The 5th Horseman - James Patterson [28]
The purple bruise circling her neck and the dusting of bluish bruising on her upper arms seemed like an insult to her flawless skin. After several hours in the morgue, she was starting to have a bad hair day, too.
I watched as my friend slipped into her gear—cap, gown, plastic apron, and gloves. “It looks like another soft kill,” Claire said. “No knives, no guns.”
Claire positioned her scalpel to make the deep, Y-shaped incision that would run from shoulder to shoulder, meeting at Jag Girl’s breastbone and extending down to her pubis.
She pulled up her mask, lowered her face shield, spoke into the mike as she made a layer-wise dissection of the strap musculature of Jag Girl’s neck.
She peeled back a flap of skin with her forceps. Showed me and Jacobi the brownish stain in the shape of a thumbprint.
“This young lady was asphyxiated by two complete nutjob assailants,” Claire said.
“Just like with Caddy Girl, there’s no petechial hemorrhaging. So someone held her down and burked her. Pressed her neck right here with his thumb. This boy is strong.
“Someone else applied a ligature. Sort of crinkly-like. Looks like a patterned impression, consistent with the rolled edge of a plastic bag. Probably put his paw over her nose and mouth to seal the deal.”
I couldn’t help staring at the victim and imagining the freaking outrageous homicide.
“It’s making me think that this is some kind of porn fantasy come to life,” I said. “No peep-show booth, no magazine or computer screen. What fun. Real girls without any barriers. The perps can drug them, rape them, dress them up, do whatever the hell they want.”
“There’s no sign this young lady fought back,” said Claire. “So until I get the tox screen, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say she was probably drugged, too.”
Jacobi seethed. “Fucking cowards.”
“Keep the faith, you guys,” said Claire. “I’ll call in a favor at the lab. See if I can put a rush on the DNA.”
I stepped closer to the table and looked into the victim’s lifeless face again. Finally, I reached over and closed her clouded blue eyes.
“We will get these bastards,” I told her.
Chapter 39
CLAIRE SAW LINDSAY and Jacobi to the door, saying that she wished that she had given them more to work with, hoping for all of them that this poor dead girl would have a name unrelated to luxury cars very soon.
She made her call to DNA and got the usual—“Of course, Dr. Washburn, we’ll get right on it,” an assurance that came with an unspoken disclaimer, namely, “Do you understand how long this procedure takes? Do you know how many cases are ahead of yours?”
“I mean it,” she said to the lab supervisor. “This is urgent, rush, high priority.”
“Yes, ma’am. I got it.”
Claire was sliding Jag Girl into a drawer, when her cell phone rang. Yuki’s number flashed on the caller ID.
“Yuki! Darlin’, how are you holding up?” she asked. “Do you want me to pick you up or can you drive over by yourself? Edmund’s really looking forward to meeting you, and he’s cooking mushroom risotto tonight.”
“Claire, I’m sorry. I just can’t—I can’t be with people right now.”
Claire gave it a respectful beat; then she said, “Of course, honey. I understand.”
“But I have to ask a favor,” Yuki said, then sighed loudly.
“Whatever you need.”
“I want you to do an autopsy on my mom.”
Claire listened intently as Yuki described her meeting with Garza, and explained that she was completely unsatisfied with his explanation for her mother’s death.
Claire wanted to sigh out loud, too, but she held it in. She didn’t want to show any disrespect to Yuki.
“You’re sure you want me to do this, baby? Can you handle whatever I find?”
“I swear I can. I have to know if her death was avoidable. I absolutely have to know what happened to my mom.”
“I understand. I’ll arrange to have her brought here in the morning.”
“You’re the best,” Yuki said, her voice cracking from the pressure of tears.
“Don’t you worry, honey. She’s family. Just leave your mom to me.”
Chapter 40
THE FOLLOWING AFTERNOON, Yuki was in her