Excerpt

Mayers cleared his throat as he interrupted her. “The victim appeared to have lost a vital organ.”

That statement startled Abigail. “What…I mean…which organ?” she stammered.

“The heart. It appears to have been excised through an incision in the chest.”

“Oh my word,” she murmured, her writing hand frozen over the notebook.

“The victim’s tongue was missing, too,” Vender muttered.

Abigail jerked her head around to face him. “What?”

“Yeah,” Mayers confirmed. “And both eyes.”

Abigail turned from one detective to the other in confusion. “Who would do something like that?”

“We don’t know. We have personnel going through all the city and county criminal records for anyone who’s ever being arrested for anything involving mutilation, which honestly is unheard of around here.”

“Do you think this is some random killing?”

“We don’t know. For what was done to the body, it had to be premeditated. Things had to be prepared to carry this type of murder out. As far as the victim or the time and opportunity goes? That may have been random.”

“I see. Yes, that sort of makes sense, doesn’t it?” she mused.

“Look at me. Nothing pertaining to the condition of the body can go into your story. We are keeping that quiet for now. Understood?”

“Yes, yes, of course. Absolutely,” she said hastily.

Mayers glanced down at the file before him and tapped it a couple of times in thought.

Watching his finger drum on the manila folder, she asked, “And what’s in there?”

He sighed heavily. “Crime scene photos.”

She met his eyes. “You…you’re going to let me look at them?”

Again he sighed. “Ms. Addams, I heavily caution against it, but I’m willing to let you see them this once. Again, this is breaking departmental protocol, and I could lose my badge for this. But we are only a few days into our investigation, and both Vender and I are at our wits’ end. If you do decide to look at them, maybe you’ll see something we don’t.”

She stared at the folder his hand now lay flatly upon, as though pinning it down to prevent her from peering into it. Looking back up at him, she said, “If it’s okay with you, then I want to see them.”

With a half shake of his head, an indication he was questioning his own judgment, he slid the file over to her and sat back.

Abigail’s fingers trembled slightly as she spun the file around to face her, so that she would open it as if it were a book. She lifted the top flap to stare down at a stack of a dozen or so 8”x10” black and white photos. The very first one was a stark and garish full body image of the victim. She gasped out loud, slapping the cover of the file down over the photos, as she fought a surge of regurgitation that burned as it welled up in her throat.

Mayers watched her warily.

Abigail squeezed her eyes shut for a time. Eventually she opened them to stare at the detective across from her. His eyes held regret at allowing her see even a glimpse of what was in the file. She blinked rapidly, trying to maintain her composure. She opened her mouth to speak, and a sob started to escape. She clamped her lips together, stifling it. After a moment, feeling she had control of herself, she spoke, her voice quivering. “It’s…it’s a little boy.”

Mayers nodded. Then reaching into his pocket, he extracted the pack of cigarettes again. “You want a smoke now?”

Abigail smiled briefly as she shook her head. “No, but you go right ahead. It won’t bother me.” Steeling herself, a tear streaming from the corner of each eye, she looked back down as she opened the file.