Over Her Head Read Online Free Page A

preliminary findings
     are that the cause of death is drowning, precipitated by blunt trauma to the head, sometime in the last twelve hours. That
     good enough for you?”
    “As my grandma says, it’s good enough to be going on with. Thanks, Lisa.”
    “No problem. It surprises me to get a case like this. Mostly all we get are indigents and traffic fatalities. This is a little
     uglier.”
    “If we’re talking homicide, it’s going to get a lot uglier.”
    “Job security,” Lisa quipped and turned back to the body. “Come on, darling,” she said softly. “Let’s finish up, take our
     organ samples, and put you back together for your family, okay?”
    Nick left her to it. He passed the bucket without giving it a look, removed the apron and booties, and tossed them in the
     HazMat bin. Then he walked with measured steps out the back doors and into the coroner’s gated parking lot behind the building.
    And that’s where he lost this morning’s bagel and peanut butter, one orange, and four cups of coffee.
    T he unmarked SUV
belonging to the coroner’s investigator was already parked on the bridge when Nick pulled up twenty minutes later. He waved
     to the guy pulling traffic duty on the afternoon shift. The bridge was down to one lane around the cones and crime-scene tape,
     and the deputy guided people past.
    Nick made a turn in the parking lot of the Stop-N-Go and pulled up behind the gray 4x4. There was no sign of Forrest, but
     a security line was tied to a strut, and it was taut where it ran over the rail.
    He leaned over. “Hey down there! It’s Nick.”
    Ten or twelve feet below, Forrest looked up and sketched a salute with the small knife in his right hand. “Hey.” Tethered
     to the rail for safety, he balanced on one of the joists that supported the roadbed, where creosote and decades-old bird droppings
     had permeated the wood.
    “Lisa told me I’d find you out here. Got anything?”
    “You mean besides a bad need for a hot cup of coffee? Man, I am claiming hazard pay for this. The wind comes howling under
     here like you wouldn’t believe. I think my butt is frostbit.”
    “Quit complaining. It’s good for you to get off the phone and out into the field once in a while.”
    “Been lucky, I guess. Not a lot of homicide going on in this county. Not like Pittsburgh. I couldn’t get away from there fast
     enough.”
    Nick glanced down at the heavy beam that seemed to be the focus of Forrest’s equipment. “Homicide?”
    The investigator nodded. “Not conclusive until I talk to Lisa, but definitely suspicious.” Carefully, he loosened a wide sliver
     of wood from the end of the beam, and slipped it into an evidence bag. Then he stretched up to hand it to Nick.
    The bit of wood was stained with a dark, sticky substance, and even without a magnifier, Nick could see hair embedded in it.
    Forrest handed up his heavy-duty digital Canon EOS, then hefted himself up to road level and over the rail before he unsnapped
     the security line. “Over there.” He nodded at the plank decking a few feet away that formed the walkway for pedestrians next
     to the asphalt, directly over the beam. “Scuff marks and blood. If she’d been a jumper, there would have been footprints on
     the rail, nice and clean. But it looks like a scuffle took place.”
    Nick glanced at the Stop-N-Go at the far end of the bridge. “I’ll talk to the staff at the store and see if anyone saw anything.”
     He leaned over and looked down, past the beam to the water swirling thirty feet below. “So she gets pushed or someone lands
     a blow. Hits her head on the beam hard enough to fracture her skull—and lights out. Lands in the water unconscious and drowns.”
    Forrest nodded. He finished coiling his line and stripped off his gloves. “Sounds about right, from what we can see here.
     What does Lisa say?”
    “Cause of death is drowning, precipitated by blunt trauma to the head.”
    “Question is, who pushed her, and did