Chapter 24

24

Jane Dore sat in the cold, sterile surroundings of her cutting room in the Dead House. The body of Laura Nolan lay on a steel table. It had arrived while she'd been at the Pine Grove house, and she'd got to work as soon as she returned.

She made her way around Laura's naked body once again. Her clothes had been inspected, bagged and tagged. Samples had been taken to be sent to the lab, but even under a microscope she hadn't found any trace of semen on the clothing or underwear. Perhaps when she opened the body it would tell her a different story. Still, the fact that the young woman had been fully clothed pointed to little or no sexual assault.

She examined the body head to toe. Besides the three stab wounds, there was bruising on her neck. Studying the discoloration, Jane was sure that partial strangulation had come first, followed by the knife wounds. She could see that the young woman had applied fake tan recently, and her nails were gel. She swabbed beneath each, taking the samples to inspect under a microscope before they too were transported to the forensics lab. Under the right index fingernail, she found what looked like a tiny deposit of clay. There was also a trace on the girl's neck. Had it come from the ground where she was found? Once it was analysed, its source should be clearer.

She scraped and swabbed, then inspected the stab wounds and found they had been administered without hesitation. The killer had struck each site cleanly once. In and out. Had the neck wound been to hide the strangulation? Perhaps, and it was likely the arm wound happened as Laura tried to defend herself following the strangulation attempt. This wound was to the back of the girl's lower right arm. Definitely a defensive action, Jane concluded. The chest wound was the final one. She'd have expected some hesitancy here, but the knife appeared to have struck cleanly through the clothing. She noticed fibres in the wound, and to the naked eye they matched what Laura had been wearing.

Turning, she looked at photos of the site where the young woman had been found. Little blood.

‘Where did he attack you, sweetheart?' she murmured. She was certain that Laura had already been dead or dying when she was left in the grounds of the cinema complex at Connell retail park.

Lottie had hardly had time to catch her breath on the drive to the Tullamore mortuary. Now she watched as Jane detailed Laura Nolan's post-mortem, grateful to the pathologist for pushing the girl up the list.

‘He tried to strangle her,' the pathologist said. ‘She may have lashed out in defence, and he stabbed her lower arm. The stab to her neck was perhaps to hide evidence of the attempted strangulation. There would have been a lot of blood, and it would have sprayed the killer. The final stab was to her chest. Upwards thrust through her clothing. He was either smaller than her if standing, or they both might have been seated.'

‘Could she have been in a car?'

‘It's possible. What makes you say that?'

‘Just that if she was a passenger, it would account for the right-hand side of her body having the most injuries.'

‘That might be the case, but might is the operative word. You have to find the evidence.'

‘So,' Lottie mused, ‘I'm looking for a car with a vast amount of blood in it. Though it's probably been forensically cleaned by now.'

‘Or a scene somewhere close to where she was found with, as you say, a vast amount of blood.'

‘Anything else?'

‘I found dirt, like clay, under one of her nails and a trace on her neck. It's gone to the lab. SOCOs also took samples from the ground around the body. And they made casts of the footprints found there.'

‘This clay,' Lottie said, ‘when will we have the results of that analysis?'

‘As soon as they have it, I'll have it, then you'll have it. These things take time.'

‘I know, I know. Have you found anything at all with DNA?'

‘So far I've swabbed her neck and all her fingernails. They had gel extensions, so if she scratched him, there will be something there. Enough for DNA? Let's wait in hope.'

‘Anything else of note?'

‘You see her stretch marks? She'd had a pregnancy.'

‘She had a little boy. He's almost four.'

Jane paced around the table. ‘So sad. I hate to see young lives destroyed like this.' She gazed at the body on the stainless-steel table. ‘Laura had her whole life in front of her. A son to love and raise. All of that has been annihilated in one night. Why? And who by? You have to find this person, Lottie.'

Lottie nodded. ‘Have you looked at John Morgan's body yet?'

‘He hasn't arrived. I did a quick examination at the site. We have to inspect his clothing and all that, but outwardly the only wound I noticed was the blow to the back of his head. Crushed skull. Considerable force. My initial observation is that he didn't fight back. So he may have been taken by surprise and hit from behind.'

‘Killed where we found him?'

‘Most likely.'

‘Do you think it's two different murderers?'

‘I can't say until I examine the body here. But if it is two killers, you might need to call in assistance. Don't be afraid to ask for extra hands on deck.'

Lottie felt her jaw drop. ‘What do you mean?'

‘Tracking one murderer is difficult enough with the resources you have, but trying to get a handle on two…'

‘I get it. I'll see how things pan out. Send your reports asap, then I'll know what I'm dealing with. And Jane? Thanks for doing this so quickly. It really helps.'