Into the Light (The Light #1)(33)

Apparently the only thing Elisa and Emma Ortiz did, besides study, was work out. They did it often. That was their activity the night they went missing. The gym willingly surrendered a surveillance video showing both women arriving, working out, and leaving. The video also confirmed that neither woman made it to their car, even though it was parked right outside the gym. The case had stumped the DPD and was still considered open.

Taking another sip of wine, I thought about how the circumstances of this case defied Dylan’s belief that there was safety in numbers. These two sisters had gone to the gym together. One theory was that they were taken at the same time. There was also speculation they’d left willingly.

Neither theory could be verified. Food in their refrigerator and a load of laundry in their dryer seemed to refute the theory of a planned exodus. Even their toothbrushes and bank cards were still in their apartment.

The gym, which had long since closed its doors for good, had time-lapse video of the parking lot. The older surveillance system consisted of a rotation of cameras: thirty seconds per camera with four cameras. The feed featuring the sisters and their car stopped recording as the women exited the gym’s door. In the minute and a half it took to get back to that angle, they were gone. Nothing suspicious was found on any of the other feeds. There were no witnesses to their disappearance. It was as if the two women had literally vanished into thin air.

I shook my head and took another drink of wine.

Elisa Ortiz’s body was found four days later, abandoned naked near the state fair grounds. According to the ME’s report, her time of death was over thirty-six hours before her discovery. The examination revealed facial cranial injuries believed to have been caused by blunt force trauma: bruising around her left eye and cheek, as well as zygomatic and nasal fractures. Bruising was also evident around her neck, and on her arms, legs, and torso.

While working at the crime lab, I learned that the location of facial injuries was a surprisingly accurate indication of the mode of trauma. Muggings and domestic abuse—intimate partner violence—were most often associated with injuries like Elisa Ortiz’s. Injuries to the upper third of the face usually indicated damage inflicted by another person. Those injuries, though typically not life-threatening, were often accompanied by tissue trauma and nerve damage, which could vary from paralysis of the facial muscles to damage to the optic nerve. In some cases the nerve damage led to temporary or permanent loss of feeling and/or sight.

In most cases, the more severe the trauma, the closer the victim and assailant were thought to have been. Crimes of passion could yield horrendous trauma. However, since there wasn’t evidence that either Elisa or Emma were involved in an intimate relationship, and Elisa’s examination showed no evidence of sexual assault, police theorized that her injuries were from a mugging or a random act of violence.

The second most common cause of facial injuries in both men and women was automobile accidents. Those injuries differed from perpetrator-inflicted injuries in their location—car accidents most often inflicted damage to the lower half of the face. When the victim’s face collided with the steering wheel or dashboard, the typical injuries were fractured mandibles—broken jaws.

Elisa Ortiz’s most severe injuries were to her torso. The postmortem photographs showed a large hematoma with midsection distention. The autopsy had discovered severe internal hemorrhaging caused by a ruptured spleen and lacerated liver. The cause of death had been ruled cardiac arrest due to internal bleeding.

I topped off my glass of wine and ran a new Internet search. My stomach twisted. Perhaps it was due to the alcohol on an empty stomach, but I chose to blame the information on my screen. From what I gleaned, the human body was constructed to protect its fragile organs, so for the kind of trauma that Elisa had experienced, extreme blunt force trauma was needed. When these organs were injured and left untreated, a slow and painful death occurred. Some injuries, like a ruptured aorta, result in death rather quickly, but Elisa hadn’t been that fortunate. Her time of death had been estimated at ten to fifteen hours post-trauma.

Draining my glass, I backed up Tracy’s memory drive on my laptop and turned off my computer.

Why had someone done this to this woman, and what the hell happened to Emma?





CHAPTER 11


Sara


I didn’t need to hear Jacob’s voice to know he was the one who entered my room. I knew his footsteps against the tile and the unique way he opened the door. If those clues weren’t enough, after he entered, the faint scent of leather and musk, the manly aroma I’d learned to associate with him, broke through the antiseptic odor.

If I weren’t so hysterical, I’d have found my ability to perceive without sight fascinating, but I was, for a lack of a better word, hysterical. I couldn’t think or reason. I didn’t know what he’d do or say or what I could possibly do in return. Somehow I’d done something terrible. I just couldn’t remember.

Sister Lilith had spoken only a little about marriage. In that short time, she’d reinforced everything Jacob had said. Apparently it was the way we all lived in The Light. However, instead of going into detail regarding my role as a wife in The Light, she emphasized that I was the wife of an Assemblyman, and that because of that my behavior, meaning the incident, reflected poorly not only on Jacob but also on all the Assembly wives. She said that the other eleven women were appalled by my behavior, and the entire community was waiting for Father Gabriel’s decree. Banishment was still an option. If that was chosen, it would include Jacob. She said that though Jacob had the right to and responsibility for my correction, when my behavior represented so many, for the cohesiveness of the community, the members of The Light needed to witness Father Gabriel’s decree. Consequences were coming, not only from Jacob, but also from Father Gabriel. If God hadn’t chosen to punish me with my injuries, the other correction would’ve already been delivered.