The Cutting

by James Hayman

  ‘It looks that way.’

  ‘Want me to spend the night?’

  ‘Not necessary. I’m not sure when I’ll be home, but Kyra should be there as soon as she finishes dinner.’

  ‘Well, if you decide you want me to stay, just let me know. It’s not a problem.’

  ‘Thanks, Jane. I appreciate it.’

  McCabe closed the phone and returned it to his pocket. He pulled on the surgical gloves he’d brought from the car. Pointing the flashlight at the ground, he started inspecting the area where the girl’s body was lying. Senior evidence tech Bill Jacobi and his partner would arrive soon enough, but McCabe wanted to have a more thorough look around first.

  McCabe figured the girl was most likely killed somewhere else and the body dumped here later. If so, he’d find little in the way of evidence. He saw no blood on the ground, and the blood on the body was dried and old. A greenish cast of decomposition was beginning to show on her abdomen. Katie Dubois had been dead a while. McCabe guessed at least forty-eight hours.

  The ground was stone hard, so he doubted he’d find any footprints or tire tracks, but he watched where he walked and looked anyway. Also, he saw nothing to suggest the body had been dragged the thirty or so yards from the street. No bent clusters of weeds. No visible scrapes of dirt around the girl’s heels or head or shoulders. He figured the killer carried Katie to where he dumped her. No great feat. She couldn’t have weighed more than 110 pounds even before she lost most of her blood. The killer would have gotten some of that blood on his clothes. Possible evidence unless he burned them.

  He played his light over the girl’s body, inch by inch. The cut down the middle of her chest looked as careful and clean as if it had been made with a razor or possibly a surgeon’s scalpel. The burn marks were recent and deliberate. In the lobe of her right ear he found a small gold earring with a dangling heart-shaped charm. He moved the light to the left ear. The lobe was torn, and the mate to the earring, assuming there was a mate, was gone. Accidentally caught on something? Maybe. Roughly pulled out? Possibly. Taken as a trophy? More likely. Her navel was pierced with a silver-colored semicircular bar with tiny metal balls at either end. A blue tattoo that looked like a Chinese or maybe Japanese character adorned the skin above her left hipbone. A twenty-first-century teen.

  The crime scene techs arrived and began drawing their diagrams and taking their pictures. McCabe pointed out the remaining earring and asked the senior tech, Bill Jacobi, to make sure to check for both prints and DNA. Jacobi gave him a ‘So what do you think, I’m stupid?’ look in response.

  ‘Looks like somebody started the autopsy without me.’ McCabe turned at the sound of a woman’s voice. Deputy State Medical Examiner Terri Mirabito stood behind him, looking at the body. ‘I think I resent that,’ she added, ‘both on her behalf and mine.’

  ‘Good to see you, Terri. Glad you’re here.’ McCabe had worked with her on half a dozen cases over the past three years and valued her skills.

  After photographing the body from several angles, Mirabito knelt down for a closer look. ‘How long do you think she’s been dead?’ McCabe asked.

  ‘A while. She’s out of rigor. Only slight lividity.’ With gloved hands, she gently pulled back the fold of tissue on the left side of the girl’s chest. McCabe could see what appeared to be grains of rice inside the cut. Only the rice was moving. Maggots.

  ‘Judging by the activity in there, I’d say she was killed forty-eight to seventy-two hours ago. Maybe a little longer depending where the body was kept.’ Terri pulled the skin back a bit further. ‘Well, sonofabitch, will you look at that?’

  ‘What? What is it?’

  Terri looked up, a grim expression on her face. ‘Her heart’s gone.’

  ‘What do you mean, gone?’

  ‘Just what I said, McCabe. Gone. As in not there.’ Terri was shining a small high-intensity light into the girl’s exposed chest cavity. ‘Some creep opened her up, cut through her sternum with a saw, and removed her heart. I couldn’t have done it cleaner myself.’

  Neither said anything for a moment. ‘Ritual murder?’ he finally asked.

  ‘Beats the hell out of me. Whoever did it, though, knew what he was doing.’

  ‘You’re assuming it was a he?’ asked Maggie.

