Evening, the following day
Jessica found her room at the Ocean View Inn on Jacksonville Beach perfect not because of the spectacular view of the Atlantic, but because it had a bed. Exhausted, she kicked off her shoes and fell into the bed's soft comforter fully clothed, wanting only to lay there a moment and relax and rest her eyes.
Jessica had found the stiff, proper Agent Henry Cutter to be a man of his word, determined to rid Jacksonville and the state of Florida of this ghoulish fiend the press had been calling Skull-digger. Cutter had spent the day debriefing his command and putting them on the street in pursuit of leads. Such activity went on as Jessica spent the day doing a thorough autopsy of Amanda “Mandy” Manning to confirm what she expected to find. She and J.T. believed beyond any doubt it was the work of the same man who had struck in Richmond and in Winston-Salem. Her report to Cutter and the FDLE read that Amanda had not been sexually abused, in keeping with previous victims. Their final judgment: trauma by bone saw to the cranium, causing hemorrhagic shock and eventual death. While the autopsy earlier that day went as smoothly as could be expected, given the extent and nature of the crime, Jessica had to make the difficult call of violating young Amanda Manning once again-and at the head-because Jessica wanted the portion of the back wall of the interior skull carrying the only message left for them by the killer. She wanted it removed and preserved for study under the largest microscope she could find. There might well be clues within the clue, she had told Combs, Cutter and the others.
Cutter balked at the idea, saying a high-resolution photograph would do just as well. Combs agreed and said, “The girl's been violated enough.”
“ No, it's too important. It needs microscopic analysis,” Jessica countered. “It could save lives.”
“ You're talking about mutilating what's left of the skull, Dr. Coran, and for what?” asked Cutter. “An artifact that may well prove useless in the investigation?”
“ Take it up with Chief Santiva. I'm taking the 'artifact,' as you call it.”
“ To add to your collection?” Combs asked, her eyes narrowed.
“ What the hell does that mean?” Jessica stood eye to eye with the sheriff.
“ We're not backwoods people here, Dr. Coran. We know your reputation for taking on the weirdest cases in recent history. In fact, such cases have built your reputation.”
“ Listen, Sheriff Combs, you asked me in on the case, remember?”
“ As a courtesy and only because you had an APB out on this guy's MO,” Combs shot back.
“ I'm taking the bone fragment.”
“ Not before I have a chance to talk to Santiva,” replied Cutter, intervening. “I'm the special agent in charge here, Dr. Coran.” It was their first argument, and it didn't bode well. Cutter and Combs stormed out.
“ Lotta emotion flying, Jessica,” said J.T. “So… I guess we wait until we hear back from Cutter? Meanwhile, somebody's got to explain the delay to the parents. They want the body released ASAP.”
Jessica didn't hesitate. “I'll need your assistance, John, and get us a couple of attendants to turn Amanda facedown.”
“ Are you sure, Jess?”
“ It's too important to bury with her, especially if it has already been buried with two other victims.” She went to the phone, contacted Santiva and informed him of the disagreement, telling him, “You've got to stand with me on this one, Eriq, no matter what arguments Cutter or Combs may feed you.”
Eriq proved more curious about the mark inside the cranial cavity than in the disagreement about how to proceed with it. “Why haven't we seen it before? What did you say it looks like?”
“ We're going ahead with the cut, Eriq. I'll be sending it to HQ for analysis if I'm not sent packing, in which case, I'll personally bring it to you.”
With the help of attendants, they turned Amanda. Jessica pleading with them to be careful not to create a' coroner's snap-a broken neck from careless handling. After the attendants left, Jessica assured J.T., “I'll make the cut as small as possible.”
“ We can replace the piece with a Bonemide,” he suggested. Bonemide was the newest product in a line of concretelike, yet elastic, molding materials designed to replace bone parts. The white finish of earlier products was now replaced by a bone-gray that could easily be cosmetically enhanced to match any cadaver's bone coloration perfectly. It had first found use in dental offices for making casts of teeth.
J.T. added, “I've already created a replacement part for both the forehead and scalp.” He held the cast up for her appraisal.
“ You're a genius, John. Do whatever you can to patch her up.”
“ Working on a latex skin covering. She won't look beautiful, but she'll at least look intact, if no one looks too closely.”
“ As for the interior cut, no one should be looking for it… whereas the wound to the forehead, by the time her parents arrange a funeral, will likely be front-page news.”
“ And how long before the cross inside the skull is front-page news?”
“ We've got to swear everyone here to secrecy. We need this kept in-house, John.”
“ Between us and the killer.”
They both knew the value of that detail being kept under wraps. Anyone apprehended or confessing to the crime would have to know of the strange cross left behind and in what location on the body. That way, they could quickly dispense with any of the hundreds of false confessions bound to come from across the nation.
Jessica lifted the bone saw and was taking a deep breath when Dr. Ira Koening appeared. “Put the saw down,” he said.
Jessica expected a fight, but instead, the quiet little white-haired man examined the find he'd heard news of. “Combs told me about it. This is extraordinary indeed, Dr. Coran… Dr. Thorpe.” He saw that they had readied surgical scissors and shaving equipment, a red marker and a set of scalpels and sponges. A Bonemide kit sat prepared nearby. “I see you've already decided to go ahead with the procedure, Dr. Coran,” said the Jacksonville M.E. “But you know, Doctors,” Koening continued, “the best way to proceed is with a guided laser cutter.”
“ It would take days to get one down here from Quantico,” said J.T.
Such precision instruments were extremely expensive and rarely available. “Are you saying that you have one available, sir?” asked Jessica.
“ My office does not, but the FDLE has recently acquired one, state-of-the-art.”
“ With a precision guided laser, we can calculate the depth of the cut to encompass only the bone, and we can do it straight through the already existing hole in the forehead,” said Ira Koening.
“ That way we remove only the bone, no skin… no hair loss at the site,” added J.T., “and I can reconstruct the bone loss from the inside wall.”
“ Nobody would ever know it was ever tampered with, whereas with your primitive bone saw, there's no hiding the fact,” added Koening.
“ Where is it? Do we need a damned requisition form?” asked Jessica.
“ I've already taken the liberty of ordering the laser be brought to you, Dr. Coran, but it will take ten or fifteen minutes. Paper and tape, you know. So… shall we find a cup of coffee? Take a break while awaiting the instrument?”
AS they relaxed over pastries and coffee in the office turned over to Jessica, Dr. Koening said, “I'll do the cutting, Dr. Coran. That way no one can blame you. It is, after all, my jurisdiction, and I agree with you that it needs to come out for close microscopic inspection.”
“ I think I speak for both of us,” J.T. said, raising his cup as a toast, “when I say that we happily concede the chore, and our sincere thanks.”
Koening returned the gesture and drank from his cup.
Jessica sighed. “I really didn't want to use that awful bone cutter on her or go through the same ritual her killer followed, Dr. Koening. Thanks for alerting us. It didn't occur to me that a laser cutter would be within reach.”
“ It's not every city the size of Jacksonville that has a precision guided laser. It came with a new influx of governmental dollars since Nine-Eleven.”
They then returned to the autopsy room where Amanda's remains awaited them alongside the laser, a robotic-looking tool chest on wheels, a square version of R2D2 from Star Wars, with multiple swivel arms. Dr. Ira,
