Sworn to Silence Read Online Free PDF Page B

Highway Patrol and the Holmes County sheriff’s office, will you? Female. Caucasian. Blue. Dark blonde. Fifteen to thirty years of age.”
    “I’m on it.”
    I walk into my office, close the door behind me and resist the urge to lock it. It’s a small room crowded with a beat-up metal desk, an antique file cabinet speckled with rust, and a desktop computer that grinds like a coffee mill. A single window offers a not-so-stunning view of the pickup trucks and cars parked along Main Street.
    Working off my coat, I drape it over the back of my chair, hit the power button on the computer and head directly to the file cabinet. While the computer boots, I unlock the cabinet, tug out the bottom drawer and page through several case files. Domestic disputes. Simple assault. Vandalism. The kinds of crimes you expect in a town like Painters Mill. The file I’m looking for is at the back. My fingers pause before touching it. I’ve been the chief of police for two years, but I’ve never been able to bring myself to look at the file. This morning, I don’t have a choice.
    The folder is fat and brown with frayed edges and metal clasps that are broken from use. The peeling label reads:
Slaughterhouse Murders, Holmes County, January 1992
. I take the file to my desk and open it.
    My predecessor, Delbert McCoy, was a stickler for detail and it shows in his record-keeping. A typed police report with dates, times and locations stares up at me. I see witness names replete with contact information and background checks. It appears every facet of the investigation was carefully documented. Except for one incident that was never reported to the police . . .
    I page through the file, taking in the highlights. Sixteen years ago a killer stalked the quiet streets and back roads of Painters Mill. Over a two-year period he murdered four women with indiscriminate savagery. Because of the killer’s MO, exsanguination, which is similar to the “bleeding” of livestock during slaughter, some headline-grabbing reporter dubbed him “The Slaughterhouse Killer” and the name stuck.
    The first victim, seventeen-year-old Patty Lynn Thorpe, was raped and tortured, her throat slashed. Her body was dumped on Shady Grove Road—justtwo miles from where T.J. discovered the body this morning. A chill hovers at the base of my spine as I read the autopsy report.
     
    ANATOMICAL SUMMARY:
    I. Incised wound of neck: Transection of left common carotid artery.
     
    I skim the Notes and Procedures, External Examination and other details until I find what I’m looking for.
     
    DESCRIPTION OF INCISED NECK WOUND:
    The incised wound of the neck measures eight centimeters in length. Said wound is transversely oriented from the midline and upwardly angulated toward the left earlobe. The left common carotid artery is transected with hemorrhage in the surrounding carotid sheath. Fresh hemorrhage and bruising is present along the entire wound path.
     
    OPINION:
    This is a fatal incised wound or sharp force injury associated with the transection of the left carotid artery with exsanguinating hemorrhage.
     
    It is strikingly similar to the wound on the body discovered this morning. I continue reading.
     
    DESCRIPTION OF SECONDARY STAB WOUND:
    A secondary abdominal wound located above the navel is noteworthy. The wound is irregular in shape, measuring 5 centimeters by 4 centimeters in height and width, respectively, with minimal depth of penetration at 1.5 centimeters. Fresh hemorrhage is noted along the wound path, which goes through the skin and subcutaneous tissue, though the penetration did not breach muscle. The wound was ante mortem.
     
    OPINION:
    This is a superficial cutting wound and is found to be non-life-threatening.
     
    Again, very similar to the wound carved into the abdomen of the victim found this morning.
    I turn to the police report where Chief McCoy scribbled a footnote.
     
    The abdominal wound appears to be the capital letters V and I or perhaps