for their violence. They have the other gangs running scared,” Jones said. “And there are rumors that they’re fronting for Al Qaeda. Of course, everything that goes bump in the night is tied to Al Qaeda these days. But I have to tell you, these guys scare the hell out of me!”
Liddell put his mouth to Jack’s ear and whispered, “Do you believe it’s gang-related?”
Jack shook his head. The only connection Nina could have had to MS-13 was through her work. Plus, they would have made a public display of her like their other victims. He knew that MS-13 traditionally took over drug operations, or enforced their own territory from other operations by killing everyone who opposed them, and then made a public spectacle of their kills. They were similar to terrorists in that way.
Jack couldn’t buy the idea that it was gang-related. The gang-bangers he’d talked to were all numb-nuts—in other words, they thought with their balls. He could make MS-13 possibly for the killings in Harrisburg, but they weren’t savvy enough to have cleansed Nina’s house of all evidence. That aspect was professional, like someone with a lot of police and court experience.
Dr. John picked up a scalpel. “Let’s finish this, and then we need to meet in the conference room. I have something to show you.”
Lilly, who had gloved up, held the head facedown on the table while Dr. John made a lateral incision along the base of the skull and lifted the scalp forward until it slipped over the top of the head and then over the face of the victim.
“No evidence of concussion, although we’ll have to examine the inside of the skull,” Dr. John said, and Jack could see the bruising and gash on the inside of the scalp. “So far it looks like the head was struck against something flat that caused this cut,” Dr. John continued, and pointed to the approximately three-inch vertical tear in the inside tissue. “You can see the hair is matted with blood, which is a good indicator that this was caused before she died.”
Dr. John held his hands up at shoulder level and mimed choking someone. “The killer grabbed her by the throat and struck her head against something flat and hard. A wall. Maybe a concrete floor. I’ll give Walker some of the hair to send off to the lab. Maybe there is trace evidence on it to show what she was struck against.”
Jack was already thinking ahead, and he looked at his watch.
“I get the message,” Dr. John said, and reached for the bone saw to finish the autopsy.
Twenty minutes later, the detectives and Dr. John retired to the conference room while Lilly packaged the victim’s remains and Walker took hair samples and scraped the fingernails of the hand on the arm that was recovered. The arm showed no defensive wounds, so she hadn’t tried to protect herself from her killer. Or wasn’t able to.
The detectives sat around the conference table and looked through photos Dr. John had taken of the Harrisburg victims. Four years ago, the victims were both males in their twenties, one Hispanic, the other white. Two years ago the murder victim was a black male. He spread the victim’s photos in order on the table, starting with the oldest cases. “The one thing all these victims have in common is that their heads were removed from their bodies. Can we all agree on that?”
No one objected. “Now for what is different.” He moved the three oldest Harrisburg photos in a row across the top, and slid the most recent underneath those. “The first three victims were alive when they were beheaded. The most recent victims were probably dead before it happened.”
“So there are at least two different killers?” Jack asked.
“You’re the detective,” Dr. John said. “All I can tell you is that the edges of the cuts on the most recent three are clean. A very sharp weapon was used.” He looked at Jones. “If it was a machete, the person wielding it is extremely proficient.”
He knelt down and bowed his head toward the floor. “The first three victims were probably in a kneeling position, and the first blow came from behind the neck. But the multiple cuts and the damage done to the surrounding tissue indicate that the head was hacked from the body. I would say they were most likely alive when the first blow came because they were in a kneeling position.”
“Execution style,” Jack said.
“Exactly,” Dr. John agreed.