While others dined, the police surgeon starved. Dorian Durand had been performing autopsies all day; four, from what was presumably one crime. Remarkable in Paradis. Not that they were medically difficult. All the victims were so badly lacerated, bludgeoned and torn, he could safely list any cause of death – from blunt force trauma to myocardial infarction - without fear of contradiction.
What commanded extra time was the American girl"s reassembly. Vicki Kramer was the only one of the four Durand had taken care to put back together. There was no point with the others. Excepting Socrates" missing son, who the Gendarmerie suspected, there were no living relatives to impress with a fancy reconstruction. The American, on the other hand, had family.
GendarmerieHer throat was no work of art w
