“We brought in an infant about three weeks ago. John said you’d be doing the autopsy, and I haven’t gotten the results.”
Dobbins removed his gloves and goggles and stepped over to a file cabinet. “Oh, yes. Sad case. John requested a rush on her. I finished running the tests quite some time ago and sent the report over to him.” He lowered his chin and glared over his glasses. “Were you with him when the body was discovered? I don’t recall seeing you before.”
She didn’t care for his accusatory tone, but she was the beggar here. “Yes. I’m Kerry Herlihy, a forensic anthropologist consulting for the summer.”
He half smiled. “Oh, you’re the one from Brahman University that John found.”
“Yes.”
“Welcome on board.” His tone came out civil this time. “I usually work the late shift, so that’s why we haven’t crossed paths.”
“Ah.” Kerry straightened her lab coat. “I just assumed someone would have handed the little girl’s remains over to me for identification purposes. I hadn’t realized I needed to ask for them.”
“No problem.” He pulled open his desk drawer and leafed through a stack of folders. “Here is a copy of the report.” He handed her the paper.
Kerry read what he’d given her. “Natural causes?”
“Nothing else was conclusive. I ran a tox screen but came up with nothing. The pathology showed only healthy tissue.” His posture softened. “We only had the lower part of her body and nothing pointed to a violent COD.”
She wondered if he’d studied the bones for fractures. “Where’s the body now?”
“In drawer number three. Help yourself.”
“Thank you.”
“I’d like to do a facial reconstruction on her and scan her face into our age progression software. I’m sure someone has to be missing her.”
“Given she was buried without a casket, I’m guessing that someone didn’t want anyone to find her.”
How could someone dump a baby in a grave in the middle of the woods? “Did you send her DNA in for testing?”
“No. I didn’t see the need given we have nothing to compare it to. If you can get a possible identity, then I’ll go ahead with the matching process. However, don’t hold your breath for an answer from the lab for a few months. They’re backed up right now.”
“If Tampa’s labs are anything like the ones in Cleveland, they’ll stay perpetually backed up.”
“Sad but true.” He pulled out the morgue drawer, removed the tiny body bag and placed her on a gurney. “Knock yourself out.”
Kerry’s heart ached for what she was about to do. She wanted to clean the bones to see if she could determine evidence of violence. “Thank you.”
“Just let John know you have her.”
“Will do.”
With a heavy heart, Kerry wheeled the young female down the hall. The edge of her gurney knocked into Steven’s thigh as he breezed out of John’s lab.
“I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?”
“No I’m fine,” he said rubbing his leg.
Thank goodness he wasn’t hurt, but he did always seem to be under foot. “I must have been off in la-la land.”
Without asking permission, he grabbed the cart and steered it into her lab. “Who you got here?”
“The little girl John and I processed about three weeks ago. I want to do a facial reconstruction on her.”
“You have any luck with the other faces you did?”
She held open the door, and Steven pushed the gurney into the lab. “Actually, yes. Jane Doe #1 was identified by her fiancé. I’m still waiting to see whether anyone recognizes #4.”
“But a baby? They kind of look alike. Won’t it be hard?”
“Yes, very hard, but I have to try. Can you imagine the pain the parents must be in?”
“No, I can’t.”
Once he parked the cart under the overhead light, Kerry lifted up the maceration station hood and grabbed the large stainless steel pot.
“Here, let me help you.” Steven took the pot from her and placed it in the sink. “Dr. A told me some crank caller threatened you after he saw you on TV.”
“Yes, can you believe it?”
She filled the large container with water, and then added some mild detergent, along with some bleach. No use subjecting herself to more smell.
“Here, let me put this back on the burner for you.” Steven carried the filled pot to the station and set it on the burner. “That’s a heavy mother.”
“I know.” She’d hurt her back the last time she had to lift the water.
He swiveled to face her, his back blocking the burner. “I didn’t see your car in the lot when I drove in.”
“Excuse me.” Steven moved out of the way. “Detective Markum is driving me to work. He’s afraid my caller might come after me.”
His brows rose and the ends of his lips turned up. “I didn’t realize the police offered door-to-door service.”
Kerry face heated. “I think it’s more than the usual police concern.” She added the meat tenderizer, keeping her back to Steven, not wanting him to see the blush that colored her face.
“He likes you?” Steven hopped on the counter next to the station. “You want to talk about it? I’m a good listener.”
She turned back to him. “Some other time maybe.” Kerry smiled. “I really do need to work.”
The guy was sweet, but she couldn’t afford the time to chat. She was, after all, on temporary loan from Brahman University. If she ever expected more jobs from the M.E.’s office, she had to perform well.
He jumped down and saluted, nearly knocking her purse off in the process. “My bad.” He pushed her purse to the back of the counter, safely out of the falling zone. “Then I shall leave you to the infant.”
Before she could unzip the body bag, Steven disappeared out the door. She sobered the moment her fingers touched the body. The chore ahead would test her resolve to the max. This could have been her child had her baby lived.
Don’t do this to yourself. The only way to bring comfort to the parents was to find the identity of the child.
With a plastic utensil, Kerry scraped the soft tissue from the bones, forcing her mind on the technique, not on the person beneath. Next, she brushed the bones clean and placed them in the pot of warm, soapy water.
With the worst of the job complete, she studied the cranium, hoping to find a clue as to the baby’s cause of death, brushing away her tears with back of her hand. The skull had been broken into a few pieces, but with a little glue, she’d be able to recreate the whole cranium.
While she couldn’t tell what the baby looked like from the bones alone, she bet the child would break the most calloused of hearts.
It was such a horrible, horrible tragedy. When the tears blurred her vision, she closed the fume hood and placed the dried bones in anatomical order. Before she’d managed to put the hand together, her door creaked open. Hunter?
She looked up and froze.
18
“Susan?” Kerry’s jaw tightened, and her stomach swirled.
Kerry almost didn’t recognize her sister standing in the doorway. The security guard was behind her. “She said she was your sister,” he said. “She wanted to surprise you.”
“She did at that. Thank you.”
He nodded and closed the door.
Why was Susan wearing red glasses instead of her customary contact lenses? Not that it mattered.
Kerry studied her. Something else looked different—out of place. Sure, Susan’s hair had streaks of gray and her hips looked much wider than they had ten years ago, but those signs of aging were normal.
Her sister’s nose looked as though she’d broken it, and the cartilage hadn’t healed properly. That’s what was different. Had Brad done that?
Susan rushed in. “I know I said I’d meet you at seven, but Grandpa told me you had to move out because of some psycho. I came to Tampa just to see you, and I didn’t want you to disappear on me like I used to do to you.” She chuckled, but the tight lines around her mouth told Kerry that Susan saw nothing funny in her statement.
“What a minute. Did you say disappear?” Queasiness grabbed her. “You’re admitting you abandoned me when we were growing up?”