She noticed that Dr. Darius worked with a coverlet over the head of the victims. This was not unusual, especially for a man of his generation. For many years it had been standard practice, something about gentility and concern for the dead, respect.
It also cut down on the unnerving problem of having closed pupils popping open, giving the autopsiest the chilling impression that the deceased was watching him or her while at work. In this case, with the eyes removed, it was even more disturbing.
Now that she was older, Jessica didn't think it was such a bad idea. The older she got, the more superstitious, too, she conceded, feeling the thick crystal gem that'd been given to her by a dear friend who promised that it would bring her, if not luck, comfort, and when she did hold it in her palm, feeling the heat from her hand rise and ebb like a tide, it gave her pause, and calmed her nerves.
Still, regardless of Dr. Darius' obvious aversion for the corpse's eyeless face, the head was part of a complete autopsy, and he would not only have to unveil the head, but stare into the cavities with a brilliant light.
But he didn't do this. He asked Jessica if she would see to the stitches, now that most of the woman's organs had been returned to her, and he began to walk away.
“ Doctor…”
“ Yes, my dear?”
“ What about the throat, the head, the eyes?”
“ Hammer blow to the forehead, occipital lobe. It's on the tape, Dr. Coran.”
“ But in a complete autopsy-”
“ No need to disfigure this poor soul any more than she already has been. I am… we are… done here. Close her up and let's get started on the other one.” Darius went out.
She uncovered the face, finding the woman's eye cavities disconcerting. Jessica ran her eyes along the throat and found multiple bite wounds there, all mentioned in the autopsy, but she wanted to take the bite marks for more intensive study, and that meant cutting the sections out of the dead woman's throat with a scalpel.
Maybe New York is unfortunate to have Dr. Darius back in on the case, she thought. Maybe he's too old for this kind of thing. Maybe… maybe…
“ What're you doing there?” It was Darius and his face was near white, his cold stare holding her. “We must get on,” he said, softening his tone.
“ I want to take these bite marks, study them in more detail.”
“ You've got bite marks. More, in fact, than we can deal with. Didn't you say you sent some off to Washington?”
“ Yes, but we have to be sure these match the others, that it's the work of the same man, or men.”
“ I suppose you're right. I just thought we could spare the woman any further… indignity…”
“ I understand and appreciate your concern-”
He was nodding as he interrupted her, “But she won't feel a thing, I know… I know.”
Darius had a cup of juice in his hands, bloodlike in color- cranberry, she guessed from the aroma. He popped a capsule and took a swallow.
She stared a moment too long.
“ Nitro,” he said, “for the ticker.”
Nitroglycerin, she thought, averting her eyes. That meant his attack had been far more serious than he had let on.
“ My body has, as they say, turned against me.”
Jessica took samples from the dead woman's throat as she had from the thighs, the buttocks and arms earlier. Bite marks in the entrails appeared rather useless as impressions, so she stuck with the others.
“ If we have two killers, the teeth marks ought to show it,” she said.
“ Not necessarily,” he countered. “Not if only one of them does the biting. I think we have to concentrate on hair, fiber and particle samples, Jessica.”
“ And what about the weapon? What kind of a… an instrument could possibly cause the rents opening the body?”
“ The answer to that eventually leads to the killer.”
Jessica finished taking her samples, dropping each into a fixative formula in various small jars beside the autopsy table. Dr. Darius buzzed for a pair of attendants to replace the Olin cadaver with the elderly Mrs. Phillips now.
The Phillips autopsy was as painstaking as the previous one, for once again the missing organs, as noted at the crime scene, caused untold problems. Some of the organs removed from Miss Olin had been those of a much older person, and now some of Mrs. Phillips' parts were proving to be too young for her; even so, not all of Miss Olin's parts could be accounted for. Despite the monster's ugly idea of hide-and-seek, he'd obviously been tempted and had either eaten or carried off some of his carrion with him.
With his every word being recorded, Dr. Darius said, “Whoever our maniac is, he bloody well knows his anatomy. He's extracted every major organ. No small task in and of… What the hell?” He paused, his gloved fingers probing Mrs. Phillips' chest cavity. “There's something odd here.”
Jessica was instantly curious. “What is it, Doctor?”
Something foreign materialized in Darius' hand and even the magician was startled at his trick. It appeared to be a small patch of cloth or square of cardboard covered in dark blood. “My God, what've we here?” he asked.
She reached out for it with a pair of forceps, gingerly taking it between the prongs. “We've got to rush this to your photo-document section, Doctor.”
“ My thinking, precisely. I'll alert Lathrope of your coming.”
“ It could prove very valuable.”
Darius' eyes spoke of his disbelief. Finally he said, “You don't suppose…”
“ What?”
“ That there might've been something like this in other victims? Say, the Olin woman? The Hamner woman?”
“ Recall them,” she replied. “Thoroughly search any of the victims you haven't released for burial.”
He nodded, obviously shaken. She asked, “Are you all right, Doctor?”
He nodded again, sweat beading his brow. “I've got a grip on it. Go now; go quickly.” But she hesitated. He looked pale. “Get some rest before you do anything else, Doctor, and wait for Archer, okay?”
“ Perhaps you're right. Go now! I'm fine, really, I am.”
As he began dialing the head of his photo-document section, Jessica grabbed her cane from where it was propped against a lab table and started through the door. She bumped into Dr. Archer, who stared at the odd item between the bloody forceps she was holding before her. A dark fluid dripped from the matted paper camouflaged by the soupy blood and bile it had been fished from.
“ What the hell's this?” asked Archer, curious.
“ No time to explain, Doctor.” She rushed past him for the stairwell and the floor below.
Archer looked across the room at Darius, who beamed at him, saying, “I think we may have finally gotten a break in the case of the Claw, Simon. And now I will need your help. We have to reopen the Olin and the Hamner cadavers.”
“ What for? What's going on?” asked the confused Archer.
“ Hurry, come with me, and I'll explain everything,” said Darius, who went for the freezer compartments. He had composed himself and was anxious now to get on with the work at hand.?
Fourteen
Jessica couldn't help thinking that she held between the pincers of the forceps a clue that might break the case wide open. It had to be something left by the killer, intentionally. Her heart was beating so fast and her hands shaking so much that she feared she'd drop the paper before she got to the door marked “Documents.” People in the hallway watched her as she rushed by, curious and wondering. At the end of the hall, she saw the reporter that had confronted her in the garage two days before, and for a moment their eyes met, telling him she had something important dangling at the end of the forceps and dripping a string of gruel.
She rushed through the door, her cane batting out her arrival. She didn't have to shout for help; everyone was surrounding her. The document guys were all aflutter, anxious to be involved in such a high-level case.