APARTMENT, KITCHEN – EARLY MORNING

At the stove, each burner has a used pot or pan on it. Food has been slopped there and on the adjoining counter-top and sink. Used utensils are everywhere, along with empty tin cans and jars. Cockroaches swarm. The kitchen table is covered in soiled paper plates which hold bits of half-eaten sandwiches, potatoes, beef stew, donuts and many other junk foods. An OBESE MAN is slumped forward in a kitchen chair. He is face down dead in a plate of spaghetti.

MILLS. Christ... somebody phone Guinness. I think we’ve got
a World’s Record here. Who said this was murder?

SOMERSET. No one yet.

MILLS. Then, why are we wasting our time? This guy’s heart’s got to be
roughly the size of a canned ham. […]

Somerset moves his flashlight beam down the obese corpse, stops at the man’s feet. Somerset kneels. At the obese man’s pants cuff, there’s a tiny bit of rope sticking out. Somerset uses a pen to lift the pants leg. Rope is tied around the swollen, purple ankle.
[…]
MILLS. Still... he could have tied himself up, to make it look like murder.
I saw a guy once... committed suicide, but wanted to make sure his
family could collect the life insurance, right?

Somerset does not listen. He is focused on the corpse, studies the back of the man’s head and neck. He runs his pen against the back of the corpse’s neck, combing the hair upwards.
There are small circular and semi-circular bruises on the back of the obese man’s head and neck, some hidden under the hair.
[…]
MILLS. There’s a bucket here.

SOMERSET. What?

MILLS. There’s a bucket. Under the table.

SOMERSET. What is it?

Mills slides under with his flashlight, angling in the confined space to look. He is repulsed and pulls back.

MILLS. It’s vomit. […]

SOMERSET. Is there any blood in it?

MILLS. I don’t know. Feel free to look for yourself, okay?
[…]

AUTOPSY ROOM – DAY

The room is large, cold and clean. Stainless steel and white tile. Many pathologists work at slabs. A bone saw screams. Mills and Somerset are with DOCTOR SANTIAGO, who stands over the obese corpse which is pretty well dissected already.

SANTIAGO. He’s been dead for a long time, and I can tell you
it was not a poison.

Santiago reaches into the man’s belly.

MILLS. Ah, man... how does somebody let himself go like that?
Look at the blubber.

Santiago moves something and there is a squashy sound.

SANTIAGO. It took four orderlies and me all together
just to put this body on the table.

MILLS. How did the fat f… ever fit out the door of his apartment?

SOMERSET. Yes, it’s obvious he was a shut-in. Not an enviable life,
but, maybe he still deserves a modicum of respect in spite of that.

SANTIAGO. Are you looking here? First see how big this stomach is.
And, see the strange thing. Stretches. And, here it is distended.
Look at the size of that, because of all the foods.

MILLS. I can see what you’re pointing at, but...

SANTIAGO. Lines of distention across the stomach, and parts
have ripped open.

SOMERSET. Doctor, are you saying... this man ate till he burst?

SANTIAGO. Well, he didn’t really burst. Not all the way. But, he was
bleeding inside himself, and there is a hematoma on the outside, on
the belly. Very large.

MILLS. He died by eating?

SANTIAGO. Yes. And, there’s something else here you have to
look at and see.

Somerset walks around the slab, looking down at the obese man’s propped up, partially shaved head.

SOMERSET. These bruises on the victim’s head...

SANTIAGO. I don’t know what they are yet. They...

SOMERSET. They could have been caused by a gun. The barrel of a gun...
pressed against the back of his head.
[…]

APARTMENT, KITCHEN – LATER DAY

Mills and Somerset pull the refrigerator, rocking it back and forth away from the wall to get a clear view behind it. They strain, pull it a few more feet, and release.
Mills leans to look at the wall behind. Shock.

MILLS. Holy shit.

Behind the refrigerator, there is a space on the wall where the dust has been wiped away. In that space, the words: ONE IS GLUTTONY. The letters have been smeared on in grease. A NOTE is pinned beside them.

PRECINCT HOUSE, CAPTAIN’S OFFICE – EARLY EVENING

SOMERSET. The bruises were caused by the muzzle of a forty-five.
So, there was a gun against his head and he was given a choice.
Eat, or get your brains blown out. He ate his fill, and was forced to
continue eating... till his body rejected the food. The killer held
a bucket under him, and then kept serving. He took his time.
The coroner says this might have gone on for more than twelve hours.
The victim’s throat was swollen from the effort, and there was
probably a point where he passed out. That’s when killer
kicked him in the stomach.

MILLS. This was one sadistic motherf….

CAPTAIN. That seems obvious.

Somerset picks up a photocopy of the NOTE from behind the fridge.

SOMERSET. “Dear Detectives, Long is the way, and hard, that out of hell
leads up to light.” It’s the murderer’s way of announcing himself.

CAPTAIN. Announcing what?

SOMERSET. There are seven deadly sins. Gluttony, wrath, greed...

CAPTAIN. So what? This victim...

SOMERSET. ... envy, sloth, pride and lust. Seven.

CAPTAIN. Hey, so gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins. But, this was
a fat guy. The killer may have felt this was the just best way to torture him.
And, writing on the walls happens all the time. It’s like the fashionable thing to
do.

SOMERSET. One is gluttony…



VOCABULARY:
to angle – kierować pod kątem
barrel – (of machine) bęben
beam – snop światła
blubber – sadło
burner – palnik
cockroaches swarm – roi się od karaluchów
confined space – ograniczona przestrzeń
cuff – mankiet
[he] deserves a modicum of respect – zasługuje na krztynę szacunku
to dissect – przeprowadzić sekcję
distended – rozdęty
distention – rozstrzeń (med. rozszerzenie żołądka)
enviable – do pozazdroszczenia
envy – zazdrość
Feel free to do sth – nie krępuj się, zrób to!
flashlight – latarka
gluttony – obrzarstwo
greed – chciwość
hematoma – [Br.E. haematoma] krwiak
jar – słoik
junk food – fast food
lust – nieczystość; żądza
muzzle – wylot lufy
obese – /fat, overweight/ otyły
orderly – sanitariusz
pan – rondel
to pin – przypiąć
to point at – wskazywać
pot – garnek
pride – pycha
propped up – podparty
repulsed – /disgusted/ pełen odrazy/ obrzydzenia
to rip open – rozerwać
to rock sth back and forth – kołysać (coś) tam i z powrotem
roughly – mniej więcej
saw – piła
semi-circular bruises – półkoliste siniaki/ stłuczenia
seven deadly sins – siedem grzechów głównych
slab – stół sekcyjny
slop – przelać
sloth – lenistwo
slumped forward – pochylony
smeared on in grease – usmarowane tłuszczem
squashy – rozmiękły
stainless steel – stal nierdzewna
stove – /cooker/ kuchenka
swollen, purple ankle – opuchnięta, fioletowa kostka u nogi
this man ate till he burst – mężczyzna jadł, aż nie pękł
to tie up – związać
tile – kafelek
tin can – puszka blaszana
utensils – przybory kuchenne
to wipe away – zetrzeć
wrath – gniew

According to the Christian church, there are seven deadly sins, pride (thinking you are better than other people), lechery (lust; too much desire for sex), envy (disliking someone because they have things that you want and do not have), wrath (anger), covetousness (greed; wanting someone else’s wealth or possessions), gluttony (eating too much), and sloth (laziness).


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