A Rip Through Time(79)

He holds out the probe. I take it automatically. Then I pause and hold it out to McCreadie.

The detective shakes his head. “I will observe only. My stomach is not as strong as yours.”

I wait to see where Gray will start. He is the doctor after all. He begins at the neck and uses forceps to examine it quickly before moving down to her abdomen.

I take over examining the neck injuries. Her throat hasn’t just been slashed. It’s been cut right to the vertebrae. That’s the most obvious thing, and I need to see past the horror of it to examine further.

After a moment, I murmur, “Hesitation marks.”

I don’t mean to speak aloud, and Gray startles as if I shouted. He twists to look at the victim’s neck.

“What was that, Catriona?”

I pause a moment, then plow forward. “These marks here, sir.” I point to them. “They seemed to indicate that the killer hesitated. That is to say, he did not make the cuts decisively.”

“Took him some nerve to work up to it?” McCreadie says.

“Perhaps,” Gray says. “I had noted the marks. I was not certain what they indicated but ‘hesitation’ seems a good interpretation. Thank you, Catriona.” He taps the forceps on a spot below the victim’s ear. “Did you note these abrasions?”

“I had not. They would suggest strangulation, I believe? Strangled and then her throat cut?”

I reach to check under her eyelids before stopping myself.

“What were you about to do, Catriona?”

“I, uh, I think that book mentioned something about seeing signs of strangulation in the whites of the eyes.”

A hint of a smile as he nods. He uses his forceps to nudge up the victim’s lids, and I see the red of hemorrhaging. “Now, I promised I was not going to teach, and here I am teaching. Continue to make observations, Catriona, aloud please, as I examine the abdominal injuries.”

“I do not wish to disturb you, sir.”

“If you mean that in truth, then let me assure you I am capable of listening while also focusing on my work. However, if you feel I am pressuring you, you may refrain from voicing your observations.”

I glance at McCreadie, who offers me a small smile and mouths, “Go on.”

“She wasn’t killed here,” I say, which is a bit of a cheat, because there’s no way in hell the killer happened to find just the right victim at just the right spot to stage his reenactment. “There’s not enough blood on the ground for that. I’ve, uh, seen animals slaughtered and so I, uh, know the signs.”

“You do not need to explain how your knowledge arises, Catriona. I trust it is not from personal experience with murder.”

“Only the personal experience of having nearly been a victim of it twice.” I get a brief smile from both men for that. I push on. “You’ll want to find the actual site of the murder, won’t you? It’ll have a lot of blood.” I pause. “Unless the blood settled after the strangulation. Can you tell how much time passed between that and the throat being cut?”

“I may be able to attempt it if I am allowed to take possession of the body after the autopsy.”

“And if Addington doesn’t butcher her more with the autopsy,” McCreadie mutters.

“Examine the edges of the wound, and you’ll see they’re quite bloodless,” Gray says, still working on the abdomen. “My preliminary assessment would be that she was killed elsewhere, by strangulation, and then brought here, where the knife work was done. The blood, as you noted correctly, would have settled by that time, causing a lack of it here at the scene. Hugh? Can you show Catriona how to check for that?”

McCreadie pulls down the shoulder of the victim’s dress, as circumspectly as possible, and points out the lividity, indicating the blood has settled.

“We can even tell how she was lying postdeath by the pattern,” Gray continues. “For that, we’ll need to disrobe her, though, which we obviously will not do here. Now, come look at—”

“Sir?” It’s Findlay, hurrying over to McCreadie. “I spotted the doctor’s coach around the corner.”

“Good lad,” McCreadie says. “You have keen eyes.”

Findlay glances down and bobs his head. Then he sneaks a look at me as we move away from the body.

“It doesn’t bother you, Miss Catriona?” he asks. “Looking at that?”

“It doesn’t if I remind myself the examination is necessary to find her killer,” I say.

“I suppose so.” He glances back at the corpse and swallows. “I have never seen one so brutalized.”

“This is an extreme case,” McCreadie says. “There is no shame in finding it difficult to look upon her.”

“Try not to think of the body as a person,” I say. “You’ll need to, when you investigate her death, but for now, put that aside if you can.”

Findlay peers at me intently, obviously not expecting these words from Catriona, and I’m wondering whether I went too far when Gray says, “Catriona is very astute. The object behind us is a piece of evidence. The person within is gone. You honor that person by solving her murder, and you needn’t worry about causing insult by examining her remains.”

Gray and McCreadie move away to speak, leaving me with Findlay.