Aftermath Read Online Free PDF Page B

in an advanced state of decomposition and is almost completely skeletonized. It is that of an adult of the female sex. There is an absence of any significant injury to the skeleton. The skull and all long bones, ribs etcetera, appear intact. There is no sign of trauma at all.’ She turned to Hennessey, ‘That is worrying in a sense.’
    â€˜Yes, ma’am,’ Hennessey nodded. He stood as far away from the dissecting table as possible, his place to be called forward to examine or witness something of significance only if invited to do so by Dr D’Acre. He was dressed similarly to Dr D’Acre and Eric Filey in green coveralls, including hat and slippers. They were worn over underclothing and always were incinerated after a single usage.
    â€˜Early days, yet,’ Dr D’Acre returned her attention to the corpse, ‘but the absence of peri-mortem trauma indicates a slow and a lingering death.’ Dr D’Acre took the scalpel to the stomach, still discernible, and opened it with a single linear incision. ‘Nothing in there . . . there might still have been some small trace of food even after this length of time, but its complete absence could mean that she was deprived of food in the last twelve or twenty-four hours of life . . . but decay is too advanced . . . the kidneys, too, are too decayed to be able to determine if she was deprived of fluid during the same period.’ Dr D’Acre laid the scalpel in the stainless steel tray containing a generous amount of disinfectant. ‘I will give all due attention to the task in hand, all due address, but if this corpse is typical of those found at the location in question, then I am obliged to give you advance warning that I am unlikely to be able to determine the cause of death.’
    â€˜Appreciate that, ma’am.’
    â€˜It’s likely going to be asphyxiation, plastic bag over the head . . . or thirst or starvation . . . in lessening degrees of mercy. Asphyxiation takes a matter of minutes, thirst will take a few days . . . but if the victim is allowed fluid then starvation could take weeks.’
    â€˜We wondered about the possibility of them freezing to death?’
    â€˜Yes, hypothermia, that is indeed a fourth possibility, which will take a short time in the depths of winter and will also leave no trace upon the skeleton. Poison is an unlikely fifth, as is drowning, but those two might and will leave traces respectively. Heavy poisons such as arsenic and cyanide will leave traces, alcohol won’t. But I will be able to tell if they were drowned . . . but the absence of a body of water in the area leads me to think it unlikely.’
    â€˜I would think so too, ma’am, the fact that they were restrained and attached to a long chain makes me think that they were alive when they were abandoned . . . alive and conscious . . . from a police officer’s point of view.’
    â€˜I would be inclined to agree with you, Chief Inspector, from a forensic pathologist’s point of view,’ she tapped her forefingers lightly on the rim of the table, ‘from the perpetrator’s point of view, I would think he’d want a rapid onset of death . . . he would abandon them to thirst or hypothermia. He wouldn’t return each day with a plentiful supply of water to keep them alive until they starved . . . too risky. So logic, not scientific analysis, points to hypothermia or thirst as the likely cause of death, depending upon the time of year they were chained up and abandoned. But that is encroaching on your area of expertise. Sorry.’
    â€˜Encroach all you like.’
    â€˜Thank you, but I suppose that that is my way of apologizing for being unlikely to find a cause of death. I think my expertise, modest as it is, will be confined to doing what I can to assist in the identification of the