Chapter VI

Grisly Discoveries

Sara had asked Dave to go through special processing with both bodies, and if possible, she wanted the autopsies marked priority. Her first priority at the moment, however, was identifying the John Doe, so while David prepped Erica Green, she fingerprinted the dead man. Judging from the jail-tats, it wasn't his first ten-card. While Mandy was running the prints through AFIS, Sara reviewed the evidence, such as it was. Sara felt certain that most of this particular case's facts would be revealed during autopsy.

The scene had been a wreck. Most of the trace Greg had marked and collected might not even relate to this case. The Playground had become a local hot spot. Security was too lax and the lawyers and players involved in the hashing out of the property, and what to do with it, simply didn't care. She knew that Greg was going over what he had collected. Since he had that well in hand, she turned to the photos she'd taken on scene. She plugged the memory card from the camera into her laptop and waited while the pictures uploaded. The scene was just as grisly as she remembered it. The night flash had made cold skin seem paler and scarlet red blood brighter against the dim concrete. If not for the fact that she'd been there and seen the two bodies stuck together, she would have considered it a normal scene by the photos. A scene that she had seen too many times.

It puzzled her, what exactly had happened? Had John Doe been raping Erica Green? Sara's instinct told her yes. There had been fresh tear tracks on the young woman's face and John had been scratched on the face and arms. It looked like rape to her. Except of course, rape rarely lead to a severed penis in an evidence bag. Sara could say with complete confidence that this was her first case involving severed male genitalia. Sara moved around restlessly, printing out pictures, logging evidence. In real life, unlike television, a thorough autopsy took hours. Since AFIS was taking its own good sweet time in matching prints, it would most likely take several hours as well; she was left with time on her hands. Patience had never been one of Sara's virtues. After checking in with Greg on the evidence, she was stymied. She knew better than to ask Catherine if she needed a hand with her case, and the guys were in one of their competitive modes, racing to prove one theory over another. As for Grissom, some things were better left alone.

"Autopsy it is."

Sara had assisted with plenty of autopsies. She'd started her Forensic career in the morgue back in San Francisco, in fact. The walk to the morgue was quiet, the CSIs and techs of the night shift were all wrapped up in their own work and cases. Usually she preferred the quiet efficiency of the lab, tonight though she was too keyed up to appreciate it. She picked up her pace. If she let her mind drift for two long without a clear-cut train of thought, she would think about Cheryl Montinegro. She really didn't want to think about the girl or her death.

Much like a crime scene, she smelled the morgue before she entered it. Antiseptic and death, it was a familiar scent that rarely bothered her after so many years. She pushed through the double doors and found that she was in luck: David and Doc Robbins were about midway into Erica Green's autopsy.

David looked up first; he smiled underneath his splatter shield.

Doctor Robbins looked up a moment after, his hands still inside the y-incision to the wrist. "Ah, Sara, you saved me a call."

She held up a hand, "If this is about the penis, it wasn't our fault."

The ME looked at her with a somewhat annoyed expression, and then he shook his head. "I don't recall ever seeing damage like that before."

Sara walked around the body, "So any ideas, Doc?"

The balding and bearded man handed her a speculum, "You broke it, you bought it. So you do the honors."

Sara rolled her eyes. She hated this part of her yearly exam as it was. Being on the other side of the oversized salad tongs was no less mortifying. She bent down and spread the victim's legs. Sara firmly reminded herself that this was not a living woman anymore. She was a victim, yes, but a dead one. Erica Green did not feel embarrassed or uncomfortable. She was a cadaver on a slab. She was evidence. She bent down and proceeded. She looked only for a moment, then straightened back up, "Doc, did you do a pelvic x-ray?"

He looked up from the woman's left lung. "There was no bullet present, no incised wounds, so no, I did not."

Sara pulled the speculum out of the woman's cold body. "We need to. There's something inside her. A knife maybe."

Eyebrows raised, Doctor Robbins only nodded and put the woman's lung back inside her. "David, get the x-ray machine."

Sofia arrived thirty minutes later, her usually sleek and tidy hair slightly mussed, and a frown cut deep into her visage. She had been the officer that had gone to inform her family that Erica would never come home again. It was one of the hardest parts about being a cop.

Sara said nothing, but did hand her a cup of Blue Hawaiian.

Since Sofia had heard Greg's possessive rant more than once, she looked at the brunette CSI. "Does Sanders know you know where he hides his stash?" Like many of Sara's non-answers, her grin made Sofia all the curiouser.

"So why did you call me down here, again?"

She and Sara turned the corner, "I found something interesting down in autopsy."

Sofia took a sip of her coffee and almost groaned at the taste. "Okay."

Sara shrugged, "We haven't removed it yet, but I thought you might want to be here when we did. I think there's something, some sort of foreign object in Erica Green's vaginal cavity."

Sofia let the hot coffee she'd just sipped slide back into the Styrofoam cup. "Excuse me?"

Sara nodded, "I know. Doc took an x ray, and he said it was very interesting. Sofia drained her cup and tossed it in the Trace Lab's trashcan as they passed. "A knife, maybe, could explain all the damage."

Sofia sucked in air between her teeth. "I'm sorry, but who would put anything, especially a knife up there? She paused to cross her legs as they walked. "It's just…" She couldn't articulate a word, so she just let her hands fall limply as they walked.

Doctor Robbins had the X-ray up on the lighted board when they arrived in the Morgue. He looked at them, "Ladies."

Sara had seen her share of x-rays, as had Sofia. They were both floored.

Sara cocked her head to the side, "What the hell is that?"

Shining bright against the black background and the off-white of bone were several bright white shapes inside the pelvis.

The ME looked from Detective to CSI, "Shall I remove it?"

Both Sara and Sofia nodded. There was a strange sense of anticipation and dread in the room. The body was still out and naked under a thin sheet. Her face was covered and her lower body was open to the air. Washed clean of dried blood, Sara and Sofia could see the many deep purple bruises on her hips and legs. Robbins centered himself at the bottom of the table and pushed the dead woman's legs open a little wider. Working with the speculum and forceps, he probed and hmmed and uhmed. Sara shifted her weight from foot to foot, waiting to find out exactly what they had found.

It was somewhat anticlimactic. Whatever it was, it slid out with almost no resistance. That puzzled Sara further. She had worked with the two bodies when they'd been, for lack of better words, stuck together.

David handed Robbins a kidney shaped pan and they both turned. "Ladies, I believe this is the murder weapon."