by Chris Carter
‘Anything from dusting?’
‘No prints yet, just a few fibers, but they could’ve come from anywhere in this house.’ Brindle shrugged. ‘There’re rugs, carpets, curtains and fabrics just about everywhere in this place.’
Hunter walked around the room, checking the furniture for anything out of the ordinary. He found nothing. ‘Who else has seen the number on her back?’
‘Only the people in this room,’ Brindle replied confidently. ‘The two Malibu detectives decided to wait outside while we cut her loose. They didn’t look too well.’
‘And you haven’t told them that’s the reason why we’re here.’
‘Nope. I told them the skull found in the fire was the reason I wanted you two to have a look at this case.’
‘Let’s keep it this way,’ Hunter said, approaching the door. ‘Have you found her clothes and bag?’
‘Not yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the killer took them with him.’
Forty-Five
Hunter closed the door to his apartment behind him, leaned back and shut his eyes. The headache that had started at the house in Malibu had intensified on the way home. It now felt as if a rat had woken up inside his skull, panicked and tried to scratch its way out through his eyes.
The obnoxious smell of burned flesh had managed to bypass his coverall and it’d impregnated his clothes. A bitter tang so strong that it unsettled his stomach, stung at his eyes and constantly made him gag. He needed a shower – urgently.
Hunter undressed quickly. He grabbed a black trash can liner from the kitchen and dumped his clothes into it, knowing that washing them, no matter how much detergent he used, would never fully get rid of the smell.
In the bathroom, he ran the shower as hot as he could tolerate and leaned against the white tiles, letting the water sluice over his head, shoulders and back. Now, away from everyone’s eyes, his chest heaved and he finally threw up. By the time he turned off the water, his skin had gone a dark shade of pink and his fingertips were soft and wrinkled. He’d been through almost an entire bar of soap, but still the smell lingered. It wasn’t on his skin, he knew that. The unsettling odor had clung to the hairs inside his nose and no amount of blowing was getting rid of it. For the time being, the only solution he could come up with was to numb his brain.
The first two shots went down neat and in one single gulp. The third, a double, was poured over a single cube of ice and sipped slowly.
It was late, but Hunter knew sleep would be bordering on impossible. It was already hard enough on a regular, non-eventful day.
He paced the room for a while before stopping by his living room window. He stood there for a moment, staring at the empty street. His mind full of thoughts. Nothing made sense.
The single malt seemed to be doing the trick where the smell of burned flesh was concerned, but his head still felt like a ticking bomb. Headache tablets had never really worked for him, so he discarded the thought as it entered his mind. But pills reminded him of something else, and it made his pulse race – Monica, the girl who’d dropped by the station earlier.
Over the years, he’d seen his fair share of crazy people and charlatans, all of them positive they could lead the police to an unfound body or to an elusive killer, but something told Hunter that wasn’t the case this time.
There was something different about Monica. Hunter saw a conviction in her eyes he’d never seen before in any of the so-called psychics. She wasn’t after a free publicity ride or attention. In fact, she looked scared, as if talking to the police would expose her to something or someone she’d been running away from.
Hunter took a deep breath and ran his hand through his wet hair. Her words still echoed in his ears. Helen . . . it wasn’t your fault. ‘How could she know?’ he said out loud. ‘No one does.’
He felt the same old destructive guilt creep up on him, and he finished the rest of his Scotch in one large swig. It burned the back of his throat, and that’s when he remembered the last thing she’d said to him.
‘He knew about the fire. He knew what scared her.’
Forty-Six
Hunter was leaning against his car in the empty LACDC parking lot. His hands deep inside his jacket pockets. It was a clear day, but cold according to LA standards. A cup of flavorless machine coffee purchased from a gas station rested on the hood of his old Buick. It was 7:10 a.m. Doctor Winston had called him about half an hour ago saying he’d already concluded the autopsy on the new body.
Hunter had been waiting less than five minutes when Garcia pulled up and parked next to him. As he stepped out of his Honda Civic, Hunter noticed his reddish eyes and pale complexion.
