Summary

The Colonel was authorized to being the primary steps into the investigation of Santiago Nasar’s death while the investigating magistrate made his way down to the town. Initially the Colonel thought the autopsy could wait until the town doctor returns but there is no place to store the body. Santiago Nasar’s body ended up in his mother’s living room. Divina Flor has to beat off dogs who try to get to the decomposing body.

But by the afternoon the body was in worse shape and the Colonel decided the autopsy must be done and he ordered Father Amador to do it even though he knew it would have no legal standing. The Father told the narrator it was as though they had killed Santiago all over again during the autopsy. And although they did not have many surgical tools, the report was in...