The Pale Man Rises

CHAPTER FORTY SIX

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They turned in unison from where they stood and moved as a unit to the light blue '67 Dodge. Their breaths floated in a great foggy cloud about their heads and as they moved along they looked like a human freight train chugging down the tracks. All four of the Dodge's doors were open. A photographer continuously snapped pictures of the scene and another man was dusting the outside of the vehicle for prints. A doctor from the Coroner's Office, attired in an unbuttoned white coat sporting a stethoscope around his neck, was at the front of the vehicle and busily writing information for his report. He seemed rather young for such a position, but at present his youthful appearance was marred by a look that would indicate he was somewhat ill. One would suspect his age meant he was an intern rather than an established physician in the community. Farr and Spellman decided he was probably just that. The office of Coroner in many southern states is simply a political position and in many cases the office holder is not even a Medical Examiner . The Coroner in these instances simply, with professional input, determines that a death has occurred and if foul play may have taken place. He can also appoint and engage any local doctors he deems qualified, and many of them were young interns from nearby hospitals such as Sayer Memorial, which served this area.

The doctor evidently was overwhelmed by what he had seen in the automobile. He had obviously never attended the scene of a homicide. The Coroner had not been advised of the situation because of his close relationship with the Sheriff's brother-in-law, which the Police Chief had made him aware of. The Coroner therefore had contracted with the hospital for the initial inquiry and they had in turn dispatched this doctor-in-training to attend the crime scene instead of a more experienced physician.

All bodies that appear to have succumbed under suspicious circumstances are then sent to Chapel Hill where the North Carolina State Medical Examiner's Office is located and the forensic pathologist on that staff would then conduct a thorough autopsy.

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These doctors conduct most tests, but in some cases, due to distance and time restraints, and the need to immediately inspect some bodies, they are shipped off to nearby designated hospitals where ME recognized physicians conduct the autopsies.

But the Chapel Hill office did most of those ever required by the one hundred counties of the state, as this one was to be. Many factors relating to the deaths, however such as the time of death, were determined by the data local doctors gathered in a preliminary inspection at the scene.

Special Agent Mabry believed this was to archaic a system in these modern times and would one day have to be replaced by adding local MEs onto the county government's payroll eventually despite the monetary hardship it placed on these counties and was the motivation behind the current system. He went to the front passenger door and looked in on the corpse, which had by now been draped with a white sheet. Her right arm extended stiffly beyond the sheet's cover where it languished.

He pulled the sheet from her and handed it to Spellman who stood close behind him. He then slid through the open door cramping himself into the foot space. He had to move her stiff arm slightly to have enough room to make his observations. He pulled back her hair and studied her neck wounds intensely.

Harsh, ugly mounds of coagulated blood were about the wounds, but there wasn't as much of it as you would think there would be. By the time her head had slipped down to its present location she was virtually drained of her blood, so much so that very little of it was beneath her on the seat. Her dark red hair was almost black with blood and small amounts of it had smeared the seat and the panel of the driver's door. There was blood on her mouth. It had not come from any wound there, she had no wound there. It had been put there, as if someone had caressed her with his or her own mouth, a mouth that was covered in blood.