You Can't Run Hope Davis (free ebook reader .txt) 📖

“I’m all ears.” Atlas took a sip of coffee and pinched his eyes shut.

“Remember how I was looking for uses for blood?”

“Mhm.”

“What if he still removed it for a reason? It might not be for a ritual, but maybe he drugged her or something and he knew the drug would show on a toxicology report? And he was worried it could be traced back to him?” Atlas let out a sigh she knew without looking he was about to poke a hole in her theory.

“I mean, it’s a thought. But he didn’t remove all traces of blood and something like that could still show up in the traces.” Atlas shuffled the papers in front of him, looking for the toxicology report.

Naya wasn’t willing to let go of her theory so easily, but she didn’t want to argue with her partner so she bit her lip and studied the board instead. She looked again at the two circles where the women had been found and took the liberty of writing the words ‘burial ground’ with a question mark. She really needed to see those farm records.

“What if what he injected her with was already in the bloodstream?”

“Hm?” Atlas was sipping his coffee and quickly set it down. “What do you mean by that?”

She spun around and grabbed the toxicology report from him, flipping to the page about the blood. “What if he injected her with something which is found in the human body naturally, but can kill someone in large doses?” She heard Atlas saying something, but she was too busy skimming the report now to listen. “So, he removed the blood so we wouldn’t notice?”

There was nothing on the page that jumped out at her, but she had Atlas’ full attention now. He had his phone in his hand and was already dialing.

“Yes, this is Detective Atlas…

”Put me through to the morgue please, and see if one of the coroners who did the report on Julia Charles is available…

“Thanks…” He flipped the phone to speaker and set it on the table.

This is Dr. Ouray. I heard you had questions about the Julia Charles case?

Atlas looked at Naya pointedly.

“Uh, yes sir, I was thinking, Julia Charles was drained of most of her blood correct?”

Yes.

“And what remained seemed like normal blood?”

Also yes.

He answered cleanly and professionally. He was probably ready to get back to his work and just wanted her to get to the point.

“Is it possible that something which is normally found in the blood could have been injected in toxic levels, and then subsequently hidden by removing that blood?”

The other end of the line was quiet for a minute. Naya made eye contact with Atlas and shrugged. Maybe she was barking up the wrong tree after all.

Actually,

They could hear Dr. Ouray take a deep breath.

There are a number of naturally occurring minerals in the human body which could be toxic in large quantities. Potassium, iron, copper, magnesium, and zinc to name just a few.

“Would there be any ways to tell if she had been given large amounts of any of those minerals before death?”

Well, if they were administered via injection the majority would be somewhat untraceable, besides magnesium, which would lead to cardiac arrest. Zinc usually irritates the stomach lining, but I didn’t see anything unusual there which only tells me she didn’t consume in orally…

He trailed off a bit and it took Naya a minute to realize he was done talking and not just lost in thought.

“Did you see any needle marks on the body? Possible injection sites I mean?” Atlas finally spoke up.

Well, I’m sure you have the report in front of you. We found the single cut on the back of the leg that we believe the blood was drained through, which we did think was a weird spot to choose. The neck would have seemed like a better place to remove blood. But now that you mention this, I’m wondering if he injected her there and cut the same spot to hide what he had done.

Naya flipped through the report. “And you still stand by blood loss as the cause of death? As in she was alive when the blood was removed?”

Yes ma’am, it wouldn’t have made sense for him to kill her first, because it would be difficult to drain the blood without the propulsion of the heart. But that doesn’t necessarily mean she was conscious.

Atlas pipped up then. “But the time of death was so close to the abduction?”

Dr. Ouray cleared his throat.

That is true. I’m afraid I don’t have any more information for you and we’ve already released the body to the family. I can see about getting it back if you…need it that badly?”

Atlas and Naya had a silent argument, Atlas was shaking his head yes while Naya was mouthing ‘no way.’ She felt that the poor Charles family had been through enough already. Finally, he relented.

“No sir, that’s alright, I would assume she has already been embalmed by this point, it has been a week. Thank you for your help.” He hung up the phone before the doctor replied.

“Well, we’ve got quite the puzzle here.” Naya refreshed her email. “And it’s unlikely we will get the report on Shanice anytime soon.”

“I put a rush on it, but you’re right, probably not until tomorrow at least.”

A woman Naya didn’t recognize knocked on the open door. “Atlas, this was just faxed through for you.”

He stood up and grabbed the papers from the woman, almost knocking over his coffee in the process, he would have if Naya hadn’t been faster and moved it out of the way first. He sat back down and placed the stack of documents he had been