Blindsighted (Grant County #1) - Karin Slaughter Page 0,36
measuring about six inches. I’d say this was a boning knife, probably common to any kitchen. You can see a slight cut here.” She traced her finger on the screen, along the middle of Sibyl’s neck. “It didn’t draw blood, but enough pressure was used to score the skin.” She looked up, catching Jeffrey’s eye. “I would imagine the knife was used to keep her from calling out while he raped her.”
She continued. “There is a small bite mark on her left shoulder.” The picture of this came up. “Bite marks are common with rape. This one shows the impression of the upper teeth only. I found nothing distinctive in the pattern, but I’ve sent the…” Sara paused, probably remembering Lena was in the room. “The impression was sent to the FBI lab for cross matching. If a known offender on file matches the impression, then we could assume that he’s the perpetrator in this crime. However,” she warned, “as we all know, the FBI won’t consider this a high-priority case, so I don’t think we can hang out hats on this piece of evidence. A more likely scenario would be to use the impression as validation after the fact. That is to say, find a solid suspect and nail him with the dental impression.”
Next, the screen showed a photograph of the inner sides of Sibyl’s legs. “You can see scrapes here at the knee where she gripped her legs around the toilet bowl during the assault.” Another picture came, this one of Sibyl’s bottom. “There are irregular bruises and scrapes on the buttocks, again from friction against the toilet seat.
“Her wrists,” Sara said, putting in another photo, “show bruising from the handicap bars on the stall. Two fingernails were broken in the process of gripping the bars, probably to lift herself up and away from her assailant.”
Sara slid in the next photograph. “This is a close-up of the incisions to her abdomen,” she narrated. “The first cut was made from just below the collarbone all the way to the pelvic bone. The second cut was made from right to left.” She paused. “I would guess from the irregular depth of the second cut that this was a backhanded movement by a left-handed assailant. The cut is deeper as it moves to her right side.”
The next Polaroid was a close-up of Sibyl’s chest. Sara was quiet for a few beats, probably thinking the same thing Jeffrey was thinking. Up close, he could see where the puncture wound had been stretched. Not for the first time, he felt his stomach roll at the thought of what was done to this poor woman. He hoped to God she had not been conscious of what was happening to her.
Sara said, “This is the final cut. It’s a puncture wound through the sternum. It goes straight through to her spine. I would guess this was the source of most of the blood.” Sara turned to Brad. “Lights?”
She walked toward her briefcase, saying, “The symbol on her chest seems to be a cross. The assailant used a condom during the rape, which as we know is pretty common with the advent of DNA testing. Black lighting revealed no sperm or fluids. Blood on the scene appears to be only from the victim.” She took a sheet of paper out of her briefcase. “Our friends at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation were nice enough to pull some strings last night. They worked up the blood analysis for me.” She put on her copper-rimmed glasses and began reading, “High concentrations of hyoscyamine, atrosin and belladonnine as well as traces of scopolamine were found in her central blood and urine.” She looked up. “This would suggest that Sibyl Adams ingested a lethal dose of belladonna, which belongs in the deadly nightshade plant family.”
Jeffrey glanced at Lena. She remained quiet, her eyes on Sara.
“An overdose of belladonna can mimic a complete shutdown of the parasympathetic nervous system. Sibyl Adams was blind, but her pupils were dilated from the drug. The bronchioles in her lungs were swollen. Her core body temperature was still high, which is what made me wonder about her blood in the first place.” She turned to Jeffrey, answering the question he had asked this morning. “During the post, her skin was still warm to the touch. There were no environmental factors that would cause this. I knew it had to be something in the blood.”
She continued. “Belladonna can be broken down for medical applications, but it’s