“I wouldn’t count on it,” Stone said. “I wouldn’t expect fibers or DNA, either.”
Dino shook his head. “Right. At least, no DNA that would be of any use to us.”
“I need a drink,” Joan said.
“It’s eleven thirty in the morning,” Stone pointed out.
“If I don’t have a drink, I’ll faint,” she said.
“You know where the bar is.”
Joan disappeared upstairs.
“Funny thing is, I feel pretty much the same way,” Stone said.
“Me, too,” Dino echoed.
“I’m not going to have one, though.”
“Me, neither.”
“And I’m not going to faint.”
“Me, neither.”
“I may throw up, though,” Stone added.
“It’s your rug.”
Stone sat down in one of the waiting-room chairs and put his head between his legs.
A moment later, the doorbell rang, and Dino went to answer it. He came back with four people wearing latex gloves.
“This it?” a man in a green lab coat asked.
“Yeah. You other guys start with the box outside.”
“You stay,” the M.E. said to the one who had cameras.
“Don’t touch the case any more than you have to,” Dino said.
“No kidding?” the M.E. said sarcastically.
“Sorry.”
The M.E. took out a pocket dictator and switched it on. He knelt beside the aluminum case and used
a tape measure. “The object is inside an aluminum camera case with the trade name Halliburton affixed to it.” He recited the measurements of the container, then he flipped open the securing catches and opened the case. A small cloud of some sort was released.
He continued to dictate. “The case contains the human head of a female Caucasian; the hair is dark brown. The head is frozen and is packed in dry ice.” There was a rattling noise. “On lifting the head from the case I observe that it is wearing cosmetic makeup and the hair is neatly coiffed.” There was the rattling noise again. “I am returning the head to the case and closing it,” he said, snapping the case shut.
The M.E. stood up. “As soon as they’ve processed the exterior of the case I’ll take it to the morgue, and we’ll try to get a cause of death for you.”
“I think you’ll find,” Stone said, “that the cause of death is exsanguination as the result of a severed carotid artery and jugular vein, and that the implement used was a large, partly serrated hunting knife wielded by an enraged male unsub.”
“That’s pretty good,” the M.E. said.
“I’m quoting another doctor,” Stone replied. “The rest of her is in the custody of the M.E. of Morris County, New Jersey. The detective in charge is Lieutenant Charles Sample of Morristown.”