The Night Stalker (Detective Erika Foster 2)

THANX, BOSS – SORRY IF I WAS A PRAT

+ THANX 4 LETTING ME CRASH ON THE SOFA

CU @ WORK – JAMES (PETERSON)

She was pleased there was no kiss at the bottom, and hoped there wouldn’t be tension with him at work. There was enough tension at work without her personal life getting involved.

It was cool and quiet as Erika walked down the long corridor towards the doors of the morgue. She pressed the call button and looked up at the small camera above the door. There was a beep, and the large steel door automatically popped open with a hiss. The cold air inside flowed out with wisps of vapour.

‘Morning,’ said Isaac, meeting her at the door. He was still wearing his blue scrubs, which were bloody in places.

They came through the large post-mortem room. The floor was tiled in a Victorian geometric diamond-shaped pattern of black and white. The ceiling was high, but there were no windows, and the walls were tiled in white. A row of metal doors lined one side, and in the centre of the room were four stainless steel tables. Three of them gleamed empty under the bright fluorescent lights. On the one closest to the door lay the body of Jack Hart.

One of Isaac’s mortuary assistants, a petite young Chinese girl, was closing up the long Y-shaped incision, which began below the belly button. She was halfway done, having reached the chest plate, and was gently stitching the skin together, working her way up towards where the incision separated and splayed across the shoulders. The stitches were neat, but large and prominent.

‘As with Gregory Munro, there were high levels of flunitrazepam in his blood,’ said Isaac. ‘It was ingested in liquid form. This is consistent with the Bud beer bottle we found on his bedside table, which contained a large amount of flunitrazepam residue.’

‘So he was drugged?’ asked Erika.

‘The levels were higher than what we found in Gregory Munro’s blood. I can’t say if this was accident or design. Unlike Gregory Munro, Jack was younger and in peak physical condition: very little body fat, well-developed muscles.’

‘The killer may have thought he needed a higher dose to incapacitate him,’ said Erika. They looked across at the mortuary assistant stitching the chest, as she pulled the well-developed pectoral muscles so they met once again.

‘So you think the same person did this?’

‘I didn’t say that. The similarities are striking, but it’s your job to make that call.’

‘Okay. Cause of death?’ asked Erika.

‘Asphyxiation from the plastic bag tied over the head.’

‘His face looks different to how Gregory Munro’s looked. His face is covered in red marks, and his skin has an odd tinge to it.’

‘Gregory Munro asphyxiated rapidly; it took only one or two minutes. With Jack Hart, the strength of his lungs would have given him the ability to retain oxygen under stress, so the asphyxial signs and symptoms are severe. These tiny pinpricks of red on his face are petechial haemorrhages. And the bluish tinge is caused by cyanosis, where the skin is discoloured by poor circulation. The internal organs are all dotted with haemorrhages, too.’

‘So how long do you think it took for him to die?’

‘Four, five... perhaps six minutes. His hands were tied behind his back, but he may have thrashed around violently and resisted, causing the killer to strike him. The bruised left eye is consistent with a blow to the face and there is bruising to the lips and gums, suggesting pressure was applied to the face. You should also see this.’ Isaac moved closer to the body. The mortuary assistant stepped back, and Isaac gently opened the mouth.

‘Jesus,’ said Erika.

‘He almost bit through his tongue,’ said Isaac. ‘It was an extremely long, drawn-out and painful death.’

‘Any sign of sexual assault?’

‘No.’

Isaac nodded, and the mortuary assistant moved back to continue stitching. The limp form shifted a little as the thread looped through the skin and was drawn tight. Erika thought the open flaps of skin looked more like painted plastic than human flesh.

‘There’s something else I want to show you, if we go through to my office,’ said Isaac.

His office was warm in comparison to the morgue. Sun poured in through a window high on the wall. The room was lined with bookshelves, which were crammed with medical textbooks. An iPod glowed in a Bose sound system. The desk was neatly arranged, and a screensaver of a swirling cube bounced around on the laptop screen.

‘The bag that was used to asphyxiate Gregory Munro and Jack Hart was the same type,’ said Isaac, taking an evidence bag from the desk. It contained the crumpled plastic bag, which was mottled with dried blood and a milky residue. The white drawstring was also caked in dried blood.