Less than fifty minutes later, Jamilla Hughes and I were inside the morgue at San Francisco’s famed Hall of Justice. We had joined the chief medical examiner, Walter Lee, and the dental expert, Dr fang.
Dr Alien Pang took his time examining both bodies. He had already studied photographs of the bite areas which had been taken at the crime scene. He was a small man, completely bald, with very thick black-rimmed glasses. At one point during his examination, I noticed Inspector Hughes give a wink to the ME. I think they found Dr Pang just a little strange. So did I, but he was very thorough, and obviously serious about the job he had taken on. ‘Okay, okay. I’m ready to talk about the nature of the bites now.’ He finally turned to us and made his pronouncement. ‘I understand you’re making casts of the bite marks, Walter?’ ‘Yes, we lifted the marks with fingerprint powder. The casts should be ready in a day or two. We swabbed to gather saliva, of course.’ ‘Well, good. That’s the right approach, I think. I’m ready to state my piece, my educated guess.’
“That’s excellent. Alien,’Lee said in a soft, very dignified voice. He wore a white coat with the nickname Dragon stitched on one pocket. He was a tall man, probably six-two, and weighed at least two-fifty. He carried himself with confidence. ‘Dr Pang is a friend I have used before,’ Lee continued. ‘He’s a veterinary dental expert from the Animal Medical Center in Berkeley. Alien is one of the best in the world, and we’re lucky to have him on this case.’
‘Thank you for your time, Dr Pang,’ Inspector Hughes said. ‘This is terrific of you to help.’
‘Thank you.’ I joined in with the hallelujah chorus of praise. ‘It’s perfectly all right,’he said.’I’m not exactly sure where to start, other than to say that these two homicides are most interesting to me. The male was severely bitten, and I’m relatively sure the attacker was, well, it was a tiger. The bites on the female were inflicted by two humans. It’s as if the humans and the large cat were running together. Like they were a pack. Extraordinary. And bizarre, to say the least.’
