Rose of Jericho (Lilith Adams Series Book 2)

by Jenny Allen

  She couldn’t really blame him. Nothing rubbed a medical examiner the wrong way like asking for a second opinion. They were used to being the last expert opinion on a person’s life. Bringing in an outsider, especially a young woman, was bound to rattle someone.

  “Of course. Thank you.” There was no need to poke at the grumpy bear, not until she had what she wanted anyway. Once she had on all the proper attire and snapped on her gloves, Lilith made her way around to the first table.

  The doctor looked over the covered body and then up at her. “You aren’t squeamish are you?”

  It was hard for Lilith not to laugh at that question after all she’d seen in the past two weeks alone, not to mention five years on Major Crimes. “No, I’m sure I can handle it.” He huffed, definitely looking skeptical. Lilith was starting to think that she was right about his obvious bias. It was either because she was a woman or because she looked even younger than her actual age of 27, or perhaps both.

  Her visual age would be part Gregor’s fault for the good genes and part Cohen’s fault for the demon blood that kept her skin looking flawless. At least it was one good side effect. It’d save her a fortune on beauty products. Normally she’d cringe about going into public with zero makeup on. Investigating a scene was one thing. Dead bodies never told you how rough you look.

  Dr. Winslow grabbed the edge of the sheet and pulled it back, exposing the head, torso, thighs and knees as Lilith’s eyes widened. She took a breath and decided to start at the top while the Doctor just watched her with a calculated stare. He was probably placing mental bets on when she’d puke. Sadly, she was gonna have to disappoint him. “Do you have a recorder?”

  He raised a thick, greying eyebrow but didn’t comment on her lack of equipment. He simply pulled a digital recorder off his exam tray and pressed the button.

  “Thank you.” Lilith flashed a brief smile and grabbed a probe off a smaller tray. Unlike most of the bodies that Lilith examined, this one was completely cleaned, leaving all the wounds and marks clearly visible, and there were plenty of them. That was going to make her job a whole lot easier.

  “Lilith Adams at the New Haven, Connecticut city morgue. Examining John Doe 389 on October 28th, 2014. Victim appears to be in his late twenties, early thirties. Caucasian. Ear-length, brown hair. Left ear is pierced and gauged…” Lilith tilted the head toward her gingerly. “…and right ear is the same.” She used one gloved thumb to lift his eyelid. The eyes were already glazed and milky but she could still distinguish some color. “Eyes appear to be dark brown in color. There is a contusion under his left eye, along the infraorbital margin and lateral orbital wall of the zygomatic bone, most likely from a blow to the face.”

  Lilith rotated the dead man’s face away from her with a skillfully light touch and used the probe to move through his thick hair, taking a closer look at his scalp. Usually a force from the front, like a blow to the face, increases the likelihood of trauma to the back of the head. “There are abrasions above and below the external occipital protuberance. Possibly from a fall or scraping the back of his head against something.” She glanced up at the Doctor whose sour look seemed slightly less skeptical. “Did you retrieve any trace from the abrasions?”

  He nodded solemnly, obviously not as ready to hand over information as the cops outside. She could find out the trace details later in the detailed report. She needed to focus on the body first. Lilith gently repositioned the dead man’s head and continued her examination.

  Her deft fingers moved along the massive bruising covering his entire neck. “The larynx, trachea…and cricoid cartilage have been completely crushed…” She paused as her mind tried to work through everything. “Do you have the x-rays for this area?”

  “Yes. They are on the light box behind you. Just flip the switch.”

  Lilith stepped away from the table and clicked the light on. With a whir and a pop the light blinked to life. The x-ray was a tight shot starting at the bottom of the mandible and extending to the clavicles. “There are severe stress fractures on the C5, C6 and C7 vertebrae and the hyoid bone is completely obliterated.” She just stood there for a minute. The extent of the damage to his spine was highly unusual to say the least. Even with a strong blow to the throat it wouldn’t have caused damage like this. The amount of force required would be tremendous, mechanical or superhuman.

