Gallery of the Dead

Twelve

In Los Angeles, every postmortem examination where, even after death, the victim could still pose some sort of risk of contamination — radiation, poisoning, contagious diseases, etc., were tagged as ‘dangerous’ or ‘hazardous’. Those examinations were conducted exclusively inside Autopsy Theater Zero, which was the only autopsy theater located in a sealed-off area down in the basement of the main building of the Medical Examiner complex. Those autopsies were known as Level Zero and they could only be performed by a specialist team, or the Chief Medical Examiner herself.

‘Interesting,’ Dr. Hove said, flipping open the file.

She was instantly surprised.

Usually, requests for a Level Zero autopsy only came to her if the investigation was either being handled by the FBI, or had the involvement of the CDC–Center for Disease Control and Prevention — but that wasn’t the case. This investigation belonged to the LAPD. More precisely, to the Ultra Violent Crimes Unit. The name of the lead detective assigned to the case was Robert Hunter.

As the doctor read that piece of information, her interest increased. She leaned forward and placed her coffee cup on her desk.

Dr. Hove and Detective Hunter’s professional relationship went back several years and she was yet to meet a more enigmatic man than the head of the LAPD’s Ultra Violent Crimes Unit, but that wasn’t the only characteristic that differentiated Hunter from every other homicide detective inside the LAPD, and every other law-enforcement agency she had ever worked with. In twenty-one years as a pathologist, Dr. Hove had never come across anyone who could read a crime scene or get inside the mind of a killer quite the same way Detective Hunter could.

Even without seeing the body, Dr. Hove was sure that this would be an interesting postmortem examination.

Due to the fact that the female body in question had only been discovered in the early hours of last night, the file Dr. Hove was looking at held a limited amount of information — victim’s name and address, a basic description of the crime scene, the name of the unit and the detectives assigned to the case, and the name of the lead forensics agent who had attended the scene. There were no CSI photographs. Not yet. Those would be added later, together with several different forensics lab reports.

Dr. Hove’s attention returned to her computer screen and she rechecked her roster. Level Zero autopsies always took priority over absolutely everything.

After rescheduling a private postmortem examination and postponing a late-morning meeting, she was able to slot the new entry into her first autopsy of the day. Half an hour later, she had suited up and was ready to start.

Autopsy Theater Zero was more than just a postmortem examination room. It was a completely self-contained pathology examination area, with its own cold-storage chamber and an individual lab facility. Its restricted access database also sat separate from the Department of Medical Examiner’s main databank, which meant that the results of any postmortem examinations conducted inside Theater Zero couldn’t be accessed by general personnel and therefore could be kept a secret, at least for some time.

Linda Parker’s body, still sealed inside a body bag, was brought down to Theater Zero by one of the autopsy technicians, who also helped Dr. Hove move it from the gurney to one of the three stainless-steel examination tables inside the large white-tiled room.

‘Would you be needing anything else, Doctor?’ the athletic-looking technician asked as his gaze moved around furtively. He’d never been inside this room before. ‘Would you like me to help you wash and prepare the body?’

‘No, I’ll be fine on my own,’ the doctor replied, pushing her dark-framed glasses up the bridge of her nose. ‘If I need anything else I’ll call.’

She waited until the technician had exited the theater before unzipping the body bag.

Despite all her experience, despite the hundreds and hundreds of murdered bodies she’d examined throughout her career, the brutality of certain cases that ended up on her autopsy table still had the capacity to disturb her. This certainly was one of those.

The full examination lasted just a little under two hours and as Dr. Hove finally identified the cause of death, she took a step back from the table and regarded the savagely mutilated and skinned body on it one more time.

‘This doesn’t make any sense.’