CHAPTER FIVE
Ella sat beside Paige in the giant concrete slab that passed as a coroner’s office. Paige sat with her knees together, hands in her lap. Ella knew it was the look of a woman about to glimpse her first dead body.
“Good spot back there,” Ella said. “It’s the little things that crack the case, so keep it up.”
“Oh come on. Someone would have noticed it eventually,” Paige said.
“But you did it first and that means something. Don’t downplay your achievements.”
Paige began to fidget with her notebook, skimming through pages without reading them.
“You’re worried about this part, aren’t you?” asked Ella.
Paige put her notebook away and took a deep breath. “Is it obvious?”
“A little bit. I know it’s a lot to take in, so if you need to give it a miss, go ahead.”
“What would the director think if he found out I couldn’t handle a little gore? He’d have me back behind a desk before I could spit.”
“Well, we wouldn’t tell him,” Ella winked. “Trust me, I know better than anyone what’s going through your head. I’d been dealing with dead bodies from behind a desk for years when I got started in this job, but as soon as I saw those bodies with my own eyes… totally different.”
The sound of footsteps interrupted their conversation. A woman in blue scrubs and a black hairnet appeared in the distant corridor.
“Agents? I’m ready for you,” the woman called
Ella stood up first, Paige close behind.
“You ready?” Ella asked.
“No, but that’s never stopped me before.”
“As good as any reason I’ve heard. Let’s go.”
They followed the coroner down the echoey hallway, stopping at the last door on the right. The woman held the large metal door open for them. Protective equipment was waiting for them on the tableside when they entered. Ella passed on it again but Paige wasn’t so heroic. Formal greetings followed as the coroner pulled out two metal drawers from the wall-to-wall cabinets.
“Ladies, I’m Dr. Levesque, one of the pathologists here. I’ve been assigned both of your victims. Where would you like to start?”
Two bodies lay on the other side of spotless white sheets. Ella gave Paige a quick welfare glance and a thumbs-up. Paige gave one back.
“At the very beginning please. Talk us through the first victim.”
Dr. Levesque exposed the body on the left; pale white skin sucked against the bones, a sutured hole where the left leg should join the mid-section. Not a pretty sight. It made Ella’s heart double in speed. The poor woman on this slab had barely lived a third of her life before some madman took it away from her.
“This woman is Cassie Sullivan, 25 years old,” the doctor said. “We only have two things to look at here. The leg wound and the neck wound.”
“Neck wound?” Ella asked. “I wasn’t aware of any.”
“It’s very subtle but certainly present.” Dr. Levesque pulled a light down over Cassie’s throat. “See here? Light bruising to the throat and larynx.”
“So he strangled her to death,” Ella said. She knew the dissections weren’t the cause of death, but judging by past serial killers, she expected a less-personal method than strangulation. This method suggested he craved closeness and intimacy with his victims – a contradiction to the brutal dismemberment ritual.
“Asphyxiation was certainly the cause of death, and this man certainly knew what he was doing too. I’ve seen a lot of strangled victims in my time, and usually, the bruising is severe. Most people don’t know how much pressure is too much, or too little for that matter. Your man applied optimal pressure to take her life but not so much that it left noticeable discolorations.”
What the hell was this person?
“That’s a remarkable find. Did he use any tools to strangle her?” Ella asked.
“No. The larynx is indented. That means he pushed down on it, most likely with his thumbs. If he’d used a rope or garrote, there’d be ligature marks all around the neck.”