‘You’ve gotta be kidding me!’ Hunter studied the faceless woman. The absence of skin made her eyes puff out of their sockets and they seemed to be staring straight at him. Her mouth hung open. No teeth.

Hunter guessed her age to be no older than twenty-five. Her legs, stomach and arms had defined muscle tone and it was clear she’d taken pride in her appearance. Her hair was golden blond, long and smooth, falling halfway down her back. Hunter was sure she’d been a very attractive woman.

‘There is more. Have a look behind the door,’ Doctor Winston said.

Hunter stepped into the room, closed the door and stared at it confused for a couple of seconds.

‘A full-length mirror?’ he said quizzically staring at his reflection. Suddenly he stepped out of the way and the woman’s body came in full view on the mirror.

‘God! The killer made her watch.’ Her body had been positioned directly in front of the door.

‘That’s what it looks like,’ Doctor Winston agreed. ‘She probably spent her last living hours staring at her disfigured reflection in the mirror – mental torture as well as physical.’

‘This mirror doesn’t belong on this door…’ Hunter said looking around, ‘… or in this room. It looks brand new.’

‘Exactly, the mirror and those wooden posts were placed in here for a reason – to increase her suffering,’ Doctor Winston confirmed.

The bedroom door swung open in front of Hunter breaking his stare from the mirror. Garcia walked in holding a cup of coffee. ‘Here you go,’ he said handing it to Hunter.

‘I think I’ll pass, rookie, my stomach has seen better days and I’m very much wide awake now,’ Hunter replied with a dismissive gesture.

Captain Bolter and Doctor Winston both shook their heads indicating they didn’t want any either. Garcia reopened the door.

‘Here you go,’ he said to the young officer standing outside. ‘You look like you could use a drink.’

‘Uh! Thank you sir.’ The officer looked surprised.

‘Don’t mention it.’ Garcia closed the door and approached the victim with Hunter. A pungent smell filled their nostrils forcing Hunter to place a hand over his nose. The woman had been kneeling in a pool of urine and faeces.

‘She was kept tied to those posts for several hours, maybe even an entire day. That was her toilet,’ Doctor Winston explained pointing to the floor.

Garcia grimaced in disgust.

‘How long has she been dead for, doc?’ Hunter questioned.

‘It’s hard to be precise at this moment. The human body drops approximately 1.5 degrees in temperature every hour after death. Her body has dropped around twelve degrees which could mean that she’s been dead for eight hours, but that depends on the circumstances. The summer heat would’ve no doubt slowed the process down and during the day I’m sure this room feels like a sauna. I’ll have a better idea of the time of death once I get her into my autopsy room.’

‘There are no cuts, no bullet wounds, no strangulation marks. Did she die from her facial injuries?’ Hunter asked, looking at the woman’s torso and waving his hands to get rid of some of the flies.

‘Again, without an autopsy I can’t be certain, but my guess would be heart failure induced by pure pain and exhaustion. Whoever did this to her, kept her in this position inflicting more and more pain until she was gone. The killer wanted her to suffer as much as possible, and suffer she did.’

Hunter looked around the room as if searching for something. ‘What’s this other smell? I can smell something else, something like vinegar.’

‘You’ve got a good nose, Hunter,’ Doctor Winston said pointing to one of the corners of the room. ‘That jar over there, it was full of vinegar. You can also smell it over her body, predominantly on the top half. It looks like the killer poured it over her skinless face at set time intervals.’

‘Vinegar also works as a fly repellent,’ Hunter said.

‘That’s correct,’ Doctor Winston confirmed. ‘Now just imagine the sort of pain she had to go through. All the nerves around her face were completely exposed. Even a small gust of wind would’ve caused unbearable pain. She probably passed out several times, or at least tried to. Remember, she had no eye lids – no way of keeping the light away, no way of resting her eyes. Every time she regained consciousness, the first image she’d see would be her disfigured naked body. I’m not even gonna go into what sort of pain the acidity of vinegar poured over open flesh causes.’

‘Jesus!’ Garcia said taking a few steps back. ‘Poor woman!’

‘Was she conscious when she was skinned?’ Hunter asked.

‘Not without being anesthetized, but I don’t think she was. I’d say she was drugged, knocked unconscious for several hours while this psycho went to work on her face. After he was done, she was brought up to this house, tied to the posts and tortured some more until she died.’

‘What? You don’t think she was skinned in this house?’ Garcia asked, looking confused.

‘No,’ Hunter replied before Doctor Winston had a chance to do so. ‘Look around. Check any room you like. Not even a speck of blood anywhere except directly under her body. True, I’m sure the killer cleaned up after himself, but this isn’t the place. Correct me if I’m wrong, doc, but skinning a human being is a complicated process.’

Doctor Winston nodded in silence.

‘The killer would need surgical equipment, operating room lights, not to mention a lot of time and knowledge,’ Hunter continued. ‘We’re talking about one highly skilled psychopath here. Somebody with a great knowledge of medical practices. She wasn’t skinned in this house. She was tortured and killed here.’

‘Maybe the killer is a hunter. You know, knowledge of skinning animals?’ Garcia suggested.

‘Could be, but that wouldn’t have helped,’ Hunter replied. ‘Human skin doesn’t respond the same way animal skin does. Different elasticity.’

‘How do you know that? Do you hunt?’ Garcia asked intrigued.

‘No, but I read a lot,’ Hunter replied casually.

‘Plus animals are dead by the time they’re skinned,’ Doctor Winston carried on. ‘You can simply rip the skin off with no concern for the animal’s life. Our killer kept the victim alive and that is a very delicate procedure in itself. Whoever this person is, he knows medicine. In fact, he’d make a very good cosmetic surgeon, except for the job on her teeth. They were simply pulled out, no finesse, but maximum pain.’

‘The killer didn’t want us to identify her,’ Garcia concluded.

‘He left her fingers intact,’ Hunter shot back after quickly checking her hands. ‘Why take the teeth and leave the fingerprints?’

Garcia nodded in agreement.

Hunter walked around the two wooden poles to have a look at the woman’s back. ‘A performing stage,’ he whispered. ‘A place where the killer’s evil could come alive. That’s why she was brought here. Look at her, her position is ritualistic.’ He turned to face Captain Bolter. ‘This killer’s done this before.’

Captain Bolter didn’t look surprised.

‘No one could’ve handled this sort of pain in silence,’ Garcia commented. ‘This is the perfect place, totally secluded, no neighbors, no one to walk in on the killer. She could’ve screamed her lungs out and no one would’ve come.’

‘The victim, do we have anything on her? Do we know who she is?’ Hunter asked, still examining the woman’s back.

‘Nothing so far, but we haven’t run her prints through yet,’ Garcia answered. ‘Our first look through this house has given us zip, not even a piece of clothing. She obviously didn’t live here and searching the house for any clues on her identity is probably a waste of time.’

‘Do it anyway,’ Hunter said firmly. ‘How about missing persons?’

‘I’ve fed her initial description into the Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit database,’ Garcia replied. ‘No matches yet, but without a face…’ Garcia shook his head as he considered the impossible task.