‘Agreed and then when we turn her over,’ Linh placed her hand on top of Fox-Carnell’s torso, pulled her towards her and turned the body on its front. ‘She has significant bruising on her lower back and a row of small circular bruising on her buttocks. Same purple colouring, suggesting to me that she’s been thrown or landed heavily onto something sharp.’
‘Fox-Carnell never made it home, which means that between 5.45 p.m. and 9 p.m. she’s taken off the street. She’s punched, falls to the ground and is then restrained and maybe thrown into a van,’ said Henley.
Ramouter nodded in agreement.
‘Event two,’ said Linh as she moved to the top of the body and pulled apart the remaining hair on Fox-Carnell’s head revealing a rectangular patch of missing scalp. Scrape marks left behind by the knife could be seen on the exposed skull. The edges of the wound were uneven and jagged as though a piece of material had been ripped in two.
‘Bloody hell. Was she alive when this happened?’ asked Ramouter.
‘Very much alive,’ said Linh. ‘The cuts and bruising to her right shin, restraint bruising around her wrists and ankles are reddish in colour. That suggests that the injuries were sustained in the twenty-four hours before she was found; so, between the hours of 6 a.m. on Thursday and 6 a.m. Friday. Finally, event three.’
Linh dragged her finger along the bruising around Fox-Carnell’s neck. ‘This is caused post-mortem. She was already dead when hung.’
Henley stepped back from the table and scanned Fox-Carnell’s body as she recalled the elements of all three events. ‘What killed her, Linh?’ she asked.
‘Asphyxiation and organ failure, but it was due to an overdose and not because she had a rope around her neck. There are signs of a pulmonary edema which is where fluid leaks into the lungs. There was bloody phlegm and vomit in her oesophagus, nose and throat. Also, her veins showed signs of collapse and there’s evidence of a cardiac arrest. There are no track marks in her forearms or any of the usual places that a drug user would inject, but if you look at her neck.’
Linh reached for the magnifying lamp and placed it above Fox-Carnell’s neck. She then lifted her head and turned the neck to the right. Swelling and a reddish hue surrounded a small puncture wound.
‘Didn’t Fox-Carnell kill and attempt to kill her patients by injecting them with poison?’ Ramouter asked Henley.
Henley nodded. ‘She used strychnine. It’s a poison that was banned in 2006, but they still use it as a pesticide in the States. Is that what killed her?’
Linh covered Fox-Carnell’s body with the surgical drape. ‘I don’t know yet. I only sent samples to toxicology this morning but, from the look of her, I didn’t see any of the usual signs of poisoning.’
‘Someone wanted to punish her before she died,’ said Henley.
‘It’s more than a punishment. It’s torture.’ Ramouter’s phone was ringing. ‘It’s Anthony. Must have an answer on forensics for Fox-Carnell. I’ll take it outside.’
‘I don’t envy you,’ said Linh as she peeled off her gloves, threw them into the yellow wastebin and washed her hands. ‘I’ve never seen anyone scalped before.’
‘Neither have I,’ said Henley, following Linh into her office.
‘You know that the images are all over social media, right?’
Henley sighed. ‘I know. It turns our investigation into a spectacle and makes our jobs harder.’
‘Speaking of your job,’ Linh said with a noticeable glint in her eye. ‘How are things with you and Pellacia?’
Henley rolled her eyes and groaned. ‘Do you know what, I’m more than aware that I’ve put myself in this stupid position but I’m doing my best to move on. Focus on family and on my job, but he makes it hard.’
‘What do you expect. You keep playing with his heartstrings and his d—’
‘Linh!’
Linh laughed. ‘You take away all my fun, but I seriously don’t know what you expect. The way that you two go back and forth. It’s not healthy and, if I’m honest, it’s not fair.’
‘Fair to whom?’
It was hard to miss the defensiveness in Henley’s tone. Linh raised her eyebrows in warning.
‘To him,’ Linh said firmly. ‘He’s the single one, pining away and waiting for you.’
‘Are you saying that I’m leading him on?’
‘I didn’t say that. I’m just saying that this back and forth is a dangerous game.’
Henley felt her shoulders slump. The energy it took to defend herself – especially when she knew that she was in the wrong – was exhausting.
