He directly asked Chief Flory for paper and pen, drew two skull portraits, and asked them, "This is how they really look through my eyes."

Ellie and Chief Flory were even more confused, "Isn’t that almost the same?"

Brian shrugged:

"Almost the same is the big problem. The normal growth of a Caucasian’s cranial bones stops and sets around the age of twenty-two at the latest.

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