'Well, to be truthful, it started off as a quiet word, but then he began to be argumentative. Called my mother a name, you see; [
'So you decided to crucify him? Holy Mother of God, Eamonn, there's going to be a full investigation and the whole thing's going to be plastered all over the papers. And don't tell me that Dave MacSweeny's not going to let everyone know who did it, and why.'
'Oh, I don't think he'll be doing that, Superintendent. He was given a fair word of warning, as well as his punishment. I'd be very surprised if he gave you any more trouble after this.'
'I hope to God you're right, Eamonn, otherwise I'll be going down for this, and I'll make sure that you'll be coming down with me.'
'Oh, Superintendent! 'Some flow'rets of Eden ye still inherit, but the trail of the serpent is over them all.''
'I know,' said Katie. 'Thomas Moore.'
25
There were crumpled bags under Dr. Reidy's eyes, as if he hadn't slept in a week, and he reeked of tobacco. Without a word he held out a large jar of Vick's VapoRub and Katie dipped her finger into it and smeared it thickly on her upper lip. It made her eyes water and her nose drip, but that was preferable to the alternative.
Dr. Reidy led Katie through to a small side room, on the other side of the corridor from the main pathology lab, and there, on two stainless-steel autopsy tables, was all that was left of the woman whose remains had been found at Meagher's Farm.
Her skeleton had been reassembled on the left-hand table, and on the right-hand table Dr. Reidy had done his best to reshape her skin and flesh and viscera into a semblance of the girl that she had originally been. It was a slack, shapeless parody of a human being, blotchy and bruised and clotted with blood, more like an empty nightdress case than a woman, but all the same Katie was surprised how successfully Dr. Reidy had been able to reconstruct her. She walked up to the table and stood staring at the cadaver for a long, long time. Dr. Reidy carried on sorting out his instruments and did nothing to disturb her.
'Cause of death?' she asked, at last.
'Surgical shock, more than likely, caused by diminution of the fluid element in the blood.'
'That means that he was cutting the flesh off her while she was still alive?'
Dr. Reidy nodded. 'I'm sorry to say that it probably does. Judging from the condition of the tissues, it appears that the flesh was removed from both arms and both legs before death supervened. That explains the deep contusions around the biceps and the upper thighs. Your man applied tourniquets to prevent her from bleeding to death for as long as he possibly could.'
'No way to tell if she was anesthetized or not?'
'There was some aspirin residue in the stomach, but so far there's no trace of any other painkillers or anesthetics.'
'Do you think a surgeon might have done this?'
'No, definitely not. The flesh was removed quite skillfully, I'd say, but this isn't the work of anybody with professional surgical training. We're talking about a talented butcher, most likely.'
Katie peered closely at the girl's face. Part of her right cheek was missing, and she had nothing but dark holes for eyes. Dr. Reidy said, 'We've got most of her internal organs, but her heart's missing. I can't tell if that was deliberate or not.'
'Probably the crows took it.'
'Nobody's claimed her yet, I gather?'
Katie shook her head.
'Well, not to worry. With what we have here, Dr. Lambert should be able to produce a very acceptable likeness. So far I can tell you that she was approximately five feet ten inches tall, well nourished and physically fit, and that she probably weighed around one hundred and forty-five pounds, although I haven't got all of her. She was blond, aged between twenty-one to twenty-four, and I suspect from the quality of her dentistry that she was American. Her teeth, in fact, are virtually perfect.'
'Anything else?'
'There are bruises on her wrists and ankles which indicate that she was handcuffed, and if you can find the handcuffs, I should be able to give you a positive identification. There are also some deep diamond-shaped impressions on her buttocks. It's my guess that she was forced to lie for some considerable time on a bed without a mattress. Again, if and when you find the bed, I can almost certainly give you a positive ID, plus a DNA match. It was an older-style bed, I'd say-and, of course, she would have been bleeding so much that it would have been almost impossible for the perpetrator to remove every tiny fleck of blood.
'Something more-there are no traces of adhesive around her mouth, nor any bruising that might have been consistent with her being tightly gagged-although, as you can see, the skin around the mouth and lips was very severely traumatized when her face was skinned. There are no fragments of latex or tennis-ball flock in between her teeth, either, so she probably didn't have a ball forced into her mouth to keep her quiet.'
'She wasn't gagged? And she had the flesh cut off her arms and legs with nothing but a few aspirin to deaden the pain? God, she must have screamed.'
'She probably did,' said Dr. Reidy, unblinking.
'That means that she must have been held somewhere isolated-in a place where nobody could hear her. Either that, or somewhere soundproof, like a cellar.'
'That would be my opinion.'
'How about the holes in the thighbones?'
