PART 3
For a few minutes nobody said anything as the realization sank in
"It's racial homicide" Calleigh said gravely, and Horatio thought he noticed an underlined tone that he'd never heard in Calleigh's voice before. He didn't have to bother looking over at Alexx to know how this particular piece of information was affecting her.
"Well" he said carefully "We're in Alabama – and some of these bodies do seem pretty old..."
"And some of the others are pretty new" Alexx said harshly
"I know" Horatio nodded, realizing the subject was touchy "I meant – is there a chance some of these are remains from racial violence taking place a long time ago?"
"And someone just came by and buried a few more black bodies right next to them by mistake?" Alexx's voice still sounded angry "It's some pretty big coincidence"
He noticed that Calleigh was dead silent but decided to leave it alone for now, deciding that whatever was bothering his blond ballistics expert could be dealt with later – and preferable in a somewhat different setting. Instead, he decided to try and change the subject.
"Alexx, do you think you could reconstruct some of those faces – help us get an ID on at least some of our victims?"
"It's gonna take a while – I have to take all the measurements and send them back to Miami, the computer programs here are not nearly as advanced as the ones we have back home" she shrugged
"Do it, we need to attach identities to these victims as soon as possible. Calleigh, see if you can get anything out of the evidence I just brought back – they're mostly from the 6th and 7th victims so maybe they can help us ID them"
"Ill get fingerprints off the victims who're still able to provide them and have an officer run them through the database" Alexx tone returned to the normal business tone and Horatio was glad to see her a little more relaxed as she walked away. He glanced over a Calleigh one more time before leaving – but she didn't raise her head from her work and didn't seem eager to talk in any way.
Speed jumped on the hood of the jeep and stretched. The sun had gone down hours ago and the entire area was now lit by large spotlights and torches – the sight of the numerous graves lit by fire and dime blue light was somewhat surreal and though he'd never admit it – sent chills down his spin. Beside him, Erik was already stretched across the hood, drinking water straight out of the bottle, his shirt tossed away long ago.
"So how many have we got so far?" Erik asked tiredly "I lost count"
"Well, those two officers over there are currently digging up number 12" Speed pointed to the left "And the special portable x-ray machine the flew down here from Montgomery has already found number 13 somewhere over there..."
"This place gives me the creeps" Erik pronounced what they were both thinking "Whoever's doing this has been real busy..."
"Or maybe he's been doing this for a very long time..." Speed shrugged and jumped off the hood "Anywat, we're off. The local police officers are going to take the night shift so we could get some beauty sleep"
"Thank god" Erik groaned and rolled off the hood, joining Speed by the side of the jeep "I swear, I have pain in muscles I didn't even know I have"
"And here I thought you were in good shape" Speed snickered and climbed into the driver's seat
"So did I" Erik mumbled as they drove off
Alexx looked around in disbelief when Horatio came into the morgue to check up on her. He looked around, matching her expression and stuck his hands in his pockets "It looks like you could use some help..."
"No kidding" she pulled on a fresh pair of latex gloves on her hands "We have 11 bodies here, and Erik just called and told me there are at least 2 more on the way"
He pulled on a pair of gloves himself and smiled "then how about we get to work?"
The expression on his face made her laugh and forget all about the anger she felt earlier. She knew that she was never really angry at him anyway – Horatio was the last person in to world who'd think racism is acceptable or should be tolerated in any way – and she knew it.
"I thought we should probably do this chronologically – start with what appears to be the latest victim and work our way to the oldest. We're more likely to find usable evidence on the latest victim then we are on the old ones"
He nodded and she directed him to the body already laid on a table in the center of the room. "Horatio, meet Alicia Corvin. 18 years old. We got an ID off her prints. She has a record for petty theft from a convenience store in Seattle 3 years ago."
"Seattle – she's pretty far away from home"
"According to the record Jamie found on her," Alexx said sadly as she patted what was left of the girls skull "She's been a long way from home for a very long time. She's a Runaway. Been in and out of the system for years. She's been dead for at least a week, I'll be able to give you a more accurate time of death once the tests come back"
Horatio leaned in closer to look at the young woman's wounds "Massive trauma to the left side of the skull. Looks like blunt object trauma"
Alexx picked up a pair of tweezers and lifted something from the flesh of the wound, examining it closer under the light "It looks like chips of metal in the wound so we can assume the blunt object was metal, and from the shape of the wounds I can assume it was round shaped – probably some kind of metal pipe"
She dropped the metal chip into a plastic bag and handed it over to Horatio, allowing him to examining it carefully himself "It looks like an old metal pipe too, the metal chips seem to be a little rusty"
"Look at this Horatio" Alexx directed his attention back to the body. She wiped the dirt off the girl's face revealing several bruises on the woman's face.
"What am I looking at here Alexx?"
"Well it looks like a hand shaped bruise across her cheek and mouth, it seems like someone held her down by her face while bashing her head" Alexx stepped back and took a picture of the woman's face "This was certainly done shortly prior to the killing – the bruising didn't have much time to formulate"
With Horatio's assistance Alexx continued going over the body, recording her findings on a tape recorder "No injuries to the upped chest and torso, not a lot of defensive wounds, a few scrapes on the wrists but no fractures or deep tissue damage" She scraped samples from beneath the victims fingernails and placed them in a second plastic bag.
Next, they moved over to the body lying on the other table and started examining it.
"Victim is male, approximately 25 to 30 years old" Alexx talked into the tape recorder again "based on the decomposition of the body, the victim has been dead for about 3 to 6 month. Slight discoloration of the lips which could indicate asphyxiation." She reached over and lifted the victim's eyelids, shining into them with a small flash light "however, there seem to be no blown blood vassals in the eyes..."
At this point Horatio leaned closer to the body and opened the victim's mouth "Alexx, there's a faint scent, Almonds"
"Cyanide" Alexx nodded "That would explain the discoloration of the lips and the lack of markings around the neck. I'll send some tissue over for analysis to confirm it"
"So we have blows to the head, poisoning, gun shot wounds and strangulation – this guy doesn't miss a method"