  ‘I am.’ Terri rubbed her gloved finger gently along the severed bone. ‘After he cut the sternum, like any good surgeon, he most likely used a retractor to spread her ribs and get at her heart. I’m not sure how much more the autopsy will tell us, but maybe something. If we can get positive ID by tomorrow morning, I’ll do the procedure in the afternoon. We’ve got nothing else scheduled.’ There was an unsettled edge to Terri’s normally cheerful voice. ‘You and Maggie want to join the party?’

  ‘Just leave word what time you want us there.’

  Terri turned back to the body and continued her preliminary examination. McCabe glanced over to the black-and-white Crown Vic with the flashing lights and the Portland PD slogan, PROTECTING A GREAT CITY, emblazoned in gold on its rear fender. Some days, he thought, we keep that promise better than others. A dirty-looking man of indeterminate age was leaning against the back door. A uniformed officer stood nearby. Satisfied he wasn’t going to find anything else useful, McCabe walked over to join them. After a last look back at the body, Maggie followed.

  ‘This is the guy who found the body,’ the cop told them. ‘Says he’d be happy to tell us more about it if maybe we could come up with a little whiskey for him.’

  ‘Oh, really,’ said McCabe. ‘Well, I guess we’ll have to think about that.’

  The man steadied himself against the car. He was a skinny little guy. Maybe five feet four. His eyes darted between McCabe and Maggie. Clearly he had no love for cops.

  ‘What’s your name?’ McCabe asked.

  ‘Lacey. Dennis Patrick Lacey.’

  ‘Got any ID, Dennis?’

  The man handed McCabe a Maine driver’s license. It had expired three years ago. Lacey was fifty-five years old. McCabe would have guessed ten years older. He handed the license back.

  ‘Wrestling fan?’

  ‘Huh?’

  McCabe pointed toward Lacey’s T-shirt. A picture of a grimacing wrestler and the letters wwe adorned the front.

  ‘Christ, no. They give you this crap at the shelter. It’s stuff nobody else wants.’

  Lacey seemed coherent enough. McCabe glanced at Maggie, who flipped open a mini recording device.

  ‘This is Detective Margaret Savage, Portland, Maine, Police Department. The time is 9:54 P.M., September 16, 2005. The following is an interview recorded in a vacant lot off Somerset Street, Portland, Maine, between Detective Sergeant Michael McCabe, also of the Portland PD, and Mr. Dennis Lacey, residing at … Mr. Lacey, can you tell us where you live?’

  ‘Wherever I can doss down.’

  McCabe began. ‘Would you tell us what you saw tonight?’

  ‘I didn’t have nothing to do with it.’

  ‘We don’t believe you did,’ McCabe said as gently as he could. ‘We just need to know what you saw to help us find whoever did do it.’

  Lacey looked at McCabe as if trying to gauge to what degree he could be trusted. He finally shrugged and began speaking. ‘Aw, jeez, it was awful.’ McCabe could hear traces of a brogue under the man’s slur, its lilting rhythms reminding him of his own Irish grandparents. ‘Warm nights like this,’ Lacey said, ‘I sometimes sneak into the scrap yard. Just to sit. Look at the stars. Have a few drinks. Read a few poems. If I can afford it, maybe I bring something to eat.’

  ‘You read poems?’ Maggie asked. ‘What poems would those be?’

  Lacey reached into his back pocket and pulled out a dirty, well-worn paperback copy of Yeats. He handed it to Maggie. ‘I’m a sailor,’ he said, slurring his words only a little. ‘Able seaman … or I was. Not so able anymore. I spent lot of nights at sea staring at the stars, di
d a lot of reading.’

  ‘You read Yeats?’ she asked.

  ‘Him and a few of the other Irish poets. I like the sound of the old words,’ he said. ‘These days, I’m all alone, y’know, and words are my only company. Nobody bothers me here or tells me to shut my yap.’

  Lacey began to recite, stumbling over only a few of the words.

  I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

  And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:

  Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

  And live alone in the bee-loud glade …

  As the words came out, the cops all stared at Lacey. McCabe, too. Maybe McCabe most of all. When the old sailor paused, searching his memory, McCabe waited a moment and then filled in Yeats’s next line.

  And I shall have some peace there,

  for peace comes dropping slow …

  ‘So you know old William Butler, do ya?’ said Lacey. ‘Unusual for a cop.’

  McCabe smiled. ‘Unusual for a sailor. Now, can you tell me when you first saw the girl?’

