DOROTHY HOGAN SAT at her desk outside Walter Kent's office, her left shoulder hunched holding a phone against her ear. Her right hand scribbled notes on a sheet of paper. "Yes. Thank you, I have it. Ten this morning? I'm not sure, at least three. Yes, if they are available. I’ll confirm. Goodbye." Dorothy scanned her notes, and added a few words to clarify their meaning.
As soon as the weekly Narcotics Task Force briefing ended, she planned to tell Mr. Kent about the call. She knew that would be soon because of Kent's open-door policy. When the Narc Team left, she entered. "Mr. Kent, I received a call from the State Office of the Medical Investigator–the OMI. They are ready with a report on John Doe 136."
“John Doe 136?”
"You remember, Agent Kohen's case.”
"Oh, yes. When do we go over?"
"Doctor Zumbeck's assistant says he has taken a special interest in this case and will brief us today at ten o'clock, if that's convenient."
"The MI will head the briefing? Interesting. Get Agents Ramirez and Kohen and ask them to come to my office, and Dorothy, please come along and take notes. I know they will send a written report, but that takes days."
"Yes sir, right away."
Because she knew how important this briefing would be to Ashley, Dorothy called her first. "Agent Kohen, the OMI has prepared a briefing on your guy in about ninety minutes. Walter wants you and Ramirez in his office."
"Oh my God, finally. They have me doing security clearance interviews. Marching around trying to find dirt on people who seldom have more than a parking ticket."
"Part of the job. Everything can't be as exciting as the office annual picnic, you know," Dorothy laughed and heard a smile in Ashley's voice as she asked, "What about the OMI, are they any good?"
"Oh yes. They're nationally known for their forensic pathology skills. We’re lucky to have them."
"That's good to know. I'm on my way."
THE FIELD OFFICE team of Kent, Ramirez, Kohen and Hogan entered the MI's office building early and followed a receptionist to a conference room on the second floor. The room, lined with windows on one side, was bright with polished furniture neatly arranged.
Dr. Bob Zumbeck, managing forensic pathologist, and one assistant, were waiting. Dorothy marveled at the doctor’s impeccable neatness: sharply creased white pants, starched white shirt, red bow tie and a carefully groomed mustache and goatee.
"Good morning, Agent Kent. I see you've brought your team of bodyguards with you," Zumbeck said with a chuckle. "Get comfortable. This shouldn't take long."
Dorothy and the others took seats on one side of the oval table. The OMI people sat on the opposite side. Zumbeck began. "I would like to go through our findings in the death investigation of John Doe 136, and answer your questions. There will be an official report including a description of the Reconciliation of Exhibits: histology, toxicology and serology in your office in three days or fewer. At least that's the plan.” He adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses. “We are waiting on a few items, namely DNA analysis of the victim and some organ tissue studies. I can tell you no proximal diseases were found based on the tissue sample analysis completed."
Dorothy Hogan begin taking notes. She saw Ashley sitting upright at rapt attention.
"Before I begin, I would like to compliment Agent Kohen. We usually don't receive bodies in such good shape. Icing down John Doe 136 made our job a bit easier and not so, shall I say, fragrant." Zumbeck winked at Ashley.
"Okay. Let's begin. Subject Description: a male Caucasian, age twenty to twenty-four year, weight 110 pounds, height five-foot three inches. Time of Death: estimated at 36 hours before admittance in the OMI June, 15th at twenty hundred hours. Cause of Death: penetration wound inflicted by sharp object–a stabbing. Manner of Death: homicide, caused by the penetration of an object into the back of the body below the left shoulder blade. The object pierced the heart causing massive internal bleeding and shock," Zumbeck paused. "We have made a wound-casing of the object that shows it in a three-dimensional view; a six-inch double-edged knife blade with at least a two inch hilt. We have photographs." He laid his report on the table. "Okay, that covers the preliminaries. Any questions before I cover the forensic items?"
Ashley asked, "How do you know the knife had a two inch hilt?"
"The external examination, brought this to my attention. Pushing and holding the knife in the body needed great force. The hilt left bruised marks."
Walter Kent. "When you say homicide, what do you mean?"
"Manner of death is limited to five circumstances: natural death, homicide, suicide, therapeutic implications and unknown causes. Toxicology results show no medical conditions or treatments that could cause death. That rules out therapeutic implications. The stab wound rules out natural and unknown causes. It is unlikely anyone would fall on a knife that penetrated at this angle and depth and stay in that position. That rules out suicide and suggests homicide as the manner of death. Any other questions?"
Dorothy Hogan noted there were no further questions.
