Page 33 of Let Her Live

"Thank you," Fiona said.

"I can wait out here for you," Jake said. "Do some research while you do your thing in there."

"Are you sure?" Fiona asked. "I'm sure I can get a ride to the station and meet you there."

"Nah, it's all good," Jake said, grabbing his laptop from behind the seat. "I need to figure out our next step anyway. We can't keep spinning our wheels in the mud."

Fiona nodded. "Hopefully the autopsy can tell us something new."

As she stepped out of the car, the humid air hit her like a wall. Even though it was still early in the day, the sun was already blazing down on them. Fiona took a deep breath and headed into the coroner's office. Inside, the smell of disinfectant hit her nostrils. Darla, the country coroner, was waiting for her by the front desk in scrubs.

"Ah, Ms. Red," she said, "thank you for coming back in. I've been waiting for you."

Fiona forced a small smile. "Thank you. Is everything prepped and ready?"

Darla nodded. "Yes, I have him prepped and ready to go. Just follow me to the examination room."

Fiona followed her down a hallway and into a small room with a metal table in the center. Hank's body was lying on the table, covered in a white sheet.

Darla pulled back the sheet, revealing Hank's lifeless body. His skin was pale, and his eyes were closed as if in a peaceful slumber, but the deep wounds on his neck and chest told a different story. Fiona couldn't help but feel a sense of sadness as she looked at him. Another life was taken too soon, and a father, no less.

Fiona recalled what she'd seen earlier—the matted blood on the back of his head. She checked there first, taking note of the angle of the impact. It appeared to have been a strike from slightly below.

"Blunt force trauma, likely by someone shorter than him," Fiona noted. "But that's not what killed him, is it?"

She focused on the gash around his neck.

"No, it's a clear slit to the throat," she said. "But there are other markings on his body too, like with the others. Signs of trauma, like he was kicked and cut into, possibly post-mortem, possibly not."

Darla nodded, her expression serious. "Yes, we found similar markings on the other victims. It's as if the killer is taking out their rage on the bodies."

Fiona frowned, her mind racing."But the others did not have marks on the backs of their skulls."

"No, but this man was physically larger than the others," Darla noted.

"So it's possible he had to overpower him in a different way," Fiona said. "A safer way."

Darla nodded in agreement. "That's a possibility. The killer could have wanted to avoid any potential struggle and resorted to a different method."

Fiona sighed, feeling frustrated. "We need more than just possibilities and guesses. We need concrete evidence."

"I understand," Darla said. "But we can only work with what we have right now. And right now, we have a body and some marks that match the other victims."

Fiona nodded. She knew that Darla was right. She took a deep breath and began to examine the rest of the body for any other clues that could help them identify the killer. She didn’t see much else on the body, but what they did have could give them a clue.

Maybe the killer was smaller in stature. Maybe he was surprisingly non-confrontational. She needed to relay this information back to Jake and see if he could use it to help them build a profile for this guy.

As Fiona finished her examination, she couldn't help the feeling of unease that settled in her chest. It wasn't just the frustration of not having any concrete evidence; it was the thought of the killer still out there, free to strike again. She knew that they needed to act fast before they ran out of time.

As she left the examination room, she caught a glimpse of herself in a nearby mirror. Her hair was a mess, her face was pale, and her eyes were lined with exhaustion. She looked like she had aged years in just a few days.

She took a deep breath and shook her head, determined to push past her weariness and focus on the task at hand.

She stepped outside and saw Jake sitting in the rental car, his eyes glued to his laptop screen. She approached the car and slid into the passenger seat.

"Well?" Jake asked, not taking his eyes off the screen.

Fiona took a deep breath. "I didn't find anything new, per se. But I did notice that the markings on Hank's body were different from the others."

---