Page 13 of Evil Bones
A full minute passed, the only sound the click of the keys as I enlarged or reduced an image. Slidell’s hot breath on my neck suggested he’d approached and was leaning forward viewing the pics, too.
“What kinda animals we talking, here?”
“They’re all mammals.”
“What kinda mammals?”
“Once I determined that the remains weren’t human, I didn’t spendmore time on them. I’d have to do research to identify exact species. Why? Do you think that’s significant?”
Skinny called on one beefy shoulder to give a “who knows” shrug.
A beat, then he asked,
“How do you know how big these things are?”
I pointed to a flat, L-shaped object lying to the right of the specimen filling the screen—a gizmo I’d explained to Skinny more than once.
“That’s an ABFO ruler. It’s marked off in centimeter and millimeter gradations and is placed in every forensic shot to provide scale.”
“And the others?”
“The others what?”
“Jesus on a pogo.” A sharpness to Skinny’s voice indicated waning patience. “How friggin’ big were the other skulls?”
“Not big. But they were animal remains, so I didn’t take measurements.” Feeling a prickle of unease. Where was Skinny going with this? Had skipping that step been a mistake?
Again, Slidell made that glitchy noise in his throat.
“I’m viewing a master file that I created. It contains a shot of each specimen,” I said. Again defensive. “Would you like to see the whole series?”
“Yeah. Show me that.” The terms “please” and “thank you” don’t figure prominently in Skinny’s lexicon.
I exited the current image and went to the chronologically earliest case. A date was penciled onto the associated ABFO ruler.
“So this asshole began his little hobby at least three years ago,” Slidell mumbled under his breath. Then, to me, “Keep going.”
More keystrokes, more images—frontal, lateral, and basal views of mammalian crania showing variations on a common evolutionary theme, the bones and dentition modified over eons for adaptation to varying niches. Before photography, each skull had been cleaned of the curious embellishments recently adorning it.
“The shitpot’s going bigger.” Again, Slidell seemed to be talking more to himself than to me.
“Sorry?” I asked, not sure of his meaning.
“Run back through. Check your ABFO thingy.”
I did.
The skulls had been photographed full frame. Each was relatively small, so size differences weren’t glaringly obvious in the close-ups.
But Slidell was right. Each skull in the series had come from an animal larger than its predecessor. MCME-701-25, which I guessed was from a canine of some sort, was the biggest so far.
“Do you think the increase in body size is significant?” I asked, basically reframing the question I’d asked about species.
“Hell if I know. Could mean the perp’s getting bored. Could mean he’s getting better at catching game. Could mean fuckall.”
“Or maybe,” I said slowly, considering an idea, “targeting bigger and bigger prey indicates an escalation in whatever twisted impulse drives the guy.”
Slidell just looked at me.
