“I didn’t know that you could do a tox report on a set of bones?” Phillips was always the curious one in the class.
“The technicians look at the hair. It’s one of the few parts of the body that remains stable, even after a long period of time. It can also tell us a lot of interesting things about her diet and what was swimming around in her system, because it grows at a rate of around on centimetre per month so we can compare her system, month-on-month.”
“So, you can see if she was drinking or doing drugs or whatever?”
“Yep,” Ryan agreed, picking up the printed copy of Doctor Pinter’s summary. “In this case, Amy lived a healthy life with a balanced diet and, judging from the older portion of her hair, there were no unusual chemical substances. However, more recent growth indicated a different chemical balance. ‘Poor diet alongside an altered chemical composition for approximately three to five months prior to her death’, Pinter says.”
Ryan considered the new information and thought of the statements taken from the Llewellyn family around the time Amy went missing.
“Her family said that she became withdrawn and that this seriously affected her health and disposition. There was some suggestion of mental health issues.”
“You mean she was a bit down in the dumps?” Phillips asked.
“Thank you, Frank, for distilling an entire field of psychological disorder into one handy catchphrase,” Ryan drawled.
“Always happy to help. When you say there was a ‘different chemical balance’, what do you mean by that? In layman’s terms,” Phillips emphasized.
“Pinter seems to think we’re looking at artificially increased levels of phthalates. That says to me that she was on some kind of SSRI-based anti-depressant.”
“What the hell is a farthlate?” Phillips could feel a headache coming on.
“A ‘phthalate’ is a large group of chemicals which are produced when certain drugs metabolise in the body. Usually, they find it when someone has ingested one of a group of antidepressant drugs known as ‘selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors’.”
“You could have said that in the first place,” Phillips grumbled. “But I guess the point here is that if she was on anti-depressants, that’s consistent with what her family said about her being unhappy. Only thing is, there’s nothing about it in the medical history we’ve got from her doctor.”
Interesting, Ryan thought.
“Phillips, see if you can double check those records from her GP to make sure that there wasn’t an administrative oversight. Failing that, see if there’s a record of her picking up a prescription at any of the local pharmacies. There probably won’t be anything, given the length of time, but it’s worth a shot.”
“Her mother’s a pharmacist,” Phillips offered. “But categorically denies dishing out any drugs to her daughter. The records at the pharmacy where she used to work support her story.”
“Amy might have been depressed, but that isn’t how she died,” MacKenzie brought the discussion neatly back around and Ryan nodded his approval.
“Pinter confirms that Amy would almost certainly have died following one or more hard blows to the side of her skull. We’re looking at a hard blunt object or impact with something flat and solid.”
“She didn’t just fall and crack her head on something?” Phillips popped a stick of nicotine gum in his mouth.
“Sometimes happens,” Ryan agreed. “But that goes against Pinter’s opinion that she suffered multiple blows.”
“Poor lass,” Phillips said gruffly. MacKenzie walked her fingers across the space between them and squeezed his hand. Catching it, Ryan raised a single black eyebrow and she snatched her fingers back again.
“Faulkner has come up trumps,” Ryan picked up another printed report and re-read it while he paced the room. “His technicians were able to extract several samples of skin cells which had imprinted on the underside of Amy’s bracelet. While it remained attached to her wrist, it was largely preserved while the body decomposed around it.”
“I’m surprised there was anything to extract at all,” Phillips commented idly.
“Low copy number DNA profiling,” Ryan explained. “It’s a brilliant advance in the field because it picks up even the tiniest samples. In this case, just a few skin cells.”
“Bet her killer never thought of that,” Phillips said.
“I can only hope he’s quaking in his murderous boots,” Ryan replied, without looking up.
“Faulkner has found a total of three separate DNA samples on the bracelet and on Amy’s clothing fibres. One of these samples is a match to Amy Llewellyn’s own DNA.”