“There’s significant bruising on the throat,” the coroner said. “That indicates a prolonged struggle prior to death. The hyoid bone is broken; that’s a sure sign of strangulation. There are bite marks on both sides of the neck, but the punctures are small and there’s relatively little blood— that indicates the wounds themselves were not the cause of death.”

“Then what was?”

“I can tell you that,” Alena said. “Suffocation—his windpipe was crushed. But it wasn’t Phlegethon’s fault. He only did what I trained him to do.”

“And what exactly was that?”

“To take the intruder down by the throat and to hold him there until help arrived. Phlegethon would never kill anyone on purpose—he barely even broke the skin with his teeth—but once he has you by the throat, he won’t let go no matter what.”

“That’s true,” Nick said. “Trust me on that point.”

Alena nodded. “He must have tried to get away. He shouldn’t have struggled—I would have told him that but I never got the chance.”

“He got as much chance as he gave you,” Nick said. “He got what he deserved.” Nick stepped a little closer. “You know, if we just left him here, at this temperature the blowfly and flesh fly maggots would reduce his body to a skeleton in a little over two weeks. If you look at the soft tissues around his eyes and nostrils, you can see where they’ve already begun to lay their eggs—it looks like grated cheese.”

“Thank for sharing,” Donovan said. “We can all hack up our donuts now.”

“No kidding, it’s an amazing thing to see.”

“Sorry we have to miss that—but I think the coroner plans to take him away.”

“What happens now?” Alena asked. “They won’t try to take my dog away, will they?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Donovan said. “A security dog attacks an armed intruder on private property—it was obviously self-defense. You shouldn’t have any problems.”

Donovan’s cell phone rang and he stepped away to answer it.

“Now what?” Alena asked.

“Now the FBI starts asking all kinds of questions,” Nick said, “and unfortunately some of them don’t have answers. Why did Chris Riddick try to kill you? Was he doing it to protect Victoria Braden, and if so, was he acting independently or under her authority? That’s the one unfortunate thing about his death—nobody can ask him. And you can bet the Bradens will deny ever knowing the guy—they’ll make him out to be some whacked-out employee who just went off the deep end. We know why Agnes killed four men, including your father—but why is there a two-hundred-year-old body at the Patriot Center that was killed in the same manner? The truth is, we may never know.”