Page 10 of Absent Reason

"Agents," she greeted them, her voice crisp and professional. "Chief Williams called. I've been expecting you. I'm Dr. Hardcastle."

"This place looks very different on the inside," Amber said, looking around at the walls.

Dr. Hardcastle shrugged. "We try to keep up to date in here, but the outer façade doesn’t matter as much when it comes to the dead. Now, should we begin?"

"What did you find in your examinations of Mia Wilson and Kelly Wasner?" Simon asked, obviously eager to get whatever information he could.

Before answering, the coroner turned and pulled out two mortuary drawers, pulling out two trolleys, where a pair of young women lay covered by sheets. One, Mia was taller, dark-haired, and athletic looking. The bruises around her throat were clear to see. The other, Kelly, was a shorter woman with pale skin, blonde hair and rounded features. Again, Amber could see the marks of the noose that had killed her around her throat.

Amber had to bite back a wash of horror at the sight of the two dead young women lying there like that, so coldly and clinically. It didn't matter that she'd been at crime scenes before that were much less professional and controlled than this; it was still unsettling, looking at the dead. Amber was grateful, in some ways, that she did feel that. She didn’t ever want to reach the point where she looked at the dead and felt nothing.

Even so, she had to push aside the revulsion she felt at what had been done to these young women. For their sake, she had to be professional and give herself the best possible chance of catching the person who had done this to them.

"The cause of death in both cases was asphyxiation due to hanging," the coroner said. "I found defensive bruising on Mia Wilson's body, suggesting that she fought back against her killer, but the only bruises on Kelly Wasner were to the throat and the back of the legs."

Amber frowned, not quite understanding. "What does that suggest?"

"The most likely explanation is that the killer struck from behind, dragging Kelly Wasner off balance and kicking the back of her knees to ensure that she couldn't stay standing," Dr Hardcastle explained.

"But the injuries were more extensive on Mia Wilson?" Simon asked.

The coroner nodded. “It seems likely that she saw her killer and tried to fight back against him. There are some marks of manual strangulation before the noose went around her neck, suggesting that he subdued her that way before hanging her.”

"Which suggests that he's learning as he goes along," Amber said. "He didn't want his next victim to be able to fight back the way Mia did. Or he improved the way he was able to sneak up on her."

"That seems to be consistent with the evidence, yes," the coroner said.

The idea that the killer was improving with each kill was a little worrying. It meant that he was likely to make fewer mistakes each time he killed, leaving less and less for Amber and Simon to go on.

"Can you tell us anything about the killer based on the evidence?" Amber asked. That was what they needed. Some way to get from the evidence to who could have done this. Some way in that they might be able to use.

"A couple of things," the coroner said. "Based on the bruising and which way he centered the knots for the noose, we can suggest a left-handed killer. He also wouldn't have been shorter than his victims. The angles of the bruising on their throats suggest an initial pull that was level or slightly upward, and thus a taller assailant."

Amber filed that information away in case it became useful later. It might help to narrow down any suspects they found. For now, though, it didn't seem like much. There were plenty of left-handed men out there in the world taller than the two dead women. By itself, that information wouldn’t help to identify the person who had done this.

"Is there any sign that anything was taken from the victims?" Simon asked. Presumably, with such an unusual method of murder, he wasn’t thinking about the possibility of it being about robbery.

The coroner shook her head. "Their personal effects included all the things I would usually expect, phone, keys, money."

"Are there any items of jewelry that we know the victims wore that aren't there?" Amber asked. "Any signs that some had been removed? Or any items of clothing missing?"

"There's no sign that the killer took anything as a trophy if that's what you're asking." Dr. Hardcastle shook her head. "I'm sorry, the killer simply didn't leave much evidence behind to examine. He was careful, and he seems not to have been interested in anything other than finishing the kill, then escaping."

Meaning that they were dealing with someone determined, someone who had his own purpose that they didn't yet understand. Someone who could, even now, be out there picking a new victim.

They had to find him before that happened.

CHAPTER SEVEN

"We've put you in here," Chief Wilson said, gesturing to a small side office in the station.

Amber was used to being tucked out of the way like that. Most of the time, local police departments seemed to want to keep the FBI separate, in spaces where they wouldn't interfere with the efficient running of the department. Or maybe where they couldn’t see anything they weren’t meant to.

Except for Francesca Angelique, the detective who was now in a relationship with Simon. She'd wanted to be involved all the way through their last case. Amber frowned at that thought. Why was she thinking about a detective from a previous case now? The answer to that was obvious: because Francesca and Simon seemed to be seeing one another now, and Amber couldn't help reacting to that.

Amber wasn't sure what that would mean long term or if it would have any effect on her partnership with Simon or not. Amber tried to tell herself that it was fine, that nothing would get in the way, that she had better things to think about right then than who her partner was seeing. All of those things were true, but it was still hard not to think about what the detective would do if she were here. Probably, she would already be off, talking to potential suspects.

"This is fine, thank you," Simon said, which brought Amber’s attention back to the small office. The police chief left them in the office. It had a couple of desks, an evidence board at one side, and a couple of aging file cabinets that presumably didn't have anything relevant to the case in them. That was fine, though. They had a space to work in, and Amber didn't plan on spending a lot of time in there anyway.

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