Page 39 of Missing Justice
The professional in Taylor wanted to scoot away from Matt’s possessive hand, not let the others see that there was anything personal going on. Yet, it was apparently obvious they’d already figured it out from the way they’d all looked at her when she’d walked in.
A part of her cringed at that, Mer’s voice chiding her. The rebel in her told Mer to take a hike. “You told Matt this had to do with Felicity’s autopsy,” she said to Grey, “and you didn’t want to discuss it over the phone. What’s going on?”
As if he had mental telepathy, Grey pointed at the center computer screen and the tech geek automatically hit two keys andvoila, the ME’s report appeared.
Grey’s finger went to a specific line on the report. “We have confirmation that Felicity did indeed give birth before she died.”
The ME had sent the report to Grey first. Or maybe Taylor had the same thing waiting in her inbox. “So the baby could still be alive.”
Matt scanned the report. “The kidnapper could have targeted Felicity to get the child.”
“I’d say it’s more than a strong possibility,” Grey said. “And if that’s the case, my earlier suspicion that Senator Jarvis played a part in his wife’s disappearance may have been wrong.”
Her gut may have been wrong, too, and the baby might be out there somewhere alive. Her brain made the calculations—the Jarvis child was no longer a baby. He’d been missing for approximately eight years. “If I find the child, I can find Felicity’s killer.”
“She was definitely murdered.” Grey pointed to another section of the report and the tech guy zoomed in on it. “The forensic anthro found a nick on the hyoid bone in Felicity’s neck.”
A second screen showed a photograph with an enhanced view of a bone. A red arrow pointed to a thin scratch.
The coffee she’d sipped turned to acid in Taylor’s stomach. “Her throat was cut.”
Grey nodded, looking grim. “Official cause of death at this point is speculated as loss of blood from the throat wound. For a nick to happen that deep, her carotid was severed. Dr. Smith, our ME, believes it was more of a jab, causing a deep laceration and the cut on the bone, than say, a slice across the trachea.”
Tony joined them, holding a plastic knife. His hand went up, the tip poking the side of the tech guy’s neck, right under the jaw. “Like this?”
“Hey!” The tech guy jerked his head away. “What the hell’s the matter with you, a-hole! I’m not your reenactment bitch.”
“Jesus, Teeg,” Gerard said, drawing the knife away. “Don’t be such a pansy.”
Grey waggled his fingers at Gerard and the man brought the plastic knife to Grey’s throat in the same spot. “The weapon had to be sharp, but thin, and went through the carotid all the way to the hyoid.”
The weapon could tell her a lot about the killer. “Did Dr. Smith have any idea what type of knife was used?” Taylor asked.
Gerard let his hand fall. Grey pointed at the report one more time. “She couldn’t list anything conclusive, but she did have an idea.”
“What?” Matt asked. He’d finished his donut and had a spot of icing on the corner of his mouth that Taylor wished she could lick off. “Must have been a skinny blade from the size of that cut. Either that, or only the tip of the knife made that nick.”
Grey sipped his coffee as the third screen filled with pictures of a particular type of blade that made Taylor’s gut tighten. “Seriously?”
Matt’s jaw jumped. “Is that a scalpel?”
“Sure is,” Grey confirmed. “It’s difficult from a single, tiny nick to determine a conclusive weapon, but I’ve found it’s rare for Dr. Smith to be wrong about her hunches.”
Matt blew out a long, slow breath. “Surgeons, the ME, all the medical teaching hospitals in the area…hell, even veterinarians use scalpels. Might as well be a hunting knife that Wal-Mart sells for all the good that does us.”
Taylor didn’t see it that way. “It’s a starting point we didn’t have before.”
Grey wasn’t a smiler, so when his lips twitched slightly, Taylor took it as a sign he agreed with her. From the look in Matt’s eyes, he did too.
“I’ll take a copy of the report to Walt first thing this morning,” Matt said. “Taylor, you’re welcome to come with me. Then I suggest we pay a visit to Felicity’s OB/GYN. Start ruling out any and all medical personnel who came in contact with her.”
Taylor already had her no-longer-dead cell phone out, hitting the speed dial button for Beckett as she walked away from the huddle around Teeg.
“Greetings, fair lady,” Beck said, yawning. “I had a twenty on you calling before four a.m. You did stay up all night working on the Jarvis case, didn’t you? I thought for sure you’d have orders for me before now.”
She’d been up, all right, but not working per se.Damn Matt. She glanced back and saw he was still talking to Grey and Gerard. “We need to attack this from a fresh angle. Let’s see what we find if we start investigating the missing child instead.”
“But we don’t know anything about the kid—what he looked liked, how much he weighed. Hell, we don’t even know if it was a boy or girl.”
