Down and Dirty Page 4

  back to Jack. A steady stream of water dripped onto my hardhat from somewhere above. “And I’d say somewhere between fifteen to nineteen in age as the epiphyseal plates haven’t fully closed.”

  The movies never depicted burn fatalities correctly. The thing about the human body was that it was pretty dense in places, and really freaking hard to burn in its entirety. The extremities, like fingers and toes—anything that had smaller bones—would burn away. But the torso of a body was thick, so even if the skin was gone, the insides were still viable enough for me to do an autopsy.

  “Looks like he was dressed for bed.” I was talking more to myself than Cal and Jack at this point. I was in the zone—that faraway place I had to go to when I was studying a body—so it was all about the facts and details and not the person in front of me.

  I used a pair of tweezers to pull off what might have been pajama bottoms that had adhered to the skin of the upper thigh. The face was gone, so there was no hope of identifying visually against a photograph, and the fingers were gone as well so no hope of fingerprinting.

  “We’ll have to identify through dental.” I grabbed a small flashlight out of my bag and turned it on. And then I shone the light into the gaping mouth, carefully widening it further so I could see as far down into the throat as possible.

  “There’s soot and burns in the airway,” I said, swabbing the inside of the mouth and nose and putting it in an evidence baggie. “So he was breathing on his own when the fire started.”

  I labeled the baggie M1—Male 1—to indicate which victim it belonged to and continued to look over the body closely.

  “I won’t be able to see if there were any perimortem injuries until I can do x-rays. Have the guys go ahead and bag him and get him stabilized. Lets move on to the next one.”

  “It’s right over here,” Cal said. “I did a preliminary sketch of the house and the rooms, and then did another sketch of where the rooms fell and into which quadrants of the bottom floor. From my calculations both of these victims were occupying the same room, so when it collapsed they landed in the same general area.”

  Victim number two was facedown next to what was left of a metal bedframe, and the coils from the inside of the mattress lay blackened between the slats, though the mattress itself was long gone.

  “This one is female,” I said. “Also fifteen to nineteen years of age.”

  “Then not the daughter?” Cal asked.

  “No, the bones are different in those who are younger. You said she was thirteen. This girl is older. Maybe a girlfriend.”

  “Oldest kid’s girlfriend is sleeping over?” Jack said. “Wow. Lenient parents. My mom would’ve kicked my ass. And hers too.”

  “She would’ve kicked your ass if you’d gotten caught,” I said wryly. “You had plenty of sleepover guests at that age that your mother never knew about.”

  Jack winked unashamed and I rolled my eyes. I went back to photographing the scene and checking for marks of violence from the back of the skull all the way down. I’d started breathing through my mouth in shallow pants to counteract the smell. It wasn’t working, but it was habit anyway.

  “I don’t miss those days at all,” Jack said. “I’m so glad you’ve helped me mend my wicked ways and gotten me to settle down. Hey, we should get married or something. If you’ve got time in your schedule, I think Saturday would be good.”

  “I’m going to help you settle down off a cliff if you don’t stop teasing me about the wedding. Help me turn the body.”

  “You guys are getting married?” Cal asked, bending down next to the stubby legs to help me turn her over. Jack moved across from me to act as a stabilizer. “Congratulations. Finally found someone that could deal with you before coffee, huh, Jaye?”

  “There’s room for you off that cliff too, Walker.”

  Jack choked off a laugh and then counted to three. We turned the mystery girl over and I went through the same process, checking her airway for soot and burns.

  “It’s the same as the boy,” I said. “Soot and burns in the airways. Minus the fibers from her nightclothes. Though it looks like part of the bed sheets are adhered to the skin.”

  “She was naked?” Jack asked.

  “Yeah. You can tell a lot from the fibers. See how the left leg looks like it has a film over it?” I ran a gloved finger over the blackened area of the thigh and used my tweezers to pull back a white plastic-like substance.

