Robert Walker - Unnatural Instinct

“ A time, Doctor, a best guesstimate.”

“ Depends on if the old man wants to hasten it or not. If he cut her, for instance, at the areas of contact, it would hasten her gangrene, decay, and death. But if he wants it torturously slow, then he just lets the little microbes of decay do their own work. That would take more time, most certainly. If he's chosen the latter, then I give her maybe twenty-four hours more before the gangrene is likely to be irreversible. She may be helped to a clean bed and her braises helped by skin grafts, but if infected, gangrene works fast. It will kill her.”

“ We get the sense that this guy wants her to suffer over as long a period as he can make her suffer. It's about revenge.”

“ In that case… Yeah, I'd say then you have twenty-four, forty-eight hours tops.”

“ You can't be any more specific than that?”

'Too many variables. Is she getting water? Is she getting any nutrients? Has he tied her back-to-back, face-to-face, face-to-back? Has he placed her in the sun? The corpse's weight used against her? The level of putrefaction to begin with, yet another unknown. We're working with too many unknowns here.”

“ Then our time clock is forty-eight hours max.”

“ I believe so.”

Fielding blinked as he spoke and as he thought, with a wisp of light strands over a pale face. She had to admire the man. He had made his life's work the study of human decaying flesh in all its permutations and in every circumstance. He had been instrumental in creating the FBI's infamous Body Farm. And there was not a working M.E. in the country who had not benefited, directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly, from the work of men like Bass and Fielding.

A body left for days in the sun, in the shade, in water, in sandy soil, in humus, inside the trunk of a car-they all showed different rates of decay. Fielding had been among the men who had catalogued these fine differences, and in effect had brought many fugitives to justice as a result However, the corpses used in the experiments-primarily prison inmates who had donated their bodies to the advancement of science while in no way knowing just how science would use them-had that fundamental difference from DeCampe. DeCampe was presumably lashed to Jimmy Lee Purdy's rotting corpse, but her flesh was alive, healthy, a vital heart pumping blood to every capillary. Her body would fight off the decay to some degree before eventually losing the battle. So Jessica had to know how much time she had left. Only a man of Fielding's experience might be able to give ho- a time line. The word deadline, she had avoided; it had taken on a whole new meaning in this case since she had met and spoken with Father Pinwaring.

Fielding now wanted to show her some insect data, larvae that hatched from one of his bodies out at the Body Farm, determining some special facts about the type of mite he was currently fascinated with. He mumbled something about larval sacs having a kind of beauty all their own.

“ Yeah, I expect they do, Dr. Fielding.”

“ Are you staying over long enough to have dinner?” he then asked. “I would love to take you to dinner.”

She realized now how hard he had been staring at her, and why. She did not interest him as much as his insect findings, but she did interest him. “No, I'll be going directly back. Time being so limited, you see.”

“ Of course. Maybe you'd like to return for another visit? Really get familiar with what we do here.”

“ Perhaps in the future.”

“ It does indeed sound like a most impossible case, an absolute horror. I certainly do not envy you your job, Dr. Coran.”

The man works nine to five studying decay in corpses, and he's pitying me, she glumly thought.

She stood to leave, and he insisted on walking her back to the waiting helicopter. “You know, all the variables that make it impossible for me to be precise on how long Maureen Decampe has to live could also be working in her favor, you realize?”

“ The nights of dry lightning, no rain, drought conditions, yes, they have worked in her favor, I'm sure.” Jessica knew that decay fed more rapidly in dampness.

“ But then a bam like you describe is in itself a micro- ecology,” countered Dr. Fielding, ushering her along the corridor and out into the light, “and it will be dimly lit, no sunshine, and little wind blowing through, if he's using it as a prison, a place to keep someone locked inside, and to keep others out.” Jessica nodded several times. “Then we must find her tonight.”

“ But you understand, this is all assuming she has had no respite from contact with the decaying corpse.”

“ What do you mean?”

“ If her captor is wishing to prolong her agony, he will feed her, give her water, drag it out.” Fielding gritted his teeth and shook his head as if to shake out an image. “My God, all the years I've worked with decaying corpses, and it would never have occurred to me that someone could concoct so horrid a murder as you are suggesting.”

“ Vengeance is a strong motivator, Syd, and often it acts as the mother of invention.”

Dr. Fielding's eyes opened beyond the sad, fleshy slits they had become with early middle age, working in the field he did. “You think the killer inventive? Imaginative?” He actually smiled like a teacher trying to embarrass her. Was it a trick question?

“ Not really; he's just very familiar with images he's taken from the Bible.”

“ I should like to learn more about this citizen among us.”

“ I would love to tell you more, but I have to get back to the task force.”

“ Sorry I couldn't have been of more help to you,” he said, accepting her hand in his, shaking it, and warmly smiling. “You remind me of a tenacious colleague of mine.”

“ Oh, and who would that be?”

“ Dr. Bass, of course, another jack bull.”

“ Me… a terrier? Funny, I do seem to recall someone characterizing me as a tenacious bitch on more than one occasion.”

“ Oh, no, I only meant it in the best possible light, that you are tenacious-a good quality to have for a medical examiner and seeker of truth.”

“ Why, thank you. Doctor. I've been called just about everything, but that is the nicest thing I've heard in a long time.”

“ You have a high PQ.”

“ PQ?”

“ Persistence quotient”

She smiled and again thanked him. They parted with promises to see one another again, Jessica telling him that when she could find the time, she would come for a longer visit to the facility.

The helicopter flight back gave Jessica the freedom to think; she weighed up everything they knew at this point including what Fielding had said about the variables quite possibly favoring that DeCampe remained alive still.

Time passed, and a number of possible leads were looked into without result. Everyone in and around the Washington, D.C., area having anything to do with crime fighting by now had learned what the task force was interested in. In fact, RE/MAX had become a half-joking battle cry. Then a phone call came in from the D.C. Police Department's Missing Persons Unit. A Detective Charles Price grumbled out that he had gotten wind they were interested in any Missing Persons case involving a realtor.

“ What have you got for us?”

“ Got your APB, so when a report came in sounding like the ball park…” After listening to what Price had to say, she replied, “And you say this is a RE/MAX local office? Give me the address where she works.” Jessica jotted the information down.