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Her eyes moved faster, as if the words would evaporate if she didn’t grasp them fast enough. Tongue removed with serrated object. Penis removed likely with the same object as jagged lacerations appear similar. Upon further investigation, the victim's heart was found to be disintegrated.
Blinking, she reread the last sentence. “His heart… disintegrated?”
She looked at Teddi and saw the shock she felt reflected back at her. “Eviscerated. Melted or something. Further down it says there was a small bit of heart tissue found in the chest cavity during autopsy but that’s it. Someone melted the victim’s heart inside his body.” Teddi scrolled.
“Was he burned? Were there marks left on his body to indicate how it happened? How does someone disintegrate a human organ still inside a body?”
Scooting closer, Teddi looked down at the phone, her hair brushing against Vera’s shoulder. “I don’t know and neither does J. Mackey is looking at physiological possibilities as we speak but none of us have a clue. I’ve never heard of anything like it.”
“Neither have I.” Vera considered everything she knew about how an organ could be disintegrated without being touched. Maybe Maller had been electrocuted. One would assume it would leave marks on the skin. Her lack of knowledge of the possibilities had her pulling up too short for her comfort.
The next slide was a crime scene photo. In the center of a wide open glade surrounded by thick dark forest, a male body was positioned on a wide, flat rock about four feet tall. As if a bucket had been spilled over the stone, dark blood ran down the sides, staining it until it disappeared into the thin high grass. With his face hidden behind his biceps, she could just make out the short white beard. The positioning was intentional with each limb pulled tightly under the central weight of his torso, creating a precarious balancing act. It reminded Vera of a violent rendition of a painting, like some sad sinner begging for forgiveness on their hands and knees, eyes downcast in shame.
Another image gave a closer angle, allowing her to zoom in. The wrists were bruised like Alex's. His skin was bare, visible beneath smudges of black dirt and blood, showed signs of lividity at his elbows, face, and the fronts of his legs from knees to feet.
The camera flash highlighted scratches around his eye sockets encircling the sunken skin. His eyeballs were missing, like Alex. Vera’s gut churned as she looked closer at the black holes where they once lived.
From his mouth, blood stained his facial hair, dried into opaque rivers. The once vivid life source poured down his chin and onto the rock on which he balanced. He looked like a human waterfall.
“There, do you see the mark?” Teddi pointed at Maller’s chest in the next photo, a thin smattering of hair covering it neck to navel. He was lying on a sterile silver table. It was the same one they stood next to just hours before. The blood had been washed from his tortured corpse making it possible to make out a blurred ‘X’ where his heart had been. It was a faint purple mark a couple inches long.
The idea of someone’s heart being melted while still inside their chest cavity couldn’t compute in Vera’s mind. There were no burns on his lifeless skin, no indicators that anything had happened to the organ from external examination. It was unusual in every sense of the word.
“I see it,” she murmured, scanning the rest of the photos. Thin ligature marks around his wrists and ankles were noted. His penis was missing as well, a garish mess of torn tissue even she couldn’t stand to give more than a passing glance.
Due to rigor mortis, Deputies Gunson, Butler and Stocker assisted in transport to the Sheriff’s department to complete the autopsy.
She found a summarized autopsy report after the brief findings. It looked like someone had pieced together things they’d been told in conversation along with statements that could only be made by Coroner Canimar. It was a mess but a mostly logical one. Whoever compiled the brief reports had tried to provide the basics of the scene, the damage to the body and the findings. Whether the findings were admissible, she couldn’t say, but it didn’t look how an official autopsy report should. So the coroner hadn’t provided his complete findings or they weren’t submitted either. The entire file was a mess in comparison to how it should be to comply with regulations.
Looking through the autopsy summary it was his right ankle–serrated above the bone–that gave her pause. The tears in the washed skin were jagged and uneven, the ends of his fibula and tibia scored with lines that proved the brutality of the killer’s weapon of choice.
“Why is his right foot gone?”
“We’re not sure yet. I spoke to my team while you put Ximena to bed but we’re short of solid theories and tangible evidence at this point. We’re looking into similar crimes locally and possibly nationally but none of us have ever heard of anything like it. It appears ritualistic so it’s distinct, which may help.” Vera looked up from the crime scene photos, finding Teddi gnawing on her bottom lip. She didn’t find fear in her eyes but a fire Vera recognized.
It was a promise to push, to solve, to answer every question blazing through her until she was satisfied and justice was served.
Vera’s own eyes once burned with that same tightly controlled flame. Now it felt like an out-of-control wildfire, hell-bent on burning anything that got in her way. She looked away, scrolling through the file.
“Was Maller reported missing before his body was found?” She asked, zooming in on the background of the first crime scene photo. It appeared to be a wide circle in the heart of a uniquely black forest. It was undeniably Sylen. She'd never seen foliage like that before today. The land was flat and even, which allowed the rock to rise up like a table centerpiece.
“That’s the thing, he was never reported missing. Whoever is drafting these reports claims he went about his normal daily routine. He went home after work, presumably to bed, and wasn’t seen again until a deputy found his body in the early morning hours the next day. His wife didn't even have time to report him gone.” Teddi pointed to the note at the bottom of the form, showing her the name. A Deputy Gunson was listed as the initial officer on scene.
“That’s quick work to make him disappear and be discovered in such a short amount of time. Even with the lower temperatures, that suggests he was there for a few hours but not long enough to pull out rigor.”
Teddi swiped to another file.
Jackson Grennan. Found one week after the first victim on the same rock, in the same controlled position. Thirty-eight years old with a local address, just like Adam Maller. Both of his feet were intact but his eyes, tongue, and penis were taken too. The same faint ‘X’ was marked over his heart. Noted were slash marks across his torso like he’d been cut repeatedly. There were 57 in total with no signs of healing.
“Was Grennan reported missing?”
"Not officially as far as J has found."
“How’d he disappear?”
“Claims to have been on a routine hunting trip in the local area. Didn’t come home as scheduled and then he was found dead a day past his return date.”
Vera looked back at his wounds. The lashes must’ve been doled out either immediately before or after his death since no signs of healing were found. His wrists had the same bruises as if he'd been bound.