‘I guess I wasn’t the only one who got no sleep last night,’ Hunter said, reaching for his coffee.
Garcia shook his head slowly. ‘I freaked Anna out last night.’
‘What do you mean?’ A slight head shake.
‘I called Anna to let her know I’d be home late yesterday, but she decided to wait for me so we could have dinner together.’
‘That’s nice.’ Hunter sipped his coffee and pulled a bitter face.
‘When I got home, Anna was in the kitchen.’ Garcia buttoned up his coat. ‘As soon as she heard me walk in, she threw two steaks onto the grilling pan. The sizzling noise, together with the smell of cooking meat, hit me like a ton of bricks. I puked right there on the kitchen floor.’
‘Oh shit! That can’t be good.’ They started walking towards the LACDC building.
‘Obviously, I didn’t tell her about the investigation and the real reason why, all of a sudden, a sizzling steak was making me throw up.’ He paused and pulled his longish hair away from his eyes. ‘I was born in Brazil, Robert. I was practically brought up on steak. It’s my favorite food.’
‘What did you tell her?’
Garcia laughed tensely. ‘I came up with some bullshit about a stomach bug going around at the station.’
‘Did she buy that?’ Hunter’s eyebrows arched.
‘Hell no. Anna’s too smart for that kind of crap. But she pretended she did.’
Hunter gave Garcia an understanding smile.
‘That’s not all. I needed to have a shower. That godforsaken smell was all over me like zits on a teenager, and I was sure Anna could smell it too. I passed on dinner and locked myself in the bathroom for about an hour. My skin was red-raw from all the scrubbing, but the smell just won’t go away.’ He brought his right wrist to his nose.
‘It’s not on you, Carlos,’ Hunter said without going into details.
‘And then came the tossing and turning in bed,’ Garcia continued. ‘It was like her melted face and burned body were hiding behind my eyelids. I couldn’t close them. Not only did I get no sleep, but I kept Anna up all night. I know I’m starting to scare her again, Robert. She ain’t exactly over what happened during the Crucifix Killer’s case, you know.’
They reached the main building and were allowed in by the security guard, who told them Doctor Winston was waiting for them in autopsy room 2A. They suited up and Garcia popped two anti-acid tablets in his mouth before making his way to the room on the far end of the corridor. The doctor was sitting at the microscope counter, flipping through some result sheets. His shoulders were hunched forward, his hair in a mess.
‘Did you pull an “all-nighter”, doc?’ Hunter asked, closing the door behind them.
Doctor Winston looked up slowly. ‘Almost.’ He gave them a faint smile before approaching the stainless-steel table where the woman’s body lay. Hunter and Garcia pulled their surgical masks over their noses and mouths and followed.
‘What we have here is—’ Doctor Winston paused and shook his head, as if words weren’t enough to explain ‘—a masterpiece of evil. Whoever this killer is, he must’ve hated this woman with every fiber in his body.’
Forty-Seven
With the woman’s body stretched over the autopsy table, Hunter could see the extent of her injuries more clearly. The blisters on her torso
had all burst open, and the edges of the scabs were black and curled up. The exposed flesh had dehydrated from the intense heat, but some of it still kept a deep pink, sunburned-type color. Her lower legs and hands were crusty and charcoaled. Some bone parts were now visible. But still, the injuries to her face mesmerized Hunter. Mike Brindle was right. It looked like the skin had melted into clumps, just like a candle.
‘My guess is that she was probably unconscious when she was tied to the armchair,’ Doctor Winston explained. ‘But there are no bumps on her head.’
‘Drugged?’
‘That’s the logical conclusion. I’m still waiting for the results from the lab, but I’m certain the killer didn’t use a hard intravenous drug.’
‘Why not?’ Garcia questioned.
‘It’d be overkill. The killer needed only to knock her out for a few minutes so he could undress her and tie her down. Any longer than that and he’d be losing precious time.’
