Page 19 of Return of the Spider

“His clothes are there,” Chin said, gesturing to evidence bags on a counter.

“You stripped him already?” Diehl said. “We usually like to be there for that.”

“My bad,” Chin said. “Everything’s been bagged, logged, andwitnessed for evidence under my signature. Clothes, wallet, two condoms—that was it.”

“Anything else we should know?” Detective Kurtz asked.

“I can only tell you what the body tells me,” the medical examiner said. She drew back the green cloth, revealing Conrad Talbot’s body. His young face looked serene from the eyebrows down, now that the gore had been cleaned away.

At the center of his forehead, an ugly exit wound gaped.

CHAPTER

12

The autopsy unfolded quickly,with most of the attention paid to the path the bullet had taken after it struck Conrad’s occipital protuberance, low and square at the back of his skull.

Dr. Chin noted that the bullet must have been slowed by the window it was shot through and the thick bone of Conrad’s skull. It had entered at a slightly upward angle.

Dr. Chin cut a cap of bone off the victim’s skull. Studying the brain, she said, “The bullet was fragmented, and although it slowed down considerably, it continued its forward progress. There’s a lot of trauma and blood here, but I’d say the remaining energy from the bullet fragments liquefied and cut channels through the brain at a rising angle. I’m eyeballing it at thirty degrees upward tilt. But we’ll check.”

I steeled my stomach as she removed the brain in its entirety,set it aside for further dissection, reoriented the light over the open skull, and peered inside. “Make that thirty-two degrees rise.”

I said, “Can you translate that for a new guy, Dr. Chin?”

The medical examiner said, “I believe it means your shooter was crouched and aiming slightly upward into the cab of the Bronco.”

Sampson said, “Or maybe the shooter is unfamiliar with the gun and yanks on the trigger, causing the gun barrel to rise at the shot.”

The medical examiner nodded. “That would do it as well.”

“Which means what?” Chief Pittman said impatiently.

Detective Kurtz said, “We have either a short assailant who knows how to use a gun or a taller one with limited firearms experience.”

“Doesn’t exactly limit the fish in the fish pond, does it?” Diehl said.

“Not yet.”

Chief Pittman looked frustrated when we left the autopsy suite forty minutes later. “I was hoping for more.”

“More, sir?” Detective Kurtz said.

“More to say to the media. More to tell the public so they’ll know that the Metro PD is out front on this case and making damn sure the person who took this kid’s life will be brought to justice!”

I was surprised at how worked up Pittman was. It showed me that, whatever his motives, the chief of detectives actually cared about his job and truly didn’t know what to say to the media and the public.

Sampson picked up on that too and said, “The story you should be telling, Chief, is that at the moment, given the evidence we have, we believe this to be a random act of violence.”

Detective Diehl said, “And that in any case, the Metro PD is committed to solving this crime.”

Kurtz added, “Which is why the four of us are going to go back to the crime scene and canvass the neighborhood personally. Maybe someone in one of those apartments across the parkway heard something. A gunshot that made them look out the window.”

Chief Pittman chewed on that for several moments, then nodded. “That story works. Thank you, Detectives. Good hunting.”

“You too, sir,” Diehl said and watched him until he’d left the building.

Kurtz nodded at Sampson. “That was impressive, the way you handled Pittman.”