Silent Scream

Thirty-Three

As Kim entered the autopsy suite she blinked three times to adjust her vision. The overload of stainless steel was like a dozen flashbulbs all going off at once.

‘This place gives me the creeps.’

She turned to Bryant. ‘When did you turn into such a little girl?’

‘Always been that way, Guv.’

The pathology suite had recently been modernised and now held four separate bays positioned like a small hospital ward.

Each area came complete with a sink, table, wall cabinets and a tray of tools. Many of the instruments looked harmless and not unlike the scissors and scalpels used in routine surgery but others, like the skull chisel, bone saw and rib cutters, looked like they’d been plucked from the imagination of Wes Craven.

Unlike the wards in the main part of the hospital there were no curtains around each bay. These customers cared nothing for false modesty.

The recovered skeleton was laid out in form and looked somehow more forlorn than in the ground. Now the bones were displayed in a sterile environment being scrutinized, analysed and studied. It seemed just another indignity to be suffered.

The table was long and had a lip all the way around that gave the impression of an oversize turkey dish. Kim had the overwhelming urge to cover the bones over.

The ceiling light was pulled down to shoulder height and reminded Kim of the type used at the dentist.

Doctor Bate measured the right femur and noted the measurement on a clipboard.

‘Someone’s been busy.’

‘Early bird catches the worm, as they say. Unless you’re an entomologist and then that would be just plain weird.’

Kim clutched her chest. ‘Doc, did you just try and make a funny? You did, didn’t you?’

The white coat hung open, revealing a pair of faded jeans and a green and blue striped rugby shirt.

‘Detective, are you this sarcastic to everyone you meet?’

She thought for two seconds. ‘I certainly try to be.’

He turned to face her fully. ‘How have you been this successful by being so rude, arrogant, obnoxious ...’

‘Hey, easy there, Doc. I have bad points as well. Tell him, Bryant.’

‘She does have ...’

‘So, what can you tell us about our victim this morning?’ Kim interrupted.

The doctor shook his head in despair and turned away. ‘Well, for a start, the bones will often reveal more about a victim’s life than their death. We can estimate how long they lived, illness, old injuries, height, build, if any deformities were present.

‘The age at death inherently affects decay. The younger the person, the faster they will decay. With children, their bones are smaller. They contain less mineral.

‘Conversely, an obese person will decay faster because of the large amounts of flesh available to feed micro-organisms and maggots.’

‘Fabulous, now is there anything you can tell us that will actually help?’

The Doctor threw his head back and roared with laughter. ‘I’ll say one thing for you, Detective, you’re consistent.’

Kim said nothing and just waited while he put on a pair of simple black-framed glasses.

‘We have two fractured metatarsals on the left foot. An injury more consistent with playing football, but this was not an old injury. No fusion of the bones had occurred.’

‘Could it be from kicking something?’ Bryant asked.

‘It could be, but a normal person would kick with their right foot, unless they had been trained to use both feet equally.’

He moved up the table closer to the head.

‘I’ve already shown you the fracture in the cervical vertebrae so we know that the victim was beheaded at some stage. It was a savage attack and the blow that severed the bone was not the first.’

He took a magnifying glass. ‘If you look at C1 and C2 you’ll see what I mean.’

Kim leaned down beside him. There was a visible ridge in the bone of C1.

‘Do you see?’

Kim nodded, noting the smell of mint on his breath.

‘Here, hold this,’ he said, passing her the magnifier.

He gently turned the body slightly so that the bones of the neck were sideways on. ‘Now look at C2.’

He held the body in place while she lowered the glass over the top area of the neck bones closest to the skull. Again she saw a clear ridge.

Kim stepped back as a sick feeling began to build in her stomach. ‘But the injury you showed me yesterday was not on the side of the neck.’

The Doctor nodded and for just a second their gaze held in understanding.

‘I don’t get it,’ Bryant said, leaning over the table for a closer look.

‘She was alive,’ Kim murmured. ‘She was moving around when he was trying to take her head off.’

‘Sick bastard,’ Bryant exhaled, shaking his head.

‘Could the injury to the foot have been caused by being stamped on, to render the victim less mobile?’

That would explain why the victim was writhing on the ground but unable to get away.

‘That would seem to be a logical conclusion.’

‘Be careful you don’t commit there, Doc.’

‘I can’t confirm that theory, Detective, in the absence of any soft tissue but I can state that I have not identified any other obvious cause of death.’

‘How long has she been down there?’

‘As little as five years, possibly as many as twelve.’

Kim rolled her eyes.

‘Look, if I could give you a day, month and year I would but decomposition is affected by many variables; heat, soil content, age, illness, infection. Like yourself I would like to find everybody with a photograph, full medical history, a passport and recent utility bill but unfortunately this is what we’ve got.’

Kim was unperturbed by his outburst. ‘So, what exactly have we got, Doc?’

‘My educated estimation is that we have the body of a non-adult, no older than fifteen years of age.’

‘Educated estimation? Is that scientific jargon for a guess?’

He shook his head. ‘No, I’d testify in a court to that conclusion. My guess is that it is the body of a female.’

Kim was puzzled. ‘But yesterday, you said ...’

‘There is no scientific rationale.’

‘Is this because of the beads?’

He shook his head. ‘Cerys brought this over last night.’

He held up a plastic bag containing a piece of cloth. She peered closer. There was a design.

‘It’s part of a sock. Wool decays much more slowly than other fabrics.’

‘But I still don’t ...’

‘Under the microscope I can just make out the remnants of a pink butterfly.’

‘That’ll do for me,’ Kim said, as she turned and left the lab.