  “A weapon must have been used. There is far too much damage for a simple blow from a fist.” Lilith flicked off the light box and stepped back over to the table.

  As she was looking over the damage to the throat for any sort of impression or tool mark, she noticed something odd about the victim’s jawline. There was bruising around the victim’s mouth that she originally thought might be linked to the massive black eye. She ran her fingers over the zygomatic processes on both sides, closing her eyes and feeling for the joint. Her eyes opened when her fingers hit ridges that shouldn’t be there. “The mandible has been dislocated on both sides. The bones are intact but separated.”

  Lilith heard a slight huff of approval from the other side of the table. Ignoring it, she picked up a small pen light from her instrument tray and pried the mouth open. She used her probe to push back the bruised lips but found nothing but inflamed gums. There were tiny flecks of something caught in between his incisors.

  “I assume you ran trace on this as well?” The Doctor merely nodded silently. Lilith tried not to sigh. She felt like she was performing a final exam in med school instead of collaborating on forensic evidence. She could have just read the reports but Luminita was quite clear on her physically inspecting the bodies. Besides, she may just catch something that the good Doctor missed.

  Lilith circled to the extremities. “There are deep bruises on the victim’s upper arms on both sides… and thighs on both sides. If he was held down… The bruising is too deep to be from hands and too inconsistent to be from restraints.” Lilith took a step back, eying the patterns of bruising. “If there were several attackers, using their knees to hold him down… that would also explain the abrasions on the back of his head.” She was almost willing to bet that if they recovered trace from the scratches, it was probably just dirt and gravel.

  “There is also some bruising and abrasions on the victim’s knuckles, perhaps from whatever altercation ended up giving him a black eye.”

  Lilith took a deep breath and glanced up at Dr. Winslow before moving on to the main event. The guy on the table might have died from a completely crushed larynx, but that wasn’t the most extensive damage to the body. The doctor’s eyes were shinning a little brighter and his lips were curved into a slight grin. He was definitely curious to see what she’d make of the massive trauma to the man’s chest. By the look on his face, he expected she’d come up with the same steaming pile of nothing that he had.

  “There is massive tearing to the tissue of the thoracic region, definitely postmortem, specifically around the pericardial cavity.” If the body hadn’t been cleaned, she wouldn’t have been able to tell much about the wounds. It would have just been a bloody mess of ragged flesh. Lilith leaned in close, using her probe to push and pull at the tattered edges of the gaping hole. “There are some thin streaks of light to heavy abrasions inferior and superior to the major tissue damage.” She wasn’t quite sure what to make of them. They could be the result of a tool or maybe even fingernail scratches. The wound itself was far more puzzling.

  “There appears to be no discernible tool marks in the trauma itself. The flesh is simply shredded as if something punctured the victim’s thoracic region and just ripped the tissue away over and over. The sternum has been removed along with a good amount of the costal cartilage.” Lilith grabbed the pen light again and clicked it on before peering down into the man’s open chest.

  “There are stress and greenstick fractures on several of the true ribs indicating that a torqued wrenching motion was used to remove the sternum.” She was baffled and she was willing to bet Dr. Winslow was as well. She couldn’t thin
k of anything that would have enough power or force to accomplish these injuries without leaving tool marks. It just didn’t make any sense.

  “The heart has been removed forcibly. The aorta and vena cava have sustained tremendous damage. The heart was definitely torn out, which is consistent with the other wounds.” Lilith sighed and placed her instruments back on the tray. Her brain was buzzing with a million ideas, none of which fit the evidence.

  “Are the wounds consistent on the second body?” She was starting to feel the edge of a headache, but this time it wasn’t due to lack of blood. This was good ole fashioned frustration. So much for her theory that bodies were simple with clear right and wrong answers.

