Forty minutes later, Avery stepped into the central conference room in the A1 headquarters. It was already filled with an assortment of officers and experts, totaling twelve in all, and she knew most of them, though not as well as Ramirez or Finley. She supposed that was her own fault. After Ramirez had been assigned to her as a partner, she had not gone out of her way to make friends. It seemed like a silly thing to do as a Homicide detective.
As they all took their seats around the table (except for Avery, who always preferred to stand), one of the officers she did not know started passing out printed copies of the scant information they had so far-pictures of the crime scene and a sheet of bullet points of what they knew about the scene. Avery scanned one and found it succinct.
She noted that as everyone started to take their seats, Ramirez sat in front of her. She looked down at him and realized that she had instinctively stepped closer to him. She also found that she wanted to rest her hand on his shoulder, just to touch him. She backed away, noticing that Finley was looking oddly at her.
Shit, she thought. Is it that obvious?
She went back to busying herself with rereading the notes. As she did so, O'Malley and Connelly entered the room. O'Malley closed the door and went to the front of the room. Before he started speaking, the murmurs and conversation within the room died down. Avery watched him with great appreciation and respect. He was the sort of man who could take charge of a room by simply clearing his throat or letting it be known that he was about to speak.
"Thanks for scrambling together so quickly," O'Malley said. "You have in your hands everything we know about this case so far with one exception. I had city workers pull everything they could from traffic light cameras in the area. Two of the four cameras show a woman walking her dog. And that's all we got."
"There's one other thing," one of the officers at the table said. Avery knew this man's name was Mosely, but that was about all she knew about him. "I got word two minutes before stepping into this meeting that dispatch fielded a call this morning from an elderly man claiming that he saw what he described as 'a creepy tall man' walking in that area. He said he was tucking some sort of a bag under a long coat. Dispatch took note of it but assumed it was just a nosy old man with nothing better to do. But then when this burn case kicked off this morning, they pinged me on it."
"Do we have this old man's contact information?" Avery asked.
Connelly shot her an annoyed look. She supposed he thought she was speaking out of turn-even though he had told her no more than forty-five minutes ago that this was her case.
"We do," Mosely answered.
"I want someone on the phone with him the moment this meeting is over," O'Malley said. "Finley…where are we on a list of places that sell chemicals that can burn this fiercely in such a short time?"
"I've got three places within twenty miles. Two of them are e-mailing me a list of chemicals that could do such a thing and whether or not they keep it in stock."
Avery listened to the back-and-forth, taking mental notes and trying to sort them into the appropriate slots. With each new bit of information, the more sense the odd crime scene from this morning started to make. Although, really, there wasn't too much sense to be made at this point.
"We still have no idea who the victim is," O'Malley said. "We're going to have to go on dental records alone on this one unless we can make some sort of connection with the footage from the traffic cameras." He then looked to Avery and gestured her to the front of the table. "Detective Black is the head on this one so everything you find from here on out will go directly to her."
Avery joined him up front and scanned the table. Her eyes landed on Jane Parks, one of the lead investigators on forensics. "Do we have any results from the broken glass shards?" she asked.
"Not yet," Parks said. "We know for certain that there were no fingerprints, though. But we're still working to find out what the object was. So far we can only imagine it might have been some sort of knickknack that is in no way related to the crime."
"And what is the opinion of forensics in regards to the fire?" Avery asked. "Are you also in agreement that this was no casual burning?"
"Yes. The ash is still being studied, but it's obvious that no standard fire could burn human flesh so thoroughly. There were barely even any charred remains on the bones and the bones themselves almost look pristine, showing no signs of scorching."
"And can you describe to us what the usual process of a body burning might be?" Avery asked.
"Well, there's nothing typical about burning a body unless you're cremating it," Parks said. "But let's say a body is trapped in a burning house and is lit on fire that way. Body fat acts like a sort of fuel once the skin is burned away, which keeps the fire going. Almost like a candle, you know? But this burn was quick and very succinct…probably so intense that it vaporized the fat before it could even act as a fuel."
"How long would it take a body to burn down to nothing more than bone?" Avery asked.
"Well, there are several determining factors," Parks said. "But anywhere between five to seven hours is an accurate number. Slow and controlled burns, like the ones used at crematoriums, can take up to eight hours."
"And this one burned in less than an hour and a half?" Connelly asked.
"Yes, that's the assumption," Parks said.
The conference room was awash in murmurs of disgust and awe. Avery understood it. It was hard to wrap her mind around it.
"Or," Avery said, "the body was burned elsewhere and the remains were dumped in that lot this morning."
"But that skeleton…that was a new skeleton," Parks said. "It wasn't without its skin, muscle, tissues, and so on for very long. Not long at all."
"Can you make an educated guess as to how long ago the body was burned?" Avery asked.
"Surely no more than a day or so."
"So this took planning and some head knowledge on the killer's part," Avery said. "He'd have to know a lot about burning bodies. And being that he made no attempt to hide the remains as well as killed the victim in such a startling way…that denotes a few things. And the thing that I fear the most is that this is likely the first of many."
"What do you mean?" Connelly asked.
She felt all eyes in the room turn to her.
"I mean that this is probably the work of a serial killer."
A heavy silence blanketed the room.
"What are you talking about?" Connelly asked. "There's no evidence to support that."
"Nothing obvious," Avery admitted. "But he wanted the remains to be found. He made no attempt to hide them in that lot. There was a creek right along the back of the property. He could have dumped it all there. More than that, there was ash. Why dump ash at the scene when you could easily dispose of it at home? The planning and the method of the killing…he took great pride and pleasure in this. He wanted the remains found and speculated over. And that holds the marks of a serial killer."
She felt the room stare back at her, felt a solemn air descend, and she knew they were thinking the same thing she was: this was evolving from an odd case involving an impromptu cremation to a time-sensitive hunt for a serial killer.