Page 143 of Crow
CHAPTER24
Six days later.
The bodyof Jim Lawlor lay under a stack of branches behind a crumbling house covered by a patchwork of boards about ten miles outside of Alina. There was blood spattered along the side of the concrete pathway leading up to the house. A Jack Daniels whiskey bottle lay at the base of the front porch staircase and a half-empty plastic cup of liquor on the middle step. A child’s rusted tricycle lay on its side nearby.
Jim had been stabbed and slashed two hundred and seventy times. One hundred and eighty-eight were puncture wounds, some as deep as eight inches, piercing his lungs, small intestine, liver, and kidney. He suffered injuries to his arms and hands as he tried to fend off the assault. He also sustained a series of blows with a hammer savage enough to remove the back of his skull and cause his false teeth to fall out.Cigarette burns covered his body, suggesting he’d been tortured before his murder.
Detective Contreras placed the medical examiner’s report back in the file and looked at Sheriff Wexler.
“Does he have any family?”
“None that I know of, but he’s got a friend. I’ll let him know.”
“The bastard upped his savagery on this poor guy. He kept him for a while before murdering him.”
“That’s probably why the killings have slowed. The sicko was too busy doing this shit to the victim. We have to catch him before he strikes again,” Onofrio said.
Contreras beamed. “The fucker screwed up this time. He left a beautiful set of fingerprints on the whiskey bottle.”
“How do you know they’re his?” Wexler asked.
“I don’t, but I’m staying positive right now. There was some blood on the bottle as well, so I’m hoping it’s the assailant’s prints.”
“I’ll send it to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation stat. Let’s pray we get a match in the system. So far we haven’t gotten a hit with the perp’s DNA in Abe Dwyer’s case.” Onofrio walked across the room and snatched the Lawlor file off Contreras’s desk.
“We don’t want this discovery released to the media.” Detective Contreras glanced at the sheriff. “Make sure there aren’t any leaks in your department.”
“There won’t be.” Wexler picked up his cowboy hat from the desk. “Let me know what you find out from CBI and the state crime lab.”
“Will do.”
Sighing, he walked out of the room.
