Cold Truth Read Online Free Page A

when Spencer joined her.
    “This is his way in, and out, I suspect,” she told him. “And down here—please watch where you walk—look here . . .”
    She led him down the path and to the depression in the reeds.
    “I think she may have been unconscious when he took her out of the car and began to carry her down here. Then, when he got about here, she either became too heavy or woke up and began to fight, and he dumped her on the ground over there.”
    “What makes you think she was still alive?” Spencer asked, and Cass pointed to the bunched and broken reeds.
    “I think she grabbed on to the reeds and tried to crawl away. I think this is where she was attacked. I think he hurt her here.”
    Cass knelt on one knee to obtain close-up shots of the broken stalks.
    Spencer stepped off the path and looked around.
    “He could have taken her down this way,” he pointed toward the left, “right to the stream. He might have waded through it, just like we did, to avoid leaving footprints.”
    “Let’s check it out.”
    They picked their way through the marsh to the bank of the stream. From there they followed the current back to where the body lay.
    “Find anything?” Tasha asked without looking up from her task, scraping under the victim’s fingernails into small plastic bags, one for each finger.
    “We found evidence that she may have been alive when she was brought down here.” Cass stepped from the water onto a nearby rock and described the scene they had discovered in the marsh.
    “I agree, she died here.” Tasha turned to drop the bags into a container. “Fixed lividity here on the right hip and along the thigh and upper arm. Just the way we found her. Rigor’s set in, we got the flies but no maggots yet, so we know right off the bat that we’re within twelve hours. Body temp right now is 85.1 degrees Fahrenheit, so, since we know that the body loses about one and a half degrees every hour after death, that means . . .”
    “She’s been dead about nine hours.” Cass looked at her watch. It was just a few minutes after nine. “Which takes us to around midnight last night.”
    “That’s my best estimate, though it could have been a little less. It was cool last night, could have lowered her body temp a little faster.” Tasha stood up and motioned for the county medical examiner. “Dr. Storm, she’s all yours.”
    “Thanks.” The ME, a stocky woman in her early sixties, stepped forward, her expression solemn.
    Tasha stripped off her gloves and dropped them into her open bag, telling Cass, “I should have something for you by tomorrow. At least by then I’ll know if he left any DNA. I’m hoping there are some skin cells under her nails, if nothing else. Then we’ll see what Dr. Storm has for us. In any event, I’ll be in touch as soon as I know something.”
    Cass nodded. “I’d appreciate it.”
    “By the way, cause of death appears to be manual strangulation,” the tech told Cass. “Looks like she was sexually assaulted, but we’ll have to wait for the ME’s findings to know for sure. We’ll also want to know which came first, the assault or the strangulation.”
    Tasha closed the black bag into which she’d tucked the samples she’d painstakingly collected. “I’ll head on back to the lab now, and try to sort this all out.”
    She smiled at Cass, then added, “Then you get to figure out what it all means.”
    “With luck.”
    “Anyone know who she is?” Tasha hoisted the bag over her shoulder.
    “Not that I’m aware. Helms found her clothes in the marsh, they’ve been bagged for the lab. Jeans, T-shirt, bra, panties, one brown leather sandal, canvas purse,” Cass told her.
    “Guess you weren’t lucky enough to find a wallet with ID in the purse?”
    “No wallet.”
    “Well, I guess that’s your job, right?” Tasha started toward the county van, which was parked up near the road. “To figure out who she was and why this happened to her?”
    “We’ll do our best.”