“Ah, the power of modern science,” Jack commented. “This floater you foisted on me is turning into a bastard of a case.”

“Hey, you volunteered,” Laurie said.

“I’m teasing,” Jack said. “I’m glad I got the case. The shotgun wounds were definitely postmortem, so was the decapitation and removal of the hands. Of course the propeller injuries were, too.”

“What was the cause of death?” Laurie asked.

“Two other gunshot wounds,” Jack said. “One through the base of the neck.” He pointed to an area just above his right collarbone. “And another in the left side that shattered the tenth rib. The irony was that both slugs ended up in the mass of shotgun pellets in the right upper abdominal area and were difficult to be seen on the X ray.”

“Now that’s a first,” Laurie said. “Bullets hidden by shotgun pellets. Amazing! The beauty of this job is that you see new things every day.”

“The best is yet to come,” Jack said.

“This is a ‘beaut,’ ” Chet said. He’d been listening to the conversation. “It’ll be perfect for one of the forensic pathology dinner seminars.”

“I think the shotgun blasts were an attempt to shield the victim’s identity as much as the decapitation and removal of the hands,” Jack said.

“In what way?” Laurie asked.

“I believe this patient had had a liver transplant,” Jack said. “And not that long ago. The killer must have understood that such a procedure put the patient in a relatively small group, and hence jeopardized the chances of hiding the victim’s identity.”

“Was there much liver left?” Laurie asked.

“Very little,” Jack said. “Most of it was destroyed by the shotgun injury.”

“And the fish helped,” Chet said.

Laurie winced.

“But I was able to find some liver tissue,” Jack said. “We’ll use that to corroborate the transplant. As we speak, Ted Lynch up in DNA is running a DQ alpha. We’ll have the results in an hour or so. But for me the clincher was the sutures in the vena cava and the hepatic artery.”

“What’s a DQ alpha?” Laurie asked.

Jack laughed. “Makes me feel better that you don’t know,” he said, “because I had to ask Ted the same question. He told me it is a convenient and rapid DNA marker for differentiating two individuals. It compares the DQ region of the histocompatibility complex on chromosome six.”

“What about the portal vein?” Laurie asked. “Were there sutures in it as well?”

“Unfortunately, the portal vein was pretty much gone,” Jack said. “Along with a lot of the intestines.”

“Well,” Laurie said. “This should all make identification rather easy.”

“My thought exactly,” Jack said. “I’ve already got Bart Arnold hot on the trail. He’s been in contact with the national organ procurement organization UNOS. He’s also in the process of calling all the centers actively doing liver transplants, especially here in the city.”

“That’s a small list,” Laurie said. “Good job, Jack.”

Jack’s face reddened slightly, and Laurie was touched. She thought he was immune to such compliments.