The Death Sculptor

Ten

Something in Doctor Hove’s demeanor and tone of voice concerned both detectives. They followed her over to the second examination table.

‘I have no doubt everything that happened in that room was planned, and very well planned.’ She pulled back the white cover sheet. The macabre sculpture left behind by the killer had been dismantled. Derek Nicholson’s severed body parts were now carefully arranged on the cold metal slab. They’d all been washed clean of the blood that had encrusted them before. ‘Don’t worry,’ the doctor said to Hunter, noticing his concern. ‘The lab took enough pictures and measurements to create the replica you wanted. You’ll get it in a day or two.’

Hunter and Garcia’s stare stayed on the body parts.

‘Did you make anything of the sculpture, Doc?’ Garcia asked.

‘Nothing at all. And I had to dismantle that thing myself.’ She coughed to clear her throat. ‘I swabbed under the fingernails. No hairs or skin. Just regular dirt and excrement.’

‘Excrement?’ Garcia pulled a face.

‘His own,’ Doctor Hove confirmed. ‘During tremendous pain, the kind that’d come from an amputation without anesthesia, the subject will undoubtedly lose control of his bladder and bowels. And that’s the strange thing.’

‘What is?’ Garcia questioned.

‘He was clean,’ Hunter said. ‘When we got to the crime-scene, the bed sheet should’ve been saturated with urine and feces. It wasn’t.’

‘Because of his illness and his lack of mobility, going to the bathroom wasn’t such a mundane task anymore,’ Doctor Hove took over again, ‘his nurses helped him to it, but when they weren’t there, he wore adult diapers.’

‘Yeah, we saw the package in one of the drawers,’ Garcia said.

‘Forensics found a pair of dirty ones wrapped in a plastic bag inside the trashcan downstairs.’

Garcia’s eyes widened. ‘The killer cleaned him up?’

‘Not so much cleaned him up, but someone did dispose of the dirty diaper.’

No one said anything for several seconds, so Doctor Hove moved on. ‘The reason I believe the killer has knowledge of medical procedures is because I found these.’ She pointed to the upper portion of one of the severed arms, just around where the cut had been made. ‘I only saw them when I washed the blood off the arms and legs.’

Hunter and Garcia stepped closer. The faint outline of a black marker pen could be seen on the rubbery-looking skin. It created an incomplete circle going around the arm just about where the cut had been made.

‘In complicated medical procedures such as amputations, where the incision point needs to be very accurate, it is not uncommon for doctors, or whoever is performing the surgery, to mark the correct location with a pen.’

‘But so would someone who found the information in a book, or over the Internet, as you said, Doc,’ Garcia countered.

‘That’s also true,’ she agreed, ‘but check this out.’ She walked back to the first examination table and Derek Nicholson’s torso. Hunter and Garcia followed. ‘During an amputation, it’s vital that all major blood vessels, like the brachial artery in the arms and the femoral artery in the legs, are properly tied off, or else the patient will bleed out in no time.’

‘They weren’t tied off,’ Hunter said, bending down to have a better look. ‘I checked it at the crime-scene. No suture, no knot.’

‘That’s because the killer didn’t use a thread to stop the blood flow, as most doctors would. The brachial artery in the right arm was clamped. The marks can be seen under a microscope. He used medical forceps.’

Hunter straightened up his body. ‘Only in the right arm?’

Doctor Hove adjusted her surgical cap. ‘That’s right. And the reason is probably because the victim’s heart gave in before the killer could amputate anything else. The fact of the matter, Robert, is that the killer prolonged the victim’s life and suffering for as long as he could. But to do that without a surgical team to help him, he had to perform the cuts as quickly and as cleanly as possible, and contain the hemorrhaging as best as he could,’ Doctor Hove concluded.

‘And you’re sure there’s no chance he could’ve used a professional saw like the ones used here at the morgue?’ Garcia pushed.

‘No,’ she replied, reaching for the Mopec autopsy saw on the worktop behind her. ‘Portable autopsy saws use small, circular blades with extremely fine teeth.’ She showed them the instrument. ‘The finer the blade’s teeth, the more accurate the cut, and the easier it is to cut through tougher surfaces like bones and muscles in full rigor mortis.’

Both detectives quickly examined the saw and its blade.

‘But an autopsy blade isn’t wide enough. You need something that transcends the entire width of the body part being amputated. Circular saws also leave a very distinct cut pattern, smoother than most.’

‘And that’s not what we have,’ Hunter guessed.

‘Nope. We have a friction pattern. Two very sharp blades, side-by-side, moving back and forth in opposite directions to create a sawing action.’

Hunter handed the autopsy saw back to her. ‘You mean . . . something like an electric kitchen carving knife?’

‘You’re kidding,’ Garcia interjected.

‘That’s exactly what I think the killer used,’ Doctor Hove said. ‘A large, powerful, electric kitchen carving knife.’

‘Will those cut through bone?’ Garcia asked.

‘The most powerful ones will cut through a frozen joint of beef,’ the doctor said, ‘especially with brand new blades.’

‘Do we know if the victim had one in the house?’ Garcia asked.

‘If that’s what the killer used,’ Hunter said. ‘The knife didn’t come from the victim’s kitchen. The killer brought it with him.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Because not having the amputating instrument with him would suggest that the amputations were unplanned and that the killer came into the house unprepared.’

‘And that’s something this killer certainly wasn’t,’ Doctor Hove said. ‘And that reminds me. To keep the pieces of his sculpture together, the killer didn’t use only metal wire, he also used a super-fast bonder, like superglue.’

‘Superglue?’ Garcia almost chuckled.

The doctor nodded. ‘Perfect for the job, really – easy to use, dries in seconds, easily adheres to skin and creates an extremely firm hold. But what gets me is that this seems like a totally pointless killing.’

‘Aren’t they all?’ Hunter commented.

‘True, but what I mean is that there was very little achievement in killing this victim.’ She walked towards a chart on the west wall that itemized the weights of the deceased’s brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and spleen. On the counter next to it there was a plastic bag filled with several of the victim’s organs. She reached for it and lifted it up. ‘Cancer had pretty much obliterated his lungs. He probably would’ve survived another week, maybe two. And this kind of lung damage means pain, a lot of it. He was already dying and going through unimaginable suffering. Why kill him like this?’

No one said anything.

No one knew what to say.