The Drowning Child

24

Ruddock and Ren met in the parking lot of the ME’s office in Salem on Thursday morning.

‘A heads-up,’ said Ruddock as they walked toward the building, ‘call the ME Beckman. Her name is Lois Beckman, but she’s our youngest ever ME and she looks a lot younger than her years. So she’s trying to prove herself, which I think is why she prefers the last name, but also – she can come across as a little abrasive or defensive. And considering why we’re here...’

‘But she should know that she didn’t do anything wildly irregular here,’ said Ren. ‘It’s not standard practice to resect the back, unless they suspect abuse, and no one had any reason to here.’

‘Knowing Beckman, she won’t see it that way.’

‘Well, if a drunken barfly was the one drawing attention to the flaws in my work, I might be feeling a little defensive too.’

Ruddock laughed, but there was a hint of surprise in it.

Am I actually funny or do people just laugh because they’re expecting Clarice Starling? I’m intense too, people. No screaming lambs, but lots of fucking voices.

Lois Beckman came down to the lobby to greet Ren and Ruddock. She was very short and very pretty, with a don’t-mess-with-me walk. She had thick blonde hair to her shoulders, and warm brown eyes with long dark lashes. Her smile had a sweet earnestness.

I see why you have to work harder to get people past your youth and beauty.

‘Nice to meet you,’ said Ren.

‘You too,’ said Beckman.

Southern accent too! Could you be any cuter?

‘Hi, Pete,’ said Beckman. ‘This is a first for me – autopsying an embalmed body.’

‘Well, it’s not a common thing,’ said Ren. ‘And the circumstances here are most unusual. I mean – this boy was found dead, floating in a lake. The logical—’

‘The logical thing in my line of work, as it is in yours, is not to make assumptions,’ said Beckman. ‘I know that.’

I’m screwing this up already. ‘I know,’ said Ren, ‘but... why would you have resected the back tissue?’

Beckman gave a concessionary nod.

Phew.

‘We’re just finishing getting set up,’ said Beckman, ‘if you’d like to take a seat. The water sample from Lake Verny was delivered earlier by your crime scene tech, and I’ve prepared the slides from the sphenoid sinus fluid. I’ve also had my assistant prepare lung tissue samples, taken at the original autopsy. This is all going to come down to diatoms. When a person goes into the water alive, obviously, they’re taking in water. Whether it’s fresh water or salt water, it contains diatoms – these microscopic algae. They circulate around the body and settle in the organs. Diatoms vary across different bodies of water – you can tell this just by looking at a sample under a microscope: the diatoms are different shapes, colors and sizes, depending on where the water’s been taken from – it’s not as hardcore as a fingerprint, but you can definitely determine if the victim was drowned in the same body of water he was found in.’

‘And what about the bruising?’ said Ruddock.

‘Well, I’ve seen that before in cases where a victim has been held under water, like with a knee in their back,’ said Beckman. ‘I’m not sure how someone could use a knee to hold someone under a lake – how exactly would that work? Though, I do know to keep an open mind on these things.’ She paused. ‘OK, sit tight. I’ll have someone come get you when we’re ready.’

Twenty minutes later, Ren and Ruddock were suited up for the autopsy. Ren went into the morgue ahead of him.

The fucking smell!!!

‘Beware the embalming fluid,’ said Beckman, looking up at them.

‘Jesus Christ,’ said Ren, stopping short. ‘That is caustic.’

‘It’ll get better,’ said Beckman. ‘Thank the Lord for our ventilation system.’

Very earnest Lord-thanking. You really mean it.

Ren was about to walk on, but stayed rooted to the spot as soon as her gaze went to the stainless steel table ten feet from her, where the body of Aaron Fuller was laid out, eerily preserved in some gray and ghoulish version of who he once was.

Ren’s stomach flipped.

Thank God your mother doesn’t have to see this.

Ruddock had walked up beside Ren and stopped at exactly the same point. She turned to him, knowing that the look in his eyes mirrored her own. They both let out a breath.

I hate these masks.

Beckman was looking at them with compassion in her eyes. She nodded at her assistant across the table. ‘Let’s turn him over.’

Slowly, they turned Aaron’s body on to his stomach. They all gasped. There, exactly as Clyde Brimmer had described, exactly as his photo had shown, was an area of darkened skin between the shoulder blades.

Ren and Ruddock locked eyes.

‘There it is,’ said Beckman.

Oh, God.

Beckman drew the scalpel down the back, opening up a deep cut from the lower neck to the buttocks.

‘This will reveal any occult bruising,’ she said. She made three more cuts, parallel to the first.

Ren’s stomach spasmed.

‘You can see here that there is blood deep in the tissue, consistent with an injury, or with force having been applied between the shoulder blades. It’s impossible to tell from what, but it could be something like a knee, if he was being held under water.’

Holy. Fuck.

‘Could the bruise just be a separate thing?’ said Ren. ‘Like, could it have happened hours before he died? Maybe he fell against something, it was an accident... the embalmer said that it takes ten to twelve hours for a bruise to appear on the skin.’

Beckman nodded. ‘All I can say for definite is that it happened around the time of death, while the victim was still alive.’

They were silent as Beckman made cuts into the arms and legs. ‘I’m checking here again for occult bruising.’ She looked up at them when she was finished. ‘I’m not seeing anything here, but I think you’ve got what you’re looking for.’

They gathered in Beckman’s office afterward. She bent down over the microscope and looked at the first slide. ‘This is the sample from Aaron’s sphenoid sinus,’ she said, ‘if you’d like to take a look.’ She stepped back. ‘Diatoms look like those kaleidoscope things you had as a kid.’

Last year, in your case.

Ren looked through the lens. ‘They’re very purty.’

‘They are.’

Ruddock looked too, but it was out of politeness.

All you’re thinking is that there is a child killer on the loose in your lovely little town.

‘Now,’ said Beckman, taking another slide, ‘this is the sample from Lake Verny.’ She took a look, then stepped back again. She shook her head. ‘It’s totally different.’ She turned to Ren. ‘You were right: Aaron Fuller drowned, but it wasn’t an accident, and it didn’t happen in Lake Verny.’