Gallery of the Dead

Seventeen

Before sharing the results of Linda Parker’s post-mortem examination with Hunter and Garcia, Dr. Hove decided to once again go over a couple of her findings, just to be absolutely sure. Thirty-five minutes later, still sitting inside Autopsy Theater Zero, she finally called the detectives at the Police Administration Building.

‘Robert, it’s Carolyn Hove,’ she said as Hunter picked up the phone at the other end. ‘I’m done with the Level Zero autopsy you’ve requested.’

‘Oh, that’s great, Doc,’ Hunter said. ‘So what have you got for us?’

Dr. Hove’s stare wandered back to the body on the examination table. The familiar Y incision that ran from the top of each shoulder to the lower part of the sternum had already been sewn shut. Thick black stitches now ran the entire length of the cut, adding a whole new layer of grotesqueness to an already alien-looking body.

‘Something quite intriguing, I must say,’ she replied.

Hunter paused for a second. ‘Give me a moment, Doc. Let me put you on speakerphone...’

Dr. Hove heard a muffled click come through on her earpiece before Hunter spoke again.

‘OK, Doc. Go ahead.’

‘Well,’ she began. ‘Given the mutilated state the body is in and the gravity of its wounds, I was expecting to find that the victim had been severely tortured prior to her death, but that isn’t the case at all.’

‘How do you mean?’ The question was asked by a somewhat distant female voice, which made Dr. Hove frown.

‘Sorry, who is this?’ she asked with concern.

‘Sorry, Carolyn, it’s Barbara Blake.’ Her voice strengthened as the captain stepped closer to Hunter’s desk. ‘I should’ve said hello when Robert placed the call on speakerphone.’

‘Oh no, not at all. Sorry I didn’t recognize your voice, Barbara. It sounded a little distant. How are you doing, anyway?’

‘Not too bad, but something tells me that that’s about to change.’

‘Just to avoid any more surprises,’ Dr. Hove said, ‘whom else am I speaking to?’

‘Just me, Doc,’ Garcia called out. ‘It’s just the three of us in here.’

‘Carolyn, what did you mean when you said that that wasn’t the case?’ Captain Blake asked again.

‘Well, as we all know, appearances can be quite deceiving, and that indeed is the case here, because despite how violent this murder looks to have been, the victim didn’t suffer.’

Dr. Hove’s announcement was met by an awkward silence from the other end of the line. In her mind, she could picture the stare that Hunter, Garcia and Captain Blake would be exchanging between them.

‘She didn’t suffer?’ Captain Blake asked at last, her voice coated with doubt.

‘Nope. Not according to what I found out. All the barbarism that was done to her — the skinning of the body, the amputation of the hands and feet — it was all done post-mortem.’

There was another long, uneasy silence before Garcia asked the next question.

‘So the victim didn’t bleed to death from her wounds?’

‘No. She died of asphyxiation. And here comes another surprise — the asphyxiation was done by suffocation, not strangulation.’

‘Hold on, Doc,’ Garcia said. ‘Can you please run that by me again?’

‘The muscles on her neck show no bruising,’ Dr. Hove explained. ‘Her larynx and trachea aren’t crushed and the hyoid bone isn’t fractured. Actually, I found no damage whatsoever to her neck, throat, or her respiratory system.’

‘So how did she suffocate?’ This time the question came from Captain Blake. ‘The killer put a pillow over her face while she slept?’

‘Something like that,’ the doctor replied. ‘But it wasn’t a pillow, Barbara. When the body senses it’s asphyxiating, its automatic physiological response is to try to draw in the deepest breath it possibly can. As it realizes that that breath is lacking in oxygen, it panics and instantly tries again. This time, a lot more desperately, I should add. A pillow, a gag, a shirt... anything made out of any sort of textile fabrics would release fibers, which, with the victim’s frantic deep breaths, would’ve been sucked into her mouth and nostrils and lodged themselves all over the place.’ Dr. Hove paused for breath. ‘I found nothing. No fibers. No residues. Nothing. Not inside her nose or in her mouth and throat.’

‘A thick plastic bag, maybe?’ Garcia suggested.

‘Very possible,’ Dr. Hove agreed. ‘But without being able to examine the victim’s facial skin, there’s no way I can tell you with any plausible certainty what the killer used as a suffocation tool. What I can tell you is that it didn’t take long for her to die. A minute... a minute and a half, tops. I’ve been as meticulous as I could’ve been with this particular post-mortem examination, and I found nothing to suggest that she had to endure any sort of physical pain prior to her death. Other than, of course, the sheer panic that comes with asphyxiation.’

‘So all that sadism occurred post-death?’ Garcia asked.

‘That’s correct.’

‘Well this makes absolutely no goddamn sense,’ Captain Blake said.

‘My thoughts exactly, Barbara.’