Page 110 of Forever Dead

“Then give it to us.”

Foss nodded. “My provisional opinion is that it’s tissue, but I wouldn’t call it identified until the laboratory has done its work.”

Selena waited while he returned to the monitor.

“The samples have been altered enough that some of their usual characteristics are difficult to interpret. That could also interfere with DNA recovery, although a laboratory would have to assess that. I can’t give you a definitive identification from these slides.”

“What kind of alteration?” Selena asked.

“Possibly chemical treatment. There may have been heat involved as well, but I can’t establish the process from these fragments.”

Connor said, “But you think you know what it started as?”

Foss became quiet.

Selena watched him examine the screen again, though she suspected he had already decided what he intended to say.

“If you forced me to make an educated guess,” Foss said, “based on the cellular structure, the remaining layers and the morphology of the tissue, I would say it resembles human skin more closely than any animal material I would ordinarily expect to see.”

Selena stared at him.

Connor unfolded his arms.

“Human skin?”

“Possibly human skin that’s been heavily altered,” Foss said. “I wouldn’t go further than that without additional testing.”

The laboratory seemed smaller.

Selena thought of the black fragments beneath Eleanor’s nails. Then Patricia’s. Two women fighting for their lives, scratching at something that might once have covered another human being.

Connor stared at Foss.

“Are you saying the killer wore something made from human skin during both attacks?”

“I’m saying the material is consistent with it. I can’t tell you how it came to be there.”

Selena studied the slide on the monitor.

“Then what’s your explanation?”

Foss turned back toward the microscope.

“I simply don’t know.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

By the time Connor and Selena returned to the sheriff's station, the afternoon light was fading over Elmsview.

Cheryl was still at the front desk. Arnold and Chuck were out following up Patricia Vanes's family and background, and the building was quiet between shift changes. Somewhere deeper in the station, a printer started and stopped.

Selena followed Connor into the briefing room and lowered herself into a chair. Her right knee had stiffened during the drive from Eagleton, and a dull ache ran from the base of her left thumb into her forearm.

Connor set a file on the table and pulled out the chair beside her.

“Long day,” he said.

“Getting longer.”