Chapter 5

“Dead?” I asked. Ryan nodded. Thoughts exploded in my mind.

“When?”

“They found him a couple hours ago.” Ryan. I looked at him. Our eyes met, and the anger and frustration I saw in them surprised me. Our only suspect was dead, and that really seemed to get to him. I sighed.

“What even happened?” I asked. I was still shocked. Will took a deep breath before answering.

“He was decapitated.”

My eyes went wide. Decapitated. Just like the last two victims.

“Decapitated?”

Ryan threw his head back and sighed. “Yeah. Richard is conducting the autopsy as we speak,” Awkward silence, “Think it's the same guy?” I shrugged.

“I don't know,” I said, genuinely confused, “I'd have to take a look at the thoracic vertebrae.”

Ryan looked confused. Well, at least that's what the look on his face said. I explained.

“If Tacolini's thoracic vertebrae were damaged during decapitation, there could be marks from the type of weapon used to remove the head,” I said, “I can compare those to any found on the thoracic vertebrae of Hadley and Nichlson.”

Will tilted his head. “Wouldn't some of the thoracic vertebrae have been cut of with the head?”

I shook my head. “Thoracic vertebrae begin at the base of the neck. In decapitation cases, the only vertebrae that are usually missing are the cervical vertebrae.”

“So if you find marks, you might be able to identify the weapon?” Ryan asked, mildly excitedly. He jumped out of the chair. I nodded.

“It's a high possibility.”

Ryan grinned. “I knew there was a reason we kept you around!” He grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of Will's office.

“We'll be back!” He called before pulling me down to the elevator doors. When we were inside the elevator, I pulled my wrist from his grip.

“Where are we going?” I asked, placing a hand on my hip.

“To the morgue. I told Richard to get one of your people to clean the flesh off of Tacolini or whatever,” He said quickly. I could barely understand him, he was so excited, “You're going to look for weapon marks, Katie!”

I let him get away with the Katie thing this time. He looked too excited for me to ruin it for him. Not even two minutes later, Ryan grabbed my wrist again and pulled me out of the elevator and down the hall to the anthropology lab. I stopped to pull on gloves and a lab coat and we entered the lab.

Two boxes of bones were waiting on the stainless steel table in front of me. I knew they were the bones from the Hadley and Nichlson cases. I opened both of the boxes and looked at the contents. Two sets of almost complete skeletons looked back at me. I sifted through the boxes, picking out the thoracic vertebrae from each. Thankfully, there were twelve for each skeleton.

I placed them on the table in front of me, just ask Leah and Cassandra came in carrying a body bag.

“Thanks guys.” I said, taking the body bag from them with Ryan's help. The girls nodded and left.

“I'll do a full examination later.” I looked at Ryan. He nodded. I unzipped the body bag. As promised, a white skeleton lay there, missing it's skull.

“Why hello there, Mr. Tacolini.” Ryan muttered. I shot him a look.

“Sorry.” Boyish grin.

I picked the thoracic vertebrae out of the body bag and placed them on the table with the others. I walked to the other side of the room and grabbed the medio-cam, dragging it to the table. I flicked it on.

“What's that?” Ryan asked. I didn't look up from the bones.

“Medio-cam. It's basically a big magnifying glass.”

“Oh.”

I picked up the T1 and T2 vertebrae from the Hadley bones and placed them under the medio-cam. The bones quickly came into view. As I looked over the small vertebrae, I could see small trench-like troughs on the surfaces. The floors and walls of the trenches were bumpy, with grooves and scratches. marking them. Tiny little clusters of bone called bone islands were scattered among the bottom of there trenched. I pointed at the display on the medio cam.

“See those clusters of bone?” I asked, pointing to specific areas. Ryan nodded.

“Yeah, what are they?” He asked.

“They're called bone islands. They show up when bone is cut, and blade drift occurs. They end up in trenches like this called false starts.”

Ryan looked confused. “False start?”

“When a power saw first enters a bone, it forms these little trenches. If a blade is pulled out of bone before it goes all the way through, the trench that gets left behind is called a false start,” I said, “False starts offer a lot of information. You can see striations on the side of the trenches. Those are from the blade of the power saw.”

“How do you know it's a power saw?” Ryan asked. He looked sceptical.

“Power saws leave more consistent cuts. Striations are more evenly patterned. Direction of the saw changes less frequently. More false starts.”

Ryan nodded. “Okay,” He began, “Do all the marks match?”

I shrugged. “I haven't looked at them all yet.”

At Ryan's look, I picked the other vertebrae up and set them under the medio-cam. I pointed at the screen.

“They're the same.” I stated, tuning to look at him.

“I'll be god damned.” He muttered.

“We have a serial killer, Ryan.”

He nodded. “Seems that way, doesn't it? Only question I have is what kind of saw killed him.”

Then something hit me. I turned back to the vertebrae with the familiar trenches. The directionality, though consistent with a power saw, was uneven, both back and forth.

“I know what kind of saw it was.” I said, looking up to Ryan. He looked down at me with wide eyes, smile forming.

“You're positive?” He asked.

“It has to be a reciprocating saw. That's the only kind of saw that could make these indentations.”

Ryan's grin widened.

“Katelyn Elizabeth Amos, you are amazing.” He smiled, and pulled me into his chest.

I was surprised by the hug. Ryan tightened his arms around my back. I hugged back, inhaling his scent. A few seconds later, we pulled back. I blushed and turned to put the bones away. I knew he was smiling.

“Hurry up. I need to tell my boss that you're a genius.”

I laughed, put the bones away, and followed Ryan out the door.

Author's Note

Forgive the forensics in this chapter, they're not my best. Had to do some major reading up on the effect of saws cutting through bones, so:

THANK YOU KATHY REICHS FOR WRITING YOUR AMAZING NOVEL DEJA DEAD. The saw stuff helped a bunch and a half. And, if you're a Kathy Reichs fan, no, Ryan is not based off of Andrew Ryan. I just like the name Ryan.