  “The sheets weren’t made of a natural fiber. That’s why it’s hardened like this. You can see the way the sheet was draped over her and the position she was laying when she died.”

  “What time was the fire department alerted?” Jack asked Cal.

  “Call came through the alarm company at twelve forty-seven. Took them seventeen minutes to respond because we’re out in the middle of nowhere. By the time they arrived the whole house was lit up like the Fourth of July.”

  “Smoke alarms fully functional?”

  “Yes, sir,” Cal drawled. “They were wired into the alarm system and everything showed as functional from their end.”

  “I don’t know about you, but if my girlfriend is over for the evening and I’m seventeen years old, there’s not a chance in hell I’m fast asleep by twelve forty-seven.”

  “Especially if there’s a warm and naked female in the bed next to you,” Cal agreed.

  “Why?” I asked. “I’m assuming seventeen year old males fall asleep just as quickly as adult males after sex. Why is it out of the realm of possibility they’d both be asleep by that point? Especially on a school night.”

  Jack and Cal both looked at me like I’d grown a second head.

  “You’ve never been a seventeen year old boy so I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt. At that age, if you’re given the opportunity to have sex and you have a set amount of hours to do it in, then you’re not going to waste any of those hours sleeping. It’s about opportunity and an unlimited amount of stamina.”

  Cal nodded in agreement and I figured the two of them would probably know better than anyone.

  “So you’re saying despite the fact that they have obvious signs of smoke inhalation, which is a normal cause of death in a house fire, you don’t think they died of natural causes?”

  “I don’t know what to think until you come back with the autopsy results,” Cal said. “But my gut is telling me something is off, despite the way things are looking from the outside. Preliminary intel we got on Anthony Connelli is that he worked for the Department of Defense. It’s worth digging a little deeper just for that reason alone.”

  “You’ll see when you examine the other bodies. Everyone was asleep when the fire started. Everyone is in bed. And no one heard the smoke alarms or the secondary alarms from the house alarm that notified the fire department. The fire started in the kitchen, so maybe the parents are affected by the smoke first and never wake up. But it would take time for the smoke to reach the second floor.”

  “And say the alarms did wake them and they were trapped on the second floor,” Jack broke in. “She’s right next to the bed, and we can probably assume the boy was too since he’s so close in proximity. Fire victims typically lock themselves in bathrooms or closets or try to jump out the windows to escape the smoke. They don’t just lay in bed and let the fire get them.”

  “So what you’re both saying is that you want me to look really hard for signs of foul play.”

  “Pretty much,” Cal said. “I’d like to be there when you do the autopsies.”

  “I don’t have a problem with that as long as you don’t throw up all over my bodies.” He looked offended at the suggestion, so I was guessing Cal was okay with getting down and dirty with the messier side of my job. What was yet to be seen was whether or not he could handle the smell of the embalming fluid I used for the mortuary side of my job.

  I saw Jack shake his head out of the corner of my eye and knew what he was thinking. Jack could handle just about anything, but a whiff of the embalmi
ng fluid was enough to have him going green and running for the nearest exit. I also noticed Jack didn’t try to warn Cal. Some things just needed to be learned from experience.

  “I’m not going to be able to start the autopsies until tomorrow morning. My freezer only holds four—five in a desperate pinch—and I’ve got two I need to embalm and move to viewing rooms to make room for the Connellis and guest.”

  “You lead a fascinating life, Doctor Graves.”

  “You ain’t seen nothing yet, Walker. If I told you some of the things that have happened over the last year it would turn your hair gray.”

  “Trouble likes to follow you. You’re hell on wheels.”

  “Yeah, well I traded in my roller skates for a Formula One car. It’s getting a lot harder to outrun the flames lately.”

  I looked down at my watch and winced at the time. I was going to be cutting it close to make the appointment.

  “Let’s get her bagged and then move to the next body. I have a wedding dress to try on.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Oh, for crying out loud, Jack. I can practically hear you thinking. Why don’t you just ask what you want to know instead of waiting for me to volunteer the information?”

