Bellamy comes with a towel to place over her, and I stalk out to Desmond.
"You need to get every single one of these phones and delete the pictures," I tell him.
"Miss Griffin," Alonso starts, trying to give me one of his charming smiles. "We can't demand the guest's hand over their personal devices. There's no need to be disruptive."
"I don't know about you, but I find death a tad disruptive," I tell him. "There is a girl lying over there dead. Ten minutes ago, you didn't want anyone to have pictures of her in the pool because you didn't want it to show up on social media and make the resort look bad. Well, I can tell you that getting sued by her family because they found out about her death through a despicable picture being posted is going to look much worse for you. While he does that, you need to come identify the body."
"You want me to get close to it?" he asks.
"She is a human being," I snap. "You might want to remember that when her family comes to claim her and collect her things."
"Excuse me?" he asks as I start back toward where the body lies. I pause and turn to look at him. "Why would they come here to collect her things?"
"I saw her yesterday wearing a resort uniform. She's a member of your staff."
His face goes pale, but I don't have it in me to play nursemaid to him right now. My priority needs to be the woman dead in her neon purple bikini and finding out what happened to her.
Desmond has joined Eric and Bellamy at the body and is staring down at her when I walk back into the trellis area. I crouch down beside her and peel back the towel again.
“What are your first impressions?” he asks.
I glance up at him in a bit of a surprise but decide not to say anything about his sudden change of tune.
“She's been gone for several hours. When we were carrying her out of the water, I could tell rigor mortis has begun to affect the lower part of her body. That effect doesn't begin to set in until four to six hours after death and begins before the upper part of the body, usually in the eyelids and face. The injury on her head is perimortem. It happened before she died. There's indication of blood flow, which happens when a person is alive when an injury happens,” I explain.
“What about her hands?” he asks. “Look at her wrist. How could her hand be bent like that if it takes hours for the body to stiffen up?
I nod. “I noticed that, too. One of her hands is completely normal, but the other…”
"It looks like she's holding something," Bellamy points out.
"I'm not a medical examiner, so I can't make any real conclusions. But there is a phenomenon that can create that effect. Some doctors debate if it even exists, but it seems to have been documented in many instances. It's called cadaveric spasm. Essentially it means the moment death occurs; there is instant stiffness separate from and more intense than rigor. It can happen in the entire body or in only one area. Think about the victims in Pompeii. There are preserved bodies that show people crawling and reaching out, trying to survive. They died in that moment, and their bodies locked in that position, which allowed the mud and ash to solidify around them to create those casts."
Carefully lifting the bent hand, I examine it and notice something under her fingernails. The brown substance is deep under the middle two fingernails and shallower in the others. I can't tell what it is, but I don't disturb it so it can be collected later.
"So, she was trying to pull herself out of the pool when she died," Desmond concludes.
"Oh my god." I look up and see Alonso standing right at the entrance to the enclosure, his eyes locked on the woman's face. "It's Rosa."
"Rosa?" I ask.
His eyes don't move away from her for a second, then he glances over at me, nodding.
"Yes. She's been working here for several months. I can't believe she's gone. How could this happen? She never had a problem in the water."
He goes back to staring at her, and I get to my feet.
"Have you called the police?" I ask. "Did you make sure they know the coroner needs to come?"
"Yes," he answers. "They're on their way."
"Good. Until they get here, we need to keep everybody away from the pool area."
"Absolutely," Alonso agrees with a nod. "I would prefer no guests to be around when the crew is working, anyway."
"Crew?" I ask. "What do you mean?"
"We can't expect the guests to swim in the pool without it being thoroughly cleaned. The crew will need to drain it completely. Proper cleaning and treatment will take time, so it's important to get started immediately."
I shake my head.
"No," I tell him. "Everything needs to be kept as it is until the police arrive. The other guests swimming should be your last priority right now."
"The expectations and needs of my guests are always my top priority," he tells me.
There's a hint of a threat in his voice.
"If you want to make this go smoothly, you will listen to me. There isn't a return policy on your staff. The police aren't just going to come, slip her into a bag, and go on their way like
