Hidden - Laura Griffin Page 0,12
interval is difficult, imprecise, and often impossible, unless you’ve got a witness. Based on the water temperature and the condition of the body, I’d say she died between late Friday night and mid–Saturday morning.”
Kendra blew out a sigh.
“Sorry. That’s the best I can do.”
Jacob pulled the file closer and examined the diagram, trying to decipher the notes scrawled in the margins. “What about any distinguishing marks on her body? Scars or birthmarks—anything that might help us with her ID?”
Nielsen leaned back in his chair. “No scars, breast implants, joint replacements—nothing like that. Her orthodontics were interesting.”
“How?” Kendra asked.
“Perfectly straight teeth, evidence of bleaching treatments, a couple of porcelain crowns. She’d had good dental work, so if you track down those dental records, it shouldn’t be hard to get a positive ID.”
Jacob tamped down his frustration. He didn’t have dental records. Without a missing-person report or a hit on fingerprints, they were no closer to getting an ID than they’d been at the crime scene fifteen hours ago. And time was ticking away.
“There is one thing.” Nielsen turned to his computer again and scrolled through more photographs, and Jacob’s stomach clenched as the victim’s body went by in a blur. Nielsen paused on a photo of a bare ankle. The victim’s shoes and socks had been removed.
“Some residual pigmentation,” Nielsen said.
Jacob leaned forward.
“A ghost image.” The doctor tapped the screen with his pencil. “See? She had a tattoo here at one point but looks like it was removed.”
“Can you tell what it was?” Jacob asked.
“Not anymore.”
Kendra leaned closer. “How does that work? I’ve been meaning to check into it. How exactly do they get rid of the ink?”
“The most effective way is using Q-switched lasers,” he told her. “Basically, different lasers are effective at removing different ranges on the color spectrum. Black is easiest to remove, but yellows and greens are harder. Takes numerous sessions, which can get expensive. It may never go away completely.”
“So, she had a tattoo, but no telling what it was at this point.” Kendra looked at Jacob. “Our fabulous luck continues.”
“Back to the murder weapon,” Jacob said. “What else do you know about it?”
“It was a deep wound,” Nielsen said. “The blade penetrated all the way to the hilt—you can see the mark.”
Kendra winced.
“Most interesting thing, though, is the location. Typically, we see knife wounds to the chest. Second most common is head, then neck. This stab wound”—he nodded at the diagram—“directly to the heart from behind like that? That’s unusual. Haven’t seen that since Afghanistan.”
Kendra pulled the file closer and stared down at the diagram. “You said she bit her lip during the attack, when he clamped his hand over her mouth. Any chance she bit him, too?”
“I swabbed her teeth for DNA, just in case. But again, with the body being in water for several hours—”
“A long shot.” Kendra heaved a sigh. “Got it.”
Nielsen checked his watch. “I need to get back.”
“Thanks for making the time,” Kendra said as they stood up.
“No problem.”
Jacob shook hands with the doctor. “Where were you in Afghanistan?”
“Asadabad.”
“Heard it was rough over there.”
“It was.”
“Doctor?”
They turned to see the woman in green scrubs standing in the doorway. “Your nine o’clock is ready.”
“Detectives.” Nielsen nodded at them. “I’ll send over that report Tuesday morning.”
They parted ways in the hall, and Kendra watched him rush to his next appointment.
“I can’t even imagine that,” she said.
“What?”
“Cutting people open all day long.” She shuddered. “I go to one of those things, I’m queasy for a week.”
Jacob didn’t comment as they made their way back through the maze of hallways.
“What happened with the cell phone you found last night?” Kendra asked.
“I took it to Luis. It’s dead as a doornail, but he said he might be able to get it working.”
Luis handled all the department’s hardware evidence—laptops, tablets, cell phones. He was a wizard with anything electronic, but even he might not be able to get anything useful off a waterlogged cell phone.
“Bizarre case,” Kendra said.
“In what way?”
“Every way.”
“Yeah, but what jumps out most?” Jacob wanted her opinion. She sometimes noticed things he didn’t, especially with female victims.
“I don’t know.” She paused beside the door where they’d first spotted Nielsen. It was a break room, and Kendra made a beeline for the vending machine, digging some cash from the wallet she kept in her back pocket. They’d worked together three years, and Jacob had never seen her carry a purse.
“We’ve got nothing whatsoever on ID,” she said, feeding a bill into the machine. “No license,