Rose of Jericho (Lilith Adams Series Book 2) (13 page)

“The heart has been removed forcibly. The aorta and vena cava have sustained tremendous damage. The heart was definitely torn out, which is consistent with the other wounds.” Lilith sighed and placed her instruments back on the tray. Her brain was buzzing with a million ideas, none of which fit the evidence.

“Are the wounds consistent on the second body?” She was starting to feel the edge of a headache, but this time it wasn’t due to lack of blood. This was good ole fashioned frustration. So much for her theory that bodies were simple with clear right and wrong answers.

Dr. Winslow crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. “Almost identical. The same chest wound, same bruises on the arms and thighs. He has a few bruises around the eyes and the same fight wounds on his knuckles. Judging by the placement of the bruising, I’d say these two got in a tussle with each other at some point. The only difference is the mandible.”

Lilith paused in thought. “It wasn’t dislocated?”

“No. It was completely removed. No tool marks, just like the thoracic trauma. It’s like someone took enough steroids to just rip the damn thing off.” Lilith had a hard time keeping the shock off her face. Right now she just needed to get all the facts. She could desperately try to make sense of the unexplainable later.

“I assume you are running fingerprints on the victims now?”

The aging doctor pulled the sheet back over the human puzzle and nodded. “You’d have to ask the Detective for more information on that. I just retrieved the prints. I can tell you that our friend here had one glove on his hand when he came in and the cops seemed to think that was important. They took it to evidence. Beyond that, these boys had no IDs or wallets on them. No personal effects and the back of their clothes were covered in mud and blood. I did find trace in both of the chest traumas, as well as the teeth on this one, and those abrasions you spotted. I’ll have a report in the morning for you.”

Apparently, he just wanted her to prove her worth before he started sharing information. She understood his attitude a little better after seeing the body. The wounds didn’t make sense to him. He was defensive about maybe being too old or behind on the times to do the job properly. Having some hot shot independent come in and leave just as frustrated and confused made him feel better.

“Since I’m here, I better take a look over both bodies, just to be sure.”

“Of course.” He definitely seemed a lot friendlier now. At least it made her job a little easier. The Doctor was right about the second body. The wounds were nearly identical except that the entire bottom half of his was face missing.

Lilith was inspecting the zygomatic process on the second body when he eye caught on something tiny and green in the victim’s ear canal. Deftly, she plucked out a couple pieces with a pair of tweezers and laid them on a sterile tray. “Did you send some of these to trace?”

The doctor frowned heavily and shifted from one foot to another. That would be a no. “Let me take a look.” His voice was gruff and overly assertive. The doctor quickly transferred them onto a slide and popped it under a microscope. “Whatever it is, it’s plant material. I’ll send it up to the Botany professor right away.”

“Thank you, Doctor.” Lilith stood back, staring at the body. She’d seen everything so why didn’t it make any sense? There had to be something else. Then it dawned on her. Maybe what she wasn’t seeing was more important.

“Was anything else biological recovered at the scene? The mandible, maybe their sternums, flecks of bone, the hearts?”

The Doctor seemed genuinely surprised by her question. “Nothing that I know of. Maybe whoever did this took them as a souvenir or perhaps they took the hearts for the black market.”

Lilith quirked an eyebrow. Apparently her question on top of her discovery of new evidence was rattling him. There was no way that a medical examiner would make that last assumption with the condition these bodies were in. “No one took those hearts for transplants. They weren’t surgically removed, they were ripped out. The damage to the vena cava and aorta alone would make it impossible to use. Judging by the state of the chest wounds, I’m sure the hearts sustained a tremendous amount of muscle and tissue damage as well.”

The old man frowned, his thick eyebrows knitting close together. “Hell, I don’t know. People today are sick and twisted. I stopped asking questions like ‘why?’ a long time ago. I leave that to the police. I just inspect the bodies and report my findings. End of story.” His thick arms crossed over his barrel chest and widening gut, signaling that sharing time was definitely over.

