Walk the Wire (Amos Decker #6) - David Baldacci Page 0,30

examine the stomach’s contents because Decker could see no other incision. Whoever had made this cut had saved him the trouble. He used an overhead light to peer into the chest cavity once more and opened the bag containing the intestines. They lay coiled inside like a snake sleeping. He saw where sections of them had also been sliced open in multiple locations. He hit these spots as best he could with the light. The slits were large enough to get a hand into them. Decker knew that for sure, because he did so himself. The cuts were jagged and seemed hurried, as though the killer had either been rushed while doing it, or—

Had he gotten frustrated?

Decker took pictures of everything with his smartphone. He bagged the organs, closed the cavity, redid the sutures, covered the body once more, and slid it back into the drawer. Then he disposed of the gloves, apron, and mask in a metal container marked MEDICAL WASTE. He put the used goggles on a metal table. He then washed up in the sink. He let the warm water and soap flood his face and then stared at himself in the mirror attached to the wall above the sink.

I can’t fucking believe I just did that.

He closed his eyes. He felt like he might be sick, but he managed to keep what was in his stomach right where it was.

Too bad Irene Cramer hadn’t been able to do the same.

He left without speaking to Liz Southern. He had nothing to say to the woman and he wanted to get outside. His legs felt wobbly and he was again feeling nauseous.

The heat hit him as he opened the exterior door and, surprisingly, his sick feeling began to dissipate. His body was now probably focused on dealing with the hot environment.

He slowly and gingerly walked back to the hotel.

Decker went up to his room, pulled out his phone, and looked at the pictures he’d taken. They were far sharper with a higher res than the grainy ones provided by Walt Southern.

Decker might have just made a significant stride in the investigation, but the discovery had also led to a great many more questions.

The stomach and intestines shared an attribute that none of the other organs in the body did. If you swallowed something the object would eventually travel to those two destinations. Irene Cramer had been carrying something in her belly or intestines.

And whoever had killed her had taken it from the woman.

“OH MY GOD. You did what?”

Jamison was sitting in the driver’s seat of their rental SUV staring at Decker like he had just told her that he’d been the one who’d murdered Irene Cramer.

“Didn’t you hear me the first time?” he said, looking slightly embarrassed. “The killer was obviously attempting to get something back that Cramer had ingested.”

“Look, despite what you found, that theory seems a little farfetched.”

“Drug mules do that all the time. They either stuff plastic bags of drugs up their anuses, or else they swallow them.”

“And very often the bags burst and the person dies when all those drugs enter their body.” She glanced sharply at him. “Is that what you think? That she was a drug runner?”

“That would be the easy answer, but I’m not sure it would be the right one,” he replied. “And there’s something else.”

“What?”

“Why didn’t Walt Southern highlight this fact for us? It was literally buried in his report. And there were no pictures of the cuts to those organs. And when I asked him if there was anything out of the ordinary, he replied in the negative.”

“You think he didn’t believe it was important?”

“Any pathologist worth his or her salt knows about contraband being carried in the body.”

“I guess that is odd. So what do you think?”

“Did he intentionally not highlight it, or take pictures, thinking we would just take his word and not look too closely at the pathology report?”

“But why would he do that? Wait, do you think he killed her? That would explain the way she was cut up. He would have just performed two autopsies on her.”

“Southern cutting her up like that would be really the only way we would suspect someone like him. So why would he do it that way, unless he wants to be caught?”

“No, I don’t see that happening, either,” commented Jamison.

“So let’s go back to the question of what she might have been carrying inside her.”

“I guess we could hearken back to the days of the Cold War.