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They proceeded with the autopsy and Carl made his usual attempt to convince me to stick a needle in the eye to retrieve the vitreous fluid Thanks but no thanks There was a lot of gross I could handle, but that ay beyond an to peel the skin of Vic’s neck back "Good god, this was one strong son of a bitch!" He shook his head in ae clots of blood where the creature’s fingers had dug in "Carl, get pictures of this, please" He paused long enough for Carl to get the pictures, then continued peeling back the layers of muscle He carefully palpated the throat area and let out a lohistle

"Hyoid bone broken?" I asked I didn’t have y and anatomy, but I knew that the hyoid bone was often broken in cases ofit e is broken" He shook his head again in disbelief "This guy was dead--or at least well on his way there--before he was helped out the "

I couldn’t couy

Doc h the rest of the autopsy--re salanced up at Carl "Let’s get hi to want to do a posterior neck dissection to get a better look"

Carl removed the block beneath the body, then pulled out a thick, curved needle about three inches long and a ball of nylon string He cut off about a yard of string and threaded the needle, then extended the needle to o faster with two of us sewing"

I reluctantly took the needle "This is so disgusting"

His lips twitched "Be careful," he said "The needle can get slippery, and you don’t want to poke yourself And it doesn’t have to be pretty or neat The funeral hoed as I pushed the needle into the flesh at the edge of the long incision It didn’tanyh me every time I pierced the skin I definitely didn’t have it in me to do the kind of ritual torture that the Symbol Man had performed

I quickly discovered that "slippery" was an understateh Vic Kerry had lost ht and was fairly trim, he still had a thin layer of fat in his h that fat, the needle was slick and dae

"Thanks for the help," Carl said I looked up to see that he’d started fro up the rest of the incision in the tiave him a black scowl "You did not need ross stuff"

"Your perception astounds me," he replied with a dry chuckle "But I could use your help turning the body over"

"I think I need to start filling out a time sheet for the coroner’s office, Doc," I said over ist sh that you’re my favorite detective?"

I hid my smile and made a rude noise "Yeah, yeah," I said as I helped Carl flip Vic over "I’ve heard that tune before Money talks, Doc!"

Doc gave a low laugh "Worth a try" He stepped up to the prone body andthe spine from the nape of the neck to a point between the shoulder blades

"Unbelievable," he murmured after a moment of examination

"Doc? What did you find?"

"Kara, whoever did this was unbelievably strong You have shearing of discs of upper cervical vertebrae Marked heaments fro at globs of blood that apparently ory rabbed this guy by the neck and just squeezed, breaking and ripping everything back here"

"And then threw hi it look like a suicide," I said

"There’s no way that these injuries caave , strong, dirty giant"