Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,45
she’d rather you go through her frilly undie drawer than have the kid do it. And something tells me, he’d like that way too much.”
“I thought we were going to visit more of the homeless shelters to ask about Art tonight?” Her voice drifted a little. Probably walking back inside with Stanley.
“We’ll do that after the trip to Paula’s place. It’s supposed to rain and get cooler again tonight, so the shelters will be full up. Might get us someone who knew Art and willing to talk to us if we go late again.”
“We’ll take Stanley with us, too? I don’t think Nana wants to look after him and Paula.”
He smiled. She was growing attached to the little guy. “Yes. He might recognize someone, or they might recognize him and be more willing to talk to us.”
“See you when you get here.”
“In about an hour or so,” he said, then disconnected. Gathering up his laptop and files, he headed for his desk and backpack. He wanted to go over the information again tonight, once he was settled in at Brianna’s place. After he’d left her at the hospital, he’d swung by his own place, showered, changed and packed a duffel. Until this was over, he was staying close to her. Something told him that leaving her alone would be dangerous.
“This is a weird one, Jeffers,” Medical Examiner, Dr. Wilmer Sarghetti greeted Aaron as he entered the autopsy room. Considering the man had been in the coroner’s office for a quarter of a century, that was saying something. “When Ramos told me how little lividity there was in the body and how disinfectant had been used to scrub it clean, I moved your case to the top of my to do list. Mostly out of curiosity. And what I found confirmed what Ramos said. Very little blood left in this body. In fact, so little, we had to extract what blood was left from the liver and bone marrow to do the toxicology screening along with hair and tissue samples.”
“Other than little blood and a clean corpse of a homeless man, what else is weird about this one, Doc?”
Sarghetti stared his direction at the abbreviated title but continued his explanation. “Unlike other deaths by exsanguination, which is usually done by cutting an artery or vein, like in suicides or murder by knife cuts, there was no severing of any vessel. This murder was very methodical, very neat and very precise. And I imagine done over a period of days.”
“You mean he was slowly drained of blood over days?” Aaron stared incredulously at the older man. “How? Why?”
“The how is the easier answer,” Dr. Sarghetti said, moving to the naked body lying on the cold metal table of his autopsy room. He lifted Art’s left arm and pointed to the inner elbow area. “See this puncture wound?”
Aaron leaned in close to see the almost flat oval-shaped spot in the arm then quickly moved back. “Yeah. Looks like what happens to my arm when I’ve had blood taken at the doctor’s office.”
“Right. Due to its size the brachial vein is usually the easiest for med techs and nurses to access for blood or to start IV’s. It is also used for individuals to donate blood at blood banks, since a large bore needle is needed to let the thick blood pass through with little damage to the blood cells themselves.”
“So, you’re telling me, the killer drained his blood out to collect it like they do at the blood donor places?”
Sarghetti peered over the top rim of his glasses at him. “No, what I’m telling you is, your killer slowly drained the man’s blood from him and that led to system wide organ failure and ultimately the death of your victim. Did he collect it? I don’t know.” The doctor walked back to his desk. “Why your murderer chose this method to kill your victim is for you to figure out. I don’t deal in suppositions or theories, just the facts. I’ve sent my report to your email.”
“Thanks, doc,” Aaron said. “Anything else I should know? Anything about the victim besides the manor of his death?”
“I’d say his age was late sixties or early seventies, although life on the streets ages people quickly. You saw his tattoo?”
Aaron nodded. The emblem of the Army Green Beret—crossed arrows and a knife in the center, with the ribbon and words De Oppresso Liber—covered Art’s left chest area. “I knew he’d served in the military, but not which