Page 22 of Deadly Sins: Lust

“And now?”

“Drowning is one of the most difficult diagnoses in forensic medicine, but there’s merit to Nick’s theory. Every minute counts, so let’s not waste it.”

“I appreciate how thorough you’re being,” I said. “Nick would too.”

“Yeah,” Maddie said. “It means a lot to us.”

Victoria stood. “Come with me.”

The phone on her desk buzzed. She glanced at it, told it to “piss off,” and walked out of the room without answering it.

I was beginning to really like her.

“This case is ... I don’t know ... bothering me, I guess you could say.”

Victoria looked at me. “You never told me what you do for work.”

“I’m a private investigator,” I said.

She grinned like she wasn’t surprised. “When I initially scanned Marissa’s body, I was checking for bruising. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. As the hours passed, two thumb—sized discolorations appeared—one on the top of her left shoulder, and the other on the back of her right shoulder. I’ll show you.”

She pulled a camera from the shelf, swiped through several photos, and then held it out in front of us, zooming in so we could get a good look.

“Oh yeah, I see what you’re saying,” Maddie said. “They look like thumbprints all right.”

“Based on the width, it’s hard for me to determine whether these were made by a man or a woman. If it was a woman, she has good—sized thumbs.”

“How large?” Maddie asked.

“I estimated the width at just over two and a half centimeters.”

“It’s reasonable to believe the bruises came from someone pushing down on her, right?” I said.

“It is, especially since the left side of Marissa’s collarbone is fractured as well.”

Shewasmurdered, of this I was now certain.

“Last night, I conducted an experiment with my assistant,” Victoria said. “We went over to the lagoon after it shut for the night and recreated the scene. My assistant knelt in the water, and I stood behind her and placed my thumbs in the same position as the ones I found on Marissa to see how easy it would be to press her into the water.”

“And?”

“Applying pressure to those areas, I was able to recreate a similar scenario, suggesting a strong possibility of forced drowning. And there’s something else ...”

She retrieved a small plastic bag from a large envelope. “I found these shreds of brown string stuck around a clasp on the back of Marissa’s dress. They didn’t come from anything she was wearing when she died, which leads me to believe they were transferred from something else.”

Something else ... orsomeoneelse.

CHAPTER 17

We stopped at a café along the esplanade. Maddie needed coffee, and I needed tea—the strongest tea I could find. Since arriving in Cairns, the time change had been a struggle. If I stopped going, even for a minute, I’d be asleep in no time. If I was going to make it through another day, caffeine was a necessary evil.

After leaving Victoria’s office, I texted Val. The wedding dress rehearsal was in a few hours, but Val and Georgia agreed to meet us at the coffee shop while Layla was at her final dress fitting.

The pair looked as ragged as we did when they entered the café.

“How’s everyone holding up?” I asked.

“Not well,” Val said. “What about you? We heard Nick was arrested.”

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