The Same Place (The Lamb and the Lion #2) - Gregory Ashe Page 0,91

the coyote have done with the other limbs?”

“It’s hard to say. I’m going to send a couple of conservation officers to see if we can collect coyotes in the area; if they’ve been eating human flesh, it’s the next step. Anecdotally, coyotes can break down and eat bone, so it’s entirely possible the other limbs have already been destroyed, but a necropsy might reveal something in the stomach contents.”

“Well,” Elvira said, gesturing him closer, “take a look at this. How much of a look did you get at the scene?”

“I didn’t see much. I didn’t want to disturb it any further.”

“This is the proximate cause of death: amputation of the arm. It’s an antemortem wound severing the brachial artery. She would have been unconscious within fifteen seconds, dead in under two minutes.”

“Antemortem?” Tean said, bending closer to look. Much of the soft tissue had been torn away by scavenging, exposing bone. He pointed to a portable magnifying glass and microscope combination, and Elvira nodded. He looked first through the magnifying glass, examining the bone and the marks on it.

“Definitely,” Elvira said. “It looks like an animal bite to me, but I was also thinking about those big ugly traps that Sievers has on his land.”

“No,” Tean said, switching to the microscope, “it’s definitely an animal. Is it just the soft tissue damage that’s antemortem, or is the fracture antemortem too?”

“That is a very good question. It’s incredibly difficult to tell with bone, so we actually make the decision based on other data. Why did you think to ask that?”

“It seems like the most important question,” Tean said, lifting his head from the microscope to consider the remains. “You told me that all four of the limbs were amputated postmortem. But the amputation site on the arm is antemortem. And I can tell from how you’ve positioned it that a piece is missing. A few inches.”

“Based on average ratios and her height,” Elvira said, her dark eyes sharp as she considered him, “we believe approximately three inches of her arm are missing. That portion was not recovered.”

“So an animal attacks her. It amputates the arm above the elbow. She dies from exsanguination. Then someone comes along and uses a tool to amputate the remaining limbs and to amputate what remains of the damaged arm.”

“Why would someone do that, Tean?”

“To hide the nature of the injury that killed her.”

“But it was an animal.”

“That doesn’t exempt the owner from liability or criminal charges. More importantly, there are certainly cases where people have used animals to kill people. In this case, it seems like this was clearly a homicide, and one that was planned.” Then Tean’s face heated. “Sorry. That’s your job. I just got a little carried away.”

“No, it’s . . . refreshing. Even if we leave aside intent and premeditation, I think your basic idea is the right one: someone amputated the limbs to hide the nature of the attack. They then disposed of the remains in a place where they hoped they would be destroyed. They might have done this out of a misguided attempt at self-preservation as they tried to cover up a terrible accident, or they might have done what you suggested: planned and executed a homicide.”

“Or something in between,” Tean said, and he felt a guilty flush at the treacherous thought of Hannah. “In an argument, a heated exchange, maybe some pushing, an animal might have misunderstood the seriousness of things and become defensive.”

Elvira nodded slowly. “Is there any chance of identifying the type of animal that caused the fatal injury?”

Tean shook his head. “Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. I might be able to narrow it down if more of the soft tissue were available and if a complete bite mark were present, but even then it would be a bit of a guessing game. Many mammals share a relatively similar arrangement of teeth: incisors, canines, premolars, molars. The shape of the mouth and how the teeth are used can tell us something, but as it is, with only some soft tissue and mostly bone, the best I can do is tell you that this animal has some kind of dental defect.”

“It has a broken tooth?”

“Possibly.” Tean pulled the microscope into place and scanned the bone as he spoke. “Or a chipped tooth. Something like that. Most of the teeth marks on the bone are punctures, pits, and furrows. What you’d expect, in other words, from an animal that bit down hard a few times and shook its