by Shane Crosby
“The reason for my call is your dead body. My examination is complete. There’s some interesting stuff going on with this body. Do you have a moment?”
“I’ll do you one better. I’ll come over right now.”
“Oh, good that’s better. See ya when you get here.”
I had to put off sorting through my stuff and dash off to the coroner’s office. First things first, I had to grab my partner.
“Jack.”
“Yeah.”
“Off to the coroner.”
“Right behind you.”
Jack ran to catch up hopped in the cruiser and off to the coroner we went.
CORONER’S OFFICE
Trevor & Jack
I pulled up to the coroner’s office with all sorts of things running through my head. I wondered what else he could tell me about my body. The details were gruesome enough, but in my experience, the body always has more to tell.
I finished parking. We got out and walked into the office.
“As promised, Doc.”
“Good detective you’re here let’s get started. I told you about the larynx. What’s disturbing is this body has trauma like a prostitute. You can tell she’s been sexually assaulted. I found little tears inside the vagina and outside here. You see, right here?”
He points to the vaginal area and grabs a mirror that must be strong enough to magnify the private area of every person in Gochian within a one mile radius. They call it a private area for a reason. And, with the magnifying lens you can see why. It’s days like this I’d rather be in the battlefield dodging bullets and land mines. He opens the vagina and shows me the little contusions inside. He explained that in death bruises start to show that you couldn’t see when someone’s alive. I’m thinking, please don’t show me anything else. I won’t be able to have sex with my wife for a year after seeing this. Since Jack was with me, I couldn’t look away. He would never allow me to forget this.
“Yes, I see that.”
“And, look here, her thighs you see the bruising? Looks like old bruises and then new ones. Her ankles have marks as if she was restrained. Her hands were removed, but you can still see the marks on her wrists here. I believe she was restrained here as well. The marks are on both wrists. She’s had anal sex, forcibly. Her rectum was torn and then repaired this was done more than once. She has a C-section scar, fresh.”
“She just had a baby.”
“Yes. I’d say about three months ago.”
“That soon?”
“Yep. What’s also alarming is unlike a hooker, she’s clean. Her body is, I mean. Anyone experiencing sexual trauma like this, this frequent usually wouldn’t go through it sober. She has no needle marks; no drugs were in her system. She has neatly manicured toe nails pedicured feet nothing chipped out of place. Usually a streetwalker wouldn’t be this put together. I don’t know what she was into but it was serious and from the looks of it she had a horrible life.”
“Maybe someone sexually assaulted her.”
“That’s what I’m thinking. She was kidnapped and sexually assaulted repeatedly.”
“That’s what it looks like. They killed her and dumped the body.”
“Yep, exactly.”
“Thanks, Doc. Just send the report over and I’ll add it to the file.”
“How are you going to locate friends or family?”
“Not sure.”
“Oh, one more thing. She has a butterfly tattoo on her right hip. And, another glaring thing, like the others, all of her body hair has been removed.”
“I love when they have tattoos. Body hair removed because they want to make it even more difficult to identify her. No hair color, eye color, fingerprints, nothing.”
“At least she has the tattoos. That should make it easy to identify her, they didn’t think of that.”
“No they didn’t.”
“I’ll look for the report. If I have any questions I’ll call you.”
“Good deal Detectives. See you soon.”
CHAPTER THREE
KEEP PILING UP
GOCHIAN
Trevor
In the past three months, I’ve had two more dead dumped bodies. All women without heads or hands. These jokers are so methodical, they not only removed their heads, but they waxed their pubic areas and under their arms, removing all of the hair from their bodies. Therefore pinpointing our jane does hair color is somewhere in between slim to never.
All three of my victims had tattoos. One body had a sleeve; the other had four, two on her thigh two on her back. The tattoos should make them easy to identify, at least I’m hopeful they will.
Coroner’s Office
“Hey Doc! Good to see you’re back from your vacay. How was it?”
“It was great! I spent all my time snorkeling and playing golf.”
“Golf? Boring.”
“Naaahh, you have to try it one day. I’ll take you.”
“Um hmm, don’t kill yourself making time for that, ok.”
“Detective broaden your horizons. You’re here about the dead body, right?”
“I like to keep them small. Yep.”
“No one ever comes down here just to say hello.”
“Ahhh, Doc, I’ll have to remember that. But, you’re in good company, though.”
“Good company? With whom?”
“God.”
“God? Have you been drinking detective?”
“Never! You’re in good company with God because no one ever goes to see or talk to Him until they want something. You should feel special.”
“Maybe you’re right, detective. I hadn’t thought about it like that.”
“See, maybe you should.”
“I missed your jokes or attempt at telling them.”
“Attempt? Hey, I bring the laughter whenever I come down here.”
“Look around detective, it’s not that difficult to be the funniest person in the room down here.”
