Universe

THE CORPSE.

Julian knew he'd never know when she'd died as the refrigeration of the corpse would slow decomposition right down, but that wasn't the oddest thing about the corpse before him, no, the oddest thing was the way the body had been arranged after death.

                The body was naked, her breasts on display for everyone to see, to marvel over, to touch maybe and her legs had been cruelly tied with twine before her feet had been removed, post-mortem he reasoned due to the lack of blood over the visible and protruding bone of the ankle, it looked like some sort of cutter had been used as the flesh looked neat almost as though they'd been removed in one easy motion.

                Most, if not all of her organs had been violently removed rectally, pulled free from her rear leaving a wide open cavity and small pieces of flesh hung free around it. Her arms sat uselessly to her side, there were no signs of any real struggle, her killer had been obviously larger and better trained than she was and the attack would have been mercifully quick. He looked at her skin, it yellow under the light and couldn't contain the urge to press it, feeling the cold flesh resist his probing finger before he pulled back from it. 

                The most macabre piece of the attack was the removal of her head and flaps of skin hung free from her neck and covered the windpipe as it hung down over the void where he head would have been. Again, this mercifully looked post-mortem too as he reasoned it would have been hard to chop the neck so cleanly if she'd been alive and struggling.

                For all the death before him he found himself becoming hungry and he licked his lips before he cut the twine holding her ankles and was surprised that they didn't drop free.  Some level of rigger had set it and he pushed them apart before dripping olive oil over her chest. 

                "How long do I put it in the oven for, Michelle?"

                "Weigh it first." the voice shouted from the other room. "Twenty minutes a pound plus an extra one, Gas mark 180. I'll do the Roast potatoes later."