Alice forced herself to look away, trying to shut the images out of her mind. Her attention returned to the documents on the floor. The cover pages carried the case number and the accused or convict’s name. She stared at them for a while, her brain throwing thoughts around, rummaging through possibilities. She’d already scanned through several cases where Andrew Nashorn had been the lead detective, and a handful where he’d been involved in the investigation, either in a detective capacity, or as a support officer. Almost all of them concerned gang members, muggers, thieves and petty criminals. Individuals who, in her opinion, didn’t have what it took to be this killer. She doubted very much she’d find a relation there. But she hadn’t even started on the list of victims who might’ve personally blamed Derek Nicholson and the State of California for losing their case.
She sipped her coffee too quickly, burning the roof of her mouth. Suddenly she paused as her brain spat out a new idea, instigated by the very lack of relation between the lists of names she had.
Back at her computer, Alice called up the code screen for the application she’d written earlier. All she needed were a few alterations here and there and she’d have a new search-and-compare tool. It took her thirty minutes to make all the necessary modifications. She used her security-clearance password to allow her new application to gain access to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s database. Hunter had also provided her with a password that allowed her to connect to the LAPD and the national criminal database.
While the program searched away, Alice went back to the files. The application had to connect to, and search, two different databases in two different locations – she was expecting it to take a while. The first results, using her initial search criteria, came back after thirty-five minutes. Thirty-four distinct names. Alice called up their individual case-summary pages and printed them out. She read through them, jotting down notes in the margins as she went along. As she started reading the summary page for search result number twenty-four, she felt a chill envelop her body. She put the page down and quickly shuffled through the remaining pages, looking for the match her application had indicated.
Alice sucked in a startled breath, and it rushed into her lungs like a cold wind.
‘OK, now this is very interesting.’
Forty-Three
Doctor Hove redirected Hunter and Garcia’s attention back to the first autopsy table and Nashorn’s body parts.
‘The head was the last part to be severed from his body,’ she said, stepping closer, twisting Nashorn’s head around and exposing the large wound to the left side of the face. ‘But this was the initial manner in which the killer subdued his victim. A very powerful, single blow to the face. Probably using some sort of heavy metal, or thick wooden weapon, like a pipe, a bat or something.’
Garcia rotated his neck uncomfortably from side to side, as if his collar was bothering him.
‘His jaw was fractured in three places,’ Doctor Hove continued, indicating the exposed mandibula – the same quarter-inch-wide piece of jawbone protruding through the skin that Hunter had identified back in the boat cabin. ‘Bone splinters cut into the inside of his mouth. Some perforated his gums like nails. He lost three of his teeth.’
Without anyone noticing, Garcia ran his tongue over his own teeth and fought off a shudder.
‘Forensics did find all three in the boat cabin,’ the doctor noted.
‘So the blow to the face was what knocked him unconscious?’ Hunter asked.
‘No doubt about that. But unlike the first victim, who was practically bedbound and could offer no resistance to the killer’s sadistic wishes, if awake, this victim could’ve easily fought back. He was in good physical health, considering his age and the fact that one of his lungs worked on a reduced capacity.’ Doctor Hove indicated the disjointed body parts on the table. ‘The muscles in his arms and legs were strong enough, consistent with regular physical exercise. He kept active.’
‘But there are no visible restraining marks on his wrists, or anywhere on his arms,’ Hunter said, bending over and studying the body parts on the table a little more closely.
‘That’s right,’ the doctor agreed. ‘Forensics also found nothing that suggested the victim was tied to the chair in which he was found, or to anywhere else for that matter.’
‘So what you are saying is . . .’ Garcia jumped in, ‘. . . that the victim was unconscious throughout the entire procedure.’
‘That would’ve been the logical conclusion.’
Hunter sensed hesitation in the doctor’s voice. ‘Would’ve been?’
‘The blow to the face undoubtedly knocked him out, but without being sedated, as soon as the killer started cutting away, the pain would’ve woken him up.’
‘So he was sedated,’ Garcia concluded.