Chapter 42:

Danny had just rushed out of the room minutes before, and Jack was still a little ammed up by the confrontation with the younger agent. He had seldomly experienced Danny that angry, Actually he couldn't recall a single time. But his thoughts were interrupted as Vivian came into his office.

„Jack – NYPD found a body in Hudson River. They believe it's Beth. They asked us to get to the city morgue for identification."

He looked at her thoughtfully for a few moments before he nodded. He got up from his chair and grabbed his coat – ready to head down and get to the coroner's office for identification.

"Alright – I'm gonna take Sam with me."

They drove down to the morgue in his car without talking to each other. They didn't know yet if the coroner's office really had found Elizabeth's body - and if they had, talking wouldn't change that.

They headed down to the office of the female coroner and were informed that she would be there, joining them in a moment. Sam risked a short look at Jack's face while they were waiting, but she still wouldn't address him. It was a tensed up situation and she didn't want to disturb him right now.

Samantha knew what he was thinking – apart from the sensation of grieve for the young woman who had been killed simply for believing in justice and doing the right thing. But he knew that the very same thing, the very same situation could have happened as the Chileans had Danny in their wrath. They could've killed him and then Jack wouldn't have been called to a hospital that day.

The coroner approached them right then, greeting them and asking them to follow her. She led them to a room with a wide glass window, which was covered by a white curtain right at the moment. In that room was the body of Elizabeth Tejar – a woman who had gone missing more than eight weeks ago.

"Good day, I'm Dr. Shane – you came for the young, South-American woman who was found this morning?"

"Yes, what can you tell us about her?"

„The body must have been in the water for several days, but for this, it's still in a pretty good shape. The freezing water kept it that way. Anyways that doesn't mean her body is in a good shape. You want to get inside?"

They nodded silently and the female coroner opened the door to the examination room. There was a metal table standing in the middle of it and Elizabeth's body covered by a white linen. The coroner took a few steps over to the woman's body and hesitated before she folded the linen back to look at them.

„I can't even imagine what this woman had been forced to go through before she was finally allowed to die."

The words she used, left a sickening feeling behind - talking of death as being given to someone as a favor. And it made them not want to see that body they had to identify. They both had seen what the persons responsible for Elizabeth's death, were capable of. In pictures and in reality. Probably even imagination was far more pleasant than the actual reality.

The doctor didn't leave any more room for imagination or any more time to think about what Elizabeth had gone through, when reality was revealed on them in the injuries that were visible on her dead body as the coroner finally folded the cloth back.

"Is it her?"

"Yes it is."

Elizabeth's features were barely recognizable – her face covered in cuts and bruises and wearing an expression of terror and agony. Seeing what had been done to her – only in her face – there was no wonder about that facial expression.

The coroner put the cloth aside some more, revealing the upper part of Elizabeth's body, down to her waist. The injuries were widespread and enormously grave. There were deep blue and purple spots of bruises, deep and partly effected cuts on her entire upper body and her ribs had obviously been broken – her ribcage didn't look right.

Jack took a step closer to the dead body, examining the injuries and then swallowed hard. He stepped back again facing the coroner, his face showing no signs of emotion. His voice however sounded raspy as he addressed the young doctor.

"How long has this been done to her – what time frame?"

"It took some time - some of the injuries are healed, some even build scars already... How long has she been missing?"

"Eight weeks."

"Then it took the entire time frame – taking the date of death into consideration, which was about three days ago. She had to suffer from this hell for seven and a half weeks before she finally died from it."

„What..."

He needed some more seconds to find his voice again, having the one word of his question choked out. It had been too many sickening details they had provided with about Elizabeth's suffering. He needed to find his composure before he could go on.

„What did she die from?"

„Her lungs were severely damaged by what has been done to her. One of her lung wings is filled with blood. She suffocated, choked to death from her own blood. But I'm afraid I have to tell you, she wasn't dead when she had been dumped in the river. The blood in her lungs is mixed with water and it's definitely from the river. They dumped a dying woman in the goddamn river..."

This was too cruel to be true – it was simply awful and unimaginably gruesome. Beth had been a dedicated, rightful and very young woman, she had done the right thing, sacrificed the last two years of her life for a very unselfish deed and had simply been trying to help a lot of grieving families to get some justice. She had been killed for that – in the most horrible and slowest way imaginable.

Jack remembered her words when he had first encountered her, when she still had believed he was trying to trick her and that he had been sent by the very same people who had done this to her. She had been willing to shoot him and the even more important fact was – she had been willing to kill herself. She had known that to die by her own hands would be much easier and more pain free than falling into the Chilean's hands.

She hadn't been able to protect herself from that, did not get a chance to end her life in the way and at the time she had wanted it to. She had constantly been aware of the danger for her – otherwise she wouldn't have thought about such drastic measures – and still she had fought on.

But her fight was over now.