“When we proceeded to move the body from the grave, it erupted into flames caused by some chemical reaction we’re still trying to determine. It’s been suggested this was done as a means to conceal the true identity of the girl. Despite what the Warlock wants us to believe, the dead do not come back to life.” He ends the recap by freezing on the face of the girl we’re still calling Chloe, fire erupting out of her mouth.

It’s a hellish sight, much higher resolution than anything on the news. She looks like a demon screaming fire in a medieval painting, almost biblical.

Knoll points to Danielle. “Our forensic team brought back what we could to look at in our labs. We’ll probably know within a few hours if we can get a tissue match between this and the preserved samples from the first murder victim nineteen months ago. As you can imagine, it’s a bit of a challenge. We still haven’t identified the particular incendiary device used to cause the combustion. Field tests show high levels of potassium, indicating that it was some kind of autocatalytic reaction. This still leaves two questions: who and how. Danielle?”

A tech pulls up the 3-D image of the coffin in the ground as Danielle walks over to the screen. Her voice is clipped. I can tell she hasn’t slept since she got back. I feel guilty for my nap. “Density tests and soil oxidization levels indicate this casket has been in this position for at least six months, likely much longer, which implies that this was planned at least that far back. The real Chloe, or original victim, was probably removed at that time. The whereabouts of her body are still unknown. It would seem evident that the original Chloe was murdered by the same individual who staged this. He drew her blood, saved it and injects it into the second victim to confuse a preliminary forensic examination. Or at least that’s the prevailing theory.”

As she says this I begin to have doubts. I don’t know why. Something is out of place. The long burn . . .

A blond woman with glasses stops taking notes and raises her pen. “Would a more thorough examination have revealed the transfusion?”

“I think so. Given the extreme circumstances, we would have done skin scraping as well and compared them with samples from the original autopsy. If it was just a regional medical examination, then possibly, but I’d like to think they would have caught it too.”

“Are we sure there are two girls?” asks the woman.

Danielle thinks the question over carefully. We all know it can’t be just one girl, but she’s rational enough to know we can’t always go by what we “know.” “The first girl’s body would likely have much more advanced necrosis. It’s possible the body could have been preserved. But a cellular analysis would confirm this. Because we stand a good chance of getting a skin sample from the portion of the body that was still in the ground and didn’t undergo complete combustion, I’m reasonably confident we will be able to know in a few hours.” She looks in my direction. “Thanks to Agent Blackwood, we can be thankful we have that much. If the techs had pulled the body all the way out of the ground, we might have a different story and be looking only at a pile of ash.”