Page 168 of Forever Dead

Selena finished her notes and sent them to Chuck, including the sources beside each name and the questions she had been unable to answer.

There was work happening beyond this room. Arnold was checking the existing suspects. State Police had the maze footage. The Bureau would help with records. None of it required her to drive anywhere.

She stood too quickly.

Pain caught her right knee, and she gripped the table until it passed.

Connor had asked her not to go after the man who had done this to him. She sat again, angry with herself for needing the reminder.

Her phone rang.

Blethan.

“Price said you wanted to know about the missing skin.”

“I do,” Selena answered.

“I’ve examined the wound. I’m still working, so don’t turn this into a finished report.”

“What can you tell me?”

“Well, lass, the cut follows a fairly consistent depth. There’s little damage to the tissue underneath. Whoever removed that section was taking care to keep it usable.”

“Curtis Halle worked on a kill floor. Would that account for it?” Selena said.

“It could account for familiarity with a knife and tissue. It doesn’t tell me what else he knows.”

“But this looks more deliberate than ordinary mutilation, Doc.”

“Yes. Deliberate, controlled dissection.”

Selena pulled the notebook closer.

“Surgical experience?”

“That belongs on your list. It doesn’t give you a job title.”

She wrote the words down. “Have you asked Foss?”

“Not about Nora. I haven’t sent him anything from this examination.”

“All right.”

“And Selena?”

“Yes?”

“Preliminary findings. Write that down too.”

She did.

After he hung up, she studied the list on the screen.

She had begun with recorded violence and worked toward relevant skills. Blethan’s findings gave her a reason to reverse it. Someone with experience in surgical dissection could have an unremarkable public history and still know exactly how to remove what he wanted.

It did not clear Curtis. It did not identify a doctor. But it changed which professional histories deserved attention.

She added Blethan’s preliminary finding to her notes and forwarded the update to Chuck.