I don't know which of you are on this particular case, but it won't hurt for everyone to be on the same page -- if it's your case, tell me and I'll forward the report directly, and you can do your thing with regards to informing your team.

Right. I'll keep this brief.

CoD: exsanguination, from the severed femoral artery in upper thigh. Preliminary examination indicates that multiple blades used to inflict the majority of injuries, and of this catalogue of injuries, none were inflicted postmortem. Clear signs of torture, and besides the wounds there are physiological stress strongly indicative of multiple Cruciatus curses. Time of death estimated to be within the last twenty-four hours -- give me a bit more time and I can give you a more exact time.

If you need me, come and find me. In the meantime I'm trying to get an ID on the type of blades that were used.

So that was pretty open-and-shut.

In short, Cause of Death: exsanguination, specifically from the knife wound to the external carotid artery. Given the level of strain that level of duelling would have on the cardiac load, the wounds would have been almost instantaneously fatal.

Rufus, and Gawain when you can read this, know this: there's nothing you could have done.

Hope, dear, the report's in.

And I don't mean to be nosey, but do remind your brother to take care, yes? I can't say that I'm happy about his article, but I think we've all seen that there are many who are much less happy with him than those within the DMLE itself.

I want to come back to work.

No, really. You have no idea how excruciatingly dull bed rest is. Well, some of the girls would, I think. And Edgar would as well, not to mention all you other King's Cross and masquerade casualties who I HOPE are all healed up proper by now. So, fine, you lot do know very well just how dull bed rest can be when it's dragged out for too long.

This is all the more reason to rescue me from more of it by delivering me from the grasp of the paperwork queue.

Please, for the sake of Stella not losing her mind, please will someone go prod Crouch on my behalf -- because I can only prod so hard via journals and owls and Howlers (fine, maybe not the last until I'm truly THIS CLOSE to losing it) and official-type formal requests (on letterhead, IN TRIPLICATE) -- and tell him that I am DONE my obligatory post-natal six weeks and don't need to be eased back in slowly like a child lowering an apprehensive toe into a swimming pool. Also ignore any Healers who say anything to the contrary. Lies, I tell you, all lies. I'm fit as a fiddle that's been Charmed to play Vivaldi concertos.

And on the off chance that this doesn't work, then I want you to fill me in on things that I've missed, because keeping up with what's going on within the department by listening to Ainsley read the Prophet to me is sort of not bloody on.