The X-Man by Brian R. Lundin (100 best novels of all time .TXT) 📕

made a large and deep Y-incision, starting at the top of each shoulder and running down the front of the chest, meeting at the lower point of the breastbone and extending to the pubic bone and removed the organs, muscles and tissue samples, they were weighted and placed in a black bag and placed back into the cavity.
He next examined Peggy’s genitals.

DIXON
There were signs of sexual abuse; necrophilia, the vagina and the rectum were damaged but no sperm, perhaps he used a condom, and she has never had a child or been pregnant. In all strangulation cases death is caused by an increased hypoxic state in the brain. In manual strangulation cases this approach allows maximum exposure of the neck structure, which I will examine for fingertip bruises that could indicate if the attacker used one hand or both hands, I am also looking for linear fingernail scratches from the assailant or the victim when attempting to remove the attacker hands from the neck and we will check under the victim’s fingernails for any skin evidence. Strangulation can cause reflex cardiac arrest and sustained pressure can cause congestion and blueness of the tongue, pharynx and larynx. In examining the body as you can see there is a little blood coming from the incision, that’s because the pull of gravity is producing the only blood pressure at this point since there is no cardiac functionality. Most of your cases though are ligature strangulations, I used a laser on the neck to look for ligature marks, if none appear evident under normal light and I find hemorrhaging in the muscles of the neck, the hyoid bone and the thyroid and the cricoids cartilages that indicates they were fractured. Notice the subject face, there are signs of cyanosis and petechiae, which indicate the strangulation pressure was applied for more than twenty seconds, ligature marks is a vital part of the evidence, as it often reproduces the patterns and dimensions of the ligature itself, the type of ligature, i.e. rope, soft fabric, etc. If the killer is subsequently arrested and the ligature is recovered on his person or in his home the ligature can be compared with the marks on the victim’s neck.

The doctor placed the scalpel back on the table and removed an electric saw. He switched on an overhead microphone and spoke in a soft voice and said while holding a small saw. “I will use Stryker Saw named after the manufacturer of the tool to pry opens the chest cavity and saw through the ribs on the lateral side of the chest cavity to allow the sternum and attached ribs to be lifted as one chest plate.


DIXON
This is done so that the heart and lungs can be seen in what we call “in situ” or in complete and are not damaged during the opening.

Doctor Dixon carefully and expertly removed the additional internal organs; each was weighed and placed into a container containing a foggy liquid.

DIXON
Well that’s it, my assistants will complete the examination of the organs and reconstruct the body, how you doing detective?

EVETTA (LOOKING PALE)
Ok

DIXON
Let’s go to my office, I’ve got just what you need

Doctor Dixon directed us to two oversized cushioned chairs while he went to an ornate wooden cabinet and removed a bottle of Remy Martin Brandy and three crystal glasses, he placed the glasses on the desk, poured a hefty shot in each.

DIXON
Down the hatch

We all gulped down the strong drink and me and the doctor laughed as Evetta coughed.

RINGO
What was the cause of death?”

DIXON
She died from massive internal bleeding from the multiple stab wounds that severed her aorta and left lung, she was dead before he placed the stocking around her neck, we’ve got the DNA results back on Peggy’s boyfriend, no matches on any of the murders, but we found that Peggy was about eight weeks pregnant and the fetus’s DNA matched her boyfriend.

EVETTA
Shit, Well that’s another charge against that monster

There was a knock at the door and an assistant stuck his head through.

ASSISTANT
Excuse me doctor, but Peggy Smith’s husband in on five-four, he’s calling from Detroit to find out about his wife

DIXON (NODDING)
Excuse me

We listened as he patiently spent twenty minutes explaining what had happened to the man’s wife, but he left out the gory details, he also told the husband that the body could be released in a week. He hung up, took a nail file from the drawer and began cleaning his nails. After a minute of going through the ritual he placed the file back into the drawer and rubbed his thin, narrow face.

DIXON
It’s tough enough telling a relative about a natural death, doubly hard when it’s a murder victim

EVETTA
Nice job, you have


DIXON
Sometimes it sucks

I looked at the little man, who looked so frail, but his eyes had intensity and intelligence and there was tenderness and concern for people and I considered him one of best friends, but I never could understand how so gentle a man could spend hours with dead bodies

EVETTA
If Cynthia White is one of his victim’s maybe we can get a DNA match

DIXON
Hopefully we can get some of his DNA from her, My techs are taking vaginal swaps as we speak

RINGO
Who knows what he’ll do next, if it’s not him we’ve got a serious copycat

TECHNITION (KNOCK ON DOOR AND ENTERS)
We’re ready to close her up doctor and there was sperm

DIXON (LOOKING AT EVETTA)
Want to watch?

EVETTA
No thanks; two hours with a corpse is enough for me
We left usually we would go to lunch, but not today.