  Dr. Winslow crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. “Almost identical. The same chest wound, same bruises on the arms and thighs. He has a few bruises around the eyes and the same fight wounds on his knuckles. Judging by the placement of the bruising, I’d say these two got in a tussle with each other at some point. The only difference is the mandible.”

  Lilith paused in thought. “It wasn’t dislocated?”

  “No. It was completely removed. No tool marks, just like the thoracic trauma. It’s like someone took enough steroids to just rip the damn thing off.” Lilith had a hard time keeping the shock off her face. Right now she just needed to get all the facts. She could desperately try to make sense of the unexplainable later.

  “I assume you are running fingerprints on the victims now?”

  The aging doctor pulled the sheet back over the human puzzle and nodded. “You’d have to ask the Detective for more information on that. I just retrieved the prints. I can tell you that our friend here had one glove on his hand when he came in and the cops seemed to think that was important. They took it to evidence. Beyond that, these boys had no IDs or wallets on them. No personal effects and the back of their clothes were covered in mud and blood. I did find trace in both of the chest traumas, as well as the teeth on this one, and those abrasions you spotted. I’ll have a report in the morning for you.”

  Apparently, he just wanted her to prove her worth before he started sharing information. She understood his attitude a little better after seeing the body. The wounds didn’t make sense to him. He was defensive about maybe being too old or behind on the times to do the job properly. Having some hot shot independent come in and leave just as frustrated and confused made him feel better.

  “Since I’m here, I better take a look over both bodies, just to be sure.”

  “Of course.” He definitely seemed a lot friendlier now. At least it made her job a little easier. The Doctor was right about the second body. The wounds were nearly identical except that the entire bottom half of his was face missing.

  Lilith was inspecting the zygomatic process on the second body when he eye caught on something tiny and green in the victim’s ear canal. Deftly, she plucked out a couple pieces with a pair of tweezers and laid them on a sterile tray. “Did you send some of these to trace?”

  The doctor frowned heavily and shifted from one foot to another. That would be a no. “Let me take a look.” His voice was gruff and overly assertive. The doctor quickly transferred them onto a slide and popped it under a microscope. “Whatever it is, it’s plant material. I’ll send it up to the Botany professor right away.”

  “Thank you, Doctor.” Lilith stood back, staring at the body. She’d seen everything so why didn’t it make any sense? There had to be something else. Then it dawned on her. Maybe what she wasn’t seeing was more important.

  “Was anything else biological recovered at the scene? The mandible, maybe their sternums, flecks of bone, the hearts?”

  The Doctor seemed genuinely surprised by her question. “Nothing that I know of. Maybe whoever did this took them as a souvenir or perhaps they took the hearts for the black market.”

  Lilith quirked an eyebrow. Apparently her question on top of her discovery of new evidence was rattling him. There was no way that a medical examiner would make that last assumption with the condition these bodies were in. “No one took those hearts for transplants. They weren’t surgically removed, they were ripped out. The damage to the vena cava and aorta alone would make it impossible to use. Judging by the state of the chest wounds, I’m sure the hearts sustained a tremendous amount of muscle and tissue damage as well.”

  The old man frowned, his thick eyebrows knitting close together. “Hell, I don’t know. People today are sick and twisted. I stopped asking questions like ‘why?’ a long time ago. I leave that to the police. I just inspect the bodies and report my findings. End of story.” His thick arms crossed over his barrel chest and widening gut, signaling that sharing time was definitely over.

  Lilith pulled off the gloves, scrubbed down and removed all the extra lab clothes while her mind worked the puzzling bodies over and over. The doctor wasn’t going to be any more help. This case had him completely unsettled and she honestly didn’t blame him.

  The only thing that made any sense was Ashcroft. He’d had the strength for this, but he was dead and he definitely hadn’t been interested in severely punishing cat burglars. This wasn’t his style anyway. This had been relatively quick as far as deaths go. The truly horrific trauma had occurred post mortem. Ashcroft only wanted to prolong the suffering until he could no longer delay their death. All his wounds were compulsively precise and calculated. The wounds on these men were anything but. It was all crude, brute force.