Lilith pulled off the gloves, scrubbed down and removed all the extra lab clothes while her mind worked the puzzling bodies over and over. The doctor wasn’t going to be any more help. This case had him completely unsettled and she honestly didn’t blame him.

The only thing that made any sense was Ashcroft. He’d had the strength for this, but he was dead and he definitely hadn’t been interested in severely punishing cat burglars. This wasn’t his style anyway. This had been relatively quick as far as deaths go. The truly horrific trauma had occurred post mortem. Ashcroft only wanted to prolong the suffering until he could no longer delay their death. All his wounds were compulsively precise and calculated. The wounds on these men were anything but. It was all crude, brute force.

No, whoever or whatever did this had a mission and it wasn’t torture. This wasn’t a simple assassination, but it did have a purpose. They took the parts for a reason, she just needed to figure out what it was.

Maybe the point was to kill them and the extra bits were payment or just trophies. No. This wasn’t a signature killing. There was no emotion or statement in these bodies. The killer or killers, made sure the victim died quickly without screaming. They had no personal connection to these men. Anyone who wanted a trophy would have a signature on these bodies, not just a crude kill.

If they’d simply wanted the hearts themselves there were a million more efficient ways to go about it. A simple incision below the ribcage, reach up through the cavities and pull out the heart. Tada. This had the feeling of a mindless direct approach that just happened to be too powerful to be futile. In stark contrast, crushing the throats was a very intelligent way to quickly take down their enemies. It almost seemed like two completely separate minds at work. Could there have been two different attackers? The bruises on the arms and legs already indicated more than one person.

The truly puzzling part was the mandible. Why rip off one and not the other? Obviously there was some sort of attempt to take them both, but what stopped them? Were they interrupted or did they just decide it wasn’t necessary? Better yet, why the hell would they need them in the first place? It wasn’t an attack. The mandible on John Doe number two was ripped off post mortem.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Dr. Winslow.” She smiled at his reddened face and somehow knew he’d be having a few drinks over this case. Of course she had a feeling that having a few drinks was his normal routine regardless of what case he was working on now a days. The man grunted a goodbye and busied himself with prepping the two bodies for storage.

Lilith slipped the digital recorder into her suit jacket pocket and pushed her way through the double doors. The detective and his officers were gone. Chance and Cohen were seated in visitor’s chairs, flipping through magazines almost in synchronicity. It would have been the oddest sight in the world if she hadn’t been 95% sure that neither of them had any interest in Science Weekly. It’s just what bored men do in waiting rooms, scan through the pictures of the closest magazine wishing they were anywhere else.

Chance looked up as Lilith’s heels clicked against the linoleum. A smile tugged at his lips that reached all the way to his hazel eyes. For a moment, she just enjoyed the smile and let the hundreds of questions in her brain fall away. A momentary reprieve from the labyrinth in her mind. His familiar smile still seemed surreal to her. Less than two weeks ago he was an attractive and occasionally funny fixture in her life. He was the man guarding her father’s back who limited his interactions with her to light banter. Now he was the person holding her together when the whole world seemed to be falling apart.

It didn’t take long for her thoughts to spiral down to a darker place. Chance would never stand behind Gregor while they ate at their favorite Italian place again. Her father was dead and she wouldn’t even be able to give him a proper burial. The thought almost made her eyes mist up but it was Cohen’s voice that snapped her out of her little trance.

“The Detective had to split. He got a call about some graveyard on the other side of town. We got the info we needed from him though.”

Lilith blinked back the tears threatening to spill and focused on the case. She turned to Cohen with a steadying breath and nodded softly. Then the words really sank in. “Wait. Another murder?”

“I asked in case it was somehow related. He said it was just some kids causing trouble. One of them happens to be his son.” Cohen shrugged and tossed his magazine on the table. “He’s arranged for us to see the crime scene at the University and the homicide crime scene. The Detective also said they found a glove and a few prints at the museum that matched the one found on one of the vics. They should have results from out of state back by the morning on those two.”

