Page 39 of Hidden Daughters

‘There was an empty kettle on the bathroom floor,’ Mooney said.

‘I noted that,’ Jane said. ‘Too far away from the body. Someone did this to her.’

‘She could have brought it in herself. It might have fallen…’ Mooney argued, but he looked doubtful.

‘Yesterday you didn’t think she killed herself, but now you do?’ Lottie asked incredulously. ‘There are less painful methods to?—’

‘No, I don’t think she did this to herself,’ he said gruffly.

Jane cut in. ‘Neither do I. There’s bruising on the upper arms. She was held. Tightly. And the boiling water was applied more than once. I had a quick look at her back before we turned her over again. Someone stood over her and poured boiling water along her spine. She was badly scalded.’

‘But she hardly stood or lay there and let someone do that, did she?’ Mooney was getting more animated.

‘I have to run toxicology,’ Jane said.

‘You think she was drugged?’ Lottie asked.

‘I don’tthinkanything at the moment. I’m only pointing out what I can see.’

‘Sorry, Jane. I’m shaken, that’s all. Human nature continues to horrify me.’

‘And me. This is one of the worst I’ve come across.’ Jane walked slowly around the table, and Lottie watched as she stopped at the woman’s feet.

‘There was a wine bottle and glass in the cottage. Maybe she’d had a few. That would impair her, wouldn’t it?’ Mooney asked.

‘You’ll have to wait for toxicology results.’ The pathologist looked up along the body from her vantage point, then back down again. ‘The soles of her feet are blistered too. Don’t quote me, but this may have come first to keep her from fleeing. Then the hands, to stop her fighting back, and there’s evidence they may have been bound. Then all that was followed by the burns to her back. When I examine her lungs, I’ll know if she drowned. If that isn’t the cause of death, then she died as a consequence of the burns. Shock? Heart failure? You’ll have to wait until I have all my tests completed.’

‘Sure, thanks,’ Mooney said. ‘So what kind of a sicko am I looking for?’

As Jane moved to the other side of the table and picked up a scalpel, Lottie could see the pathologist had been wondering the same thing. ‘The most dangerous person one can face. Someone with no fear.’

Mooney gulped.

Lottie digested this nugget. Jane had been unusually candid. After all, providing her personal opinion was not part of her brief.

‘Send your report as soon as you can. Thanks again.’ Mooney made for the doors. It seemed he couldn’t escape fast enough.

Lottie took a last look at the woman’s body and gave Jane a sympathetic nod. ‘I’ve faced a lot of murders in my time, but this seems to be one of the cruellest.’

And as she let the door swing shut behind her, she wondered how Mooney would go about identifying a woman with no face.

26

Feeling a bit shell-shocked, Lottie joined Mooney at his car, where he was smoking a cigarette.

‘Coffee?’ she asked, delaying having to go back to the house and talk to Boyd, Grace or Bryan.

‘I need a stiff whiskey. I’ll buy you one.’

‘I don’t drink.’ She’d love one. ‘But I won’t say no to a coffee.’

‘I’ll drive.’

She sat into his car, leaving hers at the University Hospital. He drove through the city to a hotel. Traffic was mental, but he flashed the blue lights on the front grille and bustled his way through.

The bar was old-style, perhaps with tourists in mind. It was a world away from Cafferty’s in Ragmullin, where drinking was more important than aesthetics. Whatever about the decor, it was a welcome place to sit down.

Mooney came to the table with his whiskey and a pint of lager. She’d have taken him for a Guinness drinker, but when he sculled the pint in three gulps, she figured he hadn’t the patience to wait for a Guinness to settle.

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