Page 4 of The Girl Who Was Taken

Livia shook her head. “Congenital?”

Dr. Larson shook her head. “Doesn’t explain the concurrent piercings into the brain.”

“I’m out of theories.”

“That’s not enough ammunition for the cage.”

“Agreed,” Livia said. “Any suggestions?”

“Not from this. I’ll need to have a look at the skull. Get my hands on it. But one thing I can tell you: He didn’t die recently. The brain is soft and the decomposition is from more than water penetration.”

“The dermis was ninety percent eroded,” Livia said. “How long do you think?”

“Muscle mass?”

“Full and complete, not much erosion. Ligament and cartilage present throughout.”

Dr. Larson held up a sagittal section of the brain, placed it flat on her gloved palm. “I’d say a year. Maybe more.”

Livia cocked her head. “Really? Would the body last that long underwater?”

“In the condition you’re describing? Definitely not.”

Dr. Larson waited for Livia to piece it together. Finally, Livia lifted her gaze to meet Dr. Larson’s. “Someone sunk him after he was dead awhile.”

“Possibly. Any clothing on the body?”

“Sweatshirt and jeans. I put them in the locker as evidence.”

“Smart girl. I’ll go examine the skull, see what I come up with. You might think about involving Dr. Colt.”

Livia nodded. “I’ll head down and let him know.”

* * *

When Livia entered the autopsy suite with Dr. Colt twenty minutes later, Dr. Larson had the body out of the cooler and was examining the piercings in the skull.

“Maggie,” Dr. Colt said. “I hear we have a complicated case.”

“Intriguing, for sure,” Maggie Larson said through her surgical mask as she stood over the body. She wore loupes that magnified the area of the skull she was interested in. Dr. Colt snapped on latex gloves, tied his mask, and went straight to the broken leg.

“This is not the fracture of a bridge jumper.”

“No, sir,” Livia said.

“Did you measure the height?”

“Femoral shaft fracture, twenty-seven inches from the heel,” Livia said.

“Make sure to include that number in your autopsy report. Homicide will want to compare that to the height of various car bumpers, since I’m quite certain this fracture is from a vehicle-to-man impact.”

Livia filed several things away in her mind. First, to include the height of the leg fracture in this report, and all subsequent ones. Second, horizontal femoral fractures can be caused when a car strikes a standing pedestrian, an impressive conclusion had she come up with it herself. And last, to research other vehicle-to-man traumas so that she never again made the same glaring omission in an autopsy report.

“Got it,” Livia said.

Dr. Colt moved to the abdomen. “Broken ribs?”

“None. And the body was so decomposed, there’s no way it was floating. Abdominal cavity wasn’t able to hold gases.”

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