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nineteen,” said Svenson, interrupting his thoughts. “Early assessment suggests death by asphyxiation or more specifically in this case, death by manual strangulation.”
    “He used his hands?” asked Frank, taking notes.
    “I think yes,” said Gus. “There are no ligature marks.” He pointed to the girl’s bruised neck. “If ligature, you would most likely see horizontal mark across the neck in the region of the lower end of the thyroid cartilage—and even the smoothest of ligatures leave furrows. Now note the thickness of the bruising,” Gus went on. “And the irregular hollows most likely caused by uneven pressure from a palm or a thumb. My guess is autopsy will find fractures of the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage, due to compression of these structures against the cervical vertebrae . . . which is unusual.”
    “What do you mean ‘unusual’?” asked Mannix.
    “Because of her age,” said Gus. “The hyoid is a little U-shaped bone just on top of the thyroid cartilage and it forms the big part of the larynx. As we get older, our cartilage and the hyoid bone get calcified and manual strangulation is more likely to cause a hyoid fracture. In our teens, both of these structures are very pliable . . . like . . . how you say—putty. If a young person is strangled, they most likely not suffer a fracture of any of the bones of the neck—unless the force was . . .
    “Extreme,” finished McKay.
    “Yes.”
    They stood in silence for a moment, taking it all in.
    “What about sexual assault?” asked Joe.
    “No—at least no obvious indication. Rape kit will be done however, and I will do further examination in autopsy.”
    “Any signs of struggle?” asked Frank. “Don’t they usually go hand in hand with manual strangulation?”
    “Yes,” confirmed Gus. “You are right, Detective. Victims of manual strangulation almost always have associated injuries such as scratches to the face or neck, or bruising to the extremities. But not in this case.”
    “The blow to the head,” said Mannix.
    “Yes,” replied the ME. “Two blows actually, one on top of the other. Most likely she was unconscious before strangulation began—and even if she wasn’t, the bruising indicates she was strangled from behind so . . .”
    Gus moved to the side to point to the abandoned garden hoe being photographed by the CSR team several feet from the body. Joe noted it appeared to have blood on both of its ends.
    “Body matter and hair on both the top and bottom end of the garden tool suggest this was the instrument that leave two specific impressions on the forehead . . . here,” said Svenson, turning back to the body, “and here. One is long and narrow like the handle end, the other wide and thick like the . . .”
    “Bottom of the hoe,” finished Frank.
    “Yes. And bruising suggests the blows successive—from different angles.”
    “Hold on a minute,” said Joe. “Why the hell would the perp swap ends—and change angle?”
    “And hands,” said Svenson.
    “Come again?” said Frank.
    “Of course the autopsy will tell me more, but I believe that one blow was made with force from the right hand and the other from the left.”
    “Two killers?” asked Joe.
    “Or one who is ambidextrous. Whatever the case, the blows followed each other. Bang, bang ,” said Gus, making them jump. “ Bang, bang ,” he said again. “Not Bang . . . pause . . . bang . You see?”
    “Ah, yeah. We got it, Gus,” said McKay, scratching his head. “It just doesn’t seem to make any sense.”
    “No,” said Gus. “Difficult to explain.”
    “What about this rock?” asked Joe.
    “Stone,” said Frank, correcting his boss. “According to the gardener this stone comes from outside, it is number two of a set of three. He says it is meant to be upright but someone laid it on its side making it a . . .” Frank hesitated.
    “A what?” asked Joe.
    “A Death Stone,” he managed.
    “Geez,” said Mannix.
    “The stone was an