Elliot let out a sigh. “Hard to say,” she said. “Classic signs of a hanging. Whether she hung herself or someone else hung her? I’m not sure yet.”
“What can we do to help?” This was something Ryan was particularly interested in. It was the difference between a suicide and a homicide.
“I’m calling it undetermined for now. I also have to wait on toxicology reports. If someone else hung her, there’s probably a drug in her system since I don’t see any signs of blunt force trauma.” Elliot pointed to the head, which was intact. No blood was found in her hair.
Ryan wrinkled her nose. “Could she have been strangled manually?”
“Normally there would be some bruising on the neck.” Elliot pointed to the relevant mark. “This is more consistent with a rope versus hands, but it is possible she was manually strangled or strangled with a ligature that was covered up with the rope.”
Ryan stared at her. “So you’re basically saying she died but we don’t have any idea whether or not she did it.”
“Yup.” Elliot’s face was grim. She knew the implications of her findings as well as the homicide detectives did.
Ryan went to scrub her gloved hand over her face and stopped, trying not to gag at the thought. At least she wasn’t covered in anything. “I have the phone and financial records coming in hopefully this afternoon.”
“That’s a good start.” Dane nodded.
“We should probably check her house and computer for any evidence of searches about suicide, or depression.” Ryan was speaking as a stream of consciousness now, not stopping to censor herself. “Interview more friends and family. I talked to her mother yesterday. Nothing was out of the norm.”
“Nothing at all?” Dane looked dismayed.
“Cairo was a pretty quiet person, apparently.” It matched what Ryan knew about her from high school. “Thanks, Elliot.”
Elliot nodded, sewing up the autopsy cuts. “I’ll let you know when we get pathology and toxicology back.”
Ryan and Dane nodded to her before they headed out of the autopsy suite, shedding their protective clothing as they did so. She took a deep breath as soon as they were outside, enjoying the fresh air that wasn’t scented with cadavers.
“It’s not that bad,” Dane pointed out.
“Not all of us have noses of steel,” Ryan retorted.
“It could be a suicide,” Dane said, drawing her attention back to the case.
“It could,” Ryan reluctantly admitted. “But I think we need to look into it more before we make that decision.”
“What about your missing persons case?” He waved a hand. “That teen girl.”
Guilt swamped Ryan momentarily, but it washed away. That was how it worked sometimes in law enforcement, one case got put to the side to make way for another. “We’re closing in on 48 hours on this case. I want to solve it.” Not that it would stop her from taking the file home and working in her free time.
You know, all the free time she had when she wasn’t working eighteen hour days. She had to force herself to take time off, even if she didn’t want to. Passing out wasn’t worth it.
“What did you think of the Mom and cousin?” Ryan kept her voice nonjudgmental, curious to see if Dane had picked up on what she had.
“Mom doesn’t like the fiancé, that’s for sure.” Dane snorted.
“What about the cousin?”
“Did she grow up here?” Dane looked at her for that one.
Ryan searched her memory as far back as it went. “I don’t think so.” She didn’t ever remember Cairo mentioning a cousin, but her memory only went so far back and maybe Veronica was a distant cousin.
Ryan’s phone rang, drawing her attention. “Hello?”
“This is Mary-Beth, from the front desk. There’s a man here with legal papers for you?” It was the front-desk secretary at the department.
“Who?” Ryan was a bit baffled.
“His name is Steven, he says it relates to a case of yours?”
Ah. “I’ll be there in a sec.” Ryan hung up the phone and turned to Dane. “Steven’s here with some papers.”
“What type?” Dane was curious.
“We’ll find out,” Ryan said wryly.
Friday 30th September; 11am
When they arrived at the department, Steven was sitting in the waiting room, a cheap folder clasped in his hands. “This is everything I have on the lawsuit.”
Ryan took the manila folder, a bit concerned about how skinny it was. “No other records?”
Steven’s gaze seemed distant. “She didn’t keep a lot of that stuff at home.”
Ryan nodded, thinking. “Did she have an office?”
“I don’t know.” Steven exhaled, and his shoulders sank a few inches. He seemed more hollow, defeated, than he had when they were at his business. Was there a reason for that?
“You okay?” Ryan asked cautiously. She was better in these situations, and Dane let her take the lead.
Wordlessly he took a note out of his inside coat pocket and handed it to them.
Who knew what bombshell it was going to contain. Ryan opened it, and pulled out the photo. It was Cairo with another young man, with long, ratty hair and a broken smile. They had their arms around each other and were very clearly comfortable with each other, that border between casual and intimate.
“Look at the date.” Steven pointed to the back of the car.
“It’s from two weeks ago.” Ryan couldn’t hide the surprise in her voice. “But that’s -”
“Charles, yes. Her ex-boyfriend.”
“When did you find this?” Ryan looked at him, her eyes sharp. Had he gone searching his house when they had dropped by? Or had he searched Cairo’s house?
“It was in a book she lent me.” He sighed. “I found it when Olivia dropped by.”
Ryan’s mind screeched to a halt. “What?”
“Olivia Evans,” Steven repeated. “She brought by some casseroles or something, and I don’t have potholders, so I used a book. When I picked it up, the photo fell out.”
Ryan wanted to smash her hand into her face and sigh in exasperation, but she would have been lying if she