  ‘I didn’t see her at first. Didn’t see nothin’. Not till I got up to take a leak, which I did against that pile of scrap over there. I was just zipping up and I noticed something a little ways off. I walked closer and there she is. All cut up. It’s a terrible thing, y’know. A terrible thing.’

  ‘How long were you there before you had to take your leak?’ asked McCabe.

  ‘Not long. Twenty minutes.’ Lacey shrugged. ‘Maybe less.’

  ‘So you got here around eight thirty?’

  ‘Aw, jeez, I dunno. I don’t have no watch or nothin’. It was dark.’

  ‘Did you see anything else near the body?’

  ‘Something else? Like what?’

  ‘Like maybe a knife or a razor?’

  ‘Nah. Nothing like that.’

  ‘Or maybe some jewelry?’

  ‘What kind of jewelry?’

  ‘Any kind. Like maybe a gold earring you thought you could get a few bucks for?’

  ‘No. I didn’t see nothing. Or take nothing. I just wished I had something to cover her up with. She was lyin’ there exposed to the whole world.’

  ‘You didn’t touch her?’

  ‘No, I didn’t touch her or nothing else either.’ He pulled a pint bottle of whiskey from the sagging pocket of his pants. ‘D’ya mind if I finish what little’s left here?’ There was perhaps an inch of amber liquid in the bottle.

  McCabe silently nodded assent. He wouldn’t have minded a little himself. ‘What kinds of cars were parked nearby?’ McCabe gestured to the curb, where the techs were checking for tire tread marks and other evidence.

  ‘Didn’t see no cars. Maybe some driving by, but none that were parked.’

  ‘Any that slowed down? Any you could identify?’

  ‘Just cars going along. You couldn’t see what kind of cars they were.’

  ‘Thank you, Mr. Lacey.’ McCabe looked up and noticed a couple of reporters had arrived, including a crew from the local NBC affiliate.

  ‘Hey, McCabe. Remember me? Josie Tenant, News Center 6. We heard the Dubois girl was found murdered here. Can you give us a statement?’

  ‘Not at the moment.’ McCabe turned away.

  ‘C’mon, McCabe. Is it Dubois in there or isn’t it?’

  Media relations weren’t McCabe’s strong suit. He turned to face her. ‘Look, Josie, this is an active crime scene. I’m not entirely sure how you got here so fast, but it would really be helpful if you kept your folks on the other side of Somerset. We’re still trying to collect evidence.’ Tenant and her cameraman reluctantly retreated to their van. The other reporters followed.

  McCabe turned to Comisky, the cop who’d found Lacey. ‘Kevin, would you take Mr. Lacey down to 109? If Detective Sturgis is around, see if he’d be kind enough to take the rest of Mr. Lacey’s statement. Otherwise, I’ll do it when I get back.’ To Lacey he added, ‘Make sure you let us know where we can find you. Here’s a card with my number on it. We may have to talk to you again. Do you understand?’

  ‘Aye, aye, Captain.’ He threw McCabe a shaky salute and staggered toward Comisky’s car. ‘Canadian whiskey’s not so bad, y’know,’ he said, looking sadly at his now empty bottle. ‘It’s not Irish, but it’s not bad.’ The homeless man climbed unsteadily into the back of the car.

  Before Comisky could follow, McCabe said softly, ‘Make sure you check his pockets for a gold earring or anything else he might have picked up here.’

  The patrol officer nodded, slid behind the wheel, turned the key, and opened all four windows before starting off.

  Bill Jacobi and Terri Mirabito were completing their tasks. There didn’t seem to be much more McCabe could do. He approached one of the other uniformed patrol officers. ‘Keep the reporters out until the body’s picked up and the area’s clear – and don’t listen to any of their bullshit.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Sergeant. I’ve heard it all before.’

  McCabe and Maggie Savage got into Maggie’s Crown Vic for the short ride back to the office. ‘Do you want to join Sturgis interviewing Lacey?’ McCabe asked.

  ‘No. There’s no way he’s the killer. I’m sure Carl can get whatever else there is to get. I just hope he doesn’t start doing his bullying Carl shit. Lacey’s got enough problems already.’

  ‘Well, Maggie, that’s very thoughtful of you. Maybe, instead of interviewing Lacey, we should just get him a bottle of Jameson’s and ask him to read us some more Yeats.’

