In Rachels experience, coroners seemed to come in one of two forms: the sort that was a little too into their jobs and approached it with an intense sort of morbidity or the kind that seemed bored and almost passive about the dead bodies they saw on a daily basis. The one they met half an hour after leaving the construction site was the latter. His name was Pritchard, and he had the look of a stereotypical, dry chemistry teacher. His expression was flat which, on his rather chubby face, made him look almost like a frog. It was an image Rachel could not knock out of her head as they spoke with him.

When he led them to the bodies of Maria Ramirez and Bruce Webber, he did so as if he were simply showing off some everyday items at his housean old serving tray, perhaps, or an expensive painting. He held the notes and records of both in his hands but seemed to have already memorized the details.

As you can see, Webber caught the worst of it, Pritchard said. Again, his delivery was deadpan. He may as well have been talking about someone getting a bad case of allergies. He went through the gamut of details as Rachel and Jack looked over the body. It was in one of the long lab drawers installed into the wall. Pritchard had taken the liberty of rolling Maria Ramirezs bodyfresher and not yet placed into storagein for a side-by-side comparison. The wounds had been mended and closed up, but it was still gruesome.

I cant be one hundred percent certain, Pritchard said, but I believe the first wound was the one you see there along his left side. The blade went in and down at an angle, puncturing the large intestine. From there, I believe the killer worked their way up. The wound that looks nearly vertical would be the next likely one, then the shoulder. And then, of course, the neck. It could all be the other way around.

Also, one more interesting thing is that I believe the one that punctured the large intestine was the first one. But it is also the most shallow; it was not given with quite as much force as the others. The leads me to believe that either Mr. Webber saw the killer coming and jumped back, avoiding a deeper attack, or the killer was hesitant at first and then worked his nerve up with the other attacks.

Rachel agreed with this line of thought, but she also knew that there were times when killers became so enraptured in what they were doing, that they didnt pay attention to things like thisespecially people that had never killed before. And because Maria Ramirez had not received the same sort of mauling, Rachel couldnt help but wonder if Bruce Webber had indeed been the killers first victim ever. If that was the case, the hesitant looking first stab wound certainly made sense.