Already Dead(48)

Yes, and probably the person who’d be waiting for her on the other side would be the Edendale pathologist, Dr Juliana van Doon. The angel of death in a green apron and a medical mask. Then she would know whether she was in heaven or hell.

‘Detective Sergeant Fry,’ said the pathologist. ‘Interesting to see you back here again.’

‘Interesting in the sense of the Chinese curse?’ asked Fry.

‘Well, you can’t deny we live in interesting times.’

‘No.’

Fry thought the pathologist was looking older these days. Her face was harder, the creases around her eyes noticeably deeper. And she seemed very tired. It was the sort of tiredness that made her more spiky, more inclined to look for a target to take it out on. In other circumstances, Fry could have empathised with her. She suspected she might be like that herself sometimes.

But Mrs van Doon had long since taken a dislike to her for some reason, and they were well past the point where they might ever become friends.

‘But if this is your latest career move, DS Fry, it has me mystified,’ said the pathologist.

‘I hate to be predictable,’ murmured Fry.

‘Oh, really?’

The body from the woods lay on the autopsy table. Like most victims of sudden death, the man’s face had sagged into an empty mask, devoid of character or expression. Fry had seen relatives of murder victims have initial difficulties identifying a body in the mortuary. It was because the person they’d known in life was gone. Robbed of its animation and personality, the physical shell was blank and meaningless.

The victim’s skin was pale and waxy, his lips shrivelled away to expose uneven teeth. He looked like a movie vampire sleeping in his coffin, waiting for a stake in the heart to destroy him, or a drop of fresh blood to bring him back to life. It wouldn’t work here. No amount of freshly spilt blood would revive this victim.

‘I suppose there’s a sixty-four-thousand-dollar question, Sergeant?’ said the pathologist. ‘There usually is.’

Fry nodded. ‘Yes. Did he drown?’

‘Ah. Well, first of all, I’m afraid there are no universally accepted diagnostic laboratory tests for drowning.’

‘That’s unfortunate.’

‘Indeed. How remiss of forensic science not to be perfect in every respect. We can perform so many magic tricks for you, yet we can’t tell for certain whether someone drowned or was already dead when he went into the water.’

‘I’ve never expected you to be perfect, Doctor.’

Mrs van Doon looked at her and pulled down her mask. Fry thought perhaps she’d scored a small victory, until the pathologist smiled in satisfaction. Then she realised she’d just been led into making the remark. She’d proved herself to be shallow and predictable after all. Now she was at a disadvantage from the start.

‘And you’re right as usual, Sergeant Fry. So all is well with the world, after all.’

‘Drowning?’ said Fry stiffly.

‘When a victim is dead at the time of submersion, water and contaminating debris can enter the pharynx, trachea and larger airways. Small quantities might enter the oesophagus and stomach. However, water will not reach the terminal bronchioles and alveoli to any significant extent. So if we find a substantial amount of foreign material in the alveoli, that provides evidence of immersion during life. Well – so long as the body is recovered within twenty-four hours, and from shallow water. The water was shallow in this case, I believe? Less than three metres deep?’

‘Certainly. But twenty-four hours—?’

‘Yes, that’s our problem. Our victim was in the water a little too long before his body was recovered.’

‘Any other way we can tell?’

‘Well, if there was a large quantity of water and debris in the stomach, that might suggest immersion during life. But my examination shows very little in the stomach in this case.’

‘So…?’

‘So what I can tell you is that I can’t tell you for certain whether he drowned or not.’

‘Great.’

‘Basically, what we have here is a white male aged thirty-five to forty years, five feet ten inches in height, weighing around a hundred and ninety-five pounds. The subject was in good general health – though I would suspect a rather sedentary lifestyle. Cause of death unknown at this stage. We’ll have to await test results. The blood alcohol level might be interesting. Accidental drowning in adults is usually associated with alcohol consumption or drug use. The literature says two-thirds of adult males found drowned have consumed alcohol.’

‘But we don’t know that he drowned.’