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DR THEODORE MAXWELL, a heavyset black in his mid-fifties, let the blood-spattered sheet drop down over the ruin of a face He wore a smock s sunlight streah the drawn blinds of the Coquina clinic exalasses off the bridge of his nose, and let thes before: men whose noses had been cut off by rusted razors in barrooled reht in the screw of a trawler He was faly wounds of life, and faht of death But in his experience most people died in their sleep, with an expression of peace and al man who lay before him had seen Hell before he died
Maxwell reached for a clipboard and began to jot notes for later reference
"What&039;s your opinion?" Kip asked wearily, his eyes hollow from lack of sleep
Dr Maxwell looked up quickly, then went back to his clipboard He finished writing, then said in a soft, quiet tone of voice that belied the tension he felt, "Perhaps the s were used: fists, fingers, some kind of blunt instruments Maybe a wrench, and there&039;s indication a ha at the outline of the corpse
"Any next of kin?" Dr Maxwell asked
"No I don&039;t even knohere he was from He was an island drifter"
The doctor put his clipboard aside, steeled hiain The ri eyes again He took a sht from his breast pocket and leaned over the throat Yes Those marks were unmistakable
"What is it?" Kip asked
Maxwell snapped off the light, returned it to his pocket; he placed the sheet back down "Thistoward the constable "But I believe he was dead before he received that throat wound"
"Then one of the blows to the head killed hio into the chest cavity and look at the heart The frozen facial ue - all those ht on by a sudden and severe shock"
Kip blinked, letting the words sink in "A shock? Fright, is that what you&039;re saying?"
"That I don&039;t know I&039;ve heard of it happening before, but I&039;ve never seen it"
Kip shook his head in disbelief "Christ Alh to kill him?" He looked into the doctor&039;s eyes for an answer, but the other man had turned away Kip crossed the roo man had had in his pockets A few coins, a sanja And also soers It was a few inches of filthy cloth, us Kip picked it up and held it under the desk lamp to examine it for the third tireen, but noas a sickly, faded color so Turk had grabbed at during his horrifying ordeal?
The constable gathered up the items and buttoned theanja for a feild highs; it was one hell of a legacy to leave behind What a terrible way for anyfrom the covered corpse back to the other man "What types of wild anile?"
At first he thought he&039;d misunderstood Maxwell Then Kip answered "Notsnakes, that&039;s it" He narrowed his eyes, seeing the puzzled expression on the doctor&039;s face "Why?"
Maxwell folded his arainst the exaaze steady "There are teeth ht cheekbone So to get at the bone marrow All I can think of at this point is some kind of animal"
What kind of animal would do that? Kip shook his head, ran the back of his hand across his face No, he knew of no vicious anih there were probably several places so choked with growth that anythingin there He had seen a couple of the boar on occasion, but they were too sh to take on a man?" Kip asked "Impossible, not on Coquina But teeth marks? You&039;re sure it&039;s not the ?"
"Yes"
Kip took a step toward the corpse and then checked hi hiain Teeth marks? No, it didn&039;t make sense! "Do this for me, please," he said "I want you to keep that opinion to yourself Do whatever you have to, an autopsy or whatever, but I don&039;t want anyone to know about the ure out what the hell&039;s going on"
"All right," Maxwell said, "I understand" He made a move to wheel the table out of the examination room, and as the doctor turned the table around, Kip felt that scrape of nails inside again, and this time a chunk of h a pair of doors into a hallway and then into another rooet out; histhe clinic, he walked in the hot sunlight toward the Square, his brain filled with questions he couldn&039;t begin to answer What if there were sole that could attack and kill aon the bone? But then why hadn&039;t some of the inland farmers seen it? They&039;d been out there for years, and if an anile at least one person should have seen it But no, no; Turk had been struck by blunt instruments as well as fists; Maxwell had said so himself What had probably happened was that so the body for the big wharf rats that had eaten through the dead flesh That made sense, but then how did Turk&039;s body wind up in the water?
Kip was stunned by the brutality of the crime A murder on Coquina was practically unthinkable There were always barrooly, butthe islanders would be capable of such a thing? At once he thought of the Carib Indian h, fierce breed, and whenever they cae, which was fortunately rare, Kip had to wield a billyclub to break up the trouble The Caribs were hot-blooded people who - island rumor said - had practiced cannibalism on their enemies less than a hundred years before Was it possible Turk had run into one, or a group of them, who had come down from their settlement to see the submarine? It was all speculation, of course, but maybe worth a drive over to Caribville to ask some questions
No, he decided It was rats The rats had crept out and torn into the corpse&039;s flesh, and that accounted for the teeth marks
Kip saw David Moore&039;s truck parked over by the hardware supply in the Square There was a stack of timber in the truck bed, and as Kip approached, Moore ca another load of wood in his arms He laid the tio back inside when he saw the constable and raised a hand in greeting
"Business so good you&039;re building an addition?" Kip asked hi this aside in case we have another blow during the season The old roof ht not take much more this year"