Exposed (Tracers) by Laura Griffin

Author:Laura Griffin
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781451689334
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2013-06-24T14:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

Maddie arrived last, not because of traffic but because she spent ten minutes in the Delphi Center parking lot with her makeup in her lap, trying to disguise the evidence of her hangover. But of course, it didn’t work, and the moment she set foot in Kelsey’s office, she could tell that she looked every bit as horrible as she felt.

“Bracewell with you?” Kelsey asked, hanging up the phone at her desk.

“I didn’t know he was coming.” Maddie followed her into the autopsy room, where Brian and Sam stood waiting by the row of stainless-steel sinks.

“He said he wanted to observe.” Kelsey handed her a jar of orange oil, and Maddie rubbed some under her nose, but still, the odor of burned flesh and gasoline was impossible to ignore.

Maddie eyed the lump on the stainless-steel table. The blue sheet did little to obscure the stark reality of what lay underneath. A wave of nausea hit her. She had to force her feet to move. Normally, she wasn’t squeamish, but nothing about this morning had been normal. This case was personal. She felt connected to Jolene Murphy, probably because she’d unwittingly witnessed the incident that set this chain of events in motion. She stared at the sheet, and her thoughts inevitably went to the girl’s parents.

“Well, I hate to do this,” Kelsey said, “but I’m going to have to get started without him. I need to be in Williamson County by ten o’clock. You mind getting him up to speed?”

Maddie glanced at Kelsey and realized she was talking to her. “What?”

“You mind filling Bracewell in? We need to get going.”

“I’ll fill him in,” Sam said from across the room.

Maddie looked at him over the table. She knew what he was doing. His strategy was to make nice with the locals instead of turning everything into a big pissing contest. It was a refreshing change from what she usually saw when a hodgepodge of agencies was forced to work together.

Maddie eased forward. She glanced at Brian. His expression was unreadable. In fact, it was completely blank. He stood leaning against the counter, and only the tense set of his shoulders conveyed his unhappiness at being here.

“I spent yesterday evening determining the four basic identifiers.” Kelsey pulled back the fabric, and Maddie took a slight step back. “Race, sex, age, stature. You may recall that the victim was found at the crime scene in the pugilistic position, also known as the fetal position.” Kelsey glanced at Brian and Sam. “That’s the result of what intense heat does to muscles and connective tissue. When I got the remains back here, I was able to mitigate those effects and examine the bones more closely. The first thing I noticed was the femur.” She pointed at the charred leg bone, which still had bits of flesh clinging to it. “It’s about fifty-three centimeters, which is indicative of a tall male.”

Sam stepped forward. “It’s a guy?”

Maddie glanced at Brian. He looked as surprised as she was.

“Are you sure?” she asked Kelsey, even though she knew the answer.

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