Without a Trace Read Online Free PDF Page A

a prime minister or foreign minister, admittedly, but a high-profile violent crime. She mustn’t mess up. She shifted on the chair, cleared her throat, took out the brand new mobile, provided by Lamia, and searched for the recording function. Her fingers seemed to swell above the screen and she did something wrong. She went back to the start menu and began again.
    ‘So his injuries are life-threatening?’ she said, once the timer indicated that the phone was recording properly.
    ‘Possibly not in themselves. But it’s the combination that makes his condition so complicated, along with severe dehydration.’
    He reached for a chart containing the patient’s notes.
    ‘So the victim had gone without food and water for some time?’ Nina said, glancing at her phone’s screen. ‘How long?’ She put the phone on the desk beside the doctor.
    He turned a page and studied the information, then read some out quietly to himself: ‘Severe metabolic disruption, principally electrolytes and salts, sodium and potassium, as well as erratic base oxygen values … At least three days, I’d say.’
    Nina counted backwards in her head. So the assault had taken place late on Thursday or early on Friday. ‘How much longer would he have lasted if he hadn’t been found?’
    ‘Difficult to say. Another hour or so. He wouldn’t have survived the morning.’
    She glanced at the phone and hoped their voices were being stored on the memory chip. She’d have to make sure afterwards that she’d saved the recording properly. ‘What injuries have you managed to identify?’
    The doctor carried on reading. ‘The patient had extensive bleeding and tissue damage to his groin and the surrounding musculature, as well as multiple torn ligaments …’ He looked up at her over his glasses. ‘We’ve had to open him up to drain the blood and reduce the risk of compartment syndrome.’
    Nina looked at him, wide-eyed. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said.
    ‘The bleeding in his groin was extensive, but confined, which leads to increased pressure and the risk of tissue death. The surgeon’s doing her best to reconnect his torn muscles and ligaments, but it’s a very sensitive job …’
    ‘So his legs had been pulled apart until the muscles ruptured?’ Nina said.
    The doctor looked down at the notes again and read in silence for a few moments. The room smelt of fresh disinfectant. When he spoke again, he described how the victim’s shoulders had been dislocated bilaterally, with extensive swelling in the surrounding tissue, rotator cuffs and joints, which needed to be brought down. ‘That means his shoulders have had to be put back in place,’ he said. ‘We’re also having to reconnect torn muscles and ligaments there as well.’
    ‘Does he have any injuries around his wrists?’
    The doctor looked down at his notes, and read out, ‘Circular ulceration and laceration, approximately one centimetre across.’
    Nina checked that the recording was still working. ‘So they tied his hands behind his back, then strung him up by his wrists,’ she said.
    Dr Kararei looked at the window for a moment, as if he were trying to imagine the scene. Then he returned to the notes. ‘The tissue of the plantar fascia in his feet has been dislodged, and exhibits centimetre-wide haematomas in various stages of discoloration.’
    Repeated blows to the soles of his feet with a blunt instrument, over a protracted period of time, Nina thought.
    ‘We’ve found pinprick bleeding in the whites of his eyes, as well as in his mouth, inside his cheeks and under his tongue.’
    Nina nodded. ‘Attempted strangulation?’
    ‘Probably not,’ the doctor said. ‘There’s no bruising on his neck, no marks from fingers or a noose.’
    ‘But it does suggest suffocation?’
    ‘Yes.’
    Nina took a few deep breaths. ‘There was a plastic bag at the crime scene,’ she said. ‘On the floor in the children’s room. I saw it.’
    ‘His face exhibits both haematomas