“ I think not,” replied Darius.
“ Whose is it, then?”
“ That's the problem.”
“ Are you saying it doesn't belong to either victim?”
“ That is what I believe, yes.”
She stared into Darius' luminous eyes. She saw a little boy deep within him looking back at her, trapped there in his decrepit body. She liked him instantly, and she now understood his riddle. “The bastard brought it with him; it belongs to one of the earlier victims, maybe Mrs. Hamner?”
“ Precisely. It will be tested for a match.”
“ Then he may have left other such items.”
They began to look closely at the organs, finding that none were connected to the bodies. “This appears to be the young woman's,” she told Darius when she lifted out the heart that had been posited inside the old woman.
“ And this no doubt belongs to the young woman,” Darius reciprocated.
Police standing about listening to the M.E. s instantly spread the word that the killer had switched the victims' organs like a child at play.
They found several other older, shriveled organs that matched neither victim. The Claw had made off with the fresher meat, as he had with the brain tissues.
Rychman told the others he didn't want a word of this to leak to the press, that it was the kind of information they could use at a later date, if and when they had the murdering psycho in custody.
“ A three-way switch,” said Darius, “and for what reason?”
“ For the hell of it,” suggested Rychman. “To shove it in our faces, that's why!”
Rychman informed them that the house belonged to the Olin woman and that the identity of the second woman remained unknown. He explained that the second body, along with the additional organs, had been transported to the house and dumped here.
“ Such a fiend,” said Darius, shaking his white head, strands of the thin hair falling forward. “And to think that he is one of us, one of our species.”
“ He seems drawn to the most defenseless, the gentlest of victims,” Rychman added.
His words recalled something Jessica's father once told her when she had asked how a gentle person such as he could possibly want to work as a medical examiner, to investigate the crimes of the cruel and inhuman.
“ My father used to say that the gentlest among us are fascinated with the cruelest among us. Maybe it works in reverse, too. That the cruelest among us are fascinated with the gentlest.”
“ That might well be our common denominator so far as the victims go. They were all shy, retiring, quiet types. Even the first victim, a streetwalker, was known for being a timid, reluctant streetwalker,” replied Rychman.
The M.E. s returned to their work, and after a few hours an impatient Rychman came back, asking if they had found anything useful.
“ Some fibers that don't appear to match the room, and we've been unable to find a match elsewhere here. They were clinging to the old woman, matted in the blood. We know she was killed elsewhere, and it appears she was wrapped in some sort of blanket or rug. We will analyze the fibers in detail back at the lab,” Jessica explained.
“ That doesn't tell us a whole lot,” replied a frustrated Rychman.
“ We're doing the best we can, Captain. Like your identifying the old woman, it will take time.”
“ Still searching.”
“ Dr. Darius has stated that he believes the killer could quite possibly be two men instead of one,” she now added.
“ Is that right, Dr. Darius?”
“ That is what we have been speculating about, yes.”
“ I can't go on speculation. What makes you think so?”
“ It's just a… a feeling,” Jessica answered.
“ A feeling?”
“ At least until we can prove it otherwise through the microscopic evidence.”
“ Did you find two sets of bite marks? Two footprint sizes? Give,” he ordered her.
“ No, nothing concrete, but for a single man to pull this off-it just seems highly unlikely.”
“ Hell, I've thought of that myself, but if he's a big man, a strong man, my size, he could do it alone. I need more to go on than that.”
Rychman's ire was getting the best of him. They were all tired and frustrated. “I can only tell you what my gut reaction is,” she defended herself.
“ From day one there's only been one set of fingerprints we've been able to match at the various scenes, one set of bite marks, according to your office, Darius, and as for hair and saliva samples, the story's the same. Now, in midstream, you're talking two instead of one? It makes no sense.”
“ It does if the second man takes extreme care, uses gloves, takes his portion away with him to cannibalize elsewhere,” replied Darius, his eyes widening.
“ But you've got nothing whatever to go on here, except your gut reaction.”
“ My gut reaction,” Darius defended, “is the result of long meditation and maybe plenty of medication as well, Captain.”
He didn't have an answer for this. “All right, how soon before the lab can come up with something to prove this theory? I don't want my people going down a wrong alley, searching for a killer couple, going through all kinds of gyrations on nothing other than a hunch I can't justify.”
The Claw already had the NYPD looking like the Keystone Kops, and Rychman didn't want to add to that bleak picture.
Dr. Darius groaned and Rychman helped him to his feet. Jessica's legs were stiff from kneeling, and she was also exhausted. She followed the old coroner's lead, standing and stretching; she, too, had taken all the samples she wanted from the crime scene. Everything else must wait for the autopsy room.
“ Well, Dr. Coran, you've got your samples and specimens, and I've got mine; between the two of us, we're going to give this sonofabitch a run for his money. Oh, by the way, should your specimens reveal any new hair samples, check what you've found here against the ones I have on file first. Saves time and keeps you from looking like a fool later. Which reminds me, young lady, you had best file samples of your hair with the lab, too, unless you want Rychman here or some other gung-ho cop arresting you as the Claw.”
It was sound advice and standard procedure for M.E. s to have fingerprints, hair, and blood samples on file with the lab, so that stray prints and hair found at a crime scene could be ruled out right away as those of the examiner.
Dr. Simon Archer came through the door and went directly to Darius and scolded him. “Why didn't you tell them to contact me, Luther? I could have handled this; I can't believe you've been here since three this morning.”
Archer's concern for his aged colleague was touching, Jessica thought as she made for the door, but Darius didn't quite find it so. He returned Archer's kindness with a bitter outburst, saying, “God damn you, Simon, I'm not a fucking cripple. I can do my job. You needn't have rushed down here. Who's minding the office?”
Rychman and Jessica left the two doctors to war it out. As le walked Jessica to the car, Rychman told her that he had to lang there a bit longer, something about a possible witness with a very shaky story that he doubted would pan out.
Darius came out of the house, joining Jessica at Lou Pierce's squad car, asking, “Is this carriage going downtown?”
“ You got it. Doc,” replied Lou.
“ May I join you, Dr. Coran?”
“ Absolutely.”
“ Sorry about that outburst. Archer doesn't mean to be such a pain in the ass, he just is. He thinks he's doing the decrepit old man right by disqualifying me from fieldwork. Meanwhile, we've gotten nowhere on this case. It's not that Simon isn't a good, thorough man, but he simply lacks that special something. Your father had it, and I suspect you do, too, Dr. Coran, that special… ahhh.” He searched for the word.
“ Imagination?” she asked.
“ Precisely, yes. Imagination and instinct.”
“ Both very necessary in our business.”
“ Dull man, really, that Archer, but he means well, and I suppose he does his best. Perkins was a greater disappointment, actually, not finishing out his term with us. Ahh, well…”