would be a better description.” Lorne shivered slightly as he said this. “I’d

never seen anything like it and neither had the ME, and he’d been doing this

work for forty years. And I’ve never seen anything like it since, thank God.”

“Are you sure something else wasn’t used? A rope, a metal bar, a board?” “No, it

was hands. Human hands. Even with gloves the evidence was pretty clear on that.”

“So a big, strong guy,” said Knox. “Something more than that. It takes

incredible force to do the damage we saw. The base of the spine was also

crushed.” Puller stared at him incredulously. “The spine was crushed? Do you

know how difficult it is to break, much less crush? That could happen with a

long fall or some kind of car accident.” “I know exactly how difficult it is to

crush a bone,” answered Lorne. “Because I researched it afterward. Not even an

NFL lineman would be that strong. He could break it, sure, but pulverize it?” He

shook his head.

 

Peckham added, “And it was the same with the blows to the head that killed some

of the women. The marks indicated a fist was used.

 

But the skull was crushed. And the ME didn’t think it was repeated blows. Only

one.” Knox stared at him in disbelief. “One blow to crush a skull! Are you sure

some animal didn’t do this? You’re talking strength like a bear or something.”

“It was no animal. It was a human.” “Well, it’s not any human I’ve ever run

into,” retorted Puller. “Not any human I’d ever want to run into,” replied

Peckham. “What about connections among the victims? We know they were all

females, around the same age and professional types. But there weren’t detailed

records on exactly what their professions were.” Peckham said, “They all worked