Page 45 of Cold, Cold Bones

A link between the cases? Slidell was adamant that none existed.

No harm in looking. I was trapped anyway. If I found something, I’d just have to convince Skinny.

Back in the annex, I re-filled my mug, a decidedly lousy idea, booted my Mac Air, and brought up five case files.

After opening a blank spreadsheet, I labeled the rows with names and the columns with descriptors. Then I clicked on MCME 210-22 and MCME 213-22, Veronica Kwalwasser’s eyeball and head, and started entering data into the grid:

Sex: female

Age: forty-two

Ancestry: Caucasoid

DOD: August 18, 2020

COD: Natural/metastatic breast cancer

Body type: eyeball/severed head/no ME analysis of torso. Head stolen 2020 (probable date)

Body location: eyeball delivered to private home (mine), head dumped in privy (MiraVia), torso left at Happy Trails crematorium (later cremated)

Postmortem body treatment: head detached (manner unknown), left eye removed, right eye stabbed with paring knife

NOK: brother, Kenneth Kwalwasser

I recalled that Slidell had said the family was of Dutch origin. That Kwalwasser never married, had no kids, worked as a paralegal, and lived the last ten years of her life in Dillworth.

I added those facts, then moved on to MCME 356-19, and MCME 363-19, Miguel Sanchez’s ear and body:

Sex: male

Age: nineteen

Ancestry: Dominican

DOD: December 24, 2019

COD: Homicide/exsanguination due to multiple stab wounds

Body type: ear/eviscerated body/liver, heart, kidneys missing

Body location: ear at Beacon Hill Apartments/body in dumpster behind Wendy’s at Park Road Shopping Center

Postmortem body treatment: ear nailed to tree/body’s abdomen opened, organs removed (not recovered)

NOK: mother, Maria Sanchez

I cruised through the old police dossier, added that Sanchez was Latino and in the drug trade, and that the murder was thought to be a SUR 13 hit.

I studied the grid. Slidell was right. A middle-aged white woman who’d resided in Dillworth and died of breast cancer. A Latino kid who’d lived in southeast Charlotte and been killed by a rival gang.

I began a new row. MCME 224-22. No reason except for that nagging voice:

Sex: male

Age: thirty-five to fifty

Ancestry: