The Assistant M.E. put his feet up on the desk.
âDoc, about that girl they brought in DOA from Northwest. My sergeant seems to have kind of a garbled report on her from your office. Maybe you can straighten it out for me.â
âGarbled?â
âHe says you told him somebodyâd cut out her tongue with a pair of pliers.â
âThatâs right. I did.â
âA pair of pliers?â
âThe jaws left clear indentations on whatâs left of her tongue, Lieutenant. Maybe I phrased it badly in the report. I said theyâd cut out her tongue. âPulledâ would have been more accurate.â
âGood Christ.â After a moment the lieutenant resumed: âYou did the autopsy yourself?â
âI regret to say I did.â
âAnd thereâs no sign she was sexually molested?â
âNone. Of course thatâs not conclusive, but thereâs no sign of vaginal irritation, no semen, none of the usualâââ
âOkay. Now the cause of death, youâve got âheart removalâ here. Now for Christâs sake whatâââ
âRead the whole thing, Lieutenant.â
âI have. God help me.â
âHeart removal by probable use of ordinary household tools.â
âYeah. You mean kitchen knife, that kind of thing?â
âThatâs a utensil. I said tools. I suspect they used a hammer and chisel, although I canât prove it.â
The lieutenant didnât speak for a little while. When he did his voice was very thin. âAll right, Doc, then tell me this. If the cause of death was a hammer and chisel against the breastplate how in hell did they get her to hold still for it?â
âI wasnât there, Lieutenant. How should I know? Probably a few of them held her down and one of them did the job on her.â
âAnd she didnât scream?â
âMaybe she screamed her head off. You know that neighborhoodâthey mug you on the street in broad daylight, nobody lifts a finger.â
Another pause. Then: âDoc, this has got the stink of some kind of ritual to it. Some hoodoo voodoo thing.â
âWas she Haitian or anything like that?â
âWe havenât got a make on her yet. I donât know what she was.â
The Assistant M.E. had her face in his mind. It must have been a pleasant face before. Youngâhe had put her at twenty-one or -two. The proud Afro haircut, the good long legs. The telephone moved fitfully against his ear. He said, âI admit itâs one I havenât come across before.â
âGod forbid we ever come across it again. Listen, just for the record, if we come across a bloody pair of pliers can you match them up to measurements or anything?â
âI doubt it. Not unless you find tissues adhering to the pliers. We could set up a circumstantial case on the basis of blood type, I suppose.â
âYeah. All right. Look, anything else you didnât put in the report? Anything that might give a lead?â
âUp in New York and Chicago they seem to have quite a few mobster killings where they rub out somebody who squealed on them and leave the corpse lying around with a big plaster of tape over the mouth, or they pour a jar of acid in the mouth, that kind of thing. Itâs a warning to other potential squealersâyou know, see what happens to you if you open your mouth to the wrong people.â
âSicilian justice.â
âYes. But this girl wasnât Sicilian, thatâs for sure.â
âMaybe the killer is.â
âMaybe.â
The lieutenant sighed audibly. âWith pliers and a hammer and chisel? I donât know.â
âIâd like to help, Lieutenant. Iâd love to put it all in your lap for you. But Iâm all gone dry.â
âAll right. Iâm sorry I bugged you, Doc. Good night.â
3:05 A.M. The make on the dead girl came into the detective squad room on the