“No.”
“What?”
Kelsey took off her safety glasses and bit on the end of one of the ear pieces. The doctor had been involved with the dead for thirty years. She liked to tell reporters she could separate her job from her emotions. But that was the public side of being in this game, Jake knew. Dr. Kelsey was beaten down by the disfigured bodies of children and countless other senseless means of death she saw every day. Kelsey’s daughter was a few years older than Lisa Marie. How could she look into Lisa’s listless eyes, photograph and study those stubs, and not see Christine?
“Any mysterious marks on her back?” Jake tried his best to keep the doc focused. Lisa was found face-up. If her body was frozen and then brought to the scene to thaw, Jake figured her killer might have preserved a piece of evidence without realizing it—her back was the largest section of her body left untouched.
The elevator sounded. Dickie . Jake wondered how in the hell the guy had ever made it through school or kept a job. He was late for everything.
Jake watched Dickie walk into the lobby, stopping first to pull up his trousers. Front first, then back. After that, both sides together before he tucked in the stray tongue of his dress shirt. Eying his partner all the way, Jake said to Kelsey, “I’m interested in one of the photos I saw this morning, taken at the crime scene. I thought I noticed an imprint of something on Lisa’s back.”
“Funny you should ask. Come over here and look at this.” They stood over Lisa Marie. Stared down at her torso. Fluorescent lights shone on Lisa’s teenage body. Poor thing. So young and delicate.Kelsey flipped Lisa’s body on its side. She was stiff as a mannequin. Then pointed to a small indentation on the right portion of her back, down in the bottom corner, where the curve of her hip held that boomerang shape. It was postmortem, for sure. The indent would have been made after death. “It didn’t bounce back into shape,” Jake observed.
“Exactly. Rigor. Blood sinks. Pools. Coagulates into the lowest part of the body.”
“Tissue hardens like mud in the sun.”
“Right! Before it reverses the process, heats up like compost, and begins to decay. Whatever made the mark in Lisa’s back was pushed into her skin and kept its shape.”
Jake was interested. “Means she was placed on top of an object after death. Looks like some sort of light bulb, you think?”
“Not sure. That’s not my thing. But I’d guess no. Just me. But it looks like, oh, this is just an educated assumption now, but it looks like some sort of handle.”
“Get me several angles of that on film. I’ll have someone run it down. Can you make an impression of it, too, with silicone?”
“Alexander?” the doctor yelled. A young Asian man stepped into the room. He carried a yellow legal pad and looked busy. “Do me a midsection tri-quarter-angle on this mark here. Get it done ASAP. Then have it sent over to Cooper this afternoon.”
Jake was impressed by Kelsey’s command. He took out his iPhone and scanned the image himself. Wouldn’t hurt to get it into the database, see if he could come up with a hit. As he waited for the scan to finish, “You made it, I see.”
Dickie had a funnel paper cup of water in his hand. “Bottoms up, Kid.”
“Look at this,” Kelsey said, reaching into Lisa’s mouth, pulling her cheeks out as though she were a dentist, exposing Lisa’s mouth. This took some effort, seeing how tight her muscles were from post. “Morning, Detective Shaughnessy.”
Dickie winked. Jake bent down, turned his head to get a better view. Using a magnifying glass Kelsey gave him, he stared at the crude mark.
“We cannot figure it out.” Kelsey held Lisa’s mouth open with a pair of c-clamps and two hands as Jake studied what looked to be a scratch. “It’s not a bite mark, like when you miss a chomp at a piece of food or gum and clip the side of your cheek. It’s not a burn or a
“What?”
Kelsey took off her safety glasses and bit on the end of one of the ear pieces. The doctor had been involved with the dead for thirty years. She liked to tell reporters she could separate her job from her emotions. But that was the public side of being in this game, Jake knew. Dr. Kelsey was beaten down by the disfigured bodies of children and countless other senseless means of death she saw every day. Kelsey’s daughter was a few years older than Lisa Marie. How could she look into Lisa’s listless eyes, photograph and study those stubs, and not see Christine?
“Any mysterious marks on her back?” Jake tried his best to keep the doc focused. Lisa was found face-up. If her body was frozen and then brought to the scene to thaw, Jake figured her killer might have preserved a piece of evidence without realizing it—her back was the largest section of her body left untouched.
The elevator sounded. Dickie . Jake wondered how in the hell the guy had ever made it through school or kept a job. He was late for everything.
Jake watched Dickie walk into the lobby, stopping first to pull up his trousers. Front first, then back. After that, both sides together before he tucked in the stray tongue of his dress shirt. Eying his partner all the way, Jake said to Kelsey, “I’m interested in one of the photos I saw this morning, taken at the crime scene. I thought I noticed an imprint of something on Lisa’s back.”
“Funny you should ask. Come over here and look at this.” They stood over Lisa Marie. Stared down at her torso. Fluorescent lights shone on Lisa’s teenage body. Poor thing. So young and delicate.Kelsey flipped Lisa’s body on its side. She was stiff as a mannequin. Then pointed to a small indentation on the right portion of her back, down in the bottom corner, where the curve of her hip held that boomerang shape. It was postmortem, for sure. The indent would have been made after death. “It didn’t bounce back into shape,” Jake observed.
“Exactly. Rigor. Blood sinks. Pools. Coagulates into the lowest part of the body.”
“Tissue hardens like mud in the sun.”
“Right! Before it reverses the process, heats up like compost, and begins to decay. Whatever made the mark in Lisa’s back was pushed into her skin and kept its shape.”
Jake was interested. “Means she was placed on top of an object after death. Looks like some sort of light bulb, you think?”
“Not sure. That’s not my thing. But I’d guess no. Just me. But it looks like, oh, this is just an educated assumption now, but it looks like some sort of handle.”
“Get me several angles of that on film. I’ll have someone run it down. Can you make an impression of it, too, with silicone?”
“Alexander?” the doctor yelled. A young Asian man stepped into the room. He carried a yellow legal pad and looked busy. “Do me a midsection tri-quarter-angle on this mark here. Get it done ASAP. Then have it sent over to Cooper this afternoon.”
Jake was impressed by Kelsey’s command. He took out his iPhone and scanned the image himself. Wouldn’t hurt to get it into the database, see if he could come up with a hit. As he waited for the scan to finish, “You made it, I see.”
Dickie had a funnel paper cup of water in his hand. “Bottoms up, Kid.”
“Look at this,” Kelsey said, reaching into Lisa’s mouth, pulling her cheeks out as though she were a dentist, exposing Lisa’s mouth. This took some effort, seeing how tight her muscles were from post. “Morning, Detective Shaughnessy.”
Dickie winked. Jake bent down, turned his head to get a better view. Using a magnifying glass Kelsey gave him, he stared at the crude mark.
“We cannot figure it out.” Kelsey held Lisa’s mouth open with a pair of c-clamps and two hands as Jake studied what looked to be a scratch. “It’s not a bite mark, like when you miss a chomp at a piece of food or gum and clip the side of your cheek. It’s not a burn or a
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