“ So if he's eating it, he wants it fresh and warm,” added J.T.
“ And he's into torture as well as murder.” Combs almost choked on her deep sigh. “You have no doubt of that?”
“ None.”
A policeman escorted a well-dressed couple to the crime scene. They were in search of their missing daughter. The couple clung to one another as if for breath and life. Supporting one another like a pair of beams that had fallen over, the father introduced himself and his wife as the Mannings. He looked as shattered and fearful as she.
Finally, they mustered the courage to come close enough for a look. The sight of the victim caused her to faint, and he fell to his knees holding her. “It's Amanda… It's our little girl!” moaned the tearful father. “My God, what have they done to her?”
Combs got the parents up and off the boat with the help of uniformed officers. The sad processional going from wharf to street level was heartrending to watch. Like two children in the dark, the parents stumbled the entire way.
“ Jane Doe has a name now,” said J.T.
“ Amanda… Amanda Manning,” replied Jessica, who stepped away from the body long enough to breathe in the air coming over the river.
“ They'll want the body released as soon as possible, Dr. Coran,” said Combs upon her return.
“ Yes, certainly. We'll do all we can to accommodate Amanda's parents.”
Jessica and J.T. returned to the body and began the work of gathering microscopic data in vials and on slides. Jessica studied the fine features of a young woman barely out of her teens, a dimpled cheek and a lovely curvature to the face and eyes, accentuated by a slim nose. All of it and the girl's life marred by the missing forehead and empty skull, marred by a madman's twisted and awful designs.
Just then a shaft of sunlight illuminated the dark cavity of Amanda's empty cranium, and Jessica stared into that well, as if studying it might release some answer to the mystery.
“ Well… let's get the morgue involved,” said J. T, about to wave on the attendants.
Combs agreed, adding, “Amanda will be waiting for you at the FDLE morgue, Dr. Coran.”
“ Wait… There's something else here,” Jessica said, her eyes widening as the other two started away. “Something inside her skull.”
J.T. and Combs got down close to see what Jessica referred to. J.T. fully expected Jessica had found some small crustacean had taken up residence inside the empty skull. “What is it?” he asked, his nose bristling with the odor of dead fish ground into the boards of the old boat.
“ It's etched inside the back wall of the cranium… some sort of mark or… or symbol, I think,” said Jessica. “Must be something the killer intentionally left behind. He's trying to tell us something.”
J.T. crouched in closer and his knees popped as he looked into the space of the empty skull and at the back wall. Seeing the mark, he added, “Definitely not of nature's doing.”
Combs bent even closer in over the body. “What is it?”
“ A… a circle sitting atop a cross.” Jessica drew the sign on a small yellow pad fetched from her case. She held it up to them, and everyone studied the strange glyph.
“ Looks like some kind of religious cross or other icon. But in this context… What does it mean?” asked Combs.
“ I'm not sure.”
The boat captain, Abrams, had reappeared and was studying the sign on the pad. “The upright line like the number one represents upright man, the horizontal line crossing it represents the horizon, while the circle atop the vertical and horizontal represents God.”
“ Was this symbol found on the other two victims?” asked Combs.
“ Unless they missed it… I mean it was nowhere on the protocols. Maybe it was missed.”
“ The sign wasn't on the other two,” said J.T. “I read the reports, too.”
“ Can you go back, take another look?” asked Combs.
“ Both of them have since been buried,” J. T explained.
Jessica sighed heavily and shook her head. “I'm certain the attending M.E. would have seen it if it was there.”
“ What do you think it means?”
“ Who can say? Perhaps that he's doing this out of some holy crusade only he understands.”
“ Son of a bitch is so twisted he thinks God approves of what he's doing?” Combs had to move away. She went toward the front of the boat and stared across the river at the teeming city coming to life, morning rush hour in full swing now, an army of cars passing over the 295 overpass. Jessica joined her there.
You OK, Sheriff?”
“ No… are you?”
“ No… not really. Hell of a number this guy did on her.” On the outside, Jessica knew she presented the picture of calm, but inside she shivered each time she looked back at the corpse's head.
Combs lit up a cigarette and offered one to Jessica, who waved off. They both fell silent a moment, each with her own thoughts until Combs said, “You think you've seen it all, then something like this comes along. Blows your mind.”
“ Yeah… I know… I know the feeling.” After a moment, Jessica added, “Agent Cutter wants to set up a joint task force-state, county, city and federal involvement.”
“ I already told Cutter fine. I have no jurisdictional ego battles in my department. Whatever works… whatever gets us this… this creature.”
“ Murder still gets the chair in Florida, right?” asked Jessica, the wind coming off the river playing havoc with her auburn hair.
“ It's too good for this guy, but it's the best we can do. What he really ought to face-”
“ I know,” concurred Jessica.
“- is the kind of torture he put his victims through. God, can you imagine having your head cut open while you're alive?”
“ And under no anesthesia,” Jessica added. “As for the parents, they don't need to know the details until and unless they insist.”
Combs nodded and took another long pull on her cigarette. Jessica returned to the body to finish her preliminary examination. Everyone had fallen silent. Jessica spoke to J.T. “Imagine Amanda Manning when she was filled with life and love, J.T., filled with tenderness, pity, heartache, sorrow, contentment, jealousy, frustration, shame, despair, pride, triumph, hatred, rage, accomplishment.”
“ Anima,” said J.T., summing it up. “Her anima was taken along with her organ. I know.”
“ All her noisy, boisterous, excitable, passionate, determined, anxious self-stolen in one night of horror.”
“ Now it's all gone,” added Combs, standing nearby.
J.T. had been sketching out the scene on a pad to indicate precisely where the body was in relation to objects around it. He sadly noted that since they were on a boat, there really were no fixed objects unless the boat was tied down permanently.
“ Do your best with what we've got, J.T.”
Jessica took scrapings from beneath the victim's nails. Combs asked, “Do you think that Amanda ripped some skin or blood from her assailant?”
“ I wouldn't count on it, but only time and tests will tell,” Jessica replied. “You can wave in those ambulance attendants now, if you will, Sheriff.”
FIVE
The descent to Hades is the same from every place.
