Weyrich approached them.
'I don't get it, Tom,' Jessica said. 'There're twelve autopsies and only eleven names.'
'You don't want to know,' Weyrich said.
'See, now I have to know,' Jessica said. 'It's my naturally curious nature.'
Weyrich ran his hand over his chin. Jessica noticed that he had cut himself no fewer than four times while shaving that morning. 'You sure?'
'Dish it.'
'Okay, last week we get a call from Penn. It seems someone threw an internal organ onto the front steps of Tanenbaum Hall.'
The Nicole E. Tanenbaum Hall was on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania and contained, among other things, the Biddle Law Library.
'Somebody threw body parts?'
Weyrich nodded. 'What a world, huh?'
'What a city.''
'We still had to treat it like normal John Doe remains. We ran all our standard pathology tests, did a standard cut.'
'I still don't understand why there's no name on the sheet. Is it because you haven't been able to make an ID on the remains?' Jessica asked.
'Yes and no.'
'Tom.'
'It was a cow stomach.'
Jessica looked at Byrne. Byrne smiled, shook his head.
'One question,' Jessica said.
'Sure.'
'Is it still a John Doe, or is it now an Elsie Doe?'
'Laugh it up,' Weyrich said. 'This job put both my kids through Villanova.'
Jessica lifted both hands in surrender.
'I have something to show you,' Weyrich said.
He wheeled a body into the center of the intake room.
The body of Kenneth Arnold Beckman rested on the gleaming stainless steel table, face up, covered to just below the chest with a sheet.
Weyrich directed the overhead light to the victim's right hand. He slipped on a glove, gently pried back the fingers.
'I wanted you to see this,' he said.
There, on the pad of the right index finger, was a small drawing, measuring approximately half an inch by one inch.
'What is that?' Jessica asked.
'It's a tattoo, believe it or not.'
'On his finger?'
'On his finger,' Weyrich said. 'When they cleaned him up to print him they found it.'
Jessica berated herself for not seeing it at the scene. She put on her glasses, looked closely. It looked like a highly stylized drawing of a lion. The colors were bright and primary, the outlines thick, the overall effect not unlike that of an illustration in a child's coloring book.
'I've read this guy's sheet,' Jessica said. 'He didn't strike me as the cartoon type.'
'It takes all types,' Weyrich said. 'I've taken a sample and sent it to the lab. They should be able to tell us the type of ink fairly soon.'
'You took a sample?' Jessica asked. 'A skin sample?'
'This is not a regular tattoo. It's a temporary tattoo.'
Jessica looked again. At this distance, and with skin art this size, she really couldn't tell the difference.
Weyrich handed her a large magnifying glass. Jessica looked again at the image of the lion. The ink, and its rich color, stood in bright contrast to the blood-leached pallor of the dead man's skin.
'It's not still wet, is it?'
'No,' Weyrich said. 'But it is new. I'd say it's been there less than seventy-two hours.'
When Jessica had been small, she used to go to a variety store in South Philly and buy little tattoos that she could apply simply by getting wet and pressing them on her skin. They usually washed off with one or two runs through the sprinkler, or a single dip in a pool.
'Does he have any other tattoos?'
'Surprisingly, no,' Weyrich said.
'Why do you think this is relevant?'
Weyrich directed Jessica to look with the magnifying glass at an area on the victim's left shoulder. Jessica repositioned the glass and saw a slight smudge there, a smear no more than a quarter-inch square or so in size. It was the same color as the yellow in the lion tattoo.
'I think this was done at the same time,' Weyrich said. 'I think the doer may have applied the tattoo, then made this smudge when he turned the body over.'
Jessica looked closely There were no ridge marks. It was not a fingerprint, indicating that the killer might have worn gloves.
'Which brings us to the two other pieces of artwork on the body,' Weyrich said. He pulled down the sheet to reveal a section just above the rib cage on the right side. There were the two unmistakable marks left by a Taser, deep purple bruises looking like a vampire's bite.
'He was Tasered,' Jessica said.
Weyrich nodded. Jessica calculated the planning involved in this homicide. The cutting of the man's forehead, the measured puncture wound, the shaving of the entire body. It removed the crime from any heat of passion, certainly. This was cold, deliberate, calculated.
'What about the shaving?' Jessica asked.
'I think it was done pre-mortem, without benefit of any emollient or shaving cream.' Weyrich pointed to a few areas where the skin was deeply abraded. 'I believe it was done quickly with a hair trimmer, as opposed to a rotary-style shaver, which means he had to press a little harder. Still, he didn't get it all.'
Jessica made notes. Byrne just listened. This was their usual routine at the ME's office.
Weyrich then moved the glass to the victim's forehead. He pointed to the lateral laceration at the top. In the brutal light it looked like a mortal wound, as though the killer had been attempting to take off the top of Kenneth Beckman's head.
'This was done with a straight razor or a scalpel,' he said. 'Our guy took care not to cut too deeply. There is some level of skill here. The cut on the right ear was not nearly so clean.'
Jessica looked at the victim's ear. It had congealed into a scabrous brown mass. 'Can we tell if the cutter is right-handed or left-handed?' she asked.
'Not from this wound, I'm afraid. If he is right-handed, he would most likely start at the left side and draw right. That would be the most natural movement. But only if he was straddling the body.' Weyrich leaned over the cadaver and mimicked the motion of drawing a blade over the victim's forehead from left to right. 'Now, if he was up here…' Weyrich moved to the head of the table, putting the top of the victim's head near his waist. 'He could achieve the same result as a left-hander, drawing the blade right to left.'
'And this was done while the victim was still alive?' Byrne said.
'Yes.'
'How did he keep him still?'
'As well you might ask.' Weyrich pointed out four areas where there were small plum-colored bruises. On either side of the forehead, just above the temple, were contact marks in a circular shape, about a half-inch in diameter. There were also marks on either side of the lower jaw. 'His head was held in place at these four points.'
'With some kind of vice grip?' Byrne asked.
'A little more finesse than that, I believe. And a lot more expensive. I think it may have been a device similar
