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It was one of the few times Ethan had addressed her since she’d landed. “I read up on the case on theflight.”
“You were always a quick study.” She glanced over her shoulder to look at him then, and the slight smile on his lips was so familiar that for a moment she was transported back to the first time they’d met in the musty reading room in Colchester East-Hants PublicLibrary.
He’d sprawled into a seat beside her, lifting the cover of the book in her hand to read the title.“You’re reading Voltaire…because you want to? Girl, you don’t look sick, but I’m thinking of calling a doctor.” The crooked smile that accompanied his words had sent her stomach into a slow roll, a corresponding heat sparking in herveins.
“There’s more here.” Conrad lifted something else from the mouth and set it on the tray. Ethan shifted his attention to the item the ME had discovered and just that easily the moment wasbroken.
Alexa hauled in a deep steadying gulp of air, one she immediately regretted. Quick shallow breaths were the rule at an autopsy. Even the Vicks didn’t kill the unmistakable odor of antiseptic layered overdecomposition.
“The victims in New Brunswick had paper bags like that at the back of the mouth, too,” Nyle informed herhelpfully.
She went to stand next to the ME to look at the object he’d removed. “A mini wax paper glassine bag,” she corrected absently, picking up a pair of tweezers on the tray to open it. “One of its uses is for insect samples.” She reached inside and withdrew one of the minute specks, and carried it back to the counter where a microscope sat beside the magnifying glass she’d just used. Putting the sample on a slide, she slid it beneath the instrument and adjusted the lens to examineit.
“I think I had a motel bed infested with those once,” Nyle observed, coming up to peer over hershoulder.
“It’s a bat bug. Although bed bugs and bat bugs are virtually identical, bat bugs have longer hairs on the upper covering of the thorax.” She frowned and stepped aside so Nyle could peer at the slide. “Only these last three recent victims have had a second sample inserted into theirmouths?”
“It’s a new development.” Ethan’s mouth was a hard line in his face. “We haven’t figured out what itmeans.”
“It’s not unusual for an offender to adapt his MO as he evolves,” she mused, staring at the victim again. “But changing his signature is a bit moreuncommon.”
“The killer has been inactive for three years,” Nyle put in. “The Force believed he was dead or inprison.”
“Until the New Brunswick homicides.” Her words weren’t aquestion.
Ethan nodded. “Simard is the first who had an identifiable manner of death. There are three other deviations noted with the newest victims. They were all tortured before they were killed. The timeline is escalating. And instead of just the dragonfly, he leaves behind a second insect sample.” His gaze was unwavering. “Guess you’ve already realized that you’re here to help us figure out what the killer is trying to tellus.”
She nodded, intrigued. Without a word, she crossed the room to retrieve the laptop she’d left near the door. Returning with it, she swiftly extracted her computer and set it on the counter and turned it on. Belatedly, she turned to Dr. Conrad. “I hope you don’t mind me using this area. I need to access a database to identify this particularspecies.”
The man inclined his head and reached for the oscillating saw. He began to cut precisely into the corpse’s skull, just below the hairline. Nyle, who appeared as garrulous as Ethan was taciturn, said, “You mean there’s more than one type of these buggers?” He had to raise his voice to be heard over the whine of the power tool Conradwielded.
“Several species, if I recall correctly. I just need to determine…” The thought trailed off, as she typed quickly, accessing the vast pictorial entomology database she’d been working on for Raiker’s labs. The murmur of voices behind her faded as she found the collection she was looking for and brought up the pictures of each to compare with the sample on the slide. After several minutes, the shrill sound of the saw fading away, she rejoined the officers, whose discussion had turned to details of the composition of the thread used on thevictims.
“We’ll need to bag the stitches you removed so we can send them to the lab,” Ethan said as Conrad peeled back the skin of Simard’s face. “They can compare the thread used with the other…” His voice tapered off as he noticed her. “Did you identify the type ofbug?”
“I did.” A faint frown marred her brow. “It’s anAfrocimex constrictus, an African bat bug. A parasite that feeds on Egyptian fruitbats.”
“What the heck is it doing in Nova Scotia?” Nyleasked.
“That’s what I’m wondering,” Alexa said slowly. “Your killer is using a dragonfly from Southeast Asia as his calling card and with this victim he’s added an insect indigenous to Africa. Both are illegal to bring into this country. He’s either smuggling them himself or buying them on the blackmarket.”
Her gaze traveled past them, settled on the now faceless corpse, as if it could provide answers for the myriad questions its death raised. “As you know, serial crimes are all about the offender. To generalize a gender for now—it’shiswants, his needs. Victim selection, manner of death…and in this case the items he leaves behind.” She looked from Ethan to Nyle and back again. “The dragon fly is also about the offender. It tells us something about him or how he perceives his crimes. It goes to figure then that the second sample is all about thevictim.”