The SEM accomplished these feats because it did not work on the principle of light passing through the specimen, but bombarded the specimen instead with electrons, creating an incredibly precise image through the electromagnetic lens. Still photos could be taken as the image was sent back. These could be blown up for the nonscientist to see more clearly.
The much more portable TEM, transmission electron microscope, was an electronic version of the tried-and-true microscope. Both instruments were so sensitive to vibration that they were intentionally located in a subbasement, surrounded by solid concrete; the place sometimes made people claustrophobic, but not the scientists, whose minds were so directed on what was beneath the electron spray of the scope that hours might pass by without their realizing it.
An array of other computerized instruments that measured, sifted and otherwise separated the minutiae of a crime-the puzzle pieces-such as the gas chromatograph, or GC, machine, filled the rooms of Section IV of the Quantico labs.
Jessica was in love with the place. So, too, was J.T.
John Thorpe was a tall man, large with hands like a pair of flatirons, and yet his touch over the instruments was sensitive and light. He was aware of what she'd found now, a telltale straw hole that had punctured the dead girl's jugular but had been masked by the larger butcher's cut that had torn half her throat away, the cosmetic wound which they were supposed to have taken as the killing wound, one Raynack had possibly allowed himself to be fooled by in earlier cases.
“ So tell me what you see, John.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “It's peculiar, a circular cut definitely present, like… like a tracheotomy scar, isn't it? A catheter or tube of some sort with a beveled, sharp end, the kind used to free a blocked artery, make a circumvention in the blood or windpipe.”
“ I'll check with the family physician, see if there's any record of a tracheotomy ever having been performed on the Copeland girl.”
She glanced into the microscope now that it was on its last frame, the tissue all but gone. “Certainly a precision cut; sure knew what he was doing. Didn't sever the back side of the vein; knew just how deep to penetrate to the millimeter, like he'd had some practice.”
J.T. took a deep breath and let it out with his words. “Just lodged this thing into her jugular to… to…”
“ To open a vein,” she finished for him, then saw that he had gone a bit white. “You okay? Want to get some breakfast before taking these to the computer?”
They both knew the process of computer enhancement would take some time and that at this point a slight error could cause irreparable damage.
“ You need everything you can get by sixteen-hundred hours. But this… this'll blow their socks off. Just how the hell did you see it at the scene?”
“ Didn't. I missed the severed tendons, too. Picked up on both at autopsy yesterday.”
“ Still, even at autopsy? How'd you ever know to look below the larger gash for this?” He indicated the microscope.
“ Stumbled on it when I was taking measurements of the throat gash. I took two measurements, and they didn't add up. The creep dug deep on both sides of the jugular, but he left the center almost intact. Either careless error or he's taunting us, playing games, hiding his little secret almost too well. I just got lucky.”
He lightly laughed at this. “Nahhh, nobody just lucks onto something like this. You're a wizard, lady.”
“ No, no, I'm just careful, like yourself,” she replied before her tone again became serious. “You do realize what this means, J.T.? That we're going to have to take another and a closer look at the earlier victims.”
“ Raynack's mistakes.”
“ Now, come on, no one made any mistakes,” she corrected him. “Like I told you, if you weren't looking, or if you weren't lucky enough to stumble on it, this wound to the jugular would never surface. It just so happened that I looked for strangulation signs in the larynx and-”
“ I rest my case. You thought to look more closely at the throat, ignoring the gross wounds. Raynack-”
“ J.T., no more about Raynack's oversights. Regardless, we're going to have to do some exhuming.”
She saw by his facial expression that his enthusiasm had taken a nosedive. No one cared to exhume a body, not even a forensics specialist. ' 'Sure, makes sense… check each victim for the straw-hole mark, right?”
“ It could tell us the whole story, or it could be for nothing. I'm going to put in the order, and we'll see what comes of it.”
“ Better not let Raynack get wind of this.”
“ He won't… not from me. So I'd appreciate complete discretion, okay?”
“ You Jcnow you can trust me.”
“ And as for the enlargements on the electron photos, and the computer-enhanced-”
“ Count on it.”
“ By sixteen hundred?”
“ Sure… don't worry about the pictures. They'll be in your hands by three.”
“ Two-thirty.”
“ Don't push it.”
“ And J.T.?”
“ Yeah, boss?”
“ I'd like you to be in the meeting with-”
“ Aw, come on, I hate those things.”
“ We've got to convince them of what we've got here, and I may not be able to do that without you standing there corroborating everything I say.”
He shook his head over this. “Come on, you're department head here, Jess; time to throw off that mortal coil and those chains of womanhood that-”
“ No, it's no time for any bullshit, or for me to stand on principle, however good! Dammit, J.T., trust me. There can't be a man in that room that leaves with even a shadow of doubt about what kind of fiend we're dealing with.” At the back of her mind, also, she wanted no one leaving the meeting thinking that Chief Boutine had blundered in sending her to Wisconsin. “Please, J.T.”
“ It's your show. Boutine wants you to handle it, not me.”
“ I need your backing, that's all.”
“ All right… if it means that much to you.”
“ I'd kiss you if you weren't married.”
“ Go ahead anyway.”
She did so on the cheek and hurried out, saying, “Don't be late, room 222.”
“ Gotcha!”
On the floor above there were six autopsy rooms, and within room A, the main autopsy room with overhead viewing seats, there were no fewer than six stainless-steel tables. A number of universities and medical centers in the area used the facilities when they were not otherwise engaged. Each autopsy room came with the appurtenances of the profession: hanging scales, sinks with running water, drains on the floor, hoses, freezing compartments, microphones and huge magnifying glasses on birdlike swivel arms. The lighting was painfully harsh. The tables were deliberately placed close together so that medical examiners could easily confer when necessary, and because of the inevitable and necessary noise of electric saws and other equipment, a soundproof booth stood in the comer for the M.E. to dictate her notes, if necessary.
Jessica wandered past room A for room C, where she stood examining the schedule, determining when she might have C, should she be able to gain access to a body in the ground since winter. Exhumation was always a big hurdle, and transportation of the body to Quantico another. She'd like to get at least one of the former victims on a table in room C under her scrutiny-preferably before the killer struck again. If her suspicions were correct, he would strike again; he must to feed his insatiable bloodlust.