Page 68 of Pretty Broken Dolls
Katie drove her usual route to the sheriff’s department. She could get there faster, but she preferred a slightly longer journey to let her mind wander about the current cases. Plus this route meant more trees, less traffic, the landmarks that hadn’t changed since she was a little girl, and a little extra time to enjoy the town she had loved her entire life. Everything that made her life and perspective what it was today.
McGaven had called her at 8:05a.m. and said to meet him and John Blackburn in forensics regarding the Jeanine Trenton case. Katie had been running behind, since she had overslept. It was rare, but it happened. It had been quite the tumultuous weekend and she still hadn’t had the time to update McGaven on everything.
She entered the forensic department and immediately heard laughter—not just chuckles but full-blown hysterical laughter. It seemed odd and out of place in such a quiet zone that was normally deathly silent, but now she could hear two men laughing. No doubt it was John and McGaven.
Katie slowed her pace and hesitated before the forensic exam room door. She peered around the corner where McGaven casually leaned against a work table and John was seated in a chair. She watched them talk about sports for a minute and then she stepped inside the doorway.
“Hi,” she said.
“There she is,” said McGaven. “We were wondering if your skills were better suited to hockey or football.”
They laughed.
“Football,” said John. “Definitely.”
“I don’t know, hockey could really use someone like Katie.”
Katie smiled, still feeling her sore muscles from the incident on Friday but not letting the guys know it. “Go ahead, have your fun.”
“You know we’re kidding, but you’ve got some serious skills,” said John. Dressed in a black polo shirt, leaning back in the chair, he crossed his arms, showing his tattoos. He was always dressed informally, but as if he was ready to go at a moment’s notice to attend a crime scene. His experience for eight years as a Navy Seal made him a great asset as the supervisor in the forensic unit and to the sheriff’s department.
“I think the army helped,” McGaven chimed. “My only regret was that it wasn’t on video.”
“Let me put my stuff in the office and I’ll be right back,” Katie said.
She dropped her coat and briefcase on her desk before returning to the exam room. She was interested in what John had to say about Jeanine Trenton’s crime scene evidence.
Returning to the exam area, she said, “Okay, what do you have?”
“Well,” John began. “All this evidence has already been studied and tested. And by experts in the FBI,” he added. His voice didn’t give the indication that he was impressed by their findings.
“I want to know whatyouthink,” she said. She knew what the reports said, but she wanted a new set of eyes on the case.
John smiled. “Okay. Now we’re talking. I’m sorry to say that we didn’t get anything from the Raven Woods house. No prints near the door, camera, or gas intake. Zip.” He pulled up photos on his computer of the comparison and the potential weapons that made the wound patterns. “According to the big guys, an eight-inch blade made the neck wound.”
“Like a butcher’s knife?” she said.
“It’s possible, but I have issues with the jagged cuts in the skin every half centimeter. See here,” he instructed as he magnified the image. There were little crescent shapes along the skin like tiny-toothed cuts.
“Hesitation marks?”
“No, more like a dull knife or one with a serrated edge.”
“Something that a person would find handy in a kitchen?”
“Could be. But reporting it as a butcher’s knife is too generic—besides, it’s too flat a blade. Too many variable factors—like the sharpness—to be one hundred percent accurate. The eight inches would seem to be consistent, so it wouldn’t be a type of pocket knife.” He flipped the screen to a close-up of a tattoo on the inside of Jeanine’s right wrist. “I didn’t see anything about her tattoo in the report. It’s very faint and it appears that at some point there was an attempt to remove it, most likely with a dermabrasion technique, but it wasn’t completely successful.”
“Didn’t know about it.” Katie was surprised that they didn’t see it initially. “That’s where layers of skin are removed?”
“Yes.”
Katie leaned in closer to the screen and saw a gold outlined five-pointed star with “K9” and partial solid dog head with two faint slashes making an “X” through it. “It’s so small, but it’s definitely Army K9.” She marveled a moment, wondering why Jeanine didn’t continue her training or why she would have wanted to remove the tattoo.
“Maybe she wanted to remove it because of her jobs?” suggested McGaven, studying it too.
“Or she didn’t want anyone to know about it?”
“Mandy said that she didn’t talk much about her time in the army,” said McGaven.
