Robert Walker - Unnatural Instinct

She laughed at this. Fielding had an entertainer's delivery when he spoke of his first love, anthropological forensics.

“ He was torched two weeks after being killed?”

“ Not someone but a gang of some ones-teens who came on the body where it lay in a drain pipe, and they decided it would be fun to watch it bum. After my determination, police set out to find the culprits. They weren't exactly up on charges of murder, but that kind of depraved act can't go unpunished.”

They now rounded a comer, and there ahead of them in a shallow backwash of a pond, lying face up and staring out at them, floated a decomposing, eyeless corpse, its lifeless sockets like Jell-0 by this point. Jessica felt a surge of emotions commingle deep within; while on the one hand, she applauded what the facility did for science and forensics in particular, she also despised what was necessary in reaching the findings-a kind of willful disrespect for the human re-mains.

Instead of dwelling on the eyeless man whose clothes still clung to its now-formless flesh beneath, thinking how like a character in Night of the Living Dead the corpse appeared, she said, “Of course, the resident students aren't told the due history of how the bodies came to their respective ends, right?”

“ Right, and that means those who piece the truth together from the remains become our brightest among the class.”

“ They'll know from the green bone effect that Bass discovered,” she said. “That's right. Green bone fractures differently in a fire than drier bone. They'll know-or should know-John Doe's fractures match those of a burned body, not someone burned alive.”

“ Dry bones are more brittle, so the fracture pattern will be different.”

“ And only a microscope will tell you that.”

“ Appears you are doing a lot here… down on the farm.”

He smiled at this and said, “You bet we are.”

They walked on. Nothing in Jessica's experience could have prepared her for the sights and odors of the body farm. Commingled with the thick scent of dogwood and honeysuckle came the sickening sweet odor of decay in the wind. Animals here must have a field day, she thought. But then, the animal patterns of disturbance on and around the body were also major concerns of the anthropological forensics specialists. Jessica heard the rummaging and scurrying of any number of rodents, squirrels, and rabbit. She knew from her reading that they had foxes, wild boars, even a family of bears living on the compound in an attempt to simulate natural phenomena as much as possible.

Jessica had once visited a Civil War battleground within driving distance of Quantico, Virginia, and the place exuded the same eerie feeling as the Body Farm. But, as with the battlefield, vegetation and animal life had reclaimed the place, and here the thistle and bramble bush and rat and squirrel ruled. The incidental work of humans here, to further knowledge of death, dying, and decay in order to both dissuade murder and to catch murderers after the fact, seemed of less importance than the next leaf to be replaced. Birds hummed and chased one another here as if it were a gay, weekend park for families and children to play in. The death and the decay being studied-the concerns of man- were kept at bay by life.

They finished the quick tour of the facility, and Jessica was pleased to see they had found the gate again; a part of her mind found the place like a macabre maze from which she might never find her way.

Fielding broke her reverie now, asking, “Would you like to get some coffee? We can go over what you've brought in my office.”

“ That sounds good, yes.”

They exited the Body Farm, and he locked up behind them. “I do hope someone else has a key?” she mused. “Oh, sure, the instructor working with the group you saw. Any problems, they can reach my beeper number.” Now outside the Body Farm, Jessica began to breathe normally again.

Inside the nearby laboratory facility at the Body Farm, Jessica found that Bass and Fielding and their students were blessed with state-of-the-art equipment, hardware, and software. They had developed a cutting-edge laboratory here in the Bible belt, and they must be congratulated for it. Over coffee, she sat across from Fielding while he delved into the DeCampe case file, noting the details with rapid eye movements. Finally, he looked up at her and said, “I see why you called us. This… this is horrible if it can be believed.”

“ Believe it.”

Among the documents, findings, and suppositions made about the DeCampe case, Jessica had placed photos of Kim Desinor's wounds, photos taken by Dr. Shoate, which she had gotten copies of. “And these welts or bruises on Dr. Desinor? They're real?”

“ As real, I fear, as those on DeCampe.”

He breathed in deeply. “How long has the victim gone missing?”

'Two days, two nights now.”

“ How long since Desinor's first psychosomatic bruising?”

'Twenty-four hours later.”

“ Then perhaps she has twenty-four hours that DeCampe doesn't have, if she's running a day behind, so to speak.”

“ You think so?”

“ Something as bizarre as this? I am guessing at best. Sorry.”

She nodded, accepting this, sipping at her coffee. She felt a well of fear for Kim that filled her being.

“ And how long has Jimmy Lee Purdy's body been in his father's hands?”

“ Picked it up Sunday.”

“ Five days.”

“ He likely kept it on ice for as long as he could do so,” she said, adding, “Can you imagine a cop pulling him over and asking him what he's got in the rear?”

Fielding mused. Then he said, “For that matter, imagine pulling over in a highway oasis, and some old guy is replacing ice in the bottom of a coffin.”

“ If he kept it on ice until he reached D.C., and if the body decay on Purdy were forestalled as long as say the fourth or fifth day, and if she's been forced into contact with the decay for two days and two nights, what kind of estimate on her life span can you give me?”

“ So much depends on… on, well, on so much.”

“ What does that mean? I need some help here.”

“ It means, my dear Dr. Coran, that to determine what sort of clock you have to work with… well… given the dryness of the season in the D.C. area-you did say you suspect he is keeping her in the D.C. area, right?”

“

“ We've come to that conclusion, yes.”

“ Then, given conditions, and if she and the corpse to which she is lashed are being kept in an enclosed, confined space with a floor, that is one thing; atop soil is another, and we'd need to know the type of soil. Sorry, but this is all backward from our usual case. Our usual case involves-”

“ A dead body, I know, I know.”

“ After the fact of murder, yes.” He looked genuinely sorry at seeing her distress. For a moment, their eyes met. His eyes said he wanted to pull a miracle out of the hat for her but that he had none. “Evenings have been cool and dry as have been the days there, right? This will delay the process. If Jimmy Lee Purdy's body is not completely decomposed, as you suspect, she's got some time.”

“ How much time?” Jessica persisted.

“ Again, I don't know if she's been made wet, if she's been made to sweat, if she's in direct or indirect, prolonged or intermittent contact with the corpse-the decay, to be exact.”

“ What do you give her chances of being alive this time tomorrow?” Jessica pleaded. “Nil or nil?”

“ You're asking for an opinion I can't give.” He sat back in his chair and pushed off strands of thinning blond hair from his forehead. “We usually deal with fractures and gunshot wounds and insect activity here, not… What would you call this sort of murder? Induced decay? It's hard to contemplate how anyone could carry out such a sentence.”