“It’s a possibility.”
“So he’s beating on a door… falls… someone could have pushed him, I suppose. But he doesn’t seem to have tried to catch himself, does he? I think it was a fall.”
“Are you sure?” Jesse asks.
“I’m always sure.”
“How? The bruising from a fall versus someone being shoved can appear different, but not always.”
I don’t know how to explain why my brain just assumes things one way even if there were other ways the same incident could have occurred. “It’s just what my mind is telling me. So what else do you have? We have many things that could have been injected in him. Drugs are likely, but you could also inject something like air into the vein.”
“So you’re talking venous air embolism… air in the vein which causes a cardiovascular system blockage… that’s what you think?” Jesse’s eyebrows lift up in surprise.
“I’m not leaning one way or the other just yet, but I noticed that he also has scratches on his chest, which could be in line with chest pain. But that could be drugs too. There are plenty of drugs that cause the heart to race or pain in the chest…”
“He also bit his tongue,” Jesse says as he shows me.
“That could be a sign of a seizure… again, could be a symptom of either… you already did the autopsy, you couldn’t find anything that stands out? Are you waiting for toxicology?”
“I saw that he died from venous air embolism, which I identified when examining his heart.”
I stare at him. “Why did you ask me if you already knew?”
“Because I like seeing how you see things,” he says with a grin. “How did that even come up? What made you think that?”
“Because… if it is the same killer, I don’t see them using drugs to kill him. It’s… not right for the situation. What’s fun or unique about shooting someone full of enough heroin to kill them?”
“This is fun?” Jesse asks, unsure.
“Obviously for them, it is. It’s the thrill of it. They’re hunting, but they’re not a person who could hunt the same way every single time. It’s an art form to them. Something worth recording. Something to view. That’s why we have videos or something to remember the deaths somewhere. Things were removed from Mitch’s house. The laptop was destroyed in Cameron’s.”
“You think they’re the same person? The one who killed Jane Doe and John Doe and the one who killed Cameron and Steven is the same killer?”
“No, I don’t. I don’t know their tie. One of them is doing it for the enjoyment of it. The other is…” Is what? Are they like Cameron and working for the killer? Did Cameron fuck up, so the killer sent someone to dispose of him? Or is the person who shot at me someone else entirely?
“So Steven, who had his eyes cut out, doesn’t match the profile,” Jesse says.
“No, but neither did Abby’s friend Mitch who was also killed.Hefalls more in line with Steven and Cameron than John Doe, Liz, and Jane Doe.”
“I see what you’re saying.” Jesse heads over to his desk. “Anyway, by referencing your beautiful artwork of the tattoo, I did find something interesting. Well… actually, I didn’t find it, but Marge did.”
“Isn’t Marge the one who died of old age?” I ask.
Jesse raises an eyebrow before giving a nod to the old lady in the corner. “No, she’s right there.”
“Oh shit, didn’t we sign an RIP card for a Marge not that long ago?” I ask.
“I’m pretty sure that was a get-well card.”
“Oh…” I grimace. “No wonder she glowers at me every time I enter the room.”
“Anyway, she said she remembered a couple of girls coming in with this tattoo years ago. It was the only thing that linked them, but the one died of intoxication and the other was a suicide.” He slides some photographs over to me and I pick them up. “Is this the tattoo that was originally on Abby?”
“Sure as shit is,” I say, recognizing it immediately. “Fascinating. How long ago were these pictures taken?”
“I think it said around twenty years ago? I can give you the file to look over. One was named Margaret and the other was Zoe.”
“Huh.”