  Maggie didn’t laugh. ‘You know, McCabe, I love you dearly, but sometimes you’re really an asshole,’ she said. ‘Anyway, I called Katie’s mother and stepfather when I saw the news van pull up. I didn’t want them hearing about their daughter’s death from News Center 6. So I told them, as gently as I could, that I thought we’d found her and that we needed to talk to them again.’

  ‘How’d they take it?’

  ‘About what you’d expect. The mother broke down sobbing. Couldn’t talk. Just wanted to know if I was sure it was Katie. I told her I was, and she put the stepfather on the phone. He was quieter. They agreed to come downtown and talk to me when I told him how important starting fast could be on cases like this. We’ll see if maybe they can remember anything new.’

  ‘Okay. Just drop me off. I want to take another look at the missing persons file on Katie. Then I’m going to hit the computer. See if anybody’s reported anything similar.’

  Maggie pulled into the curb in front of 109 Middle Street, the PPD’s small headquarters building on the edge of the Old Port.

  ‘You’ve got the world-famous memory. Anything ring a bell?’

  McCabe didn’t answer. He just sat staring out the windshield. A few raindrops were splattering against the glass. Why the hell would anybody neatly and precisely cut a girl’s heart out of her body? Sexual nutcase? Some kind of anatomical collector filling his trophy case?

  ‘McCabe?’

  He looked at her and nodded, almost imperceptibly. ‘I do remember something,’ he said.

  ‘D’ya want to share it?’ she asked.

  ‘Let me check it out first. I also want to set up appointments with a couple of the cardiac surgeons up at Cumberland Med. Find out what it takes to cut out somebody’s heart.’

  ‘Think this could be the start of a serial string?’ Maggie asked as McCabe exited the car.

  McCabe turned back and leaned in the open window. ‘I don’t know. It’s sure got the earmarks.’

  The streets were emptier now. As McCabe walked toward the building, he could feel that the air had become noticeably cooler, the first hint of the coming autumn and the dark winter that lay beyond.

  3

  Friday. 10:30 P.M.

  Two foam cups partially filled with cold coffee greeted McCabe at his desk. He checked his messages. Ther
e were two from his boss, Lieutenant Bill Fortier. In the first, Fortier delivered fair warning that Chief Tom Shockley was going to take a personal interest in this case. In the second, he asked McCabe to set up a detectives’ meeting for the morning to organize the investigation. Finally, there was one from the great man himself, Portland Police Chief Thomas H. Shockley. ‘Hey, Mike. It’s Tom Shockley. We need to talk about Dubois ASAP. I’m giving a speech at a fund-raiser tonight. I can fend off the press until tomorrow, but then I need a complete update. Meantime, don’t talk to the media. I’ll handle that. Give me a call at home tomorrow A.M. You’ve got the number.’

  McCabe knew Shockley liked making any and all public statements on major cases himself. He thought he was better at it than anyone else in the department, and that was probably true. Shockley was a political animal, and McCabe knew that could be useful even in a small city like Portland. Still, it amazed him how much the chief loved looking at himself on the tube.

  As usual, McCabe’s desk was a chaos of paper, none of it critical and all of it irrelevant to the Dubois case. He swept it, in a batch, into the left-hand drawer of his desk. The important stuff, files from a couple of ongoing cases, was already locked safely in the right-hand drawer on top of a pair of Casey’s ski mittens. The background on the Dubois case wasn’t among it.

  He pulled the missing persons file on Katie Dubois and brought it back to his desk. He’d read it once, but he wanted to go over it more carefully now that he knew for sure her death was a homicide. As he sat, he glanced at Casey’s mischievous face, age seven, beaming up at him from within the confines of a metal picture frame. The simple fact that Casey was now just a couple of years younger than the girl dumped in the scrap yard somehow made this case more personal. Not more important. Just more personal.

  McCabe opened the file. Right up front were three digital photos of Katie Dubois, alive. The first was a family shot from her last birthday. He checked Date Of Birth on her personal info data form. The birthday was two months earlier, July 14. In the picture Katie looked even prettier than he’d thought. She was sitting in front of a big white cake with two candles on it in the shape of a one and a six. Sweet sixteen. Her lips formed an exaggerated pucker, mugging for the camera, ready to blow out the candles. He wondered what she’d wished for. Whatever it was, it wasn’t what she got.