INT: SPECIAL CRIMES BUREAU –LATE AFERNOON
When we returned to our office all of the detectives were crowded around the television, Reverend Clarence Wilson was being interviewed by a black female reporter named Irene Maudesa.


IRENE MAUDESA
Reverend Wilson, I understand that members of your congregation is planning on starting a community watch, can you comment please?

The reverend was a tall, heavy set man in his late fifties with brilliant white teeth and his church The First Church of Deliverance located at 43rd South Wabash had a congregation of over two thousand. Speaking in a measured tone common to most Baptist ministers, answered.

REVEREND WILSON
Yes we are, members of my church and other concerned members of the community is outraged over the rapes and murders of our young black women. This cowardly monster don’t have the guts to deal with men, he prefer helpless women

VOICE IN THE CROWD
Street justice is what he needs and if we catch that asshole, won’t need no cops,” someone else shouted

REVEREND WILSON
I believe in the criminal justice system but either the police are incompetent or don’t care, either way it’s time for us, the black community to protect ourselves. I and the families of the murdered young women has formed an action committee to pressure the police department to catch this mad dog

IRENE MAUDESA
I also understand that you have had meetings with the mayor and the Chief of Police, what are they saying?

REVEREND WILSON
Same old song and dance that we are doing everything we can

IRENE MAUDESA
Have you met with Lieutenant O’Shea, head of the Special Crimes Bureau?

REVEREND WILSON
I’ve called his office on ten occasions and I’m always told he’s unavailable

We continued to my office when we were called into the lieutenant’s office. Lieutenant O’Shea was looking at the news program when we entered, his face was a bleak red as he paced around his desk.

LIEUTENANT O’SHEA
Who does that black mutherfucker think he is?

RINGO
Why won’t you talk to him?

LIEUTENANT O’SHEA
Fuck him; I ain’t got to explain shit to him

EVETTA
That might not be a good idea, Reverend Wilson has a lot of clout in the community and downtown, matter of fact I hear the chief is a member of his church

The lieutenant sat down and sweat beaded on his forehead.

LIEUTENANT O’SHEA
Where did you hear that?


EVETTA
That’s the word on the street

LIEUTENANT O’SHEA
Listen I want you two to go see him and assure we’re doing the best we can, ok? Now bring me up to date, find out anything at the M.E.’s office?

EVETTA
Well we found sperm in Cynthia White indicating she may have been raped just like the others, but we have to check that out, maybe we can get some DNA from that. Also Robin Honeywell was pregnant

LIEUTENANT O’SHEA
Shit, what we know about Robin?

EVETTA
Robin’s boyfriend alibi is solid, he worked a double the night she was killed and he and some other co-workers went to a promotion party at a private club and was there until 0900 Sunday, and his DNA matched the fetus. Our legs checked out her ex-husband in Detroit, he and his children were visiting his mother in Cleveland and hadn’t talked or seen his ex in months, but he also said that she liked to walk around the house naked and he had warned her about that,” Evetta said.

LIEUTENANT O’SHEA
Who was the father of the baby, the husband or the boyfriend?


RINGO
According to the DNA report, the boyfriend was.

LIEUTENANT O’SHEA (PULLING A FILE FROM HIS DRAWER)
I got a call from the FBI today and we told me that VICAP identified a February, 2000 victim in Gary who matches our guy’s profile, a young black whore named Rita Maxwell was found raped, strangled, and propped up in the bathtub, a large bloody X was smeared on the wall and there is another unsolved rape and homicide in Gary that same year of a high school girl

EVETTA
Where was she found?

LIEUTENANT O’SHEA
In an abandon warehouse, a bloody X was on the wall

RINGO
This guy has been busy

O'Shea opened another file on his desk

LIEUTENANT O’SHEA
Peggy Smith was twenty-five, lived at 4555 South King Drive, 2nd floor and worked at a bookstore on 51st Street. Mariah Williams, twenty-three, lived at 4920 South Calumet Avenue IST floor and worked as a barmaid at a Westside joint. Tonya James, twenty-four worked as a teacher’s aide at Willard Elementary School lived at 4635 South Wabash Avenue IST floor. Tonya James twenty- four lived at 4220 South King Drive, Its floor, and Cynthia white, eighteen, lived at 4650 South Calumet Avenue 3rd floor, and a freshman student at Chicago State University. Possible victims, Rita Maxwell a black whore in Gary, Indiana and a young Gary high school girl named Mary both raped and killed in 1999. Also I got a report from Dixon's officer and the bloody X on the mirrors in all of the Vics bathrooms contained two different blood types and are being analysis for possible DNA and just got a report of an attempt rape, vic, Louise Johnson. Louise Johnson, the oldest attempted victim at twenty-six lived alone in a house at 4916 South Forrestville Avenue and was the owner of the Black Ladies Boutique on 47th Street, could be X-Man, check it out.

LIEUTENANT O’SHEA
We’ve got to catch this asshole and quick, I don’t want this investigation ran on the front pages of the Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. Get back to work.

We left and got in the