In the Clearing (Tracy Crosswhite #3)(54)

Rosa picked up her copy of the coroner’s report. She’d scribbled all over the margins, circled words, and drawn arrows. “In my opinion, the fractured pelvis, bilateral rib fractures, and the fractures to the pubic rami, as well as the cracked sternum, are consistent with the type of injuries I’ve seen when a person is crushed by a car traveling at a high rate of speed.”

Tracy’s adrenaline pulsed. She thought of Tommy Moore and the damage to his truck. “She was run over,” she said, needing to hear the words spoken out loud.

“Which brings us to the third factor, pattern bruising.” Rosa handed Tracy one of the photos from the coroner’s report. It took Tracy a moment to determine that she was looking at bruising on Kimi Kanasket’s back and right shoulder. Gabriel picked up his beer and looked away.

“Intradermal bruises occur where the blood accumulates in the subepidermal area,” Rosa said, “and a pattern emerges when the skin is distorted by being forced between ridges or grooves, like you’d find on a car tire.” Rosa used her finger to outline some of the bruises. “The more pronounced the ridges and grooves, the easier it is to discern a pattern from the bruising. It is highly unlikely that your hospital pathologist in 1976 would have recognized this, but we are much more attuned to it now. In my opinion, this is a classic example of pattern bruising from a tire. I’d have Mike Melton take a look and see if he can match the bruising to a particular tread from the State Patrol Crime Lab.”

Tracy had already made a mental note to do just that. “Okay, what else?”

“Her face and chest suffered lacerations and abrasions, indicating the body was impacted, forced down, and shoved forward by the blow.”

“Wait a minute,” Tracy said. “Are you saying you believe she was knocked down and dragged, or that she was already on the ground?”

“If she had been hit and dragged, say on pavement, I would have expected to see a lot more abrasions, skin and muscle torn from bone, those sorts of injuries.”

Tracy thought of the clearing. “What if she was standing on grass and dirt at the time of the impact?”

“Maybe, but I think it more likely she was already on the ground because of the nature of the injuries and the location of the most prominent bruising.”

Tracy thought of her visit to the clearing. The weather conditions and temperature had been, according to Buzz Almond’s report, similar to the night Kimi disappeared. The ground had been soft from a recent rain, but the back side of the hill leading down to the clearing had been slick from the moisture and drop in temperature. Tracy had nearly fallen.

“So . . . you’re saying what . . . ?” Tracy leaned over the table to demonstrate as she spoke. “She was on the ground, facedown, and a car came down on top of her, then went over her?”

“I’d say she was on the ground,” Rosa said, “and she tried to cover up to protect herself, which is why the bruising is on the right side of her back and shoulder. That would be the natural instinct.”

“So the bruising on her forearms isn’t necessarily from impacts with rocks and boulders. It could have been from the impact with a car.”

“Could have been,” Rosa said.

Tracy sat back. “How sure are you?”

Rosa gave it a moment of thought. “That she was hit by a car? Ninety to ninety-five percent. That all the injuries are attributable to a car and not the river? Not as certain.”

Tracy slowed the conversation. Her mind was spinning with questions. “So you’re saying she was run over, but she was still alive when she went into the water.”

“Correct.”

“Given the nature of her injuries, could she have walked to the river on her own?”

“Highly unlikely,” Rosa said, “but I don’t know the distance we’re talking about.”

“Considerable,” Tracy said.

“Not very likely. In fact, I’d say no way.”

“So the only way she could have made it to the water would have been if somebody carried her there.”

“That would be my theory.” Rosa turned to Gabriel. “Do you agree?”

“I do,” he said. “And here’s another thing to maybe consider. If she’d been capable of walking to the river on her own, I would have expected her to have had the physical capability to protect herself as she went downriver, and I don’t see that was the case, at least not from what’s in this report.”

“What do you mean?” Tracy asked. “What would you have expected to see?”

“What we discussed earlier—scratches and abrasions on her forearms and hands as she tried to protect herself,” Gabriel said. “Also, the coroner’s report noted that the body was found with both shoes on and that she was still wearing her coat.”

“Why is that significant?”

“If a body is found in the river missing both shoes and articles of clothing, it’s usually an indication the person was fighting for their life and still had clarity. One of the first things a person will do is remove clothing weighing them down.”

Tracy looked again to Rosa. “Assuming she was hit by a car, in your opinion were those injuries life-threatening? Would she have died from them?”

“It would have depended on how much time passed before she received medical attention. And remember, this was 1976 and in a remote area that didn’t have a trauma center,” Rosa said. “Bottom line, the longer she lay there, the more likely she wouldn’t have survived. But if you’re asking me could she have survived had she received immediate medical attention, I’d say yes. I think she would have.”