Page 20 of So Deadly
“You don’t think it’s just a knife?”
“Could be, if our killer’s a chef or a kung fu fighter.She was cut well over a hundred times.”
“It’s not unheard of.People lose their cool and stab until their arms get tired.”
“Yeah, but she was stabbed all over, not just centered around the neck and abdomen,” Faith replied.“People who are enraged don’t stab all over.They stab in one place over and over again.”
“I mean… What else could it be?Short sword?Table saw?”When Faith didn’t chuckle, she said, “I was just joking about the last part.”
Faith worked her jaw from side to side.“Maybe we’ll get something back from the coroner.This is just excessive violence.That’s saying something considering the line of work we’re in.”
She reached for the door handle when her phone rang.When she pulled it from her pocket and saw Jenkins’ number, she frowned and remained on the porch.“Jessica, hold up a second.We’ve got a call from Jenkins.”
“Maybe he has results on the blood.”
“Let’s hope.”She answered.“Bold.”
“We’ve got another one.”
The blood drained from Faith’s face.“Another body?Seriously?”
“Yeah.Looks like four or five days old.Maybe even a week.”
Faith blinked.“A dead body that’s a week old and fits our MO?”
“Yeah.I’m… Oh, good Lord… I’m on scene.”His voice was hoarse and thready.“Bring gas masks.I’m not exaggerating.This is ungodly.”
Faith’s nostrils flared just imagining the scene.“Send us the address.”
“Seriously, stop for gas masks.”
“We passed a hardware store on our way out of Newton,” Faith said.“We’ll stop there.”
***
Faith was profoundly grateful for Jenkins’ suggestion about the gas masks when she arrived at the scene.For the first time since she’d known him, Turk was too overwhelmed by a scent to investigate.He stayed outside the unit, chuffing, snorting, sneezing, and shaking his head from side to side.Faith and Jessica breathed deeply through their N95 masks, but even the surgical-grade protection the masks offered wasn’t enough to completely stifle the moldy fruit odor of the body in the living room.
Again, body was a loose term.What lay on the floor of Thomas Webb’s apartment was a tattered spread of flesh surrounded by a fuzzy gray carpet.That carpet wasactualfungus growing on his dried blood.More fungus sprouted from several of the open wounds on his back.
“Yeah, this is more than a week of decay,” Faith said.
“Coroner will get an accurate estimate of time of death,” Jenkins said.“Point is, Margaret Hayes wasn’t our killer’s first victim.”
“No, she wasn’t,” Jessica agreed.“And I think we can safely say this killer has a vendetta against fake service animals and their owners.”
Faith glanced at the box of service vests in one corner of the living room.The vests looked slightly different from the one Margaret Hayes’s dog wore, but the quality appeared to be about the same.It was actually a pretty good fake.If Faith had just glanced at it without looking closely, she would have accepted it herself.
Up close, however, she could see small errors in the license numbers printed in small font on the upper rear of each vest.Working as Chief Instructor for the K-9 School, Faith had seen many of these vests.Each license was an alphanumeric code with one number followed by either an agency abbreviation: FBI, CIA, MaC, ARM, et cetera, or CIV for civilian.Following that abbreviation, the license number was always seven numerals followed by two letters followed by three more numerals.
These licenses were close, but they weren’t consistent.Some had five numerals and three letters.Others had seven numerals, one letter, and five numerals.Several skipped the first numeral, the series number, entirely.
Still, they were good fakes, a cut above the ordinary schlock.
“Did you find anything on Hayes’s computer that mentioned her as a client of Webb’s?”Faith asked.
“You think he sold these vests?”
“He bought a crate of six,” Faith said.“I doubt these were all meant for his own animal.”
