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“No, I’m good. Do you want to come by the house to pick meup?”
“It just shows how well I know you,” he said. “I knew you’dcome along…I’m about five minutes away right now.”
“I’ll see you then,” she said, not appreciating hislittle jab.
She looked at Skunk lovingly and shook her head. “Whatthe hell is wrong with me, boy?”
He wagged his tail as if to say he didn’t think there wasanything at all wrong with her. That, in his eyes, she was perfectly fine. Itwasn’t much, but she took that bit of encouragement as she shook the vestigesof sleep away and waited for Derik to arrive.
***
The medical examiner was a fifty-eight-year-old overweightman named Smith who greeted them with a bit too much enthusiasm for a man withhis career. Morgan had always appreciated the grisly work medical examiners hadto do, but the ones who seemed to REALLY enjoy their job seemed slightly odd toher.
Morgan let Derik lead the conversation as they entered theexamination room. She still felt slightly off, almost like a kid playingpretend in the shadow of people doing actual, dangerous work.
The body of Victor Rhyman was on the examination table,nude, his lower half covered with a sheet. The gruesome way in which he’d beenstabbed in the eyes was quite terrible to look at.
“So what were you able to find so quickly?” Derik asked. “Youhaven’t had the body that long, right?”
“Two hours, give or take,” Smith said. “Anyway, as forwhat I found, it’s a bit odd, really.” He pointed to Rhyman’s right collarbone.“See that?”
Both Morgan and Derik leaned in closer. Morgan did seewhat he was talking about but wasn’t sure what it was. It looked like a veryfaint trace of a red powder—something that reminded her of cayenne pepper, buta little darker. There was a small, faint streak of it, and then a few powderedflakes of it to the side.
“What is it?” Derik asked.
“That is the remnants of copper,” Smith said. “Copperpowder, if you will. There were also traces of it in the stab wounds in hiseyes, sort of soaked up into the blood. Not much, but just enough to see withthe naked eye under intense light. There were very faint traces of it in his hairas well.”
“Copper?” Derik asked. “Why would there be copper on adead blind man?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Smith said, shaking hishead. “It’s not something you’d normally find in someone’s eyes or hair.”
Morgan’s mind was racing. Copper powder? What did thathave to do with anything? She couldn’t make sense of it. But something about itfelt important. More than that, there was something slightly familiar about it…likean itch she couldn’t reach.
Derik seemed to be thinking along the same lines. “Weneed to know as soon as possible where that copper came from.”
“Was it on the previous four victims?” Morgan asked.
“None that I found,” Smith said. “Then again, they’d beendrowned and if there were any traces of this dust on them, it likely got washedright off.”
“Copper…” Derik said. “Jesus, that could be anything,right? It’s all over the place. Wiring, construction…I don’t know if thisreally even helps.”
But then, just as he said this, Morgan was able to reachthat mental itch. And it was all because of the memories of her father she’d beenlost in before falling asleep on the living room floor. At first, her hunchfelt like a stretch but as it settled into her stream of logic, she thought itmight make all the sense in the world.
She looked at Smith and said, “You’re sure it’s copper?”
“Yes. I ran the test myself.”
Already heading for the door, Morgan said, “Come on,Derik. I think I know where to look.”
And then, without making sure he was following, Morganleft the examination room feeling somewhat upbeat for the first time sincebeing released from prison.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Morgan was pretty sure it wasn’t technically legal forher to drive. She wasn’t quite sure what the rules were for someone who hadjust been released from prison after a decade. Her license had expired for sure.But that was the least of her worries as she drove the bureau sedan off of thefour-lane and onto a two-lane road that led them into a more rural area.
“I’m uneasy enough about you driving,” Derik said. “I’malso uneasy that you haven’t spoken since we left the ME’s office, but you seemto have a GPS system locked in your head. Want to tell me where we’re going?”
They were close enough now where she didn’t think she’dbe able to convince herself she was wrong. Besides, now that the place she’dbeen thinking about was less than ten miles away, she somehow felt certain itwas exactly where they needed to go.