“Ohhhh, yeah. And, just when I was thinking of making a career change into comedy.”
“No, Alvarez, you need to definitely keep your day job.”
“You just jealous of my shine man.”
“It must be on dim.”
“With all the miles your eyes have on them, it could look dim.”
“Kid, if you’re Blessed, you’ll have someone saying that to you some day. Ain’t that right doc?”
“Sure is.”
“All right, all right, I’m not interested in getting ambushed by the Geritol crew today. Give it to me straight doc.”
“I missed this sarcastic banter. Good to be back. Now let’s get on with it. The two bodies you found are just like the first, with some slight differences. The second and third bodies are vitamin D deficient, not severe low levels but not normal. They were also drug addicts, this one tested positive for Cocaine and this one for meth. You can see the track marks on the second one’s arm. Looks like she was a hard core user and she tested positive for hepatitis. See here, her feet? Your first victim had nice feet, like she had taken care of them. You notice the difference in these last two?”
“Yes, a huge difference.”
“The vitamin D deficiency is from a lack of sun among other things. There are other sources but their skin is ashen as if they haven’t been outside in months. Their stomach was empty didn’t look like they’d eaten too much of anything for a very long time. And, your favorite area of the body detective, the pubic area. In an effort to keep us from knowing the hair color, they’ve waxed this area, just like the first. The only thing similar to these three cases is the dismemberment. They’re totally different regarding lifestyles.”
“Same killer?”
“If it’s not, they know each other. Does anyone else know about the way these bodies were found?”
“No one but the coroner’s office and my partner.”
“Good. Look at these markings around the neck on these victims. It looks like the blade of a chain saw. We tested eight differe
nt models. These marks match a Remington chainsaw.”
“That’s a nice saw expensive, too.”
“That’s what we said; they cared enough to use the very best.”
“Ooooh, that’s a bad one Doc.”
“Yeah, I thought so, but a good one, though.”
“Yeah, but on the morbid side of good.”
“Hey, what do you expect from a coroner?”
“Nothing more, I guess.”
“Let’s see you do better?”
“Hey, we deal with these crazies up close and personal. So, mine will probably be worse.”
“I agree kid.”
“Okay, Doc thanks for the info. We’ll hit you up just to say hello, next time.”
“See you then, Detectives.”
WEN NEWS
BREAKING NEWS
The death of President Roberts paved the way for his Vice President to take over the remaining years left on his term. The President died in the first year of his term, so that leaves another three for his Vice President to prove he’s cut out for the job.
Feeling the intense pressure to perform, and well, the newly sworn in President has already started to go forward with new agendas. The first one being construction on the wall separating the United States from Mexico. The wall said to rival some of the buildings downtown in height, will also have barbed wire at the top and he’s pushing to make it electric. None of this is sitting well with Democrats on the Hill, but with the numbers they currently hold their cries are mute.
Critics have already started to predict he’ll only be a one term President. However, pundits warn, this President’s base has been waiting for someone like him to get into power. They think like him and are willing to believe anything he says without question. So, don’t count him out just yet. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Now a message from our sponsors.
PLANS
PRECINCT
Trevor & Jack
On our way back from the coroner’s office, I’d made the decision I was going to bring up my plan to the Captain. Seeing another body destroyed, having the image of some poor defenseless woman being forced to starve and suffer other forms of abuse was enough to stiffen my backbone and do whatever it took to put a stop to this.
“Hey kid, you carrying out your plan today?”
“Yeah, going to see the Cap to discuss it with him. You’re welcome to come with.”
“I’d love to kid. Due in court in an hour.”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
Off to see the wizard
After Jack left, I sat at my desk and practiced what I’d say to the Captain. I needed him to see how important it was to use everything within our disposal to end the increasing terror these people were unleashing upon the city. The longer we wait to get a handle on it, the more destruction they’re going to cause. I needed him to see that protecting the citizens of this city was more important than following the book.
When I finished going through every scenario and coming up with a solution to sway the Captain to see things my way, I got up and made my way to his office.
When I got to the stairs leading to his office, I stood for a few seconds got my courage back and took the first step. I managed to get my legs to carry me all the way to the last one and forward a little ways down the hall. The further I get down the hallway, I get closer to the Captain’s office. I could hear the Captain’s voice. He wasn’t happy. Whatever he was hearing on the other end of that phone wasn’t making him happy. I started to turn around and go back to my desk, but there’s a window in front of his office and he’s seen me. Nowhere to go now but into that den to talk with the lion.
“Come on in Alvarez. I hope you have some good news for me.”
“Like?”
“Like you know whose dumping bodies all of this city and the tri-state.”
“Unfortunately, Captain, I don’t. I don’t have any leads, information, ideas and no direction at all. Which is the reason why I’m in here this morning.”