  “Because it’s more entertaining for me to watch you get all worked up about what you think I might be thinking.” He squeezed my thigh playfully and I narrowed my eyes at him.

  We were headed back to Bloody Mary so Vaughn and I could drive to Richmond to the bridal shop. It was about ten minutes until three o’clock. Which meant I was going to be very late and Vaughn was probably going to fill my trousseau with nothing by granny gowns and yellow clothing. Yellow made me look like a corpse, so this was a genuine concern.

  The EMS vans had left with the bodies about twenty minutes before us, and hopefully everyone was getting unloaded and situated in my lab. I had a very short window of time to work with before the bodies started decomposing, so I needed to deal with the wedding dress and then go embalm Chloe Sanders and Bernie Harrison. Though I was thinking I should probably refrain from telling the ladies at the bridal shop that when explaining why I needed them to hurry.

  I slipped my sunglasses off the top of my head and onto my nose. “You’re right. I don’t know why I’m getting so worked up about it. If you’re not curious, then I won’t press the issue. We missed lunch.”

  I checked the clock on the dashboard and wondered since I was going to be late anyway if we could swing through the drive-thru.

  I saw Jack’s lips twitch at my response, and I knew I hadn’t fooled him with my nonchalance. “I could eat,” he finally said. “As long as it’s not barbecue. I’m thinking of becoming a vegetarian after today.”

  I pretty much felt the same way, so I couldn’t argue. Even bacon didn’t sound all that appealing.

  “You told me about Walker, you know.”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from denying it right off the bat, and then I tried to think back and remember. I didn’t remember much about my time with Cal, other than the fact I worked like a fiend and the sex was great. It was outside the bedroom we had issues. And I honestly didn’t know how much of that relationship I’d shared with Jack. Mostly because I was always embarrassed that I could never be in a relationship with a man that wanted to stick.

  More than one man had said that I was intimidating. That I didn’t let them be the man in the relationship. Which I found confusing because I didn’t know how to be any other way. I was independent and always approached a relationship as if we were equals.

  There was a weird dividing line in my mind. Ever since Jack and I had become lovers instead of just friends everyone before him just kind of faded into the background. We’d been best friends for so many years—we knew just about everything about each other, with the exception of things we’d each done in our respective jobs that we weren’t ready to share, and might not ever be ready to share.

  “Is this one of those times where you’re trying to do reverse psychology and I end up telling you everything you want to know anyway? Because I don’t remember having that conversation with you.”

  “You never told me his name, but I recognized him from the way you described him. Do you remember what you said?”

  “Apparently not. Clearly I have amnesia about every man I ever dated before you.”

  “Then my work here is done,” he grinned. “No, but seriously. He moved in with you for a little while. And the day he moved in you called me and said, “Jack, I don’t know why I’m doing this. He’s not for me. At least not as more than a friend.”

  I remembered now and turned my head to look out the window at the passing landscape.

  “You remember what you said next?”

  “I don’t know why you’re asking me. Your brain is like a damned computer.”

  “I’ll take that to mean you want me to continue.” He’d taken my hand and was rubbing it in slow, soothing circles. “You said, “He’s not for me. But I’m not sure anyone is, so maybe I should just make do for as long as it lasts. It’s the loneliness that’s the worst. I can live with knowing I haven’t found my soulmate if it means I don’t have to be alone.”

  I bit my bottom lip and it all came rushing back. That feeling of loneliness that had plagued me during those years I’d been away from home and Jack, working my ass off through medical school and then at the hospital. I’d lost my sense of self during that time.

  “And in my head I was thinking, you silly girl. I’m right here. I’ve always been right here. But you had to discover that for yourself. And I knew that.”

  He squeezed my hand and I choked out a laugh that sounded more like a sob. “Yeah, well I’ve been known to be a dumbass on occasion. Just ask Vaughn.” I made sure I blinked the tears back and then found the courage to look at him. “Thanks for waiting for me, Jack. You were worth it.”

