Page 39 of Little Buried Secrets

“I assume Margot had injuries?” I asked.

“She did. Several in and around the genital area, including a lacerated wound on the wall of her vulva. There was also a significant amount of bruising around the genital area. I also found bruises on her wrists, suggesting she was held down at some point by her assailant.”

Silas pulled several more photos from the stack and handed them over. I struggled to get through them, each one contributing to the story that led to the end of her life.

He was right.

Based on the position of the bruising, all indicators pointed to rape.

I leaned back in the chair, closed my eyes, and laced my hands behind my head, trying to recreate what I believed had happened that night.

Margot was struck by a vehicle while riding her bike, after which she was abducted and driven to the hiking trail, which would have put them there right around nightfall. Given she’d lost one of her shoes, a shoe located in a separate area from the place she was buried, I believed my initial idea about her attempting to flee and get away from her attacker was right. At some point she lost a shoe, but she kept on running. She made it all the way across the creek before he caught up to her, forcing her to the ground and raping her.

But how had she died?

“Have you established the cause of death yet?” I asked.

“Blunt force trauma to the side of the head.”

“Using what?”

“Based on her injuries and where she was found, I believe it was a rock or something similar. There are a couple of possibilities.”

“Meaning?”

“The most probable cause of death is murder.”

“Most probable?”

“I can’t rule out the idea that Margot may have tripped, fallen, and hit her head, which could have contributed or led to her death.”

“Did any of the rocks in the surrounding area have blood on them?”

He shook his head.

“I also scraped beneath her fingernails,” he said.

“And?”

“I found blood and skin cells. It’s possible she scratched the person who attacked her.”

I sat there, trying to work out the scenario Silas had just presented. Had Margot been injured first and then raped and murdered? Or had she been raped first and somehow managed to flee afterward? Whether she’d died because of an accidental injury or by her attacker’s hand, the fact remained … she was dead.

There were still a lot of questions to be answered, but we now had several key details:

Margot was hit by an automobile.

She was taken to a trail just outside of town.

She was raped.

She died by way of accident or she was murdered in cold blood.

“Can I see the rest of the photos?” I asked.

Silas bit down on his lip, reluctant to hand them over, but he knew I wouldn’t budge until he gave them to me. I spread them out over his desk, taking my time going through them. Now and then, I’d pause and look away when the graphic nature of the photos was too much to bear.

Once I finished, I stacked the photos together. As I handed them back, a wave of nausea came over me. I clasped a hand over my mouth and ran to the bathroom, where I spent the next several minutes crying into the toilet as I emptied the contents of my stomach.

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