“It better be good because as of now you’re not making me to happy. The Chief is so far up my ass you can see the color of his eyes through my mouth! He wants these murders solved like last week. Amazing how people can forget what it takes to do the damn job when they start winning political offices.”
“Yeah, politics are a bitch. I think they start off and want to be good but the political atmosphere is toxic. It corrupts them all sooner or later.”
“Absolutely right. What’s your grand plan?”
“I was thinking, what about if we hold a press conference. I know we don’t have faces, but we have something better, tattoos. I know someone knows these tattoos. We need to get these pictures out there on the news.”
“The public might not like seeing tattoos on dead women all over their TV.”
“We’ll just show a picture of the tattoos, no women, no faces. We can ask if anyone they know has this tattoo, if so, please call us here at the station.”
“But, they’ll know they’re dead.”
“Not right way Cap. We’ll crop the body so it’ll only show the tattoo. Heck, if it’ll make you feel better, we’ll just take a picture of the tattoo itself, get someone to remove the background and only show the tattoo.”
“You think that’ll work?”
“It’s worth a try.”
“What do you mean, try? Do you think it’ll work or not?”
“I think it’ll work better if they can see the tattoo on the body with no face.”
“Try again.”
“We take a picture of the tattoo on the body and show that, no cropping or removing of the background.”
“Dead bodies on the news. The brass, which includes me ain’t gonna like that.”
“We can’t show their faces, no heads remember?”
“Damn, yeah, yeah I remember.”
“We gotta do something. The news is going to pick up on this sooner or later. It’s better if we get out in front of it and control what’s out there.”
“I’m desperate. Let’s do it. I’ll take the heat for it with the Chief. Get it done.”
“Thanks Cap. On it now.”
“Oh and Alvarez, this better work.”
“I think it will.”
“It better.”
“Got it.”
CHAPTER FOUR
TWO WEEKS LATER
WHATEVER I GOTTA DO
PRESS CONFERENCE
Trevor
The day of the press conference. I was nervous, but confident this would help. When it was time to step up to the podium, I took a few deep breaths, let them out slowly, talked to my lower extremities to move on cue, stepped onto the podium and addressed the crowd.
“Good morning everyone and thank you for coming. As you know, there have been several women murdered and their bodies dumped throughout locations within the Gochian area. Unfortunately, at this time, we’ve been unsuccessful in identifying these women. That’s why I’ve called you all here today; we need the public’s assistance. Please take a look at the board to my right. As you can see there are a collection of pictures here. Look closely at the tattoos on each picture. If you recognize any of these images and know the person who had this tattoo, please contact the Gochian Police Department immediately. Rest assured, we have everything under control and are doing everything possible to bring this monsters to justice. If you have any additional information regarding the person or persons involved in these crimes we want you to do the same, contact the Gochian Police Department. I’ll take some questions.”
“Pete, I’ll take a question from you.”
“There have also been four women reported missing. Are these cases related?”
“At this time, we’re treating them as separate cases. If you want any information regarding missing persons, please contact that department.”
“Detective, Detective.”
“Yes, you, go ahead with your question.”
“We haven’t
been provided with much detail regarding the murders. Have the police been able to put together anything that would explain why these women were murdered?”
“No. We haven’t.”
“Over here!“
“Detective!”
“Detective Alvarez!”
“Yes, you over there in the back. This is the last question guys.”
“Hi. I’m Janice Pierson from WEN News. Did you know there have been two bodies dumped in Wisconsin and Indiana in similar conditions as the ones we have here in Gochian. Are those cases related?”
“I can’t comment on that at this time. I haven’t seen those bodies. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for coming, that’ll be all for now.”
I turned and started walking toward the exit. As I did, I could still hear the questions being yelled out in my direction.
“Wait! Detective!”
“Detective!”
“Were they all found in the same area of town?”
“Do you know if they were prostitutes?”
“How far are you in the investigation?”
“Have you identified any suspects?”
I walked off the stage feeling exhausted, but hopeful.
DON’T PUSH IT
WISCONSIN
Trevor
During the press conference, a reporter asked me if I was aware there were similar murders in other neighboring states. I hadn’t been aware of that and it caught me off guard. It never dawned on me that at this point in the investigation I should be considering we have a genuine serial killer on our hands. I took a cue from the reporter, selected the closest location which was Wisconsin and paid them a visit.
Since I’ve been doing this job, I’ve found that I get more information about my suspect from the coroner. The body tells you everything you need to know about the perpetrator or perpetrators. Therefore, my visit is to your friendly neighborhood Coroner’s office.
When I started with the department, it didn’t take people long to learn that I don’t like the press. Once you drag one reporter by the tie the word spreads quickly. Imagine how aggravated I was when I pulled up at the Coroner’s office in Wisconsin and my nemesis was there waiting.
“Hi detective. Dan Stanis, you remember me, don’t you? I still have concrete burns on my face from our last meeting.”