Page 12 of Nothing Left

Juliette felt a wave of sadness wash over her as she stared at the woman who had been so full of life just yesterday.And then, she gazed in surprise at the details she saw.

Her dark hair was caked with blood; her blue eyes stared wide. The marks on her chest, deep and bloody, were terrible to see. But what really got Juliette's attention were the wounds themselves.

"Where's the hesitation marks?" Wyatt murmured, and she realized that her partner was asking the exact same questions she was.

The blows were accurate, forceful, and deep, and they were centered over the heart. No hesitation marks. And looking at the victim's hands, she also saw no defensive wounds.

"Now, this changes things," she said to herself.

Then, she turned to the pathologist, who was watching her reaction with a guarded expression.

"How many stab wounds are there?" she asked Dr. Manuel.

"There are three stab wounds in total," the pathologist answered in a clipped, precise voice. "All of them are deep and accurate. The wounds were inflicted with a large, sharp blade,

Juliette nodded, digesting the information. It was possible that Heather had been in a blind rage and had stabbed her friend multiple times, but the lack of hesitation marks and defensive wounds made her wonder if there was something else at play here.

Apart from anything else, it would have taken a level of strength, as well as resolve, to drive the knife so deeply in.

This was not the work of an amateur or someone who was in a drunken rage. The wounds were precise and calculated. And the lack of hesitation marks suggested that the killer was confident and experienced.

For the first time, Juliette saw that there was an element of reasonable doubt in the theory that Heather had killed her friend. The question was, who had?

"What is your theory?" she asked the pathologist. "What do you see from the autopsy?"

Dr. Manuel replied calmly. "The killer was strong. The knife wounds are deep and well-placed. From the angle, I would guess that the killer is right-handed."

"Any other wounds, any other bruises?" Juliette asked.

He shook his head. "Only the stab wounds."

“What was the time of death?”

"Probably between two and four a.m., according to the body temperature," he explained.

Juliette thought back again to what Samantha had been wearing, the pretty, wine-red top in the photos, the pair of trendily ripped jeans. She'd been stabbed with her clothes in place, but had she been stabbed in the bathroom?

"Do you think she could have been moved after death?" she asked.

"Yes. I think she could have been. Either pushed or carried. There is evidence of that in the spreading bloodstains on her top, which do not fully align with the wounds. I doubt she was stabbed while in that shower stall," he said. "But there is not enough evidence to be sure of what happened. If she had been moved, it would have been very shortly after she died. Almost immediately."

Juliette nodded, thanking him. She was starting to see what the alternative scenario might have been. What if Samantha had been elsewhere in the apartment at the time she was stabbed while her friend had been passed out in the bathroom? Perhaps she'd been forced there or carried there just after her death, dumped in that shower stall, and the knife placed beside Heather to tell a gruesomely convincing story.

“Please,” she begged this knowledgeable doctor. “We do not want this woman, Heather Andrew, to end up being convicted of a crime that she didn’t commit.”

He nodded. “I can see already that it was unlikely, but not impossible, to have been her.”

“This is going to be a tough case, and any evidence we can get might make the difference,” Juliette said. “If there’s anything else you can think of that might give us the proof we need, please go ahead and do it. And the murder weapon – have you checked it?”

“Not yet.” Dr. Manuel shook his head. “The murder weapon is still being forensically analyzed.”

“When they’re done with it, please check it on your side.” Juliette had seen cases do an about-turn in the past when the weapon that had been suspected of being used wasn't the same one that had committed the crime. It was unlikely here, but even so, it was worth double-checking. Ebury always emphasized that every detail must be confirmed because there was no telling where the surprises might be waiting.

“I’ll do that,” he promised.

Now, it was time to speak to the witnesses, the two men who had been in that apartment that night. Had they seen or heard anything? They might have remembered something that might be important.

And, looking again at those deep, violent stab wounds, Juliette had another question, an even more important one.

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