Page 162 of Forever Dead

Price lowered the fragment into the tray.

Selena turned toward the kitchen.

“What if Nora pulled this loose during the attack?”

“Would fit with the disturbance here,” Chuck said.

“It might,” Price replied. “We haven’t established how it got under the couch.”

“No,” Selena said. “But the earlier victims had similar fragments beneath their nails. This piece has a torn edge and thread pulled out of the seam.”

She looked back at Nora again.

“And Nora has skin missing.”

Chuck followed her attention.

“You think those things are connected?”

“I want to compare them.”

Price photographed the fragment against a scale before securing it in its own container. Back in the kitchen, he showed them the image on his camera.

Selena remained on the protected route.

“The piece from Nora is larger,” Chuck said.

“It is,” she replied. “I’m not suggesting an exact fit. If she tore a section out of his mask, he might have taken more than he needed so he could trim a replacement.”

Price studied the excision.

“That gives us something to test. It doesn’t establish why he removed it.”

“No. He could have taken it as a trophy. But replacement would explain why there’s damaged material here and fresh skin missing from her body.”

Chuck rubbed his jaw. “Then why wear the mask again and not something else?”

“He wouldn’t have to repair it first. Connor could have seen it with the section still missing. Besides, it feels like the mask means something to the killer. He wants to use it when he kills.”

Selena thought of the killer reaching down to retrieve what Nora had torn away and failing to find it beneath the couch.

Perhaps that was why he had left it. Perhaps he had not looked at all.

She turned back to Price.

“Will you have the laboratory compare this with the material from Eleanor and Patricia?”

“Yes. Blethan will examine Nora’s hands, too. If there’s thread or similar material beneath her nails, that may help us work out what happened.”

Selena studied the regular borders of the missing skin.

“What about the way this was removed?”

Price came closer. “The edges are clean.”

“Does that suggest experience?”

“It could. A sharp blade and time would matter, too. Blethan needs to examine the depth and the underlying tissue before we start deciding what the person knew.”