“It’s not his fault—just doing what dogs do. Anything else?”
Len stopped and swallowed hard, looking directly at Riley. “From what I can tell the body’s pretty small. I’d say it’s probably a child or young adolescent. It’s a mess too. Besides the damage the dog did, looks like the body was mutilated somehow, maybe dismembered and then buried.”
“Damn.” Riley felt her stomach churn. She had figured it was something along those lines. The only time she was called in instead of the regular medical examiner was when a victim was unrecognizable and had been there for a while. But a child to boot? Cases involving children were always the hardest. With a child, somehow the tragedy seemed deeper, sadder. But as much as she wanted to get started—sooner started, sooner done—there was something she had to do first. “Hey Len, give me a minute, will you? I need to talk to Grace.”
“Okay, I’ll be just over there.” With that he trudged off to the front of the house where a contingent of uniformed personnel was congregated.
Riley then turned to Grace. There was no easy way to prepare someone for what they were about to see, but she needed to at least try to clue her in. “I’m going to tell you right now, Grace, be prepared.”
Grace waved her off. “No worries, doc. I’ve been on what, a dozen of these? It’s nothing that I haven’t seen before.”
Riley reached out and gently placed her hand on Grace’s shoulder. Whatever Grace might think, she hadn’t seen anything like this before. “Grace, trust me, this is different.”
“How different could it be? I mean, we had that car fire. That was pretty bad.”
She needed Grace to understand. Whatever she may have seen, whatever she may have done, whatever she may think she knows, nothing could have fully prepared her for this. She pulled her closer and gently squeezed her shoulder, looking her straight in the eye. “Grace, this is a child we are dealing with here. Believe me, that makes all the difference.”
Grace opened her eyes wide and swallowed, seemingly with difficulty. Now, Grace seemed to understand.
“Remember, just focus on the job, not the person. There will be time enough for that later but over the next few days we have a job to do and that is what is important. We have to make sure we do everything right.” Riley tried to offer a soft smile, some small reassurance, but it felt fake. “So, ready?”
Grace gave a weak nod in response. Together they walked up to Detective Baugher as he stood talking with the Ionia County Sheriff and a short, balding man with severely crooked teeth who Riley recognized as James Seaton, the Chief Medical Examiner of Ionia County. Riley knew most of the Chief Medical Examiners including James. Over the past ten years, she had worked on six different cases where he had been called in before her.
James waved a hand as they walked up. “Evening Riley. Never seen anything like this one before. Took one look and knew it was yours.”
Riley nodded. She had always enjoyed a good professional relationship with James. He knew enough when to step back and rely on her particular expertise. Some Medical Examiners ended up making more of a mess of the crime scene than actually being any help at all. “Thanks James. Well, let’s see what we got.”
She followed Len and James to the back of the house with Grace tagging along behind. She slipped into a disposable Tyvek Hazmat suit and pulled on latex gloves. As she moved the suit crinkled and she gritted her teeth against the finger-nails-on-blackboard sound.
She glanced over at Grace, already dressed. She carefully picked up the evidence bag containing the arm. She bent in close. “Definitely a juvenile. Decomp is quite advanced—hardly any soft tissue left.” She twisted it around, viewing it from every angle. “Shows signs of disarticulation too. What do you think, Grace?”
Grace squinted as she examined the arm. “I agree. There’s a cut along the proximal end of the humerus.”
Len edged up beside them. “Any chance the dog could have done that?”
Riley looked him directly in the eyes. “None. This was done by a knife, maybe a saw of some sort, probably postmortem.”
“Probably?”
“We won’t know for sure until we get back to the lab.”
Her stomach churning, Riley crouched down and climbed under the deck. Grace followed. Large floodlights illuminated the scene. There was only about three feet of clearance, making the way difficult and cramped. Riley’s back throbbed as she dragged her tools behind her. Tucked into the farthest corner and next to the foundation was the hole dug out by the dog. Riley pulled herself closer along the damp, cold ground and peered in with her flashlight. At the base of the hole, shrouded in heavy black plastic, was a skull and ribcage. The rest remained buried.
