Lancelot's Lady (41 page)

"
I-I
'
m sorry,
"
she told him.

A bright flash sent her muddled mind back to the case that still haunted her. The Parliament Murders. Memories flooded her mind. She couldn
'
t fight them, or stop them. All she could do was remember.

As usual, everything had started with a dead body.

2

Sunday, April 15, 2012

~ Ottawa, ON

Jasi first met Monty Winkler at the Ottawa Forensics Unit, but shaking his hand was definitely out of the question. From the look of his bloated, blistered and undeniably dead corpse, Winkler wouldn
'
t be shaking hands, hugging women or kissing babies any time in the future.

As she approached the metal table, she was forced to do a double-take. Her gaze drifted from the corpse
'
s face to the photo on her data-com screen.

She frowned.
"
You sure this is my floater?
"

"
The one and only,
"
the pathologist said.
"
All week.
"

"
A slow week?
"

"
Dead slow. For him anyway.
"

Jasi held out a hand.
"
Agent Jasmine McLellan, CFBI.
"

The woman removed a latex glove and wiped her hand on her lab coat before offering it.
"
Dr. Faith Copeland, keeper of the dead. Also known as the chief pathologist.
"

Copeland was small and neat in appearance, her ash-blond hair twisted into a tight bun. Gold-rimmed glasses made her brown eyes appear even larger and softened the small lines that feathered the corners. She wore no makeup and didn
'
t need any to maintain an attractive, yet serious, appearance.

The pathologist yawned loudly, then blushed.
"
Sorry. I
'
ve been on this case almost twenty-four-seven. We
'
re a bit short-staffed. You know, government cutbacks and all.
"

"
No need to apologize.
"

Jasi knew all too well the hazards of a case like this one.

"
This victim is our number one priority,
"
Copeland stated.
"
And I doubt any of us will get much sleep until you find his killer.
"

Jasi turned her attention back to the body on the table.

Winkler was unrecognizable. His unanticipated swim in the icy waters of the Ottawa River had put on an extra twenty pounds or more of bloated tissue. That was after someone had tried to fry his flesh—extra crispy. His body was unevenly burned and blistered, with most of the damage to his head, face and right side. Fish had feasted on one side of Winkler
'
s head, and the underlying skin tissue clung loosely to muscle and bone, falling away in places like meat from the bone of an overcooked turkey.

Jasi
'
s stomach lurched and she studied the photo again.

What happened to you?

The smiling—and alive—Monty Winkler in the photo reminded her of someone, a comedian. The father in
American Pie
. He had the same curly black hair, a prominent nose, bushy eyebrows and dark intelligent eyes circled by black frames. A man like him with average height, weight and looks would normally blend into a crowd, except that he had a charismatic personality that most people found very appealing.

Married, with no kids, Winkler was a dedicated Member of Parliament and a firm supporter of gun rights, and although women hovered around him like flies, he
'
d always appeared committed to his wife.

What was her name?

Jasi consulted a file on her data-com.
Ah, Marilyn!

"
Marilyn
'
s going to take this hard, Monty.
"

Her eyes wandered across the photo again and she glanced back at the decomposing body.
"
How can you be the same man who wielded such charm that you had college girls and married women practically swooning at your feet?
"

"
Pardon me?
"
Copeland said, distracted.

"
Don
'
t mind me. I have a habit of talking to the dead.
"

"
As long as they don
'
t talk back.
"

"
So you
'
re sure this is Monty Winkler?
"

Copeland nodded.
"
We made a positive ID from the DNA I pulled from his hair and matched to a hairbrush his wife brought in.
"

Jasi tried to picture Monty Winkler as she
'
d last seen him on television. He was a well respected man, for a former lawyer. Unlike many of his fellow MPs, Winkler had kept himself in shape with a regimented routine of low-carb health food and running and weightlifting every morning. He
'
d looked damn good for a man nearing his fifties.

But you don
'
t make a very good-looking corpse.

She hovered over the table, scanning every inch of Winkler
'
s body. Unfortunately, the fire and the river had destroyed most of the physical evidence. And sitting in cold storage for almost three days didn
'
t help either.

"
COD?
"
she asked without taking her eyes away.

