Page 64 of Silent Scream

Kim stepped into The Bowl to grab her jacket.

‘Come on, Bryant. We’re off to the lab to see if Doctor Spock has anything else to tell us.’

Bryant followed her out the door. ‘Easy, Guv, it’s barely half past seven. Give the guy a chance.’

‘He’ll be there,’ she said, reaching the bottom of the stairs.

She took a deep breath as she opened the passenger side door.

Who the hell knew what they’d turn up today.

Thirty-Three

As Kim enteredthe autopsy suite she blinked three times to adjust her vision. The overload of stainless steel was like a dozen flashbulbs all going off at once.

‘This place gives me the creeps.’

She turned to Bryant. ‘When did you turn into such a little girl?’

‘Always been that way, Guv.’

The pathology suite had recently been modernised and now held four separate bays positioned like a small hospital ward.

Each area came complete with a sink, table, wall cabinets and a tray of tools. Many of the instruments looked harmless and not unlike the scissors and scalpels used in routine surgery but others, like the skull chisel, bone saw and rib cutters, looked like they’d been plucked from the imagination of Wes Craven.

Unlike the wards in the main part of the hospital there were no curtains around each bay. These customers cared nothing for false modesty.

The recovered skeleton was laid out in form and looked somehow more forlorn than in the ground. Now the bones were displayed in a sterile environment being scrutinized, analysed and studied. It seemed just another indignity to be suffered.

The table was long and had a lip all the way around that gave the impression of an oversize turkey dish. Kim had the overwhelming urge to cover the bones over.

The ceiling light was pulled down to shoulder height and reminded Kim of the type used at the dentist.

Doctor Bate measured the right femur and noted the measurement on a clipboard.

‘Someone’s been busy.’

‘Early bird catches the worm, as they say. Unless you’re an entomologist and then that would be just plain weird.’

Kim clutched her chest. ‘Doc, did you just try and make a funny? You did, didn’t you?’

The white coat hung open, revealing a pair of faded jeans and a green and blue striped rugby shirt.

‘Detective, are you this sarcastic to everyone you meet?’

She thought for two seconds. ‘I certainly try to be.’

He turned to face her fully. ‘How have you been this successful by being so rude, arrogant, obnoxious ...’

‘Hey, easy there, Doc. I have bad points as well. Tell him, Bryant.’

‘She does have ...’

‘So, what can you tell us about our victim this morning?’ Kim interrupted.

The doctor shook his head in despair and turned away. ‘Well, for a start, the bones will often reveal more about a victim’s life than their death. We can estimate how long they lived, illness, old injuries, height, build, if any deformities were present.

‘The age at death inherently affects decay. The younger the person, the faster they will decay. With children, their bones are smaller. They contain less mineral.