The Night Stalker

Forty-Six

The room was large and bright, lit by two rows of florescent lights that ran the length of the ceiling. Two steel tables dominated the main floor space, one fixed, one wheeled.

They stepped through the door and were immediately hit by a blast of cold air and an immense feeling of sadness that seemed to chill their bones. The brunette woman’s body was lying uncovered on the fixed table. The stitches to her mouth and body had been removed, now substituted by new ones that outlined the Y incision. In a strange way she looked peaceful. The immeasurable suffering that was etched on her face just a few hours ago seemed to have vanished, as if she was grateful to someone for removing those terrible stitches from her body.

They all put on latex gloves and approached the table in silence. Doctor Hove buttoned up her white lab coat and moved around to the other side of the body.

Hunter stared at the woman’s face for a long time. There was little doubt in his mind.

‘I think her name is Kelly Jensen,’ he said quietly, retrieving a black-and-white printout from the folder he’d brought with him and handing it to the doctor.

Captain Blake and Garcia craned their necks across the table. Doctor Hove had a good look at it before holding it close to the woman’s face. Without the stitches to her lips, and washed of all that blood, the resemblance was undeniable.

The doctor nodded in agreement. ‘On looks alone I’d say you’re right, Robert.’

‘Her file says that when she was a teenager she tripped and fell through a glass window in school,’ Hunter continued, reading from a file sheet. ‘Two large shards pierced the back of her left shoulder leaving a V-shaped scar. Her right elbow was also cut and she should have a semicircular scar just below the joint.’

Doctor Hove lifted her right arm and they all bent over to take a look at her elbow. An old and faint semicircular scar marked the skin a couple of centimeters below the joint. Very quickly they all repositioned themselves around the head of the table. The doctor didn’t have to lift her upper body far, just a few inches was all that was needed. On the back of her left shoulder, scar tissue marked by the evidence of old stitches formed a sideways V-shape.

‘I don’t think there’s much doubt now, is everyone agreed?’ Doctor Hove lowered the victim body back down.

‘Who is she?’ the captain asked.

‘The information I have at the moment isn’t much, just what was passed to Missing Persons. Thirty years old from Great Falls in Montana. She was reported missing twenty-one days ago.’ Hunter paused to clear his throat. ‘Now here comes the punch. The person who reported her as missing was her agent.’

‘Agent?’ Garcia asked.

Hunter nodded. ‘Kelly Jensen was a painter.’