With her arms full she couldn’t maneuver the phone from her bag to check, so instead, she juggled Timmy to her other side and headed for the garage. What would she do if Judy couldn’t look after Timmy today? She couldn’t take him to work with her. And she couldn’t call in sick now because they’d never be able to call in someone to cover for her in time for her shift to start. She’d have to call her parents and beg them to babysit. Maybe if she lucked out and her dad answered the phone, she could convince him to persuade …
As she stepped into the garage an arm wrapped around her throat.
Something was pressed to her face.
A sickly-sweet smell flooded her nose.
Chloroform.
Megan fought, but the chest she was held against was hard, the arm at her neck was like a steel bar, and she was worried about dropping Timmy.
Her vision grayed.
Her limbs tingled.
The world swirled out of focus.
She started to go limp.
Her last conscious thought was that she had failed as a mother, and someone was going to hurt her baby.
* * * * *
7:58 A.M.
“Did you get anything from the body?” Allina asked Tracey Curtis as the medical examiner entered the room.
“Bad news on how Zoe Kitter died.” Tracey’s dark eyes were brimming with emotion.
“Shewasalive when he killed her,” Allina said.
Tracey nodded.
Although they’d known it was the most likely scenario, hearing it confirmed still came as a shock. She had been hoping against hope that they were wrong, and that it would turn out that he had killed her quickly and painlessly before pouring boiling water all over her body.
“There was water in her lungs,” Tracey informed them. “The steam had scaled the inside of her mouth, her airways, and her lungs. There was swelling of the mucous membranes, so if she hadn’t drowned, she would have asphyxiated.”
“How long would it have taken for her to die?” Jonathon asked quietly.
“There’s no specific way to tell,” Tracey replied. “But she probably would have lasted a couple of minutes before she passed out from the pain and drowned or had a seizure and drowned.”
Allina shivered. She couldn’t think of a more horrific way to die. She didn’t even want to think about it anymore.
“No other wounds?” she asked.
“None that I saw. Some of her flesh was too badly damaged to tell, but I didn’t see anything major,” Tracey answered.
“And drugs in her system?”
“Tox screen was clean,” the medical examiner replied.
So not only was Zoe alive when she’d had boiling water poured all over her, but she was probably conscious and aware of what was happening to her. Zoe Kitter’s last minutes on Earth were so painful and horrible that she probably wished for death.
“There were faint marks on the one wrist that wasn't as badly burned,” Tracey continued. “So, she was most likely restrained at some point. I also found splinters and scratches under her nails.”
“She was trying to claw her way out of something,” Jonathon said.
Allina nodded. “Room with a wooden door maybe.”