Bent almost double, Grace scooted up with the camera in her hands and peered into the hole. “Oh man.” She sucked in a quick breath.
“I know. It’s bad but just remember, awful as this is, we have a job to do here.”
Grace nodded and pulled up the camera. She snapped picture after picture, the flash lighting up the scene like sheet lightning ahead of a summer storm.
Riley leaned in on her elbows and with a small brush carefully brushed away dirt from the plastic. Layer by layer she exposed more and more plastic with Grace firing off frames continuously. Finally, after what must have been hours, Riley brushed away the last of the soil. She slowly peeled back the plastic, exposing the gruesome scene beneath.
The small body had been completely disarticulated. Parts of each limb were stacked neatly on top of one another, affording an even tinier package than the diminutive intact body would have been. What little flesh remained was putrefied, a thick gelatinous mass surrounding the bones. As she looked down, her stomach churned again. Len had been right—this was one of the worst she had ever seen.
* * *
Lisa finally dragged herself out of bed at quarter past nine. She didn’t want to get up but with the light pouring through the window and Breslin yowling for food she couldn’t stay in bed any longer. She had lain awake, thought after thought running through her mind, each possibility worse than the last. Where on earth could Riley have gone? And why two a.m? Normal people just didn’t leave in the middle of the night, did they? Of course they didn’t. So what was going on? She had started to call Riley no less than a dozen times, getting as far as actually hearing her phone begin the dial before quickly disconnecting. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know where Riley was.
She threw her robe over her shoulders and cinched the belt tightly around her waist before shuffling down the hallway, Breslin at her heels. She popped open a can of cat food and dumped it unceremoniously in his bowl. He stared at it and then looked up at her as if to say, “What the hell?”
“Sorry, buddy, but that’s as good as I can do this morning.”
He stared at her a bit longer, giving her the patented Breslin stink eye. Finally he blinked before turning up his nose and trotting out of the room.
“Great, it’s not like I don’t have other things to worry about.” She stood there watching him disappear around the corner with a flash of tail and butt. Between Breslin and Riley she was having a terrible morning. What else could possibly go wrong? Her chest tightened. A lot of things. Just look at Jessie—one moment she was healthy and the next she was gone. Instead of beating herself up with what ifs, maybe she should simply call Riley.
Before she could talk herself out of it, she took a deep breath, then a second, then hit Riley’s number on speed dial. She could feel her hands shaking as she waited for her phone to connect, but instead of ringing, it went immediately to voicemail—“Riley’s phone, leave a message.”
“Fuck.” She stared down at her phone. Riley had her damn phone turned off. Next, she quickly typed in a text message—“Hey babe, where you at? What’s up?”—and hit SEND. She couldn’t get simpler than that.
She sat there and waited…and waited…and waited. Fifteen minutes passed. Now twenty. Nothing. She drummed her fingers against the tabletop, biting
her lip. What the hell? Riley had never failed to at least text a quick message back, even if it were a one-word or even a single letter response. How you doing, Riley? K? See? Riley didn’t even have to spell the word to say she was okay. A single letter, that’s all she needed. How long could that take?
Finally, she dropped her phone to the table and pushed it away. Now what? She had no idea where Riley was. One thing was for certain: if she sat around the house all day wondering, she would go nuts. She had to get out. Before she could change her mind, she grabbed her cell phone again and rang Caroline.
“Hey, Lisa, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
She took a deep breath, trying her best to sound calm. “I was wondering if you might like to go work out? I haven’t got anything going on and Riley’s…” What could she say? Riley skedaddled, vamoosed, absconded, took a powder, scrammed—choose your expression. She didn’t know where the hell she was, but she couldn’t very well dump that on Caroline, not so early on a Sunday. “…Riley’s out doing something.” Well, not a total lie.
