When Shadows Fall

“Sure.” She expertly drew the fluid from his eye with a syringe as Sam finished the rest of the external exam. “Let’s flip him.”

They manhandled the body so it was facedown, and Sam gasped. The upper part of Savage’s back was covered in tattoos. Spirals and triangles and stars, what seemed to be a type of Celtic love knot. No faces, no names, just strange symbols, arranged in what looked to be a repeating pattern.

“Take a photograph please, Regina.”

The girl hopped up on the autopsy table and motioned for Sam to hand her the camera. She snapped off a few shots. “Pretty.”

“You think?”

“Absolutely. Here, look at the shot from above. They’re arranged in a triskele. Do you know what that is?”

“Never heard of it.” She looked at the photos and could see now what Regina was talking about—the multiple symbols formed a clear pattern of three interlocked spirals.

“A triskele is Celtic, and it’s ancient. It was a pagan symbol, the power of three—maid, mother, crone or land, sea, sky. Any triad, really, but once Christianity came into the land, it morphed into a trinity symbol. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

“How do you know this?”

She smiled, and Sam was reminded of a pixie. “I studied Comparative Religion and the Classics at Randolph College. I was considering entering a convent for a while, then decided I could be of better service to my Lord by helping discover what causes death. I’m considering pathology, but med school is so very expensive.”

It was a strange way to phrase it, what causes death, instead of the more common forensic phrase, cause of death. But Sam didn’t pursue it. She looked at Savage’s back again.

“It must have taken years to get all of these tattoos,” she said. “Did you know Savage, Regina? Or his son, Henry? Where he went to church, or anything else about him?”

“No, I didn’t. Then again, Lynchburg’s a bigger town than you might think.”

“I was told Henry went to Randolph College, too.”

“Really? Must have been after I left. I graduated the last year it was all women. I’m still stunned they went coed on us.”

“Too much to hope for, I guess, leaving the school single-sex. Let’s flip him and get moving.”

Sam put her hands on his shoulders. As they maneuvered the body onto its back, she felt something hard and crusty under her fingers.

She carefully brushed back his hair and saw a trail of something silvery by the man’s ear. “Hold up a sec, I want to collect this. Can you hand me a DNA swab?”

“What is it?”

“Tears. I think. It makes sense. His eyes would be burning from the chemicals. Just want to be sure we catch everything.”

She collected the sample, then they washed the body and got down to the internal exam. Sam added a second set of gloves, pleased Regina had the Marigolds she preferred, put on an eye shield and double-masked herself in case of any leftover gases from Savage’s lungs. She wasn’t too concerned, though. It had been long enough that most of the gas would have dissipated, and they were in a well-ventilated room. Just in case, she made sure Regina had taken the same precautions, then hefted the scalpel in her right hand and glanced at the girl. “Would you like to do the cut?”

“Oh, no, Dr. Owens. I’d like to watch you do it, if you don’t mind. I can probably learn a thing or two from your technique.”

Sam laughed to herself a little—her technique was rusty as hell, considering—but placed the tip of the scalpel into the flesh just below the clavicle and swept the knife downward decisively. The tough skin parted, the yellow subcutaneous fat along the edges thicker than she would have anticipated for a man in such good shape. She sliced down the other side, meeting the cut just above his groin, and stepped back to allow any gases to escape. After a few moments, she set to the task of autopsy. The rib shears made quick work of the breastplate, making little crunching noises that echoed in the quiet space, and when Regina lifted it out of place, Sam’s first view of the lungs brought her to a halt again.

They were perfect.

She was looking at the lungs of a healthy man, in his prime, who’d clearly never smoked or lived in an industrial, polluted area. Nor did they show any sign of irritation, or inflammation. No frothy blood, no edema.

“Son of a bitch.” The words were muffled behind her mask.

“What is it?”

Sam looked up at Regina. “Timothy Savage did not die from hydrogen sulfide poisoning.”

Chapter

14

SAM TOOK HER time going through the rest of the post. Savage’s body had a tale to tell, and she was listening.

His heart was normal size for a man of his age, with a nominal buildup of cholesterol plaque. The lungs: both upper and lower lobes, when dissected, proved to be clear of any indication of a chemical irritant. Liver, kidneys, stomach, intestinal tract, all were normal. He hadn’t had a recent meal before his death, though she found traces of blood he must have swallowed antemortem, and he was in decent shape.

In the examination of his throat, she found what she was looking for. Timothy Savage’s trachea had clearly been crushed. He’d been strangled, just as the bruising foretold, but by the very strong hands of another, with a towel or something soft to minimize the surface bruising. Sam had seen this sort of neck injury often, in accidental autoerotic deaths, but this was clearly murder—in those cases, the padded ropes or other devices were left in place. And in this case, the killer had been facing his victim.

With that knowledge in mind, she stepped back, looked at the body from a slightly different perspective. There was some slight internal bruising just below Savage’s lower ribs. Someone had put a knee on the man’s chest to hold him down. They’d very purposefully strangled the man, then set about making his death appear to be suicide.

Sam felt both vindicated and frightened. Savage had been correct. He had been murdered. And now she was into his case up to her eyeballs, and there was no going back.

She went through the final steps of the post. His brain was the last piece of the puzzle, and when they got his skull open, even that showed nothing irregular, just the typical undulating coils of gray matter, perhaps slightly looser than they would have been if he were younger.

Two things were bothering her. First, that Savage himself had known he was in mortal danger and had written to her directly instead of going to the police. It made her distrust June Davidson, someone she needed on her side. And two, that the law firm representing Savage’s estate had ordered him cremated without a proper autopsy. Three things, if she counted Benedict’s murder.

As she washed up and watched Regina craft beautiful stitches to close the Y-incision, Sam decided there and then to bring all the blood and tissue samples she’d taken back to D.C. for analysis. She didn’t trust anyone in Lynchburg, not now.

Used to sending samples out for analysis, Regina produced a small cooler that housed everything perfectly. She didn’t raise an eyebrow when Sam said, “I’ll drop these directly at the lab so you don’t have to make a special trip.”

“Should we go ahead with the cremation now?”

“If you have the room, why don’t you hold on to him for another day? I’ll call you tomorrow and release the body.”

“Sure thing, Dr. Owens. Thank you, so much, for allowing me to assist. It was fascinating watching you work.”

“You have a great touch. Remember the trick I showed you about how to cut the lung tissue so you can always identify it if you need to revisit your samples.”

“Triangles for upper, squares for lower. Got it.”

“If you do decide to go to med school for pathology, let me know. I’d be delighted to write a recommendation. I’m teaching at Georgetown now, so if you need a hand, don’t hesitate.”

Regina smiled widely. “Thank you so much. Do you have a card? So I can keep in touch?”

Sam gave her one of her new Georgetown University cards, then excused herself, went back upstairs into the grand foyer and called Fletcher. He answered, sounding slightly out of breath.

“Where are you? I’m finished, and waiting for you on the porch. We need to talk.”

“We had a looky-loo hanging around. Davidson and I chased him. Guy got away, he’s fast as a greyhound, but I got a good look at him. Five-eight, Caucasian, blondish hair, red-and-white baseball cap. Lock the doors and I’ll be back in five minutes.”

Sam didn’t hesitate. She wasn’t in the mood to take chances. She went inside, threw the bolt and realized how ridiculous her actions were. The place was huge, with multiple entrances. She rang the bell, and after a few moments, Regina appeared.