Murder in the Forest, Chapter Nine
In the meantime, Sheriff Ford, Hotchner, and Morgan were listening to Dr. Charles Merrill, the medical examiner.
"You saw the photos that I submitted earlier," related Merrill, "but I want you to see some aspects of these deaths in person. You'll be more aware of what I saw."
The men donned surgical gowns, masks, and gloves, and Merrill led the way to a stainless steel table with a body displayed, face-up. "Now, this is the most extreme example of what I've seen in these murders," said the examiner. You'll see that this individual's right arm was severely twisted at the shoulder and has been almost ripped off. This and similar damage and those damned tracks are what led some reporters and gullible citizens to think a Bigfoot was involved. And I think the perpetrator did this deliberately and made those tracks to encourage the belief that this isn't their work, but that of some possibly mythical animal. Note the left knee, which was almost completely disarticulated, like you'd disjoint a chicken leg. The throat was pounded with some object, and that as much as anything may have been the cause of death. I wouldn't be surprised if someone hit the victim with an object that crushed the windpipe and watched as the poor man choked to death. Most of the other wounds were post mortem."
"The skull was smashed pretty well, too," noted Hotchner. "What would have done that? Our notes say that a bloody tree branch was found there and may have been the weapon. But it's pretty big and heavy for a man to wield. "
Merrill nodded. "Yes, I think the branch was used, although perhaps hoisted by two men. But a sledgehammer may have been the actual instrument, with the branch then pounded into the wounds created by the hammer. It was a violent assault. On studying the damage, I found several more rounded blows staged to adjoin, to look more like one hit from the branch. The facial bones, the nose, and the brow ridge of the skull were badly broken. This took force. But it probably didn't require a Bigfoot to do that. Grant, you're a big man. If you went really ape with anger, especially, you could do that, or Morgan here could; maybe any of us. There are plenty of men large enough for that. Probably'd take a big man, though, so I pretty much rule out a female assailant, unless we discover a circus sideshow-strong female. Women often lose their tempers and might go wild in an assault, but they'd have to truly hate someone to do this. They usually prefer more subtle forms of murder, too, like poison. This was likely done to deceive, not in real anger. But it may have been done to please someone's lust to disfigure others to achieve and feel power. "
Other victims showed similar damage, and Merrill explained that the ripped out joints were probably the work of a large gardening tool, like a sharp pruning hook in powerful hands. "And I think that this rent in the victim's ribs was probably inflicted with a chainsaw," he concluded, gesturing to a horrible injury on the bald man, once named Mike Dithers.
They continued to examine the victims, with detailed observations from the examiner, who was clearly disgusted with what he was explaining.
"Doctor, you've been very informative and insightful," said Hotchner finally. "Thank you for your expertise. I think we can reach some useful conclusions based on what we saw here today."
"I'm glad, then," said the M.E. "If I can help to get whoever did this off the street and help give closure to the victims' families…"
XXX
At the high school, Blacklaws and Seaver picked up Tessa Cassidy and chatted with her on the way to her home. She looked admiringly at the tall deputy, to Seaver's mild pique. Tessa seemed thrilled to be the center of attention, but she could tell the officers nothing significant about her missing sibling. Not that she didn't care. She was deeply worried and echoed her parents' conviction that Courtney had met with foul play.
"She wouldn't screw around with us like this," she declared. "Something is really wrong here. Please find my sister. I love her so much...And if you think whoever got her might get me, too, what can I do? You can't protect me forever. Mom and Dad must be going nuts. Can you at least have someone stay with us or out front tonight, in a cop car?"
Blacklaws said that he'd ask the sheriff. It seemed a very reasonable request. He wondered if the family had received a ransom demand yet. Surely Reed would have called, though, if they had. The lack of contact by kidnappers suggested even darker prospects than if Courtney was being held for a monetary demand.
He caught Seaver's eye and she was clearly worried. At least a demand would confirm a kidnapping, and that would bring the FBI into the case on more than a consulting/profiling basis. Kidnapping for ransom is a Federal crime and the Bureau had major resources to assist. But until they knew more, they were basically helpless. It was not a good feeling to have.
XXX
Nor were Rossi and Jareau successful in discovering any clues at the junior college, although they noted which teachers the missing girls had in common and interviewed them and selected students for several hours.
"But," observed Rossi dejectedly," they weren't really together in any of these classes, and those professors teach a lot of students. "
Jareau closed her tablet in despair. "Let's go get a cheeseburger. That'd at least be accomplishing something useful."
Rossi smiled. "That's my girl. An agent after my own heart. We'll call Hotch after we eat."
XXX
Winston Hso was the sheriff's chief computer specialist as well as a sworn deputy. He was entering data about an unrelated case when he decided to run a routine scan to ensure there were no signs of hacking or tampering with the programs. He clattered the keyboard, glancing at the monitor to be sure that no anomalies or unexplained entries were present. He was very proud of the anti-virus, anti-malware program, which was his own work, devised during his senior year at Rice University in Houston. He was on the verge of perfecting and patenting this and hoped that licensing it would make him a wealthy man.
He was startled to see unauthorized entries and checked them, finding that they led back to a blind trail, designed to disguise a hacking effort. Someone was into their computer!
He looked up and saw Undersheriff Knowles walking down the hall and called him over.
"Boss, you gotta see this," he said. "We're being hacked, and whoever this is, is really good."
Knowles watched for a moment as they deduced which files were being invaded and then asked, "Winston, can you catch this son of a bitch? "
"I think so," said the Chinese-American genius. "I'm already backtracking and have bypassed the cut-out servers designed to obfuscate the issue. Hell, this traces to an FBI computer! But it's not in Seattle or Spokane. It's in Quantico, VA. I can get you the IP number and other data, but you'll have to get the rest from them, I think. We'd better tell the sheriff."
Knowles reflected. "He's still with Hotchner and that grouchy black guy over at the M.E.'s office. I'll ask him to step away from them and take a private call."
And he reached for his cell phone.