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left side of her temple, she'd likely have slumped sideways from the momentum of the blow." Gage picked up a broom handle by the stove and demonstrated for his audience.
    "She still could've fallen." Adams looked disappointed.
    "No," Sparrow said. "If she tripped, she'd have instinctively tried to break her fall."
    "Yes," Gage said.
    Williams drummed his broad fingers on the table's edge. "Still, there was water in her lungs. I must attest to death by drowning, accidental or not." He spread his hands to indicate the whole of his examination. "The rest of this is all conjecture and speculation."
    Gage didn't answer, unwilling to utter aloud the nasty word that hung in the air – murder.
    Murder, his gut told him, or at the least, a horrible and unfortunate accident by the water's edge that led to a sinister cover up. He didn't see how Nell's body could've rolled into the river unaided with all the flat land surrounding it. Whether she fell and hit her head or someone bashed it in, she was assisted into the cool depths of the Pasquotank.
    He looked around at the somber faces of the coroner's jury. "What do the rest of you think?"
    "I think she's got a hot-headed boyfriend who banged her on the head and threw the body in the river," said blunt Doc Jackson, the veterinarian.
    "Now, Marcus, there's no proof he did that," said Oliver Nolan.
    "Ain't no proof he didn't," countered Jackson.
    "That's definitely a bruise on her head," Al Freeman said, a tone of assurance and pomposity in his voice.
    "I agree," said Jack Butler. "Either she hit her head accidentally or someone knocked her in the head."
    "How do we know which one, though?" asked Nolan.
    "God dammit all," Andrews said. "She can only have died one way."
    Gage held onto his patience. God forbid they wouldn't be able to determine cause of death. "What will you say in your report, gentlemen?"
    After a long wait Dr. Sparrow said, "Let's go to dinner and meet back here later."
    Gage stepped to the door, blocking their way. "I must have a definitive answer," he insisted.
    In the silence that followed, a short squat form stepped into the outbuilding. Alexander Westin – the solicitor who would try the case should someone be charged with Nell's death – entered the building. "Well," he demanded. "Did she die of natural causes?"
    "There was water in her lungs and a bump on her head," Freeman answered readily.
    "What does that mean?" asked the solicitor.
    "They aren't sure," said Gage with no little disgust.
    "Damn it, Williams," Westin said. "How can I charge someone if a murder didn't happen?"
    Finally the word "murder" had been spoken aloud.
    "Look further," Westin commanded, "even if you must cut open her head."
    Grumbling at the delay of their luncheon, several of the inquest members turned the body around so the head faced the waning light. As they did so, several curls fell out of her head.
    "Damn, the skin's oily as bacon grease on a griddle," exclaimed Freeman.
    "Shut up, Al," said Jackson, removing the remaining strands of Nell's hair and placing them one at a time in an empty basin.
    With his scalpel William cut around the scalp, releasing a stream of black liquid from the left temple. He leaned over to peer at the temporal lobe. Nothing. As he peeled off the scalp, however, he found the brain herniation.
    "That's it for sure, then," declared Dr. Sparrow. "Someone hit her hard enough on the head to squeeze out the brain."
    "And then threw her into the river," Freeman said triumphantly.
    "Hold on, now," Westin said. "How do you know she didn't fall and cause this brain, uh, anomaly?"
    "Not likely," Williams answered. "The skull must be hit with a great deal of force to herniate the brain."
    Thus the decision was made. The autopsy ended with the conclusion that Ellen Carver had been struck on the head, lost consciousness, and drowned when her body was dumped into the Pasquotank River by person or persons unknown.
     

 
     
     
    Chapter 4
     
    The inquest committee turned