Unnatural Death by Cornwell Patricia

Author:Cornwell, Patricia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2023-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

I REPOSITION THE C-ARM around the table, x-raying the body from head to toe. Images appear in quadrants of the hardwired video display on a cart. I point out two linear objects flaring bright white inside the torso, what’s left of the hiking poles impaling the victim. I describe cutting through the metal shafts so I could close the body bags.

“With both victims, the hiking poles were stabbed all the way through, the shaft protruding front and back,” I’m saying.

I begin sliding them out of the body, careful not to further damage the surrounding tissue. I place the two sections of bloody aluminum tubing inside a large paper bag that I label and seal.

“We’ll check for DNA and trace evidence,” I explain. “I can say with a fair amount of confidence that she was already dead by the time she was impaled. The hiking poles perforated her liver and pancreas, and I’m not seeing any tissue response.”

“Unnecessary violence and degradation are limbically driven,” Benton says. “There was no logical reason to strip the bodies, to degrade and mutilate them. The motivation was purely emotional and also to send a message.”

“Maybe this is a dumb question,” Bella says, “but can you tell whose hiking poles impaled whom? I’m assuming they belonged to the victims.”

I explain that both pairs are the same brand and advertised as tactical. Black with sharply pointed tips, they’re designed for self-defense in the wilderness should one be confronted by an adversary, human or otherwise. There’s no mud basket, the plastic-cup-like barrier near the tip that helps prevent the pole from sinking in mud or snow.

“Similar to what you see on ski poles,” I describe. “If the hiking poles had those it would have been impossible to stab them all the way through a body. You can adjust shafts to different lengths depending on preference, and the victims had done that. One set was extended to five feet long, the other four inches shorter.”

“I think we can safely guess that the longer poles were the male’s,” Benton says. “Do you recall who was stabbed with what?”

“Yes. And it would appear they were impaled with their own poles. The shorter ones were used on her, the longer ones on him,” I reply.

“Could be a coincidence,” Aiden the press secretary says. “Unlikely,” Benton answers. “A taunt meant to hint that the assailant knew his victims and is showing contempt.”

“Intentional or not, chances are the assailant did this last, perhaps right before he dumped her body in the lake and his in the mineshaft,” I explain.

“Overkill. Rage and frustration,” Benton says. “This isn’t typical. To be successful, assassins are coldly calculating. They’re detached emotionally, feeling nothing. It’s just a job. That’s not what happened with the Mansons. I’d call everything about what we’re seeing emotionally out of control and sloppy.”

“Frustrated about what?” Marino thinks forensic psychology is mostly mumbo jumbo.

He’s always been skeptical when experts appear on the scene and start predicting the age of the killer, his ethnicity, the car he drives, how he feels about his mother.

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