Book One Chapter One
Portland, OR
January 26, 2005
Burned flesh had an unusual smell, one that I was quiet accustomed to after identifying the bodies of twelve people who died in an intentional fire in a strip mall. The smell, however, was still disgusting. Being accustomed to it just meant that I didn’t gag and throw up every time I walked into the same room as a burned body.
I was glad that I didn’t gag or throw up, not in front of the family. There were four of them, a husband, a wife, a little boy and a teenage boy. This was the first time I had been called in to identify the body of a burn victim inside a house. Generally the bodies were shipped into my lab.
“Who are they?” I whispered to Malik Smith, a police officer who had been charged with leading me to the body.
“Mr. and Mrs. Devin Lopez, and their two sons Jamie and Don,” Malik replied easily. Only the slight tremble of his hands led me to believe he was just as uncomfortable as I was.
Trying to forget the family, hovering anxiously outside the room where Malik and I were headed, I thought about what else there was to ask. “They just found the body in one of the rooms?”
“No,” This time, Malik let his uneasiness show. “They found it in their daughters room.”
Oh my god, I thought to myself. Their daughter?
As we entered the room, the stench of burned flesh grew stronger. That was when I saw the body. Of all the dead people and things I had ever seen, I had to admit this one was the worst because it was so bizarre.
She was sitting in a chair at her desk, clothes still on and intact. In fact, there was music coming from a laptop, where the victim’s hands were poised as if in mid sentence. The only thing wrong with this image, though, was the black and brown skin. And the fact that she had no-.
“Head?” I gasped, trying to keep control, “Where is her- the head?”
Malik shrugged, before turning around and walking away. That left me alone in the room with the headless burned body of a teenage girl. Behind me, I could hear the wailing of the victim’s mother.
“Aimee?” A familiar voice broke through my shock, allowing me to turn my head and see Detective Samuel James, a friend of mine of the police force. “They called you in?”
“If you can’t tell,” I said quietly, gesturing to the body, “You can’t exactly look and tell who it is.”
“Her name was Sofia Lopez,” Samuel supplied, putting a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “She was twelve.”
“She doesn’t have a head. We can’t be sure.”
“Look, Aimee, I’m all for thinking this girl is still alive, but she’s not. She’s wearing the same clothes Mrs. Lopez says Sofia was wearing, she’s the same height and weight, and she’s in Sofia’s room.”
There was reason in Samuel’s argument, I knew. But there was a feeling, an uncertain gnawing feeling, which convinced me not to be sure.
“Why don’t you look at her, and tell us what you find,” As if he could read my thoughts, Samuel had suggested the one thing that he knew would calm me down.
“She’s definitely a female,” I agreed. “Young, not fully mature, that’s agreed. She also didn’t die here.”
“She didn’t die here?” Mr. Lopez had walked into the room during my assessment. “What do you mean? Our little Sofia…”
With a feeling of triumph, I turned to face Samuel, “She didn’t die here. See that?” I pointed to a small white circle in the ceiling. “That is a sprinkler system designed to turn on if there is smoke in a room. And that,” I swiveled, pointing to an object above the doorway, “Is a smoke detector. This body was burned, badly, and neither the smoke detector or the sprinkler went off.”
Samuel faltered. He had been so sure that the victim was Sofia, but here I was proving that there wasn’t enough evidence. “What else could make a body look like that?”
“Fire,” There was a tone of self-satisfaction in my voice. “And don’t say that the alarms could have been tampered with. They are hooked up to the main alarm system I saw downstairs. There would be an alert going off on the alarm system if there was a malfunctioning smoke detector.”
“It’s true,” Mr. Lopez admitted, his voice rough with grief. “But then how did she…”
“The victim has been dead for about five hours,” Continuing my examination, I froze. “Oh my…”
“Cut the dramatics Aimee,” It seemed that my earlier statement angered Samuel, “What?”
“This girl didn’t die in a fire. Look at that.”
Both Samuel and Mr. Lopez- though he looked ill walked over and stared at what I was pointing at. There was a small hole in the girl’s chest. Not just any type a hole, a bullet hole.
“Okay, I am totally convinced,” My voice broke the silence. “This is most definitely a murder.”
“What the hell,” Samuel burst into my lab, a cup of coffee in his hand, “Where you thinking?”
“Did you bring me one?” I asked casually, leaning over the body. Some officers had brought ‘Sofia’ in earlier that afternoon. Until I had found some positively convincing evidence saying that there was no way that the body could belong to anyone but Sofia, I planned on barely leaving the room.
“No,” He snapped, blue eyes flashing. “Answer my question.”
“That was what I was thinking. In fact, I think I think several things a day, so maybe you should be more specific.” I mumbled, still intently focused on the body.
“Would you stop looking at that thing and answer! You know what I’m talking about. That stupid stunt in front of her family? Making the police force look bad? What the hell were you thinking?” He slammed his fist down onto the table next to me, rattling my tools.
Calmly, I took a deep breath and stood up, “Listen to me, I don’t think the body belongs to Sofia. I was trying to make you see that, possibly, it wasn’t hers.”
Samuel groaned, rolling his eyes up at the ceiling. “If it isn’t Sofia, who is it? And where is Sofia?”
“Well,” I took off my gloves and began washing my hands in the sink. “I don’t know where she would be, that’s your job. But if you give me time, I might be able to tell you who the body belongs to.”
“’Might’? Aimee, we have no time to chase after butterflies. We need facts, evidence, that will help us catch her killer.”
“Look, Samuel I appreciate your input but get the hell out of my lab and let me continue my work.”
