The Sinner: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

Freed with another incision below the chin. Like ripping off a mask.”
    “And he took the skin with him?”
    “It’s not the only thing he took.” Maura unzipped the rest of the pouch, releasing a stench so powerful that she wished she had put on a mask and shield. But Dean had requested only a superficial viewing, not a full examination, and they had donned only gloves.
    “The hands,” he said.
    “They were both removed, as were parts of the feet. At first, we thought we were dealing with a collector. Body parts as trophies. The other possibility was that he was trying to obscure her identity. No fingerprints, no face. That would have been a practical reason for removal.”
    “Except for the feet.”
    “And that’s what didn’t make sense. That’s when I realized there might be another reason for the amputations. It wasn’t to hide her identity, but her diagnosis of leprosy.”
    “And these lesions all over her skin? That’s from the Hansen’s disease as well?”
    “This skin eruption is called erythema nodosum leprosum. It’s a reaction to medical treatment. She’s obviously been receiving antibiotics for the Hansen’s disease. That’s why we didn’t see any active bacteria on skin biopsy.”
    “So it’s not the disease itself that’s causing these lesions?”
    “No. It’s a side effect of recent antibiotic therapy. Based on her X rays, she’d had Hansen’s for some time, probably years, before she started receiving therapy.” She looked up at Dean. “Have you seen enough?”
    He nodded. “Now I want to show you something.”
    Back upstairs in her office, he opened his briefcase and took out a file. “Yesterday, after our meeting, I called Interpol and requested information on the Bara massacre. That’s what the Special Crimes Division of India’s Central Bureau of Investigation faxed back to me. They also e-mailed some digital images that I want you to look at.”
    She opened the folder and saw the top sheet. “It’s a police file.”
    “From the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where the village of Bara was located.”
    “What’s the status of their investigation?”
    “It remains ongoing. The case is a year old, and they haven’t made much progress. I doubt this one is ever going to be solved. I’m not even sure it’s high on their priority list.”
    “Nearly a hundred people were slaughtered, Agent Dean.”
    “Yes, but you have to take this event in context.”
    “An earthquake is an event. A hurricane is an event. An entire village of people being massacred isn’t an event. It’s a crime against humanity.”
    “Look at what else is happening in South Asia. In Kashmir, mass slaughters by both Hindus and Muslims. In India, the murders of Tamils and Sikhs. Then there are all the caste killings. Bombings by Maoist-Leninist guerillas—”
    “Mother Mary Clement believes it was a religious massacre. An attack against Christians.”
    “Such attacks do occur there. But the clinic where Sister Ursula worked was funded by a secular charity. The other two nurses—the ones who died in the massacre—weren’t affiliated with any church. That’s why the police in Andhra Pradesh are doubtful this was a religious attack. A political attack, perhaps. Or a hate crime, because the victims were lepers. This was a village of the despised.” He pointed to the file she was holding. “There are autopsy reports I wanted you to see, as well as crime scene photos.”
    She turned the page and stared at a photograph. Stunned by the image, she could not speak. She could not turn her eyes from the horror.
    It was a vision of Armageddon.
    Piled atop mounds of smoking wood and ash were seared corpses. The fire’s heat had contracted flexor muscles, and the bodies were frozen in pugilistic attitudes. Mingled among the human remains were dead goats, their fur singed black.
    “They killed everything,” said Dean. “People. Animals. Even the chickens were slaughtered and burned.”
    She forced herself to turn to the next photo.
    She saw other corpses, more thoroughly consumed by the flames, reduced to piles of charred bones.
    “The attack happened sometime during the night,” said Dean. “It wasn’t until the next morning that the bodies were discovered. Day shift workers at a nearby factory noticed heavy smoke rising from the valley below. When they arrived to investigate, that’s what they found. Ninety-seven people dead, many of them women and children, as well as two nurses