Page 33 of Unholy Bonds

Motioning the men waiting around to zip the body into the body bag, I walked out.

“I’ll have the prelim ready for you within a few hours, Detectives,” I said to the two men before walking back to my car and driving straight to the medical examiner’s office.

Later that evening, Detective Rosario walked in with the report I had sent him. He smelled of sweat and bitter coffee. “And?” Detective Rosario asked. “We need something more, Doctor.”

I wouldn’t disappoint him. I’d give him the killer on a fucking silver platter. But if it wasn’t me, any other medical examiner would have done the same. I always made sure of that.

“How much coffee did you have, Detective?” I questioned, and he let out a huff.

Victor’s body, stitched and cleaned, was waiting on the steel table. It wasn’t often that the men I murdered ended up under my scalpel, but when they did, it made it so much better. It was like a full karmic cycle.

“This is my seventh cup. Are you done with this, Doctor West?” He gestured in the general direction of the dead man.

“Yes, Detective. The TOD is around three to five in the morning,” I said as I pushed the printed file toward him. “Walk with me.”

“The stab wounds indicate the perpetrator was furious. This was likely committed in a moment of intense anger. A crime of passion. The first wound here is notably deep, compared to the others. This one must be the last; notice the hesitation and reduced pressure. The perp’s anger was subsiding, and they were realizing what they’d done.”

The detective was enraptured, as I continued to explain to him about how Victor died. I gave him only the truth. I never fabricated anything. That would be imprudent to do.

“No defensive wounds. He was shackled, so it would be hard to defend himself. It must have been someone he knew.”

“We’ve been digging into Victor Bane, and nothing that comes up is good. The man is…” Detective Rosario trailed off with a shrug. “Shackled, you say?”

I pointed to Victor’s wrists, which had an impression from the leather shackle when I tied him to the bed—from Millicent Wark’s toy collection. “From the abrasions here and here, the victim was likely bound before he was killed. The pattern here on the victim’s skin is distinct. There was also a small piece of leather left on his skin. It’s the kind of cuffs people use during sexual activity. This could be a sexual game gone wrong.”

“You mean a sex toy, Doctor?” The detective cleared his throat.

“Yes. A sex toy.”

“Anything that can actually help me? DNA?”

“No DNA, but I do have partial good news for you,” I said, picking up an evidence bag with a pair of forceps. “I got a few partial prints from Victor’s body, and I fit the puzzle together to get a full print for you. I sent it to Amy. She’s trying to match it with the ones the CSRU gathered from the scene.”

Amy Walden was our forensic expert.

“You’re a lifesaver,” he said and smiled when Amy Walden walked in with a frown on her face. “Tell me you have good news, Amy,” the detective said with a hint of hope.

“This one is a match to one of the fingerprints collected from the crime scene. I processed the print through AFIS, but it’s not in the system,” she said dejectedly. “Oh, and I got a message from Anna.” Senior Digital Forensic Analyst Anna Chen was the best in the field. She worked in the Cybercrime department. “They’ve finally unlocked Victor’s phone. The last message he received was from someone named MW, inviting him to the storage unit for some fun.”

I smirked.

“Yes. Thank you,” Detective Rosario cheered. “Myers is already ripping Victor’s life apart. We’ve also pulled up footage from traffic cams on Charleston Street for the last forty-eight hours. We found a silver Tesla coming and going around the time of death. Rodriguez is digging up more info about the vehicle.”

“I assume we haven’t found the murder weapon yet?” I asked.

“No. You mentioned in your prelim that it’s a knife. A kitchen knife, right?”

“Yes, Detective.”

“The more we dig into his life, the more we find that this hijo de puta deserved to… die.” The detective paused and wiped his face. “My mama always says one shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but this man…”

“The world’s full of them,” I said, carefully schooling my features.

“True, Doctor.”

“Anna is tracing the origin of the message,” Amy said, prompting another cheer from the detective.

“I don’t want to jinx it, but I think this will be a slam dunk.”

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