Page 5 of Shelter for Sharla

“It came from a nine millimeter Glock, model nineteen, generation four, serial number seven nine seven three…”

“You can stop. It’s mine,” Carter said with a sigh.

“You know there’s a recall on them, right? Bad springs from the supplier,” the examiner added.

“No, sir. Did not know that but thank you for telling me.”Fuck it all, guess I’m stuck carrying this damn Ruger for a while longer, Carter silently cursed. It was reliable even though it was old, but it was heavy as lead. The Glock was a lot lighter, but he couldn’t carry around a gun with a recall, not knowingly anyway.

Carter watched Fletcher shift his stance, his face slack in boredom. “Anything else?”

“I am glad you asked that question,” the examiner said, with a sly smile. “I found something very interesting. There were significant levels of three drugs in the subject’s toxicology screening. Odd drugs. One was MDVP, a synthetic cathinone.”

“Bath salts,” Carter mumbled. He knew all about that mess. They’d had several convenience stores in the county that had sold the stuff until somebody caught on.

“Yes. There was also a fair amount of cocaine.”

Fletcher’s eyebrows shot up. “Thatisodd.”

“Oh, it gets odder still. You won’t believe what else was in the mix.” When none of the officers spoke, the examiner said, “Adderall.”

Carter thought he’d misunderstood. “The ADHD drug?”

“Yes. And if that’s not odd enough, here’s the kicker. Snorted, smoked, injected? Nope.” He walked around the corpse and rolled it up slightly off the table until the right shoulder blade was exposed. “Fresh tattoo.”

The state police had insisted on a detective from CallowayCounty, since the university was there, and for the first time, DetectiveSam Curry spoke up. “So you’re telling us it was tattooed into the skin?”

“No.” Reaching to the tray, the examiner picked up a plastic specimen bag. “It was delivered via rapid transdermal absorption, placed in the dressing that was put over the tattoo. Between the way the delivery chemicals were made and the open wound of the tattoo, it worked like a charm.”

“You mean like Fentanyl patches?” Carter asked, thinking about the drugs his dad had been given by hospice.

The examiner nodded. “Exactly like that.”

“So this was no accidental overdose,” AgentFletcher murmured.

“Absolutely not. This was deliberate, and most likely the subject didn’t even know it was being administered. And the drugs were chosen carefully. One kicks in fast, another lasts longer, and the third intensifies the first two.”

“Wow. So we’ve got somebody who knows how to take a cocktail of drugs and deliver them through the skin. Can we get a shot of that tattoo?” Fletcher asked.

“Thought you’d want that.” The examiner stepped to his desk and came back with a picture of the tattoo printed on a piece of photo paper. “There ya go. That should help. If I were you, I’d be finding out who did that tattoo.”

“Thanks. Oh, and based on the findings, when would you say it was administered?” Carter asked.

“Hard to say. I’ve never seen anything quite like this, so I’m not sure what the absorption rate would be. Not only that, but some people’s skin is more absorbent than others, not to mention a fresh tattoo wound for it to enter through. Somebody saw this girl coming and figured it out fast. I guess the biggest question is why.”

“Thanks for the information. Email the report to the three of us?” Curry asked.

“Certainly. Let me know if there are any other questions I can answer, gentlemen.” With that, the examiner pulled up the sheet and covered the corpse’s face again.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Fletcher turned to the other two men. “You know we’ve got a huge problem on our hands.”

Carter nodded. “Yeah. We’ve got someone out there who’s figured out how to dope victims without their knowledge. The potential for abuse here is huge.”

Curry nodded in agreement. “Duffy and Atkins are already working with the university. Let me get with them and see if we can track down the tattoo artist who did this ink.”

“Sounds good. I’ll go brief Griffin and see if he’s got some ideas for direction,” Fletcher added.

“And I’m going back to talk to those kids. I’m betting they know who did that tattoo.” Carter had to believe they did. Not only the who, but the when. And the why.

There had to be a why.

---