As the Wicked Watch(16)

Dr. Chan came closer to me and put his hands on my shoulders. “Jordan, I’ve known you, how long?” he asked.

“Oh gosh, a good seven, eight years,” I said.

“You do a hard job, but I know you,” he said, “you’ve got a soft heart. Whoever did this to this child is a monster. He cut her up very badly. I can’t say for sure the cutting happened postmortem, but due to the extent, I believe at least some did.”

I struggled to hold it together. “How’d she die?” I asked.

Dr. Chan sat on the edge of his desk. “My conclusion is death by strangulation, though there was a lot of bleeding from the cutting wounds. That could have been a contributing factor,” he said. “She was eviscerated, Jordan. The fire I can say with certainty occurred postmortem. There was no soot in the windpipe . . .”

“Right, so she was already dead when the fire was set,” I said, completing his sentence.

“What do you mean by eviscerated?” I asked. I knew what eviscerated meant, but I wanted to know what it meant for Masey.

“There were multiple stab and cut wounds to the torso and the legs. And it appears that more than one type of sharp instrument was used to make those wounds,” he said.

My heart sank into my stomach.

“By the time the body was found, it was in an advanced state of decomposition called putrefaction. You’re familiar with that term, right?” he asked.

“Yes, I recall reading in your second book about how much it can complicate a criminal investigation,” I said.

“This process was accelerated by the plastic surrounding the remains in the warm, wet conditions,” Dr. Chan said. “There also were signs of what’s known as lividity . . .”

“The purplish discoloration that happens when the blood pools when a body lies in the same position for a while,” I interjected like I did as a student during one of our lively exchanges.

“Yes, that’s right. It pretty much covered the entire back side, down the back of the legs to just above the ankles,” he said.

My left hand involuntarily rose and rested on my chest. I closed my eyes, taking it all in. I asked the inevitable question. “Was she raped?”

“Yes. The ultraviolet screening showed considerable bruising and lacerations in the genital area.

“I’m releasing my official report in the morning, Jordan, so you can’t run this until after it has been released,” Dr. Chan continued. “But you’ll be the first and the only.”

“What? Are you not doing any other interviews?” I asked, hopeful.

“No. You’re in luck. I’m leaving town tomorrow night.”

“Where are you headed?” I asked.

“New Zealand. I’m speaking at a conference. I’ll be there two days. Then I’m heading to Switzerland for a little R&R,” he said. “I’ve got guest lecturers scheduled to handle my courses while I’m away.”

“Good for you,” I said, happy to change the subject long enough to focus on our interview, a watered-down version of the truth.

“I passed a ladies’ room on the way down here,” I said. “Can you two excuse me for a minute?”

I walked out the way we’d come in. My heart was beating fast, the anxiety building in my chest.

I had barely enough strength to push open the door and steadied myself against the wall. My body shook and tears streamed down my face. All I could think was This is going to kill her mother.

A bright young girl who had a bright future ahead of her. The star of the story her mother loved to tell. Eviscerated. Charred. My God from Heaven!

I grabbed the makeup sponge from my purse and blotted my face dry before rejoining Scott and Dr. Chan. My eyes met Scott’s as I reentered the room. He looked sympathetic and I had to look away to keep the waterworks in check.

“Are you all right?” Dr. Chan asked.

I wanted to ask him the same thing. Dr. Chan looked more fit than I’d ever seen him, but he didn’t seem himself.

“Yes, Dr. Chan, thanks for asking,” I said. “This is a rough one. Let’s get through this. So just talk, as comfortably as you can, about what your investigation has learned. Okay?”

“Sounds good, Jordan,” he said.

“I’m rolling,” Scott said.

Dr. Chan shared what he knew in slightly less graphic detail.

Cause of death: Strangulation. Evidence of sexual assault. Attempt to destroy evidence, but nothing about a fire, nothing about evisceration. Those are the kind of details that typically don’t become public knowledge until trial.

As we were leaving, Dr. Chan pulled me aside. “Hey, Jordan, I didn’t want to come out with this on-camera,” he said. “But I’ve participated in hundreds of investigations. And in more than thirty-five years on the job, I have to say when someone inflicts this type of violence on a human being, it’s either personal or the work of a serial killer.”

“You’ve shared this theory with police?” I asked.

“Yes, of course. It’s speculative. I wouldn’t want to raise the public’s concerns without more proof.”

“Were you able to collect DNA evidence in connection with the sexual assault?” I asked.

“Honestly, Jordan, the body was in such an advanced state of decomposition, there isn’t much DNA evidence to salvage. I’m having some tests run on some tissue that was extracted from beneath the fingernails. But please, don’t share that in your broadcast. I don’t want to tip this guy off.”