Hewson touched her elbow. ‘Your thoughts?’
‘It doesn’t look good. From what I can judge, it looks to be murder. Would I be right in saying that cause of death is strangulation?’
‘It would appear so, but until I get her onto my table, I can’t be sure.’
Beth grimaced in distaste at what her next question must be. Whenever a woman’s body was found naked, one of the first things to cross an investigator’s mind was the possibility the woman had been raped before being murdered.
‘I’m guessing you’ll say the same if I ask you if she’s been raped.’
‘My first conclusions are that she hasn’t been raped, as there are no signs of blood around her vagina; however that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. As she was naked when she was found…’ Hewson trailed off and gave his head a sideways tilt.
He didn’t need to say anything more. Beth knew where his sentence was going.
‘Speaking of post-mortems, please tell me that you’ll be on with hers this morning, or at least this afternoon.’
‘As luck would have it, I have nothing scheduled in for today, so as soon as the photographer is finished his job and the CSI boys have done their bit, we can get her back to Carlisle and I can take a proper look at her.’ Hewson took a draw on his e-cigarette and blew out a thick cloud of vapour that smelled of melon. ‘You’re a smart lass, but you’ve overlooked something. Take another look at our victim and tell me what you see that’s wrong. Describe what you see if it helps.’
Beth didn’t know what she’d missed so she gave the elderly lady another slow scan.
‘She’s thin, frail to the point of being malnourished. The way the skin is hanging off her bones, I’d guess that she’s been ill recently and the fact she’s got no hair makes me wonder if she had cancer and had received chemotherapy.’
‘Now you’re getting there.’ Hewson let the twinkle in his eye creep into his voice. ‘Judging by the extent of her rigor mortis, I’d say she’s only been dead a few hours. However, when I tucked a thermometer into her armpit, her core temperature was higher than it should be. I know last night was a warm night, but even so, her temperature should have been several degrees lower.’
‘What are you getting at?’
Beth knew from her training the usual method of taking a body’s temperature was rectal thermometer, but Hewson had foregone that to use the victim’s armpit. Knowing how meticulous the pathologist was, she worked out that he wasn’t taking any chances that he might contaminate any evidence. Does he really think she’d been raped?
‘I’d say she was running a fever when she was strangled, and not just a cold or flu, but something more serious. The way her skin has thinned to become almost translucent backs up your suggestion of cancer. There are bruises on her arms that are synonymous with intravenous drips that also support this theory. Whether the chemo was successful or not, I cannot say, but my guess would be that it wasn’t.’
‘Wow. The poor woman.’
‘Indeed.’ Hewson nodded towards the road. ‘You might want to speak to the CSI team. When I got here, they were doing their bit, and I have to say, they seemed to have an awful lot of evidence bags.’
‘Thanks for the tip. Please let us know when you’re doing the post-mortem; I want to be there.’
Beth turned and made her way back to the road, the forensic oversuit rustling with every step she took. She could see O’Dowd was talking with a group of officers and from the expression on the DI’s face, she could tell she wasn’t in one of her sunnier moods. Rather than risk bearing the brunt of the DI’s ire, she went to speak with the lead CSI technician.
Two
The CSI boss was a taciturn man who never spoke unless spoken to first. Even then he was monosyllabic with most of his answers. In lighter moments, Beth had joked with the rest of the team that the guy’s heroes were probably Clint Eastwood and Charlie Chaplin.
Beth knew that being businesslike never worked with him as he just told them he’d email the results from the lab. The man, however, did think he was something of a stud and he was vain enough to fall for a little flattery and charm.
She walked over to him with a wide smile on her face. ‘Dr Hewson tells me you found a lot of things you thought worthy of collecting. I know you’ll probably have to discard half of it, but is there anything I should be getting excited about?’
‘One or two bits.’
This was a good start. He was receptive to her and although non-committal so far, he’d given her a way she could prise some information from him.
‘Excellent. Would you care to tell me about them?’ Beth hated herself for doing it, but she wound a strand of hair that had come loose from her ponytail around one of her fingers. She’d never liked playing on her looks, as doing so was false, but she’d caught the glances the guy had given her and knew he was a receptive audience. ‘My DI is on the warpath and I could use any help you can give me.’
‘We got a few bits and pieces. Two of which should give you a suspect.’
‘Really? What are they?’
‘An invitation to a party and a credit card.’ The CSI man reached into the evidence box at the back of the van and pulled out two bags, which he held out to Beth. ‘Here, have a look for yourself.’
Beth took the two bags and examined them with great care. The first held the invitation. It wasn’t named but it invited the bearer to attend the mayor of Carlisle’s