“Hmmm, let me see. I’m not sure what Susan’s got planned. Hold on and I’ll go check.”
Lisa drummed her fingers on the table while she waited. If Caroline couldn’t play with her, she didn’t know what she would do. She wasn’t one to go shopping or mindlessly wander through the mall. And a movie was certainly out. In her state of mind she couldn’t concentrate long enough to follow one. Same with reading. No, she needed to get out and do something active, something that would take her mind off things. A workout would be just the ticket.
“Yeah, Lisa, you still there?”
“I’m here.” She braced herself, waiting. If Lisa couldn’t go, she would go by herself.
“Good, I talked to Susan and she was planning on reading through a crap-ton of journals today, so I’m free.”
Lisa sprang from her chair. “Great. I didn’t want to interrupt your Sunday or anything.”
“Please…” Caroline snorted on the other end of the phone. “You’re doing me a favor. You know how Susan is when she goes all academic. I imagine Riley’s the same way.”
Standing there, Lisa felt her chest tighten again. “Yeah, something like that.”
“Okay, what time?” Caroline sounded ecstatic.
“Anytime’s fine with me.” And the sooner the better. Much more of this waiting around and she’d probably begin pulling her hair out.
“Half hour sound good? At the gym?”
“Excellent. See you then.” With that Lisa tore off down the hall to get dressed and grab her gym bag. Less than five minutes later she pulled out into the street and revved her car, running it through the gears.
* * *
Riley rubbed her eyes, walked up behind Grace and patted her on the shoulder as she sat slumped over. “Hey, take a break. Go get some coffee.”
“Yeah, I think I will. Thanks.” Grace walked slowly away, a decided droop to her shoulders.
“Take your time, it’ll be a bit yet.” Riley leaned back, stretching as far as she could, her fists pushed deep into the small of her back. She had lost track of how many hours she had been crammed under that deck. It had officially been over eight hours since she’d received Len’s call. Now they were waiting in her lab for the coroner to deliver the body, when the real work would begin. They would try to piece everything together and give a name to this nameless, discarded child.
While she waited, she thought of Lisa. By now she would be awake. She should probably give her a call, let her know what was going on. Lisa deserved more than the note left in the early morning hours. But what would she say? What explanation could she give for leaving in the middle of the night? She couldn’t very well tell Lisa what she had been doing, especially since it was a child. The death of that young girl at her school had affected Lisa profoundly, so how would she respond to something like this? How could she possibly expect anyone else to deal with what she did for a living? She was having a hard enough time dealing with it herself.
Five minutes later, Grace came shuffling back in, a cup of coffee in each hand. “Here, doc. Looks like you could use some too.”
Grace was right about that. Riley felt as if she had been hit by a truck, a great big one, bigger even than hers. And thinking about Lisa hadn’t helped either. The more she thought about her, the sicker she felt. But there was nothing she could do about it now so she took the coffee and took a slow sip, holding the cup close under her nose and inhaling the warm steam. “Thanks, Grace.”
They sat there in silence. It was obvious this case was taking its toll on Grace. Hell, it was taking a toll on her too. Nothing about this was easy. Still, as much as Grace needed this experience, she still felt for her. “How you holding up, kiddo?”
Grace took a long, deep breath. “To tell the truth, doc, I’m not sure. I’ve worked on a ton of cases with you but this one, with a child, it’s just…just…”
“…different, I know.”
Grace perked up. “Yes, exactly. I know this shouldn’t be different, it’s just another case, but for some reason it is. It’s so much harder to not think about how terrible it is, how much of a tragedy it is. One minute I feel like I’m about to cry and the next minute I’m pissed as hell. I know that sounds crazy.”
Riley reached out and lightly placed her hand on Grace’s forearm. “No, it’s not crazy. If you didn’t feel that way, you would be crazy. But try put it out of your mind. Stay objective and detached as best you can. Like any other case, we have a job to do. Just remember that.” She only wished she could fully believe her own words. No matter what she told herself, it was always different when a child was involved.
