Page 4 of The Unseen
“It’s through here,” Melissa said as she pointed toward a massive wardrobe that had been pushed away from the wall, revealing the doorway to an adjacent chamber. Rhys handed Quinn a torch that he’d brought along, since the room beyond was lost in shadow, having neither a window nor a light fixture.
Quinn entered the room and trained the torch on the back wall, where there was a large porcelain tub with clawed feet. It was wider and deeper than the newer tubs designed for smaller modern bathrooms. The skeleton lay in the tub, its skull resting against the back and its leg bones strewn haphazardly on the bottom, having collapsed after the tendons holding them together decomposed. The arms might have been folded across the belly, but now lay below the ribcage, the fingers splayed against the column of the spine. Quinn approached slowly, mindful of the white powder on the tile floor around the tub.
“What do you think that is?” Rhys asked, peering over her shoulder.
“I’ll have to send a sample to the lab.”
“Do you think the person died in the tub or was placed there after the fact?” he asked, his head tilted to the side as he considered the scene.
“I don’t see any dried blood in the tub, or any hair, so it’s possible the person died elsewhere and the body was placed in the tub to contain the decomposition process.”
“So you think it was murder?” Melissa asked, coming up beside Quinn and staring at the skeleton with undisguised curiosity.
“Of course, it’s possible the person drowned in the tub by accident, but I think it unlikely. Had that been the case, I strongly doubt the remains would still be here. They would have been properly buried. I would venture to guess that someone killed this individual, placed the corpse in the tub, got rid of all their personal belongings, then closed up the room and moved the wardrobe in front of the door to prevent discovery. Seems like an awfully impractical way of getting rid of a corpse, but it clearly worked, since the body wasn’t discovered until now.”
“Do you think the victim was poisoned with that powder?” Melissa asked.
“I really couldn’t say, but I mean to find out,” Quinn replied. “I don’t want to touch this until I know what I’m dealing with. I’ll ring Dr. Colin Scott, our bones expert, and ask him to come give us a hand.”
“Excellent idea. I’ll have Darren film you two packing up the skelly and taking samples of the powder,” Rhys said. “Think Colin will come now?”
“He might. He loves a good mystery.”
“I’ll ring him right now.”
Quinn turned to Melissa. “Do you have any inkling as to who this person might have been? Any family legends of someone going missing or leaving unexpectedly, never to be heard from again?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“Do you know whose room this was?”
Melissa shook her head. “No one ever used it, at least not that I can recall. My grandmother kept it locked.”
“Has this house been in the family for generations?” Quinn asked. She needed something to go on, a starting point, but Melissa was giving her nothing to work with.
“No. I believe my grandparents were the first of our family to live here.”
“Would you have anything that belonged to your grandmother? A piece of jewelry, or an object that meant a lot to her?”
“Everything here belonged to my grandmother,” Melissa replied, making an expansive gesture.
“I mean something more personal. Something that was special to her.”
“There’s this.” Melissa pulled a gold chain from beneath her top, exposing an egg-shaped pendant. The egg was covered with blue enamel and decorated with a delicate pattern of gold and diamonds.
“That’s beautiful. Is that…?”
“Yes. It’s Fabergé. This necklace was my grandmother’s prized possession. She never took it off, according to my mum. Mum wanted to take it for herself, but my grandmother left specific instructions to pass the necklace to me after her death.”
“It truly is stunning. Would you allow me to borrow it for a little while? It will help me piece together something of your grandmother’s past. Is there anything you can tell me about her?”
Melissa shook her head again. “She died before I was born. My mother didn’t like to talk about her mother. They didn’t have an easy relationship. Grandmother was born in Russia; that much I do know. She came to England when she was a teenager.”
“What was her name?”
“Tina Swift.”
“That doesn’t sound very Russian,” Quinn replied as she extracted a plastic baggie from her handbag and held it open for Melissa, who carefully removed the necklace and allowed it to pool at the bottom.
