Blindsighted (Grant County #1) - Karin Slaughter Page 0,7
Sara was a tall woman, an inch shy of six feet, with deep green eyes and dark red hair. He was letting his mind wander, remembering how good it felt to be with her, when the sharp tone of her voice brought him back to reality.
“Jeffrey?” Sara snapped, giving him a hard look.
He stared back at her, aware that his mind had wandered off to what seemed like a safer place.
She held his gaze a second longer, then turned toward the stall. Jeffrey took another pair of gloves out of her briefcase and slipped them on as she talked.
“Like I said,” Sara began, “she was on the toilet when I found her. We struggled to the floor, I rolled her on her back.”
Sara lifted Sibyl’s hands, checking under her fingernails. “There’s nothing here. I imagine she was taken by surprise, didn’t know what was going on until it was too late.”
“You think it was quick?”
“Not too quick. Whatever he did, it looks planned to me. The scene was very clean until I came along. She would’ve bled out on the toilet if I hadn’t had to use the rest room.” Sara looked away. “Or maybe not, if I hadn’t been late getting here.”
Jeffrey tried to comfort her. “You can’t know that.”
She shrugged this off. “There’s some bruising on her wrists where her arms hit the handicap bars. Also”—she opened Sibyl’s legs slightly—“see here on her legs?”
Jeffrey followed her directions. The skin on the inside of both knees was scratched away. “What’s that?” he asked.
“The toilet seat,” she said. “The bottom edge is pretty sharp. I imagine she squeezed her legs together as she struggled. You can see some of the skin caught on the seat.”
Jeffrey glanced at the toilet, then looked back at Sara. “Think he pushed her back on the toilet, then stabbed her?”
Sara didn’t answer him. Instead, she pointed to Sibyl’s bare torso. “The incision isn’t deep until the middle of the cross,” she explained, pressing into the abdomen, opening up the wound so that he could see. “I’d guess it was a double-edged blade. You can see the v shape on either side of the puncture.” Sara easily slipped her index finger inside the wound. The skin made a sucking noise as she did this, and Jeffrey gritted his teeth, looking away. When he turned back, Sara was giving him a questioning look.
She asked, “Are you okay?”
He nodded, afraid to open his mouth.
She moved her finger around inside the hole in Sibyl Adams’s chest. Blood seeped out from the wound. “I’d say it’s at least a four-inch blade,” she concluded, keeping her eyes on him. “Is this bothering you?”
He shook his head, even though the sound was making his stomach turn.
Sara slipped her finger out, continuing, “It was a very sharp blade. There’s no hesitation around the incision, so like I said, he knew what he was doing when he started.”
“What was he doing?”
Her tone was very matter-of-fact. “He was carving her stomach. His strokes were very assured, one down, one across, then a thrust into the upper torso. That was the death blow, I would imagine. Cause will probably be exsanguination.”
“She bled to death?”
Sara shrugged. “Best guess right now, yeah. She bled to death. It probably took about ten minutes. The convulsions were from shock.”
Jeffrey couldn’t suppress the shudder that came. He indicated the wound. “It’s a cross, right?”
Sara studied the cuts. “I’d say so. I mean, it can’t really be anything else, can it?”
“Do you think this is some kind of religious statement?”
“Who can tell with rape?” she said, stopping at the look on his face. “What?”
“She was raped?” he said, glancing at Sibyl Adams, checking for obvious signs of damage. There was no bruising on her thighs or scrapes around the pelvic area. “Did you find anything?”
Sara was quiet. Finally she said, “No. I mean, I don’t know.”
“What did you find?”
“Nothing.” She snapped off her gloves. “Just what I told you. I can finish this back at the morgue.”
“I don’t—”
“I’ll call Carlos to come get her,” she said, referring to her assistant at the morgue. “Meet me back there when you’re finished here, okay?” When he didn’t answer, she said, “I don’t know about the rape, Jeff. Really. It was just a guess.”
Jeffrey didn’t know what to say. One thing he knew about his ex-wife was she did not make guesses in the field. “Sara?” he asked. Then, “Are you all right?”
Sara gave a mirthless laugh. “Am I all right?” she repeated. “Jesus, Jeffrey,