Page 14 of Evil Bones
“Maybe he needs increasingly larger kills to satisfy whatever fantasy he’s acting out.”
“Or maybe the sick bastard just hates animals,” said Slidell.
“So he decorates their skulls, sticks feathers in their ears, and nails them to trees?” A bit strident on my part, but, as usual, Slidell was starting to annoy me. “Oh. And one other thing. I think the guy’s keeping trophies.”
“What does that mean?”
“Something’s missing from each set of remains. You might ask why he’d do that.”
“Sounds like a question for a shrink,” he said.
I couldn’t disagree with that.
We both fell silent as I rolled through the images a second time.
“Or maybe the bastard’s got a hard-on forcertainanimals.” Again, Slidell was thinking out loud.
“Might identifying species or breed of dog help nail the guy?”
“Couldn’t hurt.”
“I know a local veterinarian who does forensic consults,” I said.
“Yeah? Who’s that?”
“Ralph Balodis.”
Slidell snorted, surpassing any volume Katy had ever achieved. “You talking about the guy down in Weddington?”
“I am.” I didn’t reallyknowBalodis, had exchanged a few wordswith him at a charity event in Charlotte several years back.You also do forensic work? You must know so-and-so?— that sort of thing.
“Balodis won’t do it,” Slidell said.
“Why not?”
“The guy’s a friggin’ train wreck.”
“What makes you say that?” Cool.
Slidell brought a thumb to his lips and pantomimed chugging from a bottle.
I said nothing.
“Way I got the story, Balodis screwed up and killed a horse,” Slidell added. “Quit practicing and lives like a goddam hermit now.”
“Balodis has a reputation in the forensic community as an excellent vet.”
“The guy could be Doctor Doolittle, but he wants nothing to do with nobody.”
“Fine,” I said. “I’m about to change that.” I resisted saying to Slidell what I was thinking.
What if the sicko creating these grisly displays decides animals don’t satisfy anymore? What if the next kill is human?
CHAPTER 4
I left the MCME and hurried out to the parking lot.Wheep-wheepedthe locks of my Mazda and slid behind the wheel.
Immediately shot forward.
