Page 53 of The Girls in the Lake
Paton walked out of the interview room where Marcus Johnson was, and Josh hoped he had something more than he had.
‘Anything?’
‘There’s some huge misunderstanding; he thought that Tamara liked him and now he wants a solicitor.’
‘Crap.’
‘Yes, it is. If it’s any consolation, he’s looking very uncomfortable in there and is sweating like a pig. He’s asked for the heating to be turned off.’
‘Guilty conscience?’
‘That or he’s got the beer sweats.’
Josh walked away. Why did everything have to be so complicated? For once it would be nice to catch a break and put this to bed before anything else happened.
Sixty
Beth gave Abe the go-ahead to begin to sew Tamara Smythson’s body back together. She’d been right: when she’d removed the lungs and measured the liquid inside them it had been less than twenty millilitres. The small amount of freshwater had inactivated the surfactant, leading to alveolar collapse and pulmonary dysfunction damaging the basement membranes, which then led to pulmonary oedema. The progressive neurologic failure through the swallowing of fluid had caused her to vomit a small amount of gastric content. The cause of death was indeed secondary drowning, only this time, from what Josh had told her, it wasn’t accidental. Someone had pushed her into the water.
Beth wanted more than anything for Josh to catch the person who had done this. Someone had pushed her into the water, and whether they’d meant for her to drown or not, she had. There had been no trace evidence under her acrylic nails. She knew it was highly unlikely as Tamara hadn’t had to struggle alone in the water and had been pulled out to safety pretty quickly.
Only herself, Abe and the body were in the mortuary.
Radio One played softly in the background; Beth thought that it was more fitting music for a teenage girl than the Smooth FM that she favoured. She watched as Abe carefully stitched the girl back together, knowing he was being overly careful; his way of making amends.
She looked so small lying there under the spotlight. Her matted hair extensions would be a nightmare for the undertaker to sort out when the body was released, which, unfortunately for Tamara, might not be in the near future. She would be kept in the mortuary longer than Beth would like because of the pending murder investigation.
Checking her phone, there were no missed calls from Josh. Paul had told her he was speaking to witnesses at the station. She wondered how it had gone; had they arrested anyone for these senseless deaths?
Abe finally stopped what he was doing, stretched then stood up. Beth looked at the neat row of stitches, all of them even. She liked that he hadn’t rushed. She didn’t know Tamara, but she felt that it was the least that she deserved. The phone in the office began to ring and she went to answer it; her mobile didn’t always get a signal in the mortuary.
‘Good afternoon, mortuary.’
‘Hello, this is probably a long shot but I’m hoping to speak with Doctor Adams. Is she available?’
Beth didn’t know this voice. ‘Yes, speaking.’
‘Really, wow. What a stroke of luck that was. I didn’t expect anyone to be there on a Sunday tea time, if I’m honest. I guess death has no concept of time.’
She laughed, feeling instantly that whoever this woman was, she liked her.
‘That’s true, when death comes calling you answer the door. How can I be of assistance?’
‘My name is Michelle Jones, I’m a research microscopist at the forensic science laboratory. I specialise in identification of small particles and small quantities of unknown materials. I’ve been studying the samples you sent in.’
Beth felt a surge of adrenalin rush through her. ‘That’s brilliant.’
‘Yes, I’m a bit behind so came in to work extra hours today. I found both your samples very interesting. They both came from under two separate victims’ fingernails?
‘Yes, they did.’
‘Are you aware of the process we use to identify them? Would you like me to explain?’
Beth had a rough idea but wasn’t an expert. ‘Not really, and yes, I’d appreciate it if you talked me through it.’
‘The samples were only minute, so I had to use the infrared microscope which allowed me to examine them without any damage or having to prepare them. I then had to heat the samples up to a high temperature which made them decompose into a gaseous product.’
‘So you were able to put them in a chromatograph?’
