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but mainly when the cutting instrument hit bone, which isn’t surprising, especially given that I’d expect the victim wasn’t sedated at all. Toxicology will test for any trace of drugs found in the victim’s blood, but that will take a day, maybe two, but without anesthesia the pain would’ve been unbearable. Even being held tight, the victim would’ve shrieked and writhed incessantly, making the amputation job much harder.’
    Garcia sucked in a cold breath through clenched teeth.
    ‘But keeping the victim alive shouldn’t have been a concern. The perpetrator could’ve just chopped his arms and legs off in whichever way he wanted.’
    ‘But he didn’t,’ Hunter said.
    ‘No he didn’t,’ Doctor Hove agreed. ‘The killer wanted the victim alive for as long as possible. He wanted the suffering. The cuts were well and properly performed.’
    ‘Medical knowledge?’ Hunter asked.
    ‘Despite the fact that nowadays anyone can spend a few hours on the Internet and acquire detailed instructions and diagrams on how to perform an amputation, I’d say the killer has at least basic knowledge of medical procedures and anatomy, yes.’ Her stare focused on the second autopsy table. ‘He sure as hell knew what he was doing. Have a look at this.’

 
Ten
    Something in Doctor Hove’s demeanor and tone of voice concerned both detectives. They followed her over to the second examination table.
    ‘I have no doubt everything that happened in that room was planned, and very well planned.’ She pulled back the white cover sheet. The macabre sculpture left behind by the killer had been dismantled. Derek Nicholson’s severed body parts were now carefully arranged on the cold metal slab. They’d all been washed clean of the blood that had encrusted them before. ‘Don’t worry,’ the doctor said to Hunter, noticing his concern. ‘The lab took enough pictures and measurements to create the replica you wanted. You’ll get it in a day or two.’
    Hunter and Garcia’s stare stayed on the body parts.
    ‘Did you make anything of the sculpture, Doc?’ Garcia asked.
    ‘Nothing at all. And I had to dismantle that thing myself.’ She coughed to clear her throat. ‘I swabbed under the fingernails. No hairs or skin. Just regular dirt and excrement.’
    ‘Excrement?’ Garcia pulled a face.
    ‘His own,’ Doctor Hove confirmed. ‘During tremendous pain, the kind that’d come from an amputation without anesthesia, the subject will undoubtedly lose control of his bladder and bowels. And that’s the strange thing.’
    ‘What is?’ Garcia questioned.
    ‘He was clean,’ Hunter said. ‘When we got to the crime-scene, the bed sheet should’ve been saturated with urine and feces. It wasn’t.’
    ‘Because of his illness and his lack of mobility, going to the bathroom wasn’t such a mundane task anymore,’ Doctor Hove took over again, ‘his nurses helped him to it, but when they weren’t there, he wore adult diapers.’
    ‘Yeah, we saw the package in one of the drawers,’ Garcia said.
    ‘Forensics found a pair of dirty ones wrapped in a plastic bag inside the trashcan downstairs.’
    Garcia’s eyes widened. ‘The killer cleaned him up?’
    ‘Not so much cleaned him up, but someone did dispose of the dirty diaper.’
    No one said anything for several seconds, so Doctor Hove moved on. ‘The reason I believe the killer has knowledge of medical procedures is because I found these.’ She pointed to the upper portion of one of the severed arms, just around where the cut had been made. ‘I only saw them when I washed the blood off the arms and legs.’
    Hunter and Garcia stepped closer. The faint outline of a black marker pen could be seen on the rubbery-looking skin. It created an incomplete circle going around the arm just about where the cut had been made.
    ‘In complicated medical procedures such as amputations, where the incision point needs to be very accurate, it is not uncommon for doctors, or whoever is