Chapter 69

I KNEW I WOULDN'T be able to sleep that night. I didn't want to go home.

So I stayed at the crime scene until the lab teams had come and gone; then for about an hour I crisscrossed the deserted¹ streets of the port searching for anyone, a night worker, a vagrant², who might've seen who dumped Jill off. I drove around, afraid to go to the office, afraid to go home, reliving the awful sight over and over again, tears streaming down my face. Turning over that tarp - seeing Jill!

I drove until my car seemed to know the place I was headed. Where else did I have to go? Three o'clock in the morning. I found myself at the morgue.

I knew Claire would be there. No matter what time it was. Doing her job because it was the one thing that could hold her together. In her blue scrubs, in the operating room.

Jill was laid out on the gurney. Under those same harsh lights where I'd seen so many victims before.

Jill...My sweet darling girl.

I stared through the glass, tears wending down my cheeks. I was thinking I'd failed her in some way.

Finally I pushed through the glass doors. Claire was in the middle of the autopsy³. She was doing what I was doing. Her job.

"You don't want to be in here, Lindsay," she said when she saw me. She drew a sheet over Jill's exposed wound.

"Yeah, I do, Claire." I just stood there. I wasn't going to leave. I needed to see this.

Claire stared at my swollen⁴, tear-stained face. She nodded, the tiny outline of a smile. "At least make yourself useful and hand me that probe on the tray over there."

I handed Claire her instrument and traced the back of my hand against Jill's cold, hard cheek. How could this not be some dream?

"Widespread damage to the right occipital lobe," Claire spoke⁵ into the microphone on her lapel, "consistent with a single, rear-entry gunshot trauma⁶. No exit wound; the bullet is still lodged⁷ in the left lateral⁸ ventricle. Minimal⁹ blood loss to the affected¹⁰ area. Strange...," she muttered.

I was barely listening. My eyes still fixed¹¹ on Jill.

"Light powder burns around the hair and neck indicate a small-caliber weapon fired at close range," Claire continued.

She shifted the body. The opened rear of Jill's skull¹² appeared on the monitor.

I couldn't watch that. I looked away.

"I'm now removing what looks like a small-caliber bullet fragment from the left ventricle," Claire went on. "Signs of severe rupture¹³, symptomatic of this type of trauma, but... very little swelling¹⁴..." I watched Claire as she probed around and removed a flattened¹⁵ bullet. She dropped it into a dish.

A jolt¹⁶ of rage tensed me. It looked like a flattened.22. Caked with specks¹⁷ of Jill's blood.

"Something doesn't fit," Claire said, puzzled. She looked up at me. "This area ought to be covered in spinal¹⁸ fluid. No swelling of the brain tissue, very little blood."

Suddenly Claire the professional clicked in. "I'm going to open up the chest cavity," she spoke into the mike. "Lindsay, look away."

"What's wrong, Claire? What's going on?"

"Something's not right." Claire rolled the body over, took out a scalpel. Then she slipped the blade down a straight line from the top of Jill's chest.

I did avert¹⁹ my eyes. I didn't want to see Jill like that.

"I'm doing a standard sternotomy," Claire dictated²⁰ into the mike. "Opening up the pneumo chest area. Lung mem-brane is soft, tissue... degraded, soupy... I'm exposing the pericardium now...." I heard Claire take a deep breath. "Shit."

My heart started racing²¹. I was fixed on the screen now. "Claire, what's going on? What do you see?"

"Stay there." She put up a hand. She had seen something horrible. What was it?

"Oh, Lindsay," she whispered, and finally looked at me. "Jill didn't die from a gunshot."

"What!"

"The lack of swelling, blood seepage²²." She shook her

head. "The gunshot was delivered after she was dead." "What are you saying, Claire?" "I'm not sure" - she looked up - "but if I had to

guess... I'd say ricin."

1 deserted   

adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的

参考例句：

• The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
• The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。

2 vagrant   

n.流浪者，游民；adj.流浪的，漂泊不定的

参考例句：

• A vagrant is everywhere at home.流浪者四海为家。
• He lived on the street as a vagrant.他以在大街上乞讨为生。

3 autopsy   

n.尸体解剖；尸检

参考例句：

• They're carrying out an autopsy on the victim.他们正在给受害者验尸。
• A hemorrhagic gut was the predominant lesion at autopsy.尸检的主要发现是肠出血。

4 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

7 lodged   

v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属

参考例句：

• The certificate will have to be lodged at the registry. 证书必须存放在登记处。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Our neighbours lodged a complaint against us with the police. 我们的邻居向警方控告我们。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 lateral   

adj.侧面的，旁边的

参考例句：

• An airfoil that controls lateral motion.能够控制横向飞行的机翼。
• Mr.Dawson walked into the court from a lateral door.道森先生从一个侧面的门走进法庭。

9 minimal   

adj.尽可能少的，最小的

参考例句：

• They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
• I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。

10 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

11 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

12 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

13 rupture   

n.破裂；(关系的)决裂；v.(使)破裂

参考例句：

• I can rupture a rule for a friend.我可以为朋友破一次例。
• The rupture of a blood vessel usually cause the mark of a bruise.血管的突然破裂往往会造成外伤的痕迹。

14 swelling   

n.肿胀

参考例句：

• Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
• There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。

15 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

16 jolt   

v.（使）摇动，（使）震动，（使）颠簸

参考例句：

• We were worried that one tiny jolt could worsen her injuries.我们担心稍微颠簸一下就可能会使她的伤势恶化。
• They were working frantically in the fear that an aftershock would jolt the house again.他们拼命地干着，担心余震可能会使房子再次受到震动。

17 specks   

n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Minutes later Brown spotted two specks in the ocean. 几分钟后布朗发现海洋中有两个小点。 来自英汉非文学 - 百科语料821
• Do you ever seem to see specks in front of your eyes? 你眼睛前面曾似乎看见过小点吗？ 来自辞典例句

18 spinal   

adj.针的，尖刺的，尖刺状突起的；adj.脊骨的，脊髓的

参考例句：

• After three days in Japan,the spinal column becomes extraordinarily flexible.在日本三天，就已经使脊椎骨变得富有弹性了。
• Your spinal column is made up of 24 movable vertebrae.你的脊柱由24个活动的脊椎骨构成。

19 avert   

v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等)

参考例句：

• He managed to avert suspicion.他设法避嫌。
• I would do what I could to avert it.我会尽力去避免发生这种情况。

20 dictated   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• He dictated a letter to his secretary. 他向秘书口授信稿。
• No person of a strong character likes to be dictated to. 没有一个个性强的人愿受人使唤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

22 seepage   

n.泄漏

参考例句：

• Chemical seepage has caused untold damage.化学品泄漏已造成不可估量的损失。
• Water gradually escapes by seepage through the ground.水逐渐从地面渗走了。