‘The killer wanted her to be conscious so she could suffer,’ Hunter concluded, walking around to her left side.
‘It all points that way,’ the doctor agreed. ‘The killer knew that by Monday he had to be out of that house. He knew exactly how long he had to torture her, and I bet he used every second of it.’
‘Drugged cloth over the nose and mouth?’ Hunter asked.
‘Most probably.’ The answer came with a sequence of quick nods. ‘A common volatile agent, almost certainly ether based.’
‘Any names?’
‘Huh,’ Doctor Winston chuckled. ‘Anything like Enflurane, Desflurane, Sevoflurane, Insoflurane. I can get you a list if you like.’
‘That easy to come by?’ Garcia this time.
‘Easy enough. And those are the most common, non-irritant when inhaled ones. I don’t think the killer was really concerned if the skin around her mouth got little acid burns from the wet cloth. He could’ve used almost anything.’
‘Great!’
‘Due to the state her body’s in, we won’t be able to tell if she was sexually assaulted, but I don’t believe she was.’
‘Neither do I,’ Hunter agreed. ‘Whatever satisfaction this killer is after, it isn’t sexual.’
‘The main torture here is unseen, Robert,’ the doctor said, lifting his eyebrows.
‘What do you mean?’ Garcia looked intrigued.
‘She suffered a lot from the skin and subsequent flesh burns, but what the killer was really doing was roasting her alive.’ Doctor Winston paused, allowing the full extent of what he was saying to be absorbed. ‘If you put someone in front of an intense fire for long enough without allowing them to move, without giving them water, consequently their internal organs will start to cook.’
‘Oh Jesus Christ.’ Garcia ran both hands through his hair and interlaced his fingers at the back of his head.
‘That’s right. Liver, kidneys, pancreas, stomach, lungs, heart, every organ in her body would’ve responded to dehydration and the constant increase in temperature.’ The doctor bit his lip and shook his head in disgust. ‘Her blood literally boiled.’
Hunter closed his eyes for an instant.
‘Her liver and kidneys were still hot when I pulled them out of her body during the autopsy. And every organ I looked at had some severe damage caused by heat and dehydration. It was like a race to see which organ would give in and burst first.’
Silence settled, and Hunter allowed his eyes to drift back to the woman’s face.
‘Now that was ingenious,’ Doctor Winston said, following Hunter’s stare. ‘Evil, but ingenious nonetheless.’
‘You mean, causing her face to melt?’ Garcia asked and felt his stomach go rigid again.
‘Achieving that effect, really. Skin won’t melt.’
‘Yeah, I was told.’ Garcia nodded. ‘So how the hell did the killer get her face to look like that?’
‘He used an accelerant.’ Doctor Winston paused and raised his right index finger to emphasize a point. ‘Actually, it looks like he used a combination. And that’s where the ingenious part comes from.’
Hunter made a face, as if he couldn’t wait to hear it.
‘Again, I need confirmation from the lab, but a quick first test showed the killer could’ve used something as common as lard.’
‘You’re kidding?’
‘Nope. Your everyday supermarket lard.’
‘That would’ve . . .’
‘Fried her face.’ The doctor completed Hunter’s sentence.
‘OK, but that wouldn’t have caused the melting effect.’ Hunter bent over to get a closer look at her disfigured face.
‘No, it wouldn’t.’
‘So?’ He stood back up as the stinging smell made his eyes water.
‘So we definitely need the lab to confirm it, but it looks like the killer could’ve used a combination of something like lard together with a rubber compound.’
‘Rubber?’ Garcia repeated, frowning.
A confident nod from the doctor. ‘Maybe even foam latex prosthetics. Just like they use in films. It’s actually quite clever. The rubber compound attaches itself to the skin like glue.’ The doctor ran the tips of his fingers down his face as if applying a moisturizing cream. ‘With the heat, it melts, running down the victim’s face, creating the desired candle wax clump effect. The skin just behind the rubber compound is covered in the accelerant, which would’ve drastically sped up the burning process, completely destroying the skin on her face, causing unimaginable pain. The final effect . . .’ He pointed to the body, ‘. . . the melted face.’ Doctor Winston took a step back and faced both detectives. ‘And that’s not all.’
