Page 45 of Cold, Cold Bones
A link between the cases? Slidell was adamant that none existed.
No harm in looking. I was trapped anyway. If I found something, I’d just have to convince Skinny.
Back in the annex, I re-filled my mug, a decidedly lousy idea, booted my Mac Air, and brought up five case files.
After opening a blank spreadsheet, I labeled the rows with names and the columns with descriptors. Then I clicked on MCME 210-22 and MCME 213-22, Veronica Kwalwasser’s eyeball and head, and started entering data into the grid:
Sex: female
Age: forty-two
Ancestry: Caucasoid
DOD: August 18, 2020
COD: Natural/metastatic breast cancer
Body type: eyeball/severed head/no ME analysis of torso. Head stolen 2020 (probable date)
Body location: eyeball delivered to private home (mine), head dumped in privy (MiraVia), torso left at Happy Trails crematorium (later cremated)
Postmortem body treatment: head detached (manner unknown), left eye removed, right eye stabbed with paring knife
NOK: brother, Kenneth Kwalwasser
I recalled that Slidell had said the family was of Dutch origin. That Kwalwasser never married, had no kids, worked as a paralegal, and lived the last ten years of her life in Dillworth.
I added those facts, then moved on to MCME 356-19, and MCME 363-19, Miguel Sanchez’s ear and body:
Sex: male
Age: nineteen
Ancestry: Dominican
DOD: December 24, 2019
COD: Homicide/exsanguination due to multiple stab wounds
Body type: ear/eviscerated body/liver, heart, kidneys missing
Body location: ear at Beacon Hill Apartments/body in dumpster behind Wendy’s at Park Road Shopping Center
Postmortem body treatment: ear nailed to tree/body’s abdomen opened, organs removed (not recovered)
NOK: mother, Maria Sanchez
I cruised through the old police dossier, added that Sanchez was Latino and in the drug trade, and that the murder was thought to be a SUR 13 hit.
I studied the grid. Slidell was right. A middle-aged white woman who’d resided in Dillworth and died of breast cancer. A Latino kid who’d lived in southeast Charlotte and been killed by a rival gang.
I began a new row. MCME 224-22. No reason except for that nagging voice:
Sex: male
Age: thirty-five to fifty
Ancestry:
