Mary: Autopsy, Part II

I'm back at the Howland residence now with a thick, down comforter pulled up and a large mug of lemon tea steeping on the nightstand next to me. The rain still has not let up, and I can hear the wind whipping what's left of the leaves on the trees outside. I've been poring over photocopied notes from the autopsy, and while it hasn't made for the most comforting bedtime reading, there are a few more details I feel should be committed to the journal.

(Should I be writing these in present or past tense? Josh seems to do more present, but I lean toward the past for whatever reason. I'll just have to do what's appropriate at the time, I suppose.)

First, a few words about Mrs. Howland's home, while I think of it. The walls and staircases are dominated by dark mahogany, giving the home a stately yet warm feeling that I imagine will be even more welcome once winter fully arrives. When I asked, Jeff informed me that the artwork is dominated by early nineteenth century paintings, including a picture of a beautiful girl sitting in the mountains ("The Spanish Girl In Reverie", again, obviously according to Jeff), a huge war scene ("Battle of Grochow") and "Caligula's Palace And Bridge", which wasn't nearly as shocking or perverse as you might think, based on the title. I was going to ask whether they were the originals or reproductions, but I had already exceeded my allotment of educational inadequacy for the day.

Interspersed with the more classical artwork are framed prints of what appears to be comic-book art. Jeff tells me that they are originally from French and Spanish graphic novels, and that they belonged to the late Mr. Howland. You would think that they would look horribly out of place, given the rest of the decor, but they actually help to give the house a more modern, lived-in look.

As you may imagine, everything is absolutely spotless and impeccably well-kept, and even with my newly purchased suit, every time I walk around the house I feel like a member of a museum tour who has hurdled the velvet ropes and invaded places not meant to be disturbed.

Now, the autopsy report. I'm not sure if my previous description of the murder scene adequately depicted the state of poor Mrs. Walentowicz's corpse. Again, she was lying on her back on the kitchen table, her abdomen cut open vertically and her head sticking out of her belly (as Josh later delicately remarked, "It was like a 'Whack-A-Mole' game from Hell.").

The question was, how did the killer manipulate the head into this position? Even in something as clinical and professional as medical notes, the coroner's bafflement is evident. As far as he could tell, the killer first made the incision in the belly, reached down and through the internal organs, shoving them aside, and literally pulled her head straight down into the neck and through the chest cavity from the inside. The skin by the shoulders is torn; there are no signs of incisions other than the one in her midriff.

The good news is, because the killer physically manipulated the muscles, there are finger indentations embedded in the soft tissue that would seem to indicate that the perpetrator is a male. We were leaning that direction anyway, but it's good to know.

The bad news is that the murder is impossible. The coroner is in frank disbelief that anyone could reach down and manipulate the body in this fashion by hand. Also, early toxicology screens are negative, so how he got her to smile during this process is yet another disturbing mystery.

The other noteworthy item from the report is (obviously) the rabbit's foot lodged in Mrs. Walentowicz's brain. Again, the coroner could find no evidence of the use of tools; it simply appears that the foot was pushed claw-first up through the back of the throat and then straight up into the hippocampus. The tissue is soft in that area, so the coroner at least does find it conceivable that this was performed by hand.

The rabbit's foot itself isn't the kind we typically associate with the term, i.e., some cheap little charm (at right) won from some coin-operated game, but instead it was freshly-cut from a rabbit, the incision probably made with the same sharp-edged blade that was used on Mrs. Walentowicz. Furthermore, in addition to the human blood found at the scene, they also found rabbit's blood, leading them to believe that the killer entered the house with a live rabbit and amputated its foot right there in the kitchen.

It just gets odder and odder. I'm going to pray for good dreams tonight, but I'm doubtful they'll come.