MANGLED HORROR

MANGLED HORROR 

God had made Man in His image, Roman had heard. He wondered which god would claim the [female] body on the aluminum table.

'Caucasian female, age approximately twenty to twenty-five. Hair brown, eyes blue.' The medical examiner spoke into a microphone clipped onto the lapel of his white smock. A wire from it led to the tape recorder in a roomy pocket.

'The body has been dismembered into six separate parts,' he went on in a monotone. 'Otherwise it appears to be that of a healthy female. All the teeth are present, although there are silver fillings on each of the upper right molars. There is a small, old diagonal scar under the chin. No digits [fingers] are missing. There are no other scars, birthmarks or moles.'

There were four men around the table. Roman wasn't a weak man; he'd seen death before. But the others, including [Sergeant] Isadore, had professional objectivity to fall back on. He [Roman] didn't, and the disassembled horror of the sterile room was a revelation to him. He'd never considered that put together, the human body resembled a misshapen octopus more than anything else. (p. 1)

(From Martin Cruz Smith: "GYPSY IN AMBER", A Roman Grey novel, Simon & Schuster.)

Kishalay Sinha [G] 

Also by Martin Cruz Smith:

GORKY PARK 

RED SQUARE 

WOLVES EAT DOGS [cf. idiom "dog eat dog"] 

STALIN'S GHOST 

TATIANA [cf. Russian translator Tatiana Litvinova]

ROSE [cf. Russian translator Rose Prokofieva]

Etc.