You're Not Safe (Texas Rangers) Read Online Free PDF Page A

and sterile, the buzz of fluorescent lights, it reminded him of the hospital where his mother died when he was six. “Appreciate you getting right on this.”
    “Sooner it’s done, the sooner I can get out of here.” Dr. Watterson nodded toward the surgical gowns. “This one is not going to be easy. Might as well suit up.”
    Bragg and Winchester donned hospital gowns, and stood back. The victim’s clothes had been stripped and tagged, and his hands remained wrapped in paper bags, as they had been at the crime scene. Dr. Watterson studied the body’s bloated belly.
    Rory Edwards’s hands and feet were black with settled blood and his head tilted to the left as it had when he dangled from the rope. His arms and chest were covered with tattoos. A skull on fire. Barbed wire through a heart on his arm. Crosses. The letter E. Stripped he looked leaner and malnourished. Fading track marks peppered the veins of his left and right arms.
    The doctor started with an external examination, noted the rope burns around the neck, and confirmed the victim also had ligature marks on his wrists. He went on to catalogue rope marks, tattoos, and the absence of any other trauma.
    As he pressed a scalpel to make a Y incision in the victim’s chest, Dr. Watterson said, “I hear the victim’s brother’s pretty rich and has a lot of connections.”
    “He is.” Bragg nodded. “Which is why we wanted to be absolutely sure we’ve identified the right man before we made the death notification.”
    Dr. Watterson kept his gaze on the body as he spoke. “No sense churning up a hornet’s nest unless you have to.”
    “About right.”
    The technician removed the bags from the victim’s hands, and Dr. Watterson, after a thorough inspection, scraped under the fingernails. If Rory had fought with his killer, the possibility existed that DNA remained under his fingernails.
    “I’ll run a toxicology screen but won’t have results back for a day or two. But judging by his teeth, he was malnourished and had one hell of a tooth infection. Left untreated the tooth infection alone would have done him serious damage soon. My guess is he turned to meth in recent years.”
    Dr. Watterson turned to a light box illuminating dental X-rays. “The bridge work and fillings belonging to Rory Edwards’s dental records matches your victim.”
    “This guy is Rory Edwards.”
    “Yes. And I can confirm he did die of strangulation.”
    “He was dangling from a tree,” Winchester said.
    “You never can tell for sure until the exam.” The doctor moved to the head of the table and pulled lighted magnifying lenses toward the dead man’s neck. He studied the rope burns. “There is old scarring on his neck.”
    Bragg frowned. “What kind?”
    The doctor was quiet for a moment. “Looks like an old rope burn. The current burn covers most of it up. Could have been easily missed. But it’s there.” He pointed to a small faint white area ringing the victim’s throat. “He hanged by his neck before.”
    “Suicide attempt?” Winchester said.
    “Maybe. Asphyxiation games aren’t uncommon in high-risk individuals. And this fellow is definitely high-risk.”
    Bragg leaned in and studied the faint white scar. “The crime scene didn’t have the look of an erotic game. But who knows. How old are the scars?”
    Dr. Watterson shrugged. “Can’t say, Bragg. But it’s been years.”
    Bragg thought about the image of the teenage couple nailed to the tree. It appeared Rory had been a happy kid. In fact, conjuring the picture, Bragg would have figured the girl with the moody, edgy glint in her eye was the troublemaker.

Chapter Two
     
    Monday, June 2, 3 P.M .
     
    Temperatures had slid into the triple digits when Bragg and Winchester arrived at the sleek glass tower located in the heart of Austin. A centerpiece in the city, the glass building glistened, but despite the heat, had a chilling effect.
    They moved through the revolving door and to the main reception