The Secret Friend Read Online Free Page B

face shield and approached the body.
    The woman’s pink sweatshirt and pink nylon running pants were wet, caked with mud and twigs. The feet, still laced with sneakers, hung over a sink dripping with water. Darby was glad to see Bryson had tied paper bags around the woman’s hands.
    The right running-pant pocket was sewn shut with the same black thread used on Emma Hale’s dress pocket. Darby peeled back the waistband, and through the transparent pocket lining she saw the same five-inch statue of the Virgin Mary she had held in her hands at the lab.
    On the back of the woman’s head was a puckered hole – the muzzle stamp from a handgun. There was no exit wound. Darby recalled that the .22 calibre slug found in Emma Hale’s skull hadn’t produced an exit wound either.
    Coop removed the paper bags and examined the woman’s hands. The fingers were gnarled into claws, and the skin, white and puckered with wet wrinkles known as washerwoman’s syndrome, had started to slough off the body. The fingernails were painted a bright pink.
    ‘They’re pretty shrivelled,’ Coop said.
    ‘Which way should we go? Tissue builder? Injecting water under the skin?’
    ‘Since the body’s already showing epidural detachment, the best method would be to use the glove technique. Your hands are roughly the same size, so we can print her here.’
    Darby collected grit and fingernail samples. After she finished, Coop slid the skin off the right hand and transferred the ‘skin glove’ to a dish holding alcohol.
    She didn’t see any evidence to indicate the body had been weighted down. It didn’t matter, really – the putrefaction gases would cause even a weighted body to float to the surface eventually. Did the killer know this?
    Darby plugged in the portable Luma-Lite and waved the alternate light source across the clothing. She found several hairs. After she collected them, she adjusted the wavelength and found stains that fluoresced – blood or semen. She marked the areas and then cut off the clothes.
    The saturated bloodstains on the back of the sweatshirt resembled the same pattern she had seen on Emma Hale’s jacket and dress. Like Emma Hale, this woman had lain in her blood for a period of time before she was dumped into the river.
    Darby unlaced the sneakers and carefully removed them. River water, sand and grit fell into the sink. She cut off the socks. The toenails were painted the same bright pink as the fingernails. She packed each item of clothing into its own bag and then, using a hand-held magnifier, examined the Virgin Mary statue. It was the same size and colour. ‘Our Lady of Sorrow’ was stamped on the bottom.
    The evidence packed and sealed, Darby turned her attention to the body.
    The veins were a dark purple and stood out against the bleached white skin. Darby examined the facial abrasions. There was no way to tell with any certainty if the abrasions were postmortem or antemortem.
    When a body sinks in water, it’s knocked around the ocean or river floor. The head is battered against rocks, and fish and crustaceans pick apart the soft flesh in the face. When the body finally surfaces, it is most often mangled; the face, like this one, is practically unrecognizable.
    Above the right breast was a moon-shaped tattoo. The colour was from chromogenic bacteria – Bacillus prodigiosus and Bacillus violaceum. They invaded the dermis and produced patterns resembling tattoos.
    Part of a Snickers candy wrapper was stuck to the inside of the thigh. Darby bagged it and then swabbed the vagina and anus for possible DNA evidence. She ran a comb with wool through the woman’s pubic hairs and transferred it to an evidence bag.
    Darby had finished making her notes when Coop signalled for her.
    She carefully fitted the woman’s loose skin over her gloved hand. Then she pressed each fingertip against the inkpad and transferred the prints to the print card.
    ‘There’s no hair growth on the legs or under the arms,’ Darby