Chapter Fifteen

The room was comfortable, not cold and sterile as she'd expected. Katherine took in little of it. She was too numb.

She didn't remember the ride in. The two police officers who had come to the door drove her to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Deirdre and Simon were there waiting for her.

"Oh…my dear," Deirdre said, putting her arms around Katherine.

Simon put his hand on her shoulder. "We're here for you, Kat."

"If you will all follow me," Luke said. They entered the one-storey brown brick building, walked past the reception desk, down a few nondescript corridors and through a door marked ‘Viewing'.

"Can I get anyone anything?" Luke asked. "Water, tea or coffee?"

"Water would be nice," Simon said.

Katherine just sat there and said nothing.

An older man entered the room. He whispered to the two officers, then turned to the visitors.

"Mrs Mann," Luke gestured, "this is Dr Willart, the coroner."

The coroner began, "Mrs Mann, I know that this is a very difficult time, but if I could ask you a few questions to start with."

Katherine nodded. Deirdre took Katherine's hand in hers.

"Did your husband have any identifying marks? Scars, tattoos, birthmarks?"

"No," she started, then paused. "His eyes. They were different colours."

"What colours would they be?"

Katherine didn't respond for a moment. "Uh…one's blue. The other…greeny-grey."

"Do you recall what colour his right eye is?"

Katherine began to cry and looked toward Deirdre. "I can't remember! Deirdre, I can't remember. I can't even picture it right now." She buried her face in her hands.

Simon's face crinkled into a frown as he asked the coroner, "Why the right eye?"

Deirdre shot him a sharp look. "Simon! You're not being helpful."

"I was just asking—"

"Not…now!" Deirdre said in a loud whisper.

The coroner replied, "I was just hoping to confirm which eye was which colour." He looked at Katherine. "At times like this, memory can easily get…muddled."

Luke interjected, "Mrs Mann, can you think of any reason why your husband might have been along the shores of the Elbow River on the night he disappeared?"

"No."

"So, he wasn't one to go fishing, or…swimming?"

"No. Are you saying he drowned?"

Dr Willart took a breath before continuing. "Mrs Mann, your husband was found in the river. More to the point, he was naked. Constable Fraser was simply trying to determine if he was the type to go for a swim."

"In the river? Why would he…"

"Mrs Mann, I'm going to show you a video image of the man we believe is your husband. Are you ready to see it and tell me if you recognise him?"

Katherine nodded and held tightly onto Deirdre's hand. A screen lit up with an overhead image of a man's face and neck. Below that was draped in a sheet. The left side of his face was covered in a cloth. Katherine looked at the image. The face looked so…colourless. And slack. She couldn't make out the hair. Ian's always fell across his face. This face was bare. Was this Ian?

"I will now show you a profile angle," Dr Willart informed her.

The camera view instantly changed to a side view. The ear looked like Ian's but…

"Is his ear pierced? I can't see it," Katherine asked.

"It is."

"And the other ear?"

Dr Willart answered, "Yes, they're both pierced."

Katherine continued to examine the face. It looked like an amateur artist's rendering of Ian. Everything was there, only not quite right.

"Mrs Mann?" Dr Willart prompted. "Is this your husband?"

"Yes… I think. It looks like it…may have been him. Maybe. It looks…different. His eyes?" Katherine asked.

Dr Willart referred to his notes. "The left eye was grey-green, his right, light blue. One final question—do you wear a particular make and shade of lipstick?"

"What?"

"We found traces of lipstick on your husband's lips. I need to know if it was yours, or, perhaps…"

Sergeant McKeckran snorted and coughed.

"Officer," Dr Willart snapped, "do you need a glass of water?"

Katherine hated the man that coughed. And the hate gave her enough clarity to remember and say, "Tom Ford's Fucking Fabulous Lip Color."

"And what shade do you wear?"

"It only comes in red." She knew it was the only lipstick Ian wore, but she didn't say that out loud.

After the viewing was over, Luke escorted them back to the parking lot. Katherine had agreed to Deirdre's request to drive her home.

Before getting in the car, Simon turned to Luke. "What's the next step?"

"For us? We'll find the location where this all happened. We'll start where Mr Mann's body was found, and work upstream."

Katherine turned to the constable and asked, "What happened to him?"

Luke replied, "They're still not sure. The results of the post-mortem will shed some light on that."

"Oh," she said.

"Don't you worry. We'll figure out what happened to your husband. I promise you."

Katherine frowned. That was the second time today she'd heard the same sentence, and she wasn't convinced that the promise would truly be kept.