Page 25 of Forever Dead

CHAPTER FOUR

Dr. Blethan’s morgue was colder than Connor expected.

He had been there often enough to know the temperature never changed much, but that afternoon the chill seemed to settle through his jacket as soon as he entered the examination room. Eleanor Marsh lay on the stainless-steel table beneath the overhead lamps, covered to the chest with a white sheet. The bruising around her throat had darkened since Connor had seen her at the farmhouse.

Arnold stood near the counter with his arms folded. Blethan was at the table, spectacles low on his nose, reading from a handwritten page.

Connor stopped beside them. “Why’d you call me over?”

Blethan set the notes down. “I found something.”

“I was just about to get lunch at Maggie’s,” he said jokingly. “Will I keep it down?”

“You’ll survive.”

Arnold shifted closer to the table. Connor had known Blethan long enough to recognize when the doctor was delaying because he wanted to choose his words carefully.

“What is it?” Connor asked.

Blethan lifted Eleanor’s right hand. Her fingers had been cleaned of surface dirt, but the nails remained intact.

“I was checking for trace evidence under the nails. There’s something I want you to see.”

He reached for a small evidence tray.

Connor leaned closer. “What am I looking at?”

“Material caught under two nails. Very fine strands. Black, flexible. At first, I thought synthetic fiber.”

“And?”

Blethan pointed with a capped pen. “Under magnification, the texture appears organic. It resembles animal skin.”

Arnold frowned. “She did live on a farm.”

Connor shook his head. “That farm wasn’t active for decades. No livestock. Nothing bigger than whatever comes out of the woods at night.”

“Exactly,” Blethan said. “And this was wedged beneath the nails.”

Connor studied the fragments again. “You think she scratched the killer.”

“I think she scratched something during the assault. Could have been the killer. Could have been something the killer was wearing. I’m not going further than that until I test it. But it looks almost like hide.”

“Leather?”

“Possibly, but it doesn’t have the surface pattern I’d expect from ordinary processed leather. Could be a treated hide. Could be some kind of costume material with an organic component. I want to examine the structure before I start giving you theories.”

Arnold gave the tray another glance. “Week before Halloween and someone is dressing up like a freak out there. It isn’t unusual.”

Connor turned toward him.

Arnold lifted one shoulder. “People are wearing strange things all over town.”

“Not usually while breaking into an old woman’s house and murdering her.”

“No, that’s true.”

“If I can’t identify it, I know someone who may be able to,” Blethan said. “Gerald Foss. Former pathologist over in Eagleton. He took early retirement years ago but still does the occasional consultation. He’s helped me with unusual tissue samples before.”