Chris Carter - Gallery of the Dead

‘OK, but how?’ Agent Williams this time. His attention had gone back to the injury on Timothy Davis’s leg. ‘How could the killer have sucked all the blood out of the victim’s body through a small incision in his leg?’

‘That’s what got me as well,’ the doctor admitted. ‘In all my years as a pathologist, I’ve never seen anything quite like this. If the victim had been decapitated and left upside down, his body still wouldn’t be this drained of blood.’

‘So what’s the answer?’ Agent Fisher queried. ‘How did the killer manage to do this through a hole in his leg?’

‘Very cleverly, and that’s the reason I’ve taken so long with this autopsy. I’ve been racking my brain to understand how this could be possible. I had to dig through his leg wound and inside his body for some sort of clue... something to point me in the right direction.’

‘And did you find anything?’

‘I did.’ Dr. Morgan readjusted his glasses on his nose and gestured for everyone to follow him to the other side of the autopsy theater, where a human-body diagram hung from the wall. ‘But I need you to understand that this isn’t a certainty, by any means. What this is, is an educated guess taking into account the wound we have here and what I found during the post-mortem examination. So please stay with me here a moment, OK?’

Everyone’s eyes settled on the diagram. It depicted the main veins and arteries in the human body.

‘We’ll have to wait for toxicology to identify the agent,’ Dr. Morgan began. ‘But for the killer to be able to work without the victim putting up a fight, he would’ve had to have sedated him. Toxicology will tell us what was used.’

Everyone nodded.

‘Now for what I’ve found,’ the doctor continued. ‘The puncture in his leg was very carefully and expertly made to tap directly into the victim’s left external iliac vein.’ He indicated the vein on the diagram. ‘Now here comes the very clever and equally difficult part, but if I’ve got this right the killer inserted something like a four-and-a-half catheter through the leg puncture and into the victim’s external iliac vein. That is essentially a large connecting vein that connects the femoral veins to the common iliac veins. At the level of the fifth lumbar vertebra the left and right common iliac veins come together and become the abdominal vena cava. As the vein approaches the heart it becomes the inferior vena cava.’

On the diagram that hung from the wall, it all looked like one long vein, traveling from halfway down the leg all the way up to the heart.

‘To put it simply,’ Dr. Morgan clarified, ‘this is basically a massive vein that travels to and from the heart. It’s similar to a major city road that crosses several neighborhoods. Though the road remains the same, as it crosses from neighborhood to neighborhood, it acquires different names, that’s all.’ Dr. Morgan’s hands moved away from the diagram. ‘Are you all familiar with the system of inferior vena cava?’

Hunter nodded once; everyone else shook their heads.

Dr. Morgan looked back at him curiously.

‘I read a lot, Doc.’

‘OK,’ the doctor replied, before addressing the rest of the group. ‘The inferior vena cava brings de-oxygenated blood from the lower body regions — legs, back, abdomen and pelvis — to the right atrium of the heart, and that’s why the killer would’ve had to use a long catheter. He very slowly and carefully guided the catheter through the victim’s vein — or veins, as it changes name like I explained — and into the victim’s heart.’

As the doctor explained his theory, Garcia and Agent Fisher began to slowly cringe.

‘At first,’ Dr. Morgan carried on, ‘I thought that the killer would’ve needed some sort of pump to pump the blood out of the victim’s body.’

‘Didn’t he?’ Agent Fisher asked.

‘Well yes, and that’s the real clever thing about all this.’

‘He used the most natural pump of them all,’ Hunter said. ‘He used the victim’s own heart.’

‘What?’

Dr. Morgan nodded, looking impressed.

‘Without a doubt a very clever, think-out-of-the-box idea,’ he said. ‘As I’ve explained, as the victim’s volume of blood decreased, the heart would’ve begun pumping faster, sending more and more blood into the catheter.’

‘But as soon as the blood volume dropped to under sixty per cent,’ Garcia said, ‘as you’ve also explained, game over. The heart would stop pumping. So how did he get the rest of the blood out of the body?’

‘Great question, and the only way I can think of is by doing it manually.’ He directed the group back to the autopsy table and used gestures to explain. ‘First aid. As if he was trying to resuscitate the body. Both hands on the chest, over the heart, and then you pump. One, two, three, four... To get the blood from the victim’s arms, I guess that the killer would’ve had to lift them up one by one and just squeeze the blood out of them and back into the heart. A few more pumps and voilà — one completely dried-of-blood victim.’

‘That’s absolutely insane,’ Agent Fisher said, shaking her head.

‘Perhaps,’ the doctor agreed. ‘But nevertheless effective and seriously clever.’

‘The markings to his back,’ Agent Fisher asked Hunter as soon as they stepped outside the main building. ‘You deciphered them, didn’t you? You did it in there.’

Hunter paused at the top of the first flight of stairs and looked back at her with fatigued eyes. ‘I think I did, yes.’

‘You think ?’

‘It’s been a long day,’ Hunter clarified. ‘I’m tired, my brain is tired, my eyes are tired.’

‘Nevertheless, while in there, you did make out the Latin phrase that the killer carved into the victim’s back, right?’

Hunter’s silence was a resounding ‘Yes’.

‘Do you think you might’ve gotten it wrong? Made a mistake?’

This time his silence meant the opposite of his first. Agent Fisher heard them both loud and clear.

‘OK, so what was it? What was the Latin phrase the killer used this time?’

Hunter looked around. Despite them being alone, he didn’t think that the top of the stairs at the Pima County’s Office of Medical Examiner in Tucson was the best place for them to have that conversation.

‘Shall we maybe talk in the car?’ he suggested.

‘Yes, I think that would be best,’ Agent Williams agreed.

As they all got back into the SUV, Agent Brandon looked like he was about to tell the group something, but he never got the chance.

‘Could I have a quick look at that?’ Hunter asked Agent Williams, referring to the large envelope Dr. Morgan had handed him inside Autopsy Theater One. From it, Hunter retrieved one of the Polaroid photographs that showed the carvings to Timothy Davis’s back.

Agent Fisher scooted over toward Hunter to study the image, but gave up within seconds. If Hunter had already connected the lines and letters to create the new Latin phrase the killer had carved into the back of his fourth victim, what was the point in racking her brain to put that sick puzzle together? She certainly could do without the stress, especially considering the nuclear headache she’d been carrying around with her since she stepped out of that private jet.

‘So what does this one say, Robert?’ This time the question came from Garcia, who was sitting to Hunter’s left.

Hunter scratched his chin before looking at Agent Fisher. As he pronounced the Latin words, he indicated on the Polaroid with his index finger, as if asking her to double-check he hadn’t made a mistake.

‘ Pulchritudo habitantem in interius. ’