“So what happened to them?” Chance’s question was simple but she heard the odd tone in his voice. Concern. What he really meant was “how bad was it?” It should have been sweet and endearing, but somehow it just wasn’t. Maybe it was her stubborn nature or perhaps it reminded her too much of her father’s reaction every time she tried to tell him about her day. Either way, it simply rubbed her wrong.

“Honestly? I have no idea. Luminita wasn’t kidding about these being some unusual murders. I’ve never seen anything like it before.” She was deep in thought again, going over all the pieces. “None of it really makes sense. There’s no evidence of tool marks, but no human could have done that damage.” Her voice was definitely distracted. She was more talking out loud than actually trying to pass on information.

“You look like you’re holding up pretty well.” There was the concern again. This time she was too distracted to filter her reaction. Lilith frowned and rubbed at her neck in frustration.

“Of course I am. Hell, I deal with dead bodies all the time, Chance. I wasn’t related to this one and at least one of them still had an intact face.” Her tone was harsh enough to draw a surprised look from Cohen. She definitely hadn’t intended to bite Chance’s head off. Dammit.

She needed to get a grip on the emotional rollercoaster. She’d already been completely wrecked before Farren put a bullet in her father’s head. Now she seemed to have no balance at all. She was juggling plates and one of them was about to fall and shatter if she didn’t play nice.

“Besides, the Medical Examiners have it easy. The techs clean the bodies up. It makes them a hell of a lot easier to handle actually. You think whoever my new partner is back in NYC would be willing to run ahead to my crime scenes and clean up the bodies for me?” Humor. The deflection device of champions.

Cohen actually laughed while Chance looked far from being amused. Well maybe champion was too much to hope for. Lilith avoided the six foot three brooding man and looked right at Andrew. She shouldn’t have snapped at Chance like that, but she also knew that it would just keep happening if he kept asking if she was okay every ten minutes. She was not okay. She might never be okay again.

She needed to set some ground rules. Chance wasn’t psychic and despite being around for most of her life, he didn’t know her as well as he thought. Holding her when she was breaking down in tears was one thing, but this was something else entirely. This was the one thing she
could
handle. It was logical. It had solid, definite answers, even if she couldn’t see them yet. She needed the focus to distract from everything else. Hell, she felt like a psychotic bipolar just trying to keep it all straight in her own head.

“Cohen, do you think you could bring the car around? I have one more thing I want to do before I leave.”

Cohen’s blue eyes glanced from Lilith to Chance and back again. Lilith knew he wasn’t a complete idiot, she was just hoping he wouldn’t be an asshole about it. “I’ll meet you out front in 10.” Thankfully, he pulled himself out of the chair, straightened his tie, pressed his hands down his suit with a sense of dignity and walked out of the room without another word.

Chance slowly folded his magazine and placed it on the table. “I’m guessing you got rid of Cohen because you wanted to talk?” He didn’t seem completely pissed. There was definitely some concern in there somewhere, maybe. Of course that could just be wishful thinking on her part.

Lilith walked over to the open chair while collecting her thoughts and settled into the seat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” She sighed softly and leaned forward rubbing her temples. All those thoughts about ground rules went completely out of her head, leaving nothing but the gnawing anxiousness of having absolutely no idea what to do.

“I’ve only seen you around a few dead bodies and they were all pretty traumatic. I tend to forget that even when our lives aren’t on the line, you do this for a living. I just remember how…Miriah’s body was…and how completely devastated you were…”

“I ‘m trying so damn hard to focus on this case and
not
think about Miriah and Alvarez and Duncan and Gregor. I don’t need to be reminded of them. When you make comments like that, about holding up, I just flashback to Miriah’s office and her unrecognizable body on that desk. Thinking about her is not going to help me solve this case. Please, Chance. I can’t tell you how eternally grateful I am for you, but when it comes to work, I just need to stay focused, for all our sakes. I can, and probably will, break down later.”