Intimate Relations, Rebecca Forster [best ereader for manga .txt] 📗

"I didn't know a guy could be embarrassed about something like that," Cori said.

"It wasn't the money, or the fact that I ended up in a strip joint that shamed me. I never told her about that evening because the whole gesture was a bust."

Cori rolled her eyes and asked, "Pun intended?"

"Oh, no. No, no, but that would have been very funny," Paul said. "The truth is, as I sat with my horrible drink watching a naked woman stare into the distance and pretend to dance, I realized how sad it all was. Carol Doda was a freak of nature and she traded on that, but I don't think she was happy. The man at the table on my right snored as he slept. The guy closest to the stage fidgeted with whatever was under the napkin in his lap. I realized that was the saddest hour of my life. I was in that dark room with lonely people when I could have been home with a wife who loved me."

Paul sighed and stuck his hands deep into the pockets of his white coat. His eyes were on the dead girl. His mind was back in time; he was a young and stupid man again.

"I expected excitement and some sort of acknowledgement that I was a man in control of my destiny."

"Women do the same thing only we end up sleeping with someone we hate or hanging off that pole," Cori said. "Everybody's got their saddest hour, doc."

"Well, one good thing came out of it. I learned that I was more turned on by the human anatomy when it wasn't moving —except for my wife mind you. Those are the two places I find the closest relationships: with my wife and with my patients. My wife never stares into the distance when she's with me, and the patients don't expect anything from me at all." He turned to look at Cori. "Maybe the people at that party of yours last night feel the same way this morning."

"You think too well of your fellow man," Cori said. "The people at that party included the president of a major bank, a CEO of a tech company, and a magazine publisher. I've never heard of the magazine, but it's supposed to be a big deal in international business. We never got one guy's name. His lawyer was at the station before we were, and had him headed home in five minutes. She was good. I have to give her credit."

"Women rule the world," Paul said.

"Women make it a more interesting place, and especially at this party," Cori answered. "Finn's ex was a guest."

"Oh, my," Paul said.

"I must say, she fills out a corset real well," Cori said.

"How did Finn take it?" Paul asked.

"He says he's good. Still, it's got to bother him. She made it real clear that she hated this little lady." Cori pointed to the body. "That puts her right in the middle of this mish-mash. Everyone in that place swears they don't know who she is. They all used aliases. Rules of the club."

"Well, that's a fun little game," Paul said. "Did Bev have one?"

"Aurora." Cori's cheek bulged where she had parked her tongue so as not to say anything more.

"Very Disneyesque." Paul said, neither intrigued nor amused. "But back to work. Our lady needs an identity. A real one."

Cori hung on every word that fell from the doctor's lips; her gaze followed each gesture. What this girl was now would lead her and Finn to who she had been in life. That was the key to solving her murder.

The doctor ran through the basics. Blood had been sent to the lab, but Paul didn't expect any surprises. Given the shape of the organs he doubted they would find drugs or excessive alcohol. The liver was pink and healthy, the heart free of obstruction, lungs were clear. She was missing her appendix and her thyroid. The thyroid was unusual for a person her age — which he put between eighteen and twenty-five.

Musculature was in good shape, but she was no athlete. He speculated that she belonged to a gym because her muscles were long and lean. Her abs were taut, but that had more to do with her age than a strenuous workout. Bottom line, had she not been dead she would be the picture of health.

The lower jaw was surprisingly intact considering the damage to the upper face. Pictures had been taken. The teeth she had left were well cared for. Braces had been applied. Paul found no evidence of fillings, root canals or other invasive dental procedures. If there was any it might have been done in the upper jaw but there the destruction was massive. He collected all shatters and shards of teeth and bone, and sent them along to the lab. He asked for an expedited report, but with such perfect teeth matching dental records was a dead end.

"Now, let's move up a bit," Paul said.

Both hands cupped the girl's face at cheek level without touching her, a gentle expression of care.

"Right here is where it gets interesting. You see how the nasal, temporal and zygomatic bones are literally pulverized?" Cori nodded, knowing she would have to look up the word zygomatic, but she didn't want to stop him when he was on a roll. "The frontal bone here remains intact."

Cori tiptoed up to peer to the other side of the girl's face.

"But that only happens on one side. So did the perp come at her with a flat object and maybe she turned her head just when he swung whatever he used, and that's why the damage wasn't uniform?"

Paul mimed the attack, clutching something in both his hands as he swung an imagined blow. He stopped as his hand hovered over the girl's destroyed face. Dissatisfied with whatever he was doing, he took two steps back. He swung his imaginary object again.

"No, no, I don't think so." He did the motion again, and this time