AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We’ll go visit the Medical Examiner now,” Faith said. “Has my boss spoken to you about a car?”
“Not me. That would go through the precinct. I’ll give you a ride there. The M.E.’s office is attached, so you can talk to him while the officer in charge figures out the car. The FBI doesn’t do rental vehicles?”
"They do, but I'd rather not hear the Boss bitch about the expense," Michael replied. "Budgets are about the only thing that matters to him anymore."
Wanda barked a short laugh. “Tell me about it. They pin brass on a person’s shoulder, and it becomes about the bottom line, not the job. Well, I’ll get you to the precinct, and we’ll either find you a cruiser or call your boss and tell him you’re renting a Cadillac. Or whatever rich people drive nowadays.”
***
The Redmond Police West Precinct was about half the size of the Philadelphia FBI Field Office and supported about one fourth the staff, which made it plenty big enough and roomy enough for Faith and Michael to use as a base of operations. Redmond was a fairly low crime suburb, and the officers there were far less frazzled than those at other locales the three of them had visited.
“See, this would be a nice place to retire to,” Michael said as the three of them took the elevator downstairs to the Medical Examiner’s office. “You still have enough work to keep busy, but it’s light work, and murders are few and far between. And if you get one, you can just throw your hands up in the air and make it the FBI’s problem.”
“Sounds lovely,” Faith said drily.
Michael shrugged. “I’m just glad we’re not dealing with ego trips or nervous Nellies.”
She lifted an eyebrow at him. “Nervous Nellies?”
“That’s Ellie’s term for worry warts.”
“Does she call me a nervous Nellie?”
“You don’t want to know what she calls you.”
Faith winced. “Fair enough.”
For a short time, Faith had suspected that Ellie might be the Copycat Killer. Needless to say, that had soured their relationship, and both of them were content to keep their distance. It didn’t really make anything easier that Michael and Faith were partners and best friends, but things had worked out so far in spite of that misunderstanding.
The M.E.’s office was of similarly modest but useful size as the precinct. The examiner himself was a barrel-chested, balding man of forty-four or -five who greeted the agents with what he probably thought was a smile but looked a lot more like a sneer.
Still, he was polite enough when he explained his findings.
“She was stabbed by something thin and sharp,” he said. “Double-edged too. Went in clean from the right side, severed both carotid arteries along with the right jugular vein and sliced her voice box in two.”
“Ouch. Killed the singer’s voice.”
"Literally. Of course, the rest of her died within thirty seconds of that, so that's a small worry, all things considered."
“Any other wounds?”
“None. No defensive wounds, no other stab wounds, no bruising, no ligature marks. The killer stepped in, jabbed the blade through her neck, and then left her to die. No fingerprints, no spittle, no DNA of any kind. Honestly, this looks like a professional hit.”
“A professional hit? Who’d want to hire someone to kill a no-name singer?”
“I’m not saying it was a professional hit, just that it looked like one. Our killer was good. Is good.”
“Anything that tells you how tall the killer is?” Faith asked. “Or how strong?”
“I’m afraid not,” the doctor said. “The implement was sharp enough that it wouldn’t have taken much strength. The angle was almost straight through, but that could be accomplished by lunging. About all I can say is the killer is probably not shorter than Rebecca Wells, but since she was only five-foot-one, that’s not ruling many people out.”
“Tell me about Maria Gonzalez,” Michael said. “How does this murder compare?”
“Ah yes,” the M.E. said. “I remember that one. The same wound. Precisely the same. Sharp, thin, double-edged blade severed the voice box and both carotids. No jugular vein damaged the last time, but that only means our killer was standing slightly in front of Rebecca and was directly to the side of Maria.”
Faith lifted an eyebrow. That explained why the police connected the two. “How did the killer get the same angle on both victims?” she asked.
The M.E. shrugged. “That’s outside of my wheelhouse. I just know that both of them died from exsanguinating in less than a minute. About the only way to kill someone faster than that is to sever the brainstem or pierce the heart.”