* * *
Lisa jumped up on one of the ellipticals and instantly began to huff along as if sprinting a hundred meter dash. This medieval torture device would certainly distract her. Even with her long legs she could immediately feel the burn in her quads and glutes. No pain, no gain. If she could wear her body out, her mind should follow. At least that was the idea.
Caroline stared at her from the adjacent elliptical, her forehead wrinkling with ever-deepening creases. “Jesus, Lisa, you keep that up and you’re going to have a heart attack or give me one.”
“Just enjoying a good workout.” She panted out the words between gasping breaths, stepping up the pace even more.
“Oh please, you’re so full of shit.” Caroline now slowed to nearly a stop. “What’s up?”
“Nothing, nothing at all.” Out of the corner of her eye she could see Caroline scowling at her. Maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to ask her to come work out.
“Hmmm…” Caroline pursed her lips and crossed her arms, coming to a dead stop. “Nothing at all, huh?”
“Can’t a girl just enjoy a workout in peace?” Sweat was pouring down her forehead and she wasn’t sure it was entirely from the exertion.
Caroline jabbed a finger at Lisa. “There, now I know there’s something up. You haven’t been this psychotic about working out since you found out that Jessie had cancer and refused to tell anyone. So enough with the bullshit. Come on, out with it.”
Without answering, without even looking over, Lisa slowly came to a stop, picked up her towel and wiped the sweat from her face. It had definitely been a mistake to invite Caroline. She now faced the best friend inquisition. One more thing to chalk up for her shitty day. She took a deep breath and wheeled around on Caroline. “Look, I appreciate your concern but I’ve had a bad morning and I want to forget about everything for a while. Now, can we please just work out and leave it alone.”
Caroline, her expression softening, stepped off her elliptical and walked over to Lisa, took her by the hand, pulled her off the exercise equipment and threw her arms around her. Lisa collapsed against her, sniffling. She hadn’t realized that she had been crying.
Caroline simply held her and patted her gently on the back of the head. “Shhhh…shhhh…it will be all right.”
Lisa snuffled loudly and shook her head. God bl
ess Caroline but that was the biggest load of crap she had heard in a long time. How could it be all right when her girlfriend received a call and disappeared in the middle the night without telling her what it was about? How could it be all right when she couldn’t get hold of her and find out why she left or where she was? How could anything be all right after that?
Caroline quickly turned to the side, glaring over Lisa’s shoulder. “What the hell are you looking at?” Two women who had been standing there and staring now looked frightened. “Haven’t you ever seen someone cry? Be gone.” At the growl in her voice, the two women scurried away at top speed.
Lisa pulled back, now managing a wan smile as she wiped her eyes. She loved her best friend. Caroline was probably the most protective person in her life.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to lose it like that. You must think I’m a complete basket case.” She was beginning to feel more ashamed than embarrassed.
“Oh, please.” Caroline waved her off, drawing out the word. “What are friends for?” She clasped a hand on each side of Lisa’s face, turning her head until their eyes met. “Lisa, look at me. It’s okay.” She then took her by the hand, leading the way to a nearby weight bench. Once they had both sat down, she looked at Lisa directly again. “Now, won’t you tell me what’s going on?”
Lisa let out a long sigh and slumped back against the weight bar. “That’s just it. I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Just start from the beginning, sweetie.”
That would be fine if she even knew where the beginning was. When did things start to go screwy? It wasn’t just last night. This had been building for weeks now. If she had to put her finger on it, it would be Thanksgiving. That was the first time she got the feeling that Riley was hiding something. Or was that her imagination? Up until last night she could have almost written it off as a paranoid figment of her overactive imagination. But that didn’t explain Riley’s mysterious late-night departure. Finally she let out a bitter laugh. “I’m not even sure I know where the beginning begins.”
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