"
In layman
'
s terms, he drowned in freshwater,
"
Copeland said.
"
There
'
s a substantial amount of fluid in his airway and stomach, and his lungs are inflated. We were able to confirm the presence of diatoms, which we identified and were able to match to a specific section of the Ottawa River.
"

"
Which section?
"

"
From Mud Lake—that
'
s west of the city—to the MacDonald Cartier Bridge to the north. Ironically, he would have died soon anyway.
"

"
Why?
"

"
There was blunt force trauma to the neurocranium. His brain was hemorrhaging.
"

Since rigor mortis was fading, Copeland was able to carefully turn Winkler
'
s partially shaved head so Jasi could view the injuries. The back of the skull was exposed. Fragments of parietal and occipital bone were embedded in a frenzied array of circular indentations, some of them overlapping.

"
Any idea what caused these wounds?
"

Copeland shook her head.
"
Never seen anything like it.
"

"
Could they be accidental? From the river maybe?
"

"
No, not with this grouping so close together.
"

"
So he was hit on the back of the head numerous times.
"

"
With a heavy circular object,
"
Copeland added,
"
approximately an inch and a half in diameter.
"

Jasi chewed her bottom lip for a moment.

"
Why do you say he was hit with a
heavy
object?
"

Copeland strode across the room to a workstation. She tapped on a touch screen and brought up a 3-D hologram of Winkler
'
s wounds.

"
There are ten of these impressions, Agent McLellan. Notice their depth. They
'
re small in circumference, yet deep, meaning two things. The perp was enraged and the weapon had some weight to it, otherwise it would
'
ve broken or folded under pressure and left uneven marks, not these perfect circles.
"

The pathologist zoomed in on the occipital region.

"
Each impression shows a slight angle of impact. I believe he was either hit from behind by a very tall man or he was kneeling or sitting.
"

Jasi studied the hologram.
"
Maybe the killer used a metal pipe?
"

"
Could be. But it
'
s an odd way to wield a pipe.
"

Copeland was right. Most pipe injuries were made with the side or length of a pipe, causing long, cylindrical wounds.

"
Maybe he was jabbed with a martial arts weapon,
"
Copeland said.

"
What about defensive wounds?
"

"
He couldn
'
t have fought back. Toxicology report came back positive for flunitrazepam.
"

"
Flunitrazepam?
"

"
You
'
d know it as Rohypnol.
"

Jasi
'
s heart skipped a beat.
"
The date rape drug?
"

"
Flunitrazepam has sedative, paralytic and amnestic properties, which is why it
'
s been a popular in rape cases. The victim loses muscle control and often ends up with anterograde amnesia and can
'
t recall what happened.
"

"
Winkler wasn
'
t raped, was he?
"

"
No. My guess is someone wanted him docile.
"

Jasi paced the floor.
"
Rohypnol isn
'
t easy to get.
"

"
Not anymore. Ever since drug manufacturers started adding noticeable dyes to the tablets, we
'
ve seen less of it in the clubs and on the streets. It
is
available in injectable liquid, but you
'
d have to acquire it in Mexico or overseas.
"

Copeland tapped the screen and brought up a holographic image of Winkler
'
s upper left arm.

"
This is the injection site,
"
she said, pointing to a small dark spot.
"
He was given a large dose.
"

Jasi peered over the woman
'
s shoulder at the body on the table. How could someone have gotten close enough to Winkler to stick him with a hypodermic?

"
The drug was administered about a half hour before the scalp wounds were inflicted,
"
Copeland said.
"
He wouldn
'
t have felt much, but he was conscious enough to know what was happening. Shortly afterward, he was lit on fire.
"

"
Jesus!
"

"
The burn pattern is consistent with the use of an accelerant. What
'
s unusual is that the regions here and here weren
'
t burned to the same extent.
"

Jasi studied the area the pathologist had indicated. The left side of the body was less burnt than the rest.

"
Do you think something was covering him?
"

The smile Copeland gave her had the effect of taking ten years off the woman.
"
Watch closely, Agent McLellan.
"

The pathologist tapped the touch screen and the hologram began to fold in as if Winkler were sitting down. Then the 3-dimensional form rotated on one side.

"
He was lying on his left side when the accelerant was poured on him,
"
Jasi observed.

Copeland nodded.
"
In a small, restrictive space. He didn
'
t die from smoke inhalation, although there was some smoke damage to his lungs. He was dumped into the river shortly afterward, still breathing.
"

"
What
'
s the estimated time of death?
"

"
TOD is between eleven p.m. and two a.m. on April 13.
"
She grimaced.
"
Friday the 13
th
, to be exact.
"

"
Did you send your report to the CFBI?
"

"
Yes, and I uploaded an image of the wound pattern.
"