“And when that fails?”
“I’ll flash my badge.”
“You have zero jurisdiction here.”
“I’ll flash it very fast.”
We were in luck. The navy had hedged its bets, and the CCME still had Laszlo Tot’s records on file.
Corcoran and I began by comparing Lassie’s antemortem dental, chest, and right lower-arm films with postmortem X-rays made upon 287JUL05’s arrival at the morgue. Despite the missing teeth, the skull damage, and the fractured ribs, we were able to establish positively that the man found in Thornton Quarry was, in fact, the missing seaman apprentice.
Maybe because intake was slow. Maybe because 287JUL05 now had a name. I didn’t ask, just accepted my upgrade from the storage room to an autopsy suite at the back of the facility.
By ten I had Lassie laid out on stainless steel. Corcoran had disappeared to phone the Chicago PD missing persons unit and authorities at the Great Lakes Naval Base. Ryan had gone to ferret out Perry Schechter.
One by one I viewed skeletal parts under magnification. Arm, leg, hand, and foot bones. Ribs. Vertebrae. Pelvis. Clavicles. Scapulae. Sternum. Now and then I’d stretch, walk the room, compose in my head the sad news I’d deliver to Cukura Kundze and Mr. Tot.
Ryan and Corcoran returned together around noon. I was glad to see them. Though I was pretty certain by then how Lassie had died, I needed answers to several questions.
“Describe the Thornton Quarry,” I said to Corcoran.
“It’s big.”
“How big?
“Really big.”
I gave him the steely look. He blushed.
“Thornton’s a mile and a half long and a half mile wide, one of the world’s largest quarries. In addition to producing stone or gravel or something, it’s used to prevent stormwater from overwhelming Chicago’s sewage system.”
“How so?” Ryan asked.
“There’s a water control plan in the works called the Deep Tunnel Project. As part of it, the Thornton Quarry will serve as a reservoir to reduce the backflow of runoff and sewage from area rivers into Lake Michigan. I read somewhere that the Thornton reservoir already contributes a three-billion-gallon capacity, and is expected to contribute around eight billion when the system is completed.”
“That’s one monster holding tank,” Ryan said.
“Tanks,” Corcoran corrected. “There are at least five or six pits, or lobes, some abandoned, some active. The project is starting with two of them.”
I tried to visualize the locale in my head. “We’re talking just east of Halsted and just south of the Tri-State Tollway, right?”
Corcoran nodded. “A bridge carries I-294 and I-80 right over the quarry. At that point West 175th Street is called Brown Derby Road, named after a bar and dance hall built in the thirties. The joint actually has quite a history. In the early forties, a carousel and picnic grove were added, and political parties, companies, and schools held their annual picnics there. During the fifties the carousel was torn down and a new bar was built across the street. That was later-”
“Isn’t the quarry secured?” Ryan interrupted the history lesson.
“I wondered about that, so I reread the responding officer’s report. The complex is fenced and there’s an observation building on-site. But Powers found that a gap had been cut in the fencing near the intersection of Brown Derby and Ridge Roads. By his estimate, the gap was large enough to allow entrance of a vehicle. Once inside the complex, Tot could have driven, or been driven, a few yards west along a dirt road right to the edge of the west pit. That’s where the body was found.”
“Assuming Lassie went into the water from up top, how far was the drop?”
“Maybe four hundred feet.”
“That would do it,” I said.
“Do what?”
“Look at this.” I indicated a collection of loosely arranged cranial fragments.
The men stepped to the table. For Ryan’s benefit, I kept it simple.
“These bones formed the base of Lassie’s skull, the part that sat directly on top of his spinal column.” With one gloved finger, I traced a crack that traversed several fragments in a curvilinear pattern. “This fracture extends anteriorally-”
I caught myself slipping into jargon.
“The fracture proceeds from back to front across the petrous portions of both temporal bones.” I pointed to the two oblong bulges that encase the inner ears.
“The two ends of the fracture circle around to meet here, in the sella turcica.” I moved my finger to a saddle-shaped prominence rising from the cranial floor, forward from the foramen magnum, the large hole through which the spinal cord enters the brain.
“It’s a complete ring fracture. Ring fractures can be caused by jamming the head violently downward onto the spinal column-”
“As in a headlong fall,” Ryan cut in.
“Yes. But ring fractures can also be caused by pulling the head sharply upward away from the spinal column.”
“But now’s when you tell us Lassie took a header.” Ryan.
“Look closely at the fracture margins.” I handed each man a fragment.
“The edges angle inward,” Corcoran said.
“Exactly. The beveling is directed internally because the cranium was forced inferiorly against the spine. If the fracture had been caused by yanking the head upward, the beveling would be directed externally.”
“Can a fall explain such massive maxillary and mandibular damage?” Corcoran asked.
“Sudden deceleration impact can tear the face right off the vault.”
“So Lassie died as a result of a swan dive that forced his cranium down into his spine.
“No.”
Both men did that male weight-shifting thing.
“I found rib fractures in addition to the cranial trauma. That’s understandable. Lassie probably hit an outcrop or a ledge on his way down. What’s odd is that his arm and leg bones are undamaged.”
“The kid made no attempt to stop his fall.” Ryan got it.
“A headlong plunge doesn’t necessarily mean the victim is dead,” Corcoran said. “Lassie could have dived. Or been unconscious.”
“Good point.” I selected two ribs and the right ulna. Crossing to the dissecting scope, I inserted one rib and adjusted focus.
“Check out this fracture.”
Ryan deferred to Corcoran.
“The break has jagged edges.” Corcoran spoke without raising his head. “Looks like a typical blunt force injury. As you said, he probably bounced off rock on his way down.”
“Agreed,” I said.
Corcoran yielded position at the scope. When Ryan had seen enough, I switched ribs, refocused, and stepped back. Corcoran moved back in.
“This break looks very straight. But that’s definitive of nothing. I’ve seen
