Fry looked at the Marie Tenncnt Hie sitting on Cooper’s desk. Still waiting for postmortem results. She decided to ring Mrs Van
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Doon there and then. If no one nagged, they might have to wait for Jays to get a report.
‘Just done it/ said the pathologist. ‘Your timing is admirable/
‘Preliminary results?’
‘Cause of death was hypothermia and exposure. No surprise there, surely?’
‘Any contributory factors? Injuries?’
‘Frostbite damage to the extremities - feet, hands, parts of the face. And this is the bit you probably don’t want to hear …’
‘Go on. I can take it/
‘There was bruising and a number of minor abrasions on parts of the body.’
‘Where?’
‘Chest and abdomen, including two cracked ribs and some liver lacerations. Bruising on upper and lower arms. And an extensive bruise on the temple, near the left ear.’
‘Arc these injuries consistent with a fall? Like the Snowman?’
‘Oh, your other body? No, I’m afraid not. This is different. The bruises and abrasions on the arms look like defensive injuries to me. The blow to the head is quite severe, as arc some of the injuries to the torso, hence the cracked ribs. I imagine that she must have been in some considerable pain from her injuries.’
‘Not in any condition to hike up Irontongue Hill in the snow, then?’
‘It wouldn’t have done her much good at all/ said the pathologist. ‘She was already in a weakened condition. As for her general state of health, you’ll have to wait for the results of all the tests. But I can tell you she was well nourished, though she hadn’t eaten a meal for several hours. No immediate evidence of disease. Parturition within the last two months. Probably not the first. No surprises there either, eh?’
‘Not really.
‘I’ve seen the newspaper reports. Arc you still looking for the baby?’
‘Yes/
‘Tragic. Another failure of the medical profession, I suppose. I sec all their mistakes here, you know.’
‘We’re not jumping to any conclusions/ said Fry cautiously.
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‘No. I’m sorry. It’s been a long day. A long week.’
‘ J o - o
‘Oh, tell me about it.’ ‘Is there anything else you want to know?’ ‘Yes, what about a time scale? When were the injuries caused? How long before her death?’
o
‘Right. Judging by the progress of the bruising, I would estimate the injuries were inflicted at least thirty-six hours prior to death — long enough to have become pretty painful. In fact, there was some fresh internal bleeding, which I imagine was the result
o o
of putting too much stress on the liver and chest injuries. She would have been in quite some pain at that stage.’
‘She would have sat down to recover,’ said Fry. ‘Maybe even passed out from the pain?’
‘Possibly.’ The pathologist paused. ‘Of course, I’m estimating the time of death, too. This person didn’t die quickly, you know. In fact, she would have taken a long time to die.’
Fry didn’t want to think about that too closely. She had one more thing to ask Mrs Van Doon.
‘Could the injuries have been self-inflicted?’
‘No way.’
v
Next, Fry rang Mrs Lorna Tennent, who had gone back to Falkirk. Mrs Tennent was surprised at the question.
‘Yes, of course,’ she said. ‘Dick Abbott was my first husband’s father. We used to come down to Derbyshire to leave a poppy regularly every year when Marie was younger, but we stopped when I got divorced. I had no idea Marie still felt she had to keep it up. No idea.’
Fry put down the phone. She wanted to tell Cooper the news immediately, but she didn’t know where he had gone. Probably he was off seeing Alison Morrisscy again, purely out of bloody-mindcdness. He was going to have to wait, then. There was no way Fry was going to interfere with his social life. At the moment, Ben Cooper was thinking only of himself.
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30
lonight, the Gospel Hall was in use. Through a side window, Ben Cooper glimpsed members of the congregation sitting on wooden chairs on a quarry-tiled floor. The sound of an electric organ reached him, and then voices singing a hymn.
On his first visit to Walter Rowland, Cooper hadn’t recognized the other church, the one on the corner of Harrington Street. Now he saw that it was Our Lady of Czestochowa, the church attended by the Lukasz familv and other members of the Polish community. It was distinguished by the representation of the Black Madonna over the door. And there was the little school alongside it, too the Saturday school where Richard and Alice Lukasz studied for their Polish O-lcvcls. Halfway down the street from here was the Dom Kombatanta, the club of the SPK, the Polish exservicemen’s organization.
Cooper knocked on Rowland’s door, but found it off the latch. He pushed it open a few inches.
