Hollis had never been fond of morgues, but she was accustomed enough that neither the harsh lighting nor the eye-stingingly harsh odors of chemicals and the faint, underlying smell of death distracted her from her job. Much.

“Please tell us something we didn’t know,” she asked Jill in a tone that really was almost pleading.

Jill smiled faintly, but there was a tiny frown between her delicate brows. “Well, with Cole Ainsworth—the ID is now official, thanks to a healed fracture from football and a small scar on the sole of his left foot—I can’t tell you anything any of you couldn’t see for yourselves. He was likely rendered unconscious by a severe blow to the head, and COD was massive blood loss and shock.

“Between those two events, he was tortured by somebody with enthusiasm and a very sharp knife, maybe a scalpel but likely something as common as a kitchen or pocket knife. Your unsub didn’t stop when his victim stopped breathing, which is why Ainsworth looks the way he does. The unsub had fun removing most of the skin in strips, some of which he seared apparently just because. He both cut and crushed muscles and some organs, the latter probably with some kind of common tool like a hammer or mallet. What organs he didn’t destroy by crushing he removed and left with the other remains. He didn’t exactly dismember Ainsworth so much as crush some of the long bones of the arms and legs—with pliers, I think—badly enough that nothing but a few tendons and shreds of muscle held them in place. It was afterward that he cut or broke most of the long bones to separate them from the other remains.”

She shrugged slightly. “I don’t know if time of death matters to you in this particular case, since I understand you believe he was held for quite a while before he was killed. And TOD isn’t easy to determine because of what was done to the body and the cold temperatures. But I estimate he’s been dead about forty-eight hours.”

DeMarco said, “Do you know if he was drugged?”

“Preliminary tox screen doesn’t show alcohol or drugs or other toxins, but I’ve sent samples to the lab. Results in a few days, probably.”

“If you had to guess?” Hollis asked.

“If I had to guess, I’d say he was awake and aware while all of it was going on.”

“Awake. Jesus. Any signs he was restrained in any way?”

“Yeah. Ligature marks on one otherwise unmarked wrist and ankle from a fairly thick rope. He was tied that way for quite a while. Hours at least. Longer. But traces of an adhesive were found on the arms, wrists, and ankles. There were also some wood slivers embedded in his back, arms, and legs. My guess, after he was tied up for a while, he was then duct-taped to some kind of wooden frame, something as simple as a cross, that held his body fairly stationary while the unsub worked on him.”