by P.D. James: A classic detective novel featuring Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh.
Elias stepped back from the table. The boy’s family would be told the truth now. The "natural" cause was gone, replaced by a cold, calculated intent. Unnatural Causes
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. The boy’s family would be told the truth now
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. It wasn't a heart defect
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.
Elias leaned in, his magnifying loupe catching the sterile overhead light. There, near the base of the throat, was a mark so small it could have been a mosquito bite. But beneath the skin, the tissue was bruised in a way that suggested a high-pressure injection, not a needle.