*
The four of them burst into the Forensics lab to find Janssen and Singleton waiting next to one of their stainless steel tables. They could see the Skinner girl lying face down on the table, a light blue sheet covering her, her head turned to one side and cradled by a small pillow. Pepper knew the pillow provided no comfort to the dead girl, but it made it psychologically easier for the rest of them to think they were caring for her the best they could.
The Inspector spoke as they stepped up and stood across the table from the two lab experts. "Okay, Tanya, what's up?"
"Just a couple of quick items before I get to why I wanted you here. I'm running blood tests right now, but everything seems to indicate the same toxins in her blood as the Redmond girl had. As I mentioned at the crime scene, you can even smell the bleach leeching out of her system." The detectives nodded, the pungent scent even more prevalent in the lab. "She was fully clothed, with one exception-no panties-just like Yvonne Redmond. Now, one thing I found different on this girl from the Redmond girl is a small puncture in the side of her neck. See." She pointed to a tiny red dot on the side of the girl's neck as the detectives moved closer. "I guess we don't know how this girl was abducted yet, but she might have been given a needle in this location."
The Inspector interrupted her. "We've just been informed that her car was found in the parking lot of a grocery store. It's likely she was taken there."
Janssen nodded. "That would make sense with this puncture then. My feelings are that when we get the tox screens back, there are likely to be traces of something like sodium pentobarbital."
"And that would have knocked her out right away?" Chin asked.
"Oh, yeah. She would have been down in seconds."
"Was she sexually assaulted?" Wallace asked.
"Yes. Again, very similar to the Redmond girl. Based on the amount of vaginal tearing and bruising, I'd say repeatedly."
"And again, you think she would have been given the Rohypnol like Yvonne Redmond?"
Janssen nodded. "Although we haven't gotten the full tox screens back yet, based on all the other comparisons to the previous case, my guess would be yes."
"So like the other girl, she would have been awake during the whole thing?" Chin asked.
"Yes, I'm afraid so." Janssen paused as the others looked down at the Skinner girl thoughtfully. "But there's something different with this girl than the last one, and that's why I asked you down here right away."
"Okay, let's have it," Caruso said.
"Well, the last girl had the arrow in her chest. This girl has something quite different." As Janssen drew the sheet down and off the girl's body, Pepper thought she looked like a magician revealing a magic trick-only this trick wasn't so entertaining.
"Ah geez," Wallace muttered under his breath as the four of them looked down at the girl. Her back and buttocks were covered by a series of whip marks, the livid striations crisscrossing the back of her body in a bizarre mosaic that looked like a road map.
"The whip," Pepper muttered, realizing why The Sandman had chosen the Devo song this time. The whip marks were vividly red and had torn the skin in a number of locations, but they weren't as bloody and oozing as you'd expect.
"Why are the whip marks like that?" Pepper said, looking up at Janssen. "Why isn't there more blood?"
"Because just like he did with the arrow on the Redmond girl, he whipped her after she'd been dead for a few hours."
"Oh man," Wallace whispered. The others were silent, taking in this latest development, wondering what state of mind would induce this sort of rage.
"Okay, you can cover her up again," Caruso said.
"Yes sir," Janssen replied, carefully draping the sheet back over the young girl's exposed body. "Like I said before, this guy is a real nasty piece of business. I've never seen anything like this before. Not even when I worked in Toronto before coming here."
"Thanks, Tanya," the Inspector said. "Let us know when those test results come in."
"Will do, but like I said, I'm expecting them to come in almost identical to the Redmond girl."
The Inspector nodded and the team members left the lab, not one word was said on the way back to the squad room, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Pepper realized he'd been right when he'd felt that The Sandman hadn't been finished, and with that new coded note hinting at more to come, he wondered what was in store for them next.
Every Breath You Take Page 43
