Written in Bone Read Online Free PDF Page B

unreadable. ‘So what was she doing on Runa in the middle of winter in the first place?’
    Fraser shrugged. ‘Could have friends or relatives here. Or could be one of those new-age types, wanting to get back to nature or whatever it is they do. You get them on islands even more remote than this.’
    Brody shone his torch on to the skull. It lay face down, tilted slightly to one side amongst the ashes, the back of its once smooth crown marred by a gaping hole.
    ‘You think she might have smashed in her own head as well?’
    I intervened before tempers frayed still more. ‘Actually, the skull often shatters in a hot fire like this. It’s basically a sealed container of fluid and jelly, so when it’s heated it acts like a pressure cooker. You get a build-up of gas that eventually makes it explode.’
    Fraser blanched. ‘Christ.’
    ‘So you still think it could be accidental?’ Brody asked, dubiously.
    I hesitated, knowing how deceptive fire could be in its effects on the human body. Despite what I’d said, I was also aware of nagging doubts of my own. But Wallace would want facts, not hunches.
    ‘It’s possible,’ I hedged. ‘I know this looks bizarre, but that’s not the same as suspicious. I’ll need to examine it properly, but there’s nothing here that immediately screams murder. Other than the skull, there’s no obvious trauma. Or any signs of interference, like if the arms or legs had been tied.’
    Brody rubbed his chin, frowning. ‘Wouldn’t the rope have burned away with everything else?’
    ‘It wouldn’t make any difference. Fire makes the muscles contract, so the limbs draw up into a sort of foetal position. It’s called the pugilistic posture, because it looks like a boxer’s crouch. But if the victim’s hands or feet are tied it prevents that from happening, even if the rope burns away.’
    I played the torch over the body, letting them see how it had curled up on itself.
    ‘If she’d been restrained, her arms and legs would be straight, not drawn up like this. So we know she wasn’t tied up.’
    Brody still wasn’t satisfied. ‘Fair enough. But I was a police officer for thirty years. I saw my share of fire deaths, accidental and otherwise, but never anything like this. Hard to see how this could happen without an accelerant’s being used.’
    Under normal circumstances he was right. But the circumstances here were far from normal.
    ‘An accelerant like petrol couldn’t have done this,’ I told him. ‘It doesn’t burn hotly enough. And even if it did, to incinerate a body to anything like this extent would have taken so much that the whole cottage would have gone up. It wouldn’t have been a localized fire like this.’
    ‘So what could have caused it?’
    I had an idea, but I didn’t want to speculate just yet. ‘That’s what I’m here to find out. In the meantime, let’s play safe anyway.’ I turned to Fraser. ‘Can you tape off a walkway from the doorway, and cordon off the body? I don’t want to disturb anything more in here than we have to.’
    The sergeant jerked his head at Duncan. ‘Go on, go and get the incident tape. We don’t have all night.’
    He made a point of saying ‘incident’ tape rather than ‘crime scene’, I noticed. Brody hadn’t missed it, either. His jaw muscles bunched but he said nothing as Duncan headed towards the door.
    Before he reached it the room was suddenly lit up as headlights spilled through the small window. We heard the sound of a car engine being switched off.
    ‘Looks like we’ve got visitors,’ Brody commented.
    Fraser was already motioning angrily to Duncan. ‘Get out there. Don’t let anyone in.’
    But it was too late. As we hurried from the room a figure was already framed in the front doorway. It was the young woman I’d spoken to on the ferry, her too-big red coat a vivid shout of colour in the depressing sepia of the cottage.
    ‘Get her out,’ Fraser snarled to Duncan.
    She lowered her torch, shielding