"Now for the forensic study. I have taken a particular interest in this case because of the unusual circumstances we encountered. I feel this homicide was premeditated. Zumbeck stopped long enough to check his notes, "I say premeditated because someone took extraordinary pains to prevent identification of John Doe 136. First, the fingerprints were burned off with acid. Second, the teeth were removed preventing orthodontic identification. Finally, the cleaning of the body with household bleach from head to toe removed any foreign hair or fiber evidence."
Silent until now, Agent Ramirez commented. "Definitely premeditated murder."
"Was there an odor of lilac flowers?" Ashley asked.
"Yes. The white shroud that wrapped the body held that odor. Toxicology confirmed it. Speaking of the shroud, it was made of a linen weave of a cotton and flax fiber: a tablecloth sold by Wal-Mart Stores–a common brand. Our investigation revealed bite marks around the mouth of the deceased. A reconstruction of the bite pattern is underway. Since no one can bite themselves on the face, the bite pattern may prove useful in identifying the killer, as soon as you folks catch him or her. Due to the body cleaning, we could not recover DNA for testing."
The forensic pathologist paused, and glanced down at his report, and then back up, his eyes bright with a glint of humor. "But we did have some luck. We found several strands of black hair four inch long in the cloth wrappings. John Doe had brown hair. I have sent the hair sample to your lab for DNA analysis."
Walter Kent’s expression brightened. "Finally something."
Zumbeck nodded agreement. "There's more. We found an impressed thumbprint."
"But I thought there were no fingerprints on the body," said Ramirez.
"That's right. This print wasn't on the body, I found it on the underside of a piece of moleskin used to stop bleeding from the inflicted wound. A beautiful print preserved in the adhesive."
"We can run that through our database," said Ashley. "Did you find any identifying marks on the body, like a birthmark?"
Dr. Zumbeck took a deep breath. "I believe we did, but it won't help you. On the right shoulder we found a burn mark inflicted after death. The burn probably removed what you have suggested, a birthmark or an identifying scar."
The Medical Investigator stood. He stared into the eyes of his guests. "A combing of the pubic region revealed no foreign substances,”… his voice trailed off for a moment… ”but we found a tattoo in a not so obvious place on the body."
Dorothy Hogan stopped taking notes, and became aware of total silence in the room. She observed Ashley's expression, a mixture of surprise and elation. Ashley shifted her position and leaned forward. "A tattoo?"
"Yes, but I can't take credit for that discovery. Medical Assistant Morrison, found it." Zombeck then turned to his assistant seated next to him. "I'll let her explain."
Dorothy Hogan had paid little attention to the doctor's assistant, but now saw a petite, middle-aged woman in a white lab coat wearing glasses halfway down her nose.
Ms. Morrison stood, and cleared her throat. "I worked with Doctor Zumbeck during the full work-up of our forensic autopsy. From my vantage point I noticed a tiny patch of skin tissue that appeared to be a skin rash or abrasion. At first I didn't think much about it, then I realized the color was not in keeping with the normal gray-white skin color of a male Caucasian. I moved closer to view this anomaly.” She shifted from foot to foot, and cleared her throat again. “I performed a manual reorientation of the tissue to discover the cause of the discoloration. Based on this examination I found the color was the result of a partially exposed red tattoo."
Ramirez asked, "What was the tattoo?”
"A rosebud. A red rosebud."
"It must have been small?"
"It was three centimeters, about an inch in diameter, bright red."
Dorothy Hogan looked up from her notepad and saw an expression of confusion on Walter Kent's face. She knew he would ask the question on everyone's mind.
"Why did the killer, so careful to hide the identity of his victim, miss such an obvious marking?"
Doctor Zumbeck began to pace. "The killer did not see the tattoo, Agent Kent, because it was not obvious. It was, in a sense, well hidden in plain view." He faced them. "It would have been obvious had the victim been circumcised."
Everyone took a few seconds to process this information. Agent Kent remained stoic. Ramirez laughed, and Ashley kept her composure. Dorothy bowed her head, and continued writing.
Kent asked, "Do you have a photograph of this tattoo?"
"Yes. Ms. Morrison had our staff forensic photographer take several shots."
"Color photographs?" asked Ramirez, not trying to hide his grin.
"Rest assured, Agent Ramirez, the color saturated photos are in sharp focus and most revealing." The doctor took his seat. "We have prepared three sets of these images. One set for our records, one for the report and one you may take with you today. I have included a picture of the victim's face, but the features are mutilated–useless for identification."
Dr. Zumbeck snapped his report folder shut. "If there are no questions I have one for you. To whom shall I release the body?"
Dorothy Hogan summarized the discussion that followed. She wrote the body of John Doe 136 would be assigned by the OMI to the Kirk Funeral Home, embalmed and returned to the State and placed in storage for a period of time not to exceed six months. If not claimed by the next of kin, a burial would occur at the expense of the State of New Mexico.
Damn, she thought. There are rules for everything.