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🕑 Added 2025-03-24 14:08:01 +0000 UTCAnatomy of a Killer
Chapter 21 - The Girl in the Woods, Part 10
"Let’s pray the killer wore a skirt or pants!" Ángel said as he watched Larry nearly finish his work.
The comment, though sarcastic, reflected the team's uncertainty. They had no idea to whom the collected sample belonged. They couldn't even determine if it came from a man or a woman.
The beam was immediately sent for analysis.
Max grabbed a vial containing a cotton swab and hurried to inspect it meticulously.
Meanwhile, Larry delved deeper into the wound, carefully separating the edges with surgical precision. A slight subcutaneous hemorrhage became visible, confirming his initial hypothesis: the injury had been inflicted before death.
After a more thorough evaluation, he found no further relevant information in that area.
Noticing that Larry was working alone, Ángel approached to help him turn the body.
With steady hands, Larry carefully removed the remaining tissue from the deceased’s lips and examined it with a magnifying glass. Then, he focused on the teeth. He had already checked the oral cavity earlier, but now he had the feeling he had overlooked something. This time, he inspected each tooth meticulously.
Suddenly, his gaze froze on a specific point.
"Tweezers! I need tweezers!" Larry exclaimed with some urgency, forgetting that Ángel was just a veteran detective and not a forensic expert.
Ángel reacted immediately and handed him the tool. He wasn’t an expert, but after years of working with Masuka, he had learned a few things. Even so, his analytical skills were far from matching those of a criminal profiler like Larry.
With extreme care, Larry pulled out a hair tangled in a blood clot, hidden in the deepest folds of Greta Mayer’s upper jaw.
After a moment, Larry precisely extracted the hair from the clot and, upon closer examination, let out a chuckle filled with satisfaction.
"Actually, it’s a hair with its follicle intact."
Just then, Mac entered the room with his hands raised in a gesture of surrender. His gaze shifted from the evidence bag held by the burly man to Larry’s triumphant expression. After a brief pause, he shrugged and commented with resignation:
"Looks like I have another sample delivery to make."
…
Miami Metropolitan Police Department, Homicide Division
1:30 p.m., January 3rd
After completing the second autopsy, they quickly grabbed a meal in the cafeteria to regain some energy.
Just then, both Larry’s and Max’s phones rang simultaneously.
Max checked his screen and, seeing the call was from the pathology department’s landline, ran out with evident excitement.
Meanwhile, Larry saw Captain Tom Matthews’ name on his screen and answered immediately.
"Forensic Doctor Luk, we’ve caught Valeria. Come at once."
"Good!" Larry replied, much calmer now.
Wasting no time, he grabbed a stack of color-printed photographs and a police uniform jacket that had been resting on the table he had been using during these late-night investigations.
"Let’s go!"
As they left the office, Max had already run down the stairs from the second floor, carrying a pile of reports, and followed them without delay.
Shortly after, the three arrived at the homicide division and headed up to the second-floor meeting room.
As soon as they entered, Larry nodded in greeting to the captain. But before he could sit down, the captain quickly approached him and shook his hand enthusiastically.
"The investigator assigned to the high school where the murder took place received my call and went to find the principal," the captain explained without preamble. "However, Valeria called in sick this morning and said she was going to the clinic for some medication. I ordered a search of nearby clinics, and we found her in a pharmacy north of the high school. When they caught her, she was with her mother, buying medicine."
Larry exhaled in relief. The important thing was that they had found her. Valeria was an imminent danger; if she didn’t kill someone else, she would end up taking her own life.
"Did the tech detectives manage to crack Greta Mayer’s computer?" Larry asked as he settled comfortably in the captain’s office.
The captain nodded seriously.
"I was just about to tell you. The computer was hacked, but they managed to recover the sent messages. They also synchronized them with her mobile phone."
"Are all five of them in the same group?" Larry interjected, analyzing the information in his mind.
"Yes. Camila even suggested going to the beach to take pictures on Sunday, but the others were busy and couldn’t go."
Ángel, who had remained silent until then, frowned and asked,
"Have they verified where Camila was on the day Greta was murdered?"
Larry immediately formulated a new hypothesis:
"Could it be that Greta Mayer was the person Camila had arranged to meet?"
A heavy silence settled in the room as everyone processed the possibility.
