"Agent Reid. I"m Dr Lansing."
Reid followed the older gentleman into the examination room. He paused for a moment when he saw the body. The boy was short and thin. The bruises scattered all over his face and chest stood out against his pale skin.
"Sad when it happens to a child so young."
Reid nodded. He pulled out a notebook, joting down thoughts as the doctor walked him through the autopsy.
"So the cause of death was respiratory arrest?"
"Michael was a patient here at the hospital. Asthma."
"He's grabbed after school, attacked. Has an attack."
"The bruises on his arms suggest he was being held down."
"Couldn't get to his inhaler and stop the attack."
"It would seem."
"Were there any signs of drugs?"
"The toxic report isn't completed."
"So it's possible the asthma attack was drug induced."
"Perhaps."
"And the time of death?"
"Hard to determine. The rigor was gone so it has to have been a day or two before discovery but I can't say if it was longer."
"So it's equally possible that he was being held for several days."
"It's possible. That dump has been out of use for months. And the weather has been fairly balmy. Poor kid could have been out there for a couple of days before anyone found him. Could have been dead the whole time."
Reid swallowed. Normally he had to struggle to look at people he didn't know. It was a nervous thing built up over years of being stared at. He would catch himself avoiding looking at someone and have to remind himself to look up. But this time he couldn't keep his eyes away. His gaze kept going to the boy on the table. The bruises, the pale skin, the bony frame of a boy that would been labeled a 'late bloomer' if he'd lived long enough. Reid had the uncomfortable feeling that the child in his dreams would have face now.