Tragedy at Silver Creek by Belinda G. Buchanan

Author:Belinda G. Buchanan [Belinda G. Buchanan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: Indie Author Project
Published: 2015-09-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

A nurse dressed in blue scrubs stood up and leaned across the counter when she saw Jack walk in. “He’s waiting for you in the morgue,” she said in a low voice. “You can go through that door.”

“Thank you,” he answered, but upon turning around was startled to find several women, all in various stages of pregnancy, staring at him from a row of chairs that lined the wall. He could feel his cheeks burning as he began making his way towards the steel door in the back.

Jensen glanced up when he heard it open. “Good to see you, Collins.”

Jack opened his mouth to reply but found himself unable to as the same pungent odor from yesterday greeted him.

“So, how’s fatherhood treating you?”

“Fine,” he answered, trying not to breathe through his nose.

“Is this your first autopsy?”

Figuring that the one he’d watched on television his senior year in college for criminology didn’t count, Jack gave him a short nod.

Jensen gestured at him with a gloved hand that was covered in blood and other matter. “Come on over here where you can see.”

Jack’s feet reluctantly moved him forward until he was standing on the other side of him. Amanda Garrett’s body lay stretched out between them on a metal table. A crisp blue sheet was draped over her lower extremities, leaving her upper-half fully exposed. Embarrassed for her, Jack averted his eyes.

“Your victim died from a heavy blow to the back of the head.” Jensen turned her face away from him. “See the concave?”

Jack looked to where he was pointing. There was a softball-sized dent in the back of her head, about four inches from the base of her neck.

“Her brain stem was destroyed,” continued Jensen. “She died instantly.”

“What type of weapon would have done this?”

“My best guess? A rock. See the unevenness?” said Jensen, tracing the outline of the dent with his finger.

Jack saw nothing but strands of bloody hair, and fragments of flesh, caked to a skull. “What about the wounds over her heart?”

“They were put there postmortem.”

“But they’re the same as the others,” stated Jack, confused by his answer.

“Not even close,” Jensen said, returning Amanda’s head to an upright position. “The aortas of the other victims had either been severed or perforated, causing them to bleed out. This girl’s wounds weren’t deep enough…”

Jack ran his fingers through his hair, not liking what Jensen was telling him.

“…they basically only caused minor lacerations. Besides that, the punctures aren’t evenly spaced. See?”

Jack forced himself to look down at Amanda’s bare chest. The wounds embedded above her left breast were asymmetrical and stood only about two inches apart. “Do you know what was used?”

“Something pointed, probably a screwdriver or ice pick.”

“Can you give me an exact date of death?”

Jensen nodded at a glass jar sitting on the counter behind him. “Have a look in that.”

Walking around the table, Jack bent down and peered inside. At first glance, the jar appeared to be filled with several grains of brown rice, but after a few seconds, he noticed that the rice was moving.

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