Faithless by Karin Slaughter Page B

pressed one of the many buttons to turn it off, telling Sara, “The X-rays should be ready.”
    “I’ll take care of the rest,” she offered, though there wasn’t much left to do.
    She waited until she heard his heavy footsteps echoing in the stairwell before she let herself look at the girl’s face. Under the overhead spotlight, she looked older than Sara initially had thought. She could even be in her early twenties. She could be married. She could have a child of her own.
    Again, Sara heard footsteps on the stairs, but it was Lena Adams, not Carlos, who pushed open the swinging doors and came into the room.
    “Hey,” Lena said, looking around the morgue, seeming to take in everything. She kept her hands on her hips, her gun sticking out under her arm. Lena had a cop’s way of standing, feet wide apart, shoulders squared, and though she was a small woman, her attitude filled the room. Something about the detective had always made Sara uncomfortable, and they were rarely alone together.
    “Jeffrey’s not here yet,” Sara told her, taking out a cassette tape for the Dictaphone. “You can wait in my office if you want.”
    “That’s okay,” Lena answered, walking over to the body. She gazed at the girl a moment before giving a low whistle. Sara watched her, thinking something seemed different about Lena. Normally, she projected an air of anger, but today, her defenses felt slightly compromised. There was a red-rimmed tiredness to her eyes, and she had obviously lost weight recently, something that didn’t suit her already trim frame.
    Sara asked, “Are you okay?”
    Instead of answering the question, Lena indicated the girl, saying, “What happened to her?”
    Sara dropped the tape into the slot. “She was buried alive in a wooden box out by the lake.”
    Lena shuddered. “Jesus.”
    Sara tapped her foot on the pedal under the table, engaging the recorder. She said “Test” a couple of times.
    “How do you know she was alive?” Lena asked.
    “She clawed at the boards,” Sara told her, rewinding the tape. “Someone put her in there to keep her… I don’t know. He was keeping her for something.”
    Lena took a deep breath, her shoulders rising with the effort. “Is that why her arm’s sticking up? From trying to claw her way out?”
    “I would imagine.”
    “Jesus.”
    The rewind button on the recorder popped up. They were both quiet as Sara’s voice played back, “Test, test.”
    Lena waited, then asked, “Any idea who she is?”
    “None.”
    “She just ran out of air?”
    Sara stopped and explained everything that had happened. Lena took it all in, expressionless. Sara knew the other woman had trained herself not to respond, but it was unnerving the way Lena could distance herself from such a horrific crime.
    When Sara had finished, Lena ’s only response was to whisper, “Shit.”
    “Yeah,” Sara agreed. She glanced at the clock, wondering what was keeping Carlos just as he walked in with Jeffrey.
    “ Lena,” Jeffrey said. “Thanks for coming in.”
    “No problem,” she said, shrugging it off.
    Jeffrey gave Lena a second, closer look. “You feeling okay?”
    Lena ’s eyes flashed to Sara’s, something like guilt in them. Lena said, “I’m fine.” She indicated the dead girl. “You got a name on her yet?”
    Jeffrey’s jaw tightened. She could not have asked a worse question. “No,” he managed.
    Sara indicated the sink, telling him, “You need to wash out your hand.”
    “I already did.”
    “Do it again,” she told him, dragging him over and turning on the tap. “You’ve still got a lot of dirt in there.”
    He hissed between his teeth as she put his hand under the hot water. The wound was deep enough for sutures, but too much time had passed to sew it up without risking infection. Sara would have to butterfly it closed and hope for the best. “I’m going to write you a prescription for an antibiotic.”
    “Great.” He shot her a look of annoyance when she