Heath Stover’s overweight torso bore a familiar mark, just under his sternum, a slash in the flesh that allowed the yellow subcutaneous fat to squish out around the edges of the wound. The water had washed the blood away. Fox got on the autopsy immediately once the body arrived at Forensic Medical, and Taylor stood to the side, watching, arms crossed, tapping the toe of her boot on the floor while Fox measured and murmured and inserted a special ruler into the slit to determine its depth. He finally stood and nodded.
“Same kind of blade. Double edged, sharp as hell. See how there’s no hesitation, or wiggle room? Went straight in, under the sternum and into the heart.” Fox stood up and looked at Taylor, his brown eyes troubled. “I have to tell you, Lieutenant, whoever did this knew what he was doing.”
“Is it the same person who killed Go-Go?”
“I can’t tell you that. But he—or she—knew exactly where to place the blade for maximum effectiveness. This isn’t your every day stabbing. It’s clean, precise, and done with amazing skill. And Go-Go’s was exactly the same.”
“I think we’re safe saying he. I believe we have Go-Go’s murder on tape. If she hadn’t gone down I’d have thought he just bumped into her. It was quick. Here, help me run this through.”
They played out the scenario she’d seen on the tape a few times, and Fox confirmed that based on Go-Go’s wound, the stabbing could definitely work the way Taylor had seen on the videotape.
Fox turned back to his newest guest. “But Stover here, he got stabbed, then went in the river somewhere. Wasn’t in the water too long, and there is water in his lungs, just a bit. He was on his last legs when he went in, but he was alive. Could be your blitz attacker hit him and he went in the water, or he killed him by the bank and pushed him over the edge. Radiographs show he does have a few broken bones, so he either got in a fight, or fell—”
Taylor stopped tapping her foot. “Off one of the bridges. That would explain the broken bones. We can do a current analysis from last night, see where he might have gone into the river.”
“That makes sense to me. Huh. If this is the same killer, he did two in one day. Dude’s got a serious problem.”
“No kidding. Thanks, Fox. Now I have to go put Stover and Go-Go together, find out what they have in common. Then I can figure out who did this to them both.”
The words floated to her head again, this time slightly altered.
One of these things is too much like the other.