  No, whoever or whatever did this had a mission and it wasn’t torture. This wasn’t a simple assassination, but it did have a purpose. They took the parts for a reason, she just needed to figure out what it was.

  Maybe the point was to kill them and the extra bits were payment or just trophies. No. This wasn’t a signature killing. There was no emotion or statement in these bodies. The killer or killers, made sure the victim died quickly without screaming. They had no personal connection to these men. Anyone who wanted a trophy would have a signature on these bodies, not just a crude kill.

  If they’d simply wanted the hearts themselves there were a million more efficient ways to go about it. A simple incision below the ribcage, reach up through the cavities and pull out the heart. Tada. This had the feeling of a mindless direct approach that just happened to be too powerful to be futile. In stark contrast, crushing the throats was a very intelligent way to quickly take down their enemies. It almost seemed like two completely separate minds at work. Could there have been two different attackers? The bruises on the arms and legs already indicated more than one person.

  The truly puzzling part was the mandible. Why rip off one and not the other? Obviously there was some sort of attempt to take them both, but what stopped them? Were they interrupted or did they just decide it wasn’t necessary? Better yet, why the hell would they need them in the first place? It wasn’t an attack. The mandible on John Doe number two was ripped off post mortem.

  “Thank you for your cooperation, Dr. Winslow.” She smiled at his reddened face and somehow knew he’d be having a few drinks over this case. Of course she had a feeling that having a few drinks was his normal routine regardless of what case he was working on now a days. The man grunted a goodbye and busied himself with prepping the two bodies for storage.

  Lilith slipped the digital recorder into her suit jacket pocket and pushed her way through the double doors. The detective and his officers were gone. Chance and Cohen were seated in visitor’s chairs, flipping through magazines almost in synchronicity. It would have been the oddest sight in the world if she hadn’t been 95% sure that neither of them had any interest in Science Weekly. It’s just what bored men do in waiting rooms, scan through the pictures of the closest magazine wishing they were anywhere else.

  Chance looked up as Lilith’s heels clicked against the linoleum. A smile tugged at his lips that reached all the way to his hazel eyes. For a moment, she just enjoyed the smile and let the hundreds of questions in her brain fall away. A momentary reprieve from the labyrinth in her mind. His familiar
smile still seemed surreal to her. Less than two weeks ago he was an attractive and occasionally funny fixture in her life. He was the man guarding her father’s back who limited his interactions with her to light banter. Now he was the person holding her together when the whole world seemed to be falling apart.

  It didn’t take long for her thoughts to spiral down to a darker place. Chance would never stand behind Gregor while they ate at their favorite Italian place again. Her father was dead and she wouldn’t even be able to give him a proper burial. The thought almost made her eyes mist up but it was Cohen’s voice that snapped her out of her little trance.

  “The Detective had to split. He got a call about some graveyard on the other side of town. We got the info we needed from him though.”

  Lilith blinked back the tears threatening to spill and focused on the case. She turned to Cohen with a steadying breath and nodded softly. Then the words really sank in. “Wait. Another murder?”

  “I asked in case it was somehow related. He said it was just some kids causing trouble. One of them happens to be his son.” Cohen shrugged and tossed his magazine on the table. “He’s arranged for us to see the crime scene at the University and the homicide crime scene. The Detective also said they found a glove and a few prints at the museum that matched the one found on one of the vics. They should have results from out of state back by the morning on those two.”

  “So what happened to them?” Chance’s question was simple but she heard the odd tone in his voice. Concern. What he really meant was “how bad was it?” It should have been sweet and endearing, but somehow it just wasn’t. Maybe it was her stubborn nature or perhaps it reminded her too much of her father’s reaction every time she tried to tell him about her day. Either way, it simply rubbed her wrong.