  “We’ve got a lifetime, babe. Everything before was just leading up to this moment. Including the Cal Walkers and Lauren Rhodes in our pasts.” Lauren had been an ex-girlfriend of Jack’s. She worked for the Department of Justice and our paths had crossed during a case. “But if he tries to make a move on you, I’ll have to kill him. Just so you know.”

  “I’ll make sure he gets the memo to keep his distance.”

  Jack turned onto Catherine of Aragon and headed all the way to the opposite end where the funeral home was located. There wasn’t much happening at that end of the block. There’d been a strip mall across the street, but all the businesses had gone under except for the Laundromat.

  The recession had hit Bloody Mary hard. The businesses that had survived had picked up shop and moved into the Towne Square to reach more customers. The ones that hadn’t survived had sold everything they could and closed their doors. The strip mall across the street was just a sad reminder, though I’d heard rumor that a new church was going to rent out the space for Sunday services.

  Graves Funeral Home was a three story brick Colonial that had been built by my great-grandparents more than sixty years ago. The walls of that house had seen a lot of death, including that of my great-grandmother, who’d jumped out the third story window. Though there were many, including the sheriff at the time, who thought she’d been pushed by my great-grandfather. I’d known my great-grandfather, so I wouldn’t have put it past him. He was a real peach.

  The Graves name left a hell of a legacy. The men were con-artists, thieves, and assholes. The women tended to die early. Either by their plan or God’s. I was hoping to break the tradition, but I was running low on my nine lives. Like I’d told Cal, I’d had a hell of a year.

  The front of the funeral home was flanked by two massive oak trees—the roots gnarled and crawling out of the ground like bony fingers and the branches heavy with leaves and arching low. A bricked sidewalk ran from the street to the massive front doors, but only those visiting their loved ones used the front entry. Most people came in and out through the side door under the carport.

  The EMS vans were
backed in under the portico and a Tahoe from the Sheriff’s Department blocked them in. Vaughn’s Mercedes was parked on the street and Jack pulled in behind it.

  A house fire that killed an entire family would be big news, and it was obvious word had already spread because well-meaning citizens were standing along the sidewalks, talking on their phones and relaying what was happening to their best friends or relatives as the bodies were unloaded and taken inside.

  “I haven’t seen this kind of crowd since the Christmas parade,” I said.

  “You know how much Bloody Mary likes to share in a sense of community. At least no one is selling hot dogs.”

  “Actually, I wouldn’t mind that so much. I’m starving. You got mushy in the car and forgot to drive through somewhere.”

  Jack grasped both sides of my flannel shirt and pulled me across the seat, his lips crashing down on mine. There was tongue involved and a moan or two. And by the time Jack pulled away I’d forgotten all about being hungry and remembered how excited I was for our upcoming honeymoon.

  My heart was pounding and my breathing heavy, and I sat in the seat dazed for a minute, trying to remember how to do the simple tasks in life, like unbuckling my seatbelt and opening the car door.

  “Sorry about the mushiness. Is my man card still intact?”

  “Oh, yeah,” I sighed. “Feel free to be as mushy as you’d like. I’ll tolerate it because I love you. That’s what sacrifice is.”

  We grinned at each other like fools and I opened the car door, sliding to the ground. I grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder.

  “It’s going to be a late night for both of us,” Jack said. “Call me when you’re done here and I’ll swing by and pick you up. Hopefully we’ll have a better idea of the identity of our fifth victim by end of day.”

  “10-4, buttercup. Keep me posted.”

  My hand was on the door ready to push it closed when two more vehicles parked behind Jack. One was a silver Lexus SUV. The other was a white panel van. The Lexus belonged to Jack’s mother. I had no idea who was in the panel van, but when three women got out and started hauling large garment bags and sewing cases, I had a pretty good idea.