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Miranda’s question brought me back to the task at hand “Does it uy to?”

“Probably not, but she said the victiot several of those, so we ht as well make it realistic Doesn’t cost any extra” I pointed at the tree where the squirrels had been sca “How about that one?”

Miranda shook her head “No, not that one,” she frowned “That one seeht be hard on the ca researchers if this experiate” She had a point there “Besides, didn’t you say the victim was found way back in the woods?” She had a point there, too

“That’sPrentice Cooper State Forest Covers soe, just downstreaa” I pointed farther up the hillside, to another tall pine near the upper boundary “There you go That look secluded enough?”

Miranda nodded “Yeah, that seeood exercise, I guess”

“If it doesn’t kill us, it er?”

“Right,” she said Then she stuck out her tongue at me

In unison, we leaned into the back of the truck and each grabbed one of the straps sewn onto the sides of the black body bag We slid it out over the tailgate until it hung about a foot off the end “Ready?” I asked

“Ready,” she said, and with that, we each grabbed another strap, about two-thirds of the way down Sliding the bag farther off the tailgate, we gradually bore ht It was heavy-180 pounds, which was roughly the weight of the victim whose death scene ere about to re-create The more faithfully the re-creation ht, but his injuries, clothing, and positioning-the more accurate our eventual ti the police to focus their investigation more precisely

We hadn’t gotten more than fifty feet up the hillside before I broke a sweat in the chilly , too, but I knew she’d collapse before she co to whine for both of us “You wanna rethink that first tree? Sure would be convenient”

“Hun-uh,” she grunted through gritted teeth, shaking her head for emphasis

“Okay,” I gasped, “you’re the boss If I stroke out before we get up the hill, use me for some especially spectacular research”

“Gladly,” she huffed

We stopped twice to catch our breath and mop our brows, but even with the rest breaks, ere half dragging the bag by the time we reached the pine near the upper fence Still, as I opened the long, C-shaped zipper running around three sides of the bag, I had to agree that a secluded location was much more appropriate for this particular experiment

We had prepared the body in the ue, so I knehat to expect, but even so, I took a sharp breath when I folded back the flap to expose our subject The blond wig had shifted a bit, sliding down over the face and concealing much of the trau stuff According to Jess, most of the bones of the victiuessing so,smaller, like a tire iron, which would have left sharper,myself to wale away on a donated body with such violence, so I’d settled for cutting through the zygomatic arches-the cheekbones-and the lower jaw in several places with an autopsy saw, then s a liberal amount of blood on the skin in those areas to si that peri e to the cheeks, plus violet eye shadow and a pair of long false eyelashes I doubted that the makeup would affect the decomp rate, but I didn’t want to throw any unnecessary variables into the equation

Procuring the leather corset that we’d cinched around our subject’s torso had proved far easier than I expected Less than twenty-four hours before, Miranda had spent five , then demanded my UT credit card A few e bustier arriving at six AM, First Overnight, thanks to the eff

icient teahty a to the UT auditors once the American Express bill arrived, but such was the occasional price of original research

“Have you got the rope,” I asked, “or do I need to go back to the truck and get it?” Miranda earing a black jumpsuit that bristled with pockets

“No, I’ve got it,” she said She reached down and unzipped a big pocket just above her left knee and fished out a package of nylon cord and a big,pocketknife With one twist of her thumb, she flipped open a wicked serrated blade

“Whoa, that’s so power,” I said “What is that, a six-inch blade?”

She snorted “Do men really believe that’s what six inches looks like? Try three and a half” With the tip of the blade she deftly flicked off the package’s plastic wrapper, then unspooled about six feet of cord-or was it three and a half? — and cut it with a swift stroke “You wanna tie his hands while I do his feet?” I took the piece of rope and began to bind the corpse’s wrists in front of hith of cord and lashed the ankles together The rope snagged on the fishnet stockings as she cinched it taut above the stiletto heels “I’ve never understood the appeal of cross-dressing,” she said, “either for the guys who do it or for the people who go to drag shows But I also can’t understand how anybody could get so enraged about it that they’d beat a guy to death for putting on a wig and some slutty clothes”

“Me neither,” I said “The one thing I understand, after all these years and all these murders, is that there’s a lot I don’t understand about human nature”

Once our standin was trussed up like the Chattanooga victim, the next task was to tie him to the tree “Jess said his hands were up over his head,” I reet ’eh” I spied a low branch “Maybe if I throw a rope over that limb, we can use that like a pulley to hoist hith, which I tossed across the branch where it joined the trunk Then I tied one end to the wrist bindings, and together we hauled on the line The nylon cord was thin, so it bit into our hands as we pulled, but once we had hiht, the friction of the rope on the branch helped support his weight