Thumbs Up

In “The Mistress”, a story in The Deadliest Deceptions, Miriam tells us about her search for a killer:

Accompanied by the drone of wasps, I waded through some knee-high, thickly overgrown scrub to find a dog crouching along the base of a tub. “Here, little friend,” I cooed. “Come to Miriam. Come on now. You’re not going to make me crawl through that prickly brush, are you?”

Just as I paddled through the thorns, the barbs scratching my arms, the foliage closed in behind me. That’s when I saw on the side of the tub the proof I needed.

The proof hidden in the brambles was a bloody handprint. But not just any kind of handprint, the handprint belonged to a person with polydactyly. Polydactyly is the condition in which a person or animal has more than five fingers or toes. Miriam was lucky because this form of polydactyly—when there’s extra thumb—is rare, occurring only once in every 3,000 live births. What makes Miriam’s find even more unusual, however, is that both thumbs appeared to be fully formed and functional. Will this evidence enable her to identify the killer? Well, that’s another question. And that’s where you can help. Keep an eye out for folks with an extra thumb or click here,