Dirk had finished the autopsy, so she wasn’t as grossly swollen as when she’d been found. Even so, she looked like some kind of monstrous hybrid. There was nothing left of her nose or lips. Dallas wasn’t sure that her own mother would have recognized her.
With gloved hands, he inspected her neck. The bruising around the throat was like a black collar. He looked at Dirk. “Strangulation?”
Mendini nodded. “Yes.”
Dallas surreptitiously removed a glove and laid his palm on the body, but he didn’t feel anything at all. He prayed the poor woman’s soul had moved on.
“We can try dental records,” Mendini said.
Kelsey stepped into the room. She had on a mask and gloves. Before Dallas had a chance to ask her where Hannah was, Logan’s shocked expression posed the question.
“Don’t look at me like that. Hannah is fine. She’s in Dirk’s office with the door locked,” she said.
“You think you might recognize her?” Mendini asked.
“I’m just interested in a challenging autopsy,” she replied.
But Dallas knew the truth. She, too, had come to touch the body. But he could tell from her expression that she didn’t get anything from the corpse, either.
*
Hannah looked around Dirk Mendini’s office. Nice. He had a gold coin from the Atocha displayed in a glass case on his desk. His many framed certifications hung on the walls, along with seascapes and old photos. She was sitting in a chair in front of his big pine desk, but there was also a comfortable sofa against the wall. She wondered if he sometimes slept in his office.
There was a book on the lower Keys on his desk; she thumbed idly through it as she waited. She got so caught up in it that she was startled to hear a knock at the door.
“Hannah, it’s me. Logan.”
She rose and opened the door.
“You up to seeing a corpse?” he asked.
“Do you think I might recognize...her?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t think anyone would recognize her. I thought you might—well, your ability to communicate with the dead is better than any of ours. Stronger. Kelsey’s told me about how when you were kids she ‘met’ people through you. I know you’re a civilian and this is a lot to ask, but...”
“You want me to touch the corpse, don’t you?”
He nodded.
Reluctantly, but knowing she had no choice but to do the right thing, she accompanied him down the hall and through a door marked Autopsy: Staff Only.
Kelsey was asking Mendini something technical that Hannah was perfectly happy not to understand.
Dallas was standing by the corpse, waiting, watching her. He looked regretful. She had a feeling he wasn’t happy about the decision to ask for her help, even if he’d agreed with it because it was the right one.
She walked up to the corpse, telling herself not to look closely.
“Do you know her?” Dirk asked.
She shook her head as she touched the woman’s flesh where he couldn’t see. It just felt cold.
She looked at Dallas and shook her head again.
Turning, she noticed another body.
Bentley Holloway.
She felt nothing when she looked at him and wondered if that meant something was wrong with her. She was sorry, of course; she hated the idea that she had killed anyone. But the idea was intellectual, not anything that came from her heart.
Overall, she still felt numb. She’d simply done what she had to do.
She turned away from the body and said, “I’ll be back in the office.”
“I’ll walk you out,” Kelsey said.
Hannah didn’t know how much longer the others were going to be, so once she locked the door behind Kelsey, she chose a seat on the sofa and picked up the book on the lower Keys again, turning to the section on Key West. She was just thinking how much she loved her home when she heard sobbing.
She looked up. The ghost of a young woman was sitting in Dr. Mendini’s chair, at least as much as a ghost could sit anywhere.
The ghost was naked, and she hadn’t fully materialized, which somehow made her both more beautiful and more pathetic.
“Hello?” Hannah said softly, rising.
The sobbing stopped, and the ghost looked at her in shock.
“Hello. Please don’t be afraid,” Hannah said. How funny, she thought. I’m the living person, and I’m telling a ghost not to be afraid.
But the ghost was afraid. She disappeared completely for a minute, then began to slowly reappear.
Hannah stood and walked toward her. “It’s all right. I’d like to help you if I can.”
“No one can help me. I saw...myself,” the young woman said.
In life, she had been beautiful. Long, curling dark hair tumbled down her neck and over her shoulders. Her eyes were large and dark and stunning. And given that she was naked, there was no way not to notice that her body was absolutely perfect.
“I’m Hannah.” She prayed she wasn’t going to get the reply she was expecting when she asked, “Are you...Alicia?”
To her relief, the young woman shook her head. “Alicia is so kind. She tried to keep us believing that help will come. Then, a few days ago, we heard that her brother was dead. She always believed he was coming for us, that he would save us.”