“Jeans, black briefs and T-shirt are Armani and Versace. The briefs are inside out,” I continued taking inventory. “Shoes, belt, socks are Armani. See the dirt and scuffing?” I pointed them out. “Could be consistent with him being dragged from behind, if someone had him under the arms.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Marino said.
Some fifteen minutes later, the doors slid open and Ruffin walked in, a phone sheet in hand. He taped it up on a cabinet door.
“I miss anything?” he cheerfully asked.
“We’ll take a look at the clothes with the Luma-Light, then let them dry and trace can do their thing with them,” I instructed Ruffin in an unfriendly tone. “Let his other personal effects air-dry, then bag them.”
He yanked on gloves.
“Ten-four,” he said with an edge.
“Looks like you’re already studying to get into the academy.” Marino picked on him some more. “Good for you, kid.”
13
I lost myself in what I was doing, my mind pulled into a body that was completely autolyzed and putrefied and hardly recognizable as human.
Death had rendered this man defenseless, and bacteria had escaped from the gastrointestinal tract, invading as it pleased, fomenting, fermenting, and filling every space with gas. Bacteria broke down cell walls and turned the blood in veins and arteries a greenish-black, making the entire circulatory system visible through the discolored skin like rivers and tributaries on a map.
Areas of the body that had been covered by clothing were in much better shape than the head and hands.
“God, how would you like to run into him when you’re skinny-dipping at night?” Ruffin said, looking at the dead man.
“He can’t help it,” I said.
“And guess what, Chuckie-boy?” Marino said. “After you die someday, you’re gonna look ugly as hell, too.”
“Dó we know exactly where the container was in the ship’s-hold?” I asked Marino.
“A couple rows down.”
“What about weather conditions during the two weeks it was out at sea?”
“Mostly mild, averaging around sixty with a high of seventy. Merry El Niño. People are doing Christmas shopping in their friggin’ shorts.”
“So you’re thinking maybe this guy died on board and someone stuck him inside the container?” Ruffin asked.
“No, that ain’t what I’m thinking, Chuckie-boy.”
“The name’s Chuck.”.
“Depends on who’s talking to you. So here’s the daily double, Chuckie-boy. If you got tons of containers stacked like sardines in a hold, tell me how you sneak a dead body into one,” Marino said. “No way you could even open the door. Plus the seal was intact.”
I pulled a surgical lamp close and collected fibers and debris, using forceps and a lens, or, in some instances, swabs.
“Chuck, we need to check on how much formalin we’ve got,” I said. “It was low the other day. Or have you already taken care of that?”
“Not yet.”
“Don’t inhale too many fumes,” Marino said. “You can see what it does to all those brains you haul over to MCV”
Formalin was a diluted formaldehyde, a highly reactive chemical used to preserve or “fix” surgical sections or organs, or in anatomical donations, entire bodies. It killed tissue. It was extremely corrosive to respiratory passages, skin and eyes.
“I’ll go check out the formalin;” Ruffin said.
“Not now you won’t;” I said. “Not until we’re done here.
He pulled off the cap of a permanent marker.
“How about buzzing Cleta to see if Anderson left,” I said. “I don’t want her wandering around somewhere.”
“I’ll do it;” Marino said.
“I gotta admit, it still blows my mind a little to see chicks chasing after killers.” Ruffin directed this at Marino. “Back when you got started, they probably did nothing but check parking meters.”
Marino went to the phone.
“Take off your gloves;” I called after him, because be always forgot, no matter how many Clean Hands signs I posted.
I moved the lens slowly and stopped. The knees looked abraded and dirty, as if he had been kneeling on a rough, dirty surface without his pants on. I checked his elbows. They looked dirty and abraded, too, but it was hard to tell with certainty because his skin was in such bad shape. I dipped a cotton swab in sterile water as Marino hung up the phone. I heard him tear open another pair of gloves.