Forty-Eight
Hunter braced himself. What else could this killer have done?
‘I have indications that the injuries to her face were caused while she was still alive,’ Doctor Winston continued. ‘He tortured her by melting her face first.’
Hunter frowned. ‘How?’
‘A guess – heat lamps. The victim was tied to an armchair, right? Now imagine the killer had one or even two heat lamps mounted onto a pedestal or a tripod or something, very close to and pointing directly at her face – old interrogation style.’
It suddenly seemed as if there wasn’t enough oxygen in the room.
‘The UVB rays together with the accelerant and the rubber compound used would’ve caused her face to fry and melt, but the injuries wouldn’t be enough to kill her. Unbelievably painful, but not life threatening. Not for hours.’
Garcia coughed twice, trying to clear something from his throat. ‘So you’re saying the killer allowed her to suffer grotesque pain for many hours before finally turning on the fireplace and cooking her alive.’
The doctor used his thumb and index finger to rub his eyes and he nodded slowly. ‘That’s my theory anyway.’
Hunter circled the autopsy table.
‘What about her back, doc?’
‘Yes. She’s no stranger to fire.’ The doctor stepped away from the body, approached a metal cabinet by the west wall and retrieved a paper envelope from the top drawer. ‘Her body’s in a very fragile state and I don’t wanna keep on moving it. So let me show you on these pictures.’ He pulled four photographs out of the envelope and arranged them neatly over his desk. ‘She’s been severely burned before. As you can see, most of her back and neck are scarred.’ The doctor pointed to the first two photographs.
‘Any idea of how long ago?’
‘Very hard to be precise, but she was probably a young girl or a teenager.’
‘That long?’
Doctor Winston nodded. ‘The skin has stretched quite a bit since it’s healed. Meaning she’s grown. I’m certain those burn marks aren’t from her adult life.’
‘The number drawn on her back.’ Hunter pointed to the third picture. ‘Did the killer use blood again?’
‘Definitely. It’s already been sent to the lab, and I’ll have a result sometime today.’
Both detectives looked at all four photographs.
‘How long would you say she was exposed to the heat, doc?’ Hunter asked.
‘Probably from Saturday night all the way until when she was found. I heard the fire was still on when the police came into the house yesterday.’
Hunter bit his lip and nodded.
‘The killer didn’t stop cooking her after she died, Robert. This was more than torturing a victim. This was a demonstration of his resolve. He knew we’d find her. And he wanted us to find her looking like this. He’s showing off how evil and brutal he can be. I’m just not sure why.’
‘Maybe he isn’t showing off, doc,’ Hunter shook his head. ‘Maybe he only stops when the monster inside him is satisfied. That’s not uncommon. Sometimes death alone isn’t enough to soothe a killer’s rage or evil or whatever the hell it is that made him wanna kill. There’re cases upon cases of killers who carry on shooting, clubbing, stabbing, cutting their victims or whatever, way after they’re dead. Some even keep them for days, weeks, months . . .’
‘Maybe you’re right,’ Doctor Winston agreed. ‘Maybe just killing them isn’t enough for him.’ He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘There’s something else I need to show you.’
The doctor’s tone made Hunter stare in his direction.
Pulling a round magnifying lamp mounted onto a pedestal towards the autopsy table, the doctor summoned Hunter and Garcia closer. He positioned the lamp sideways, its beam illuminating the right side of the victim’s abdomen. ‘Have a look.’ He moved out of the way.
Hunter stared through the magnifying lamp unsure of what he was looking for. A few seconds later his eyes narrowed as they locked their focus on something just under her right breast.
‘No way!’ he exclaimed, feeling a chill electrify his body.
Doctor Winston nodded calmly.
‘You’ve gotta be shitting me, doc.’
Forty-Nine