The Bodies One By One

Chapter 20

Storm closed his eyes for a few moments and listened to Ms. Malloy's cries, 'what happened!?'.

'We don't know just yet, but we were wondering, did your daughter have any enemies?'

Ms. Malloy shook her head, 'not that I was aware of, she was never really open to me', Storm examined the room at the same time as asking, 'is it okay to ask why?' She looked up at him, her eyes were blood shot and shiny from the tears, 'we just never got a long, after her father died, she shut me out, but before she was never like that'.

'Any chance did she interact with a man name Charleston Graves, or his daughter Melissa Graves?'

She seemed to start thinking, 'I think she mentioned that name at one point, but that was all, the thing is, they're quite well known, their business was really good', but I'm not so sure if she had a good or bad relationship with them, like I said -'.

'You two weren't close'.

Baloc finished the sentence for her, and she nodded, 'I'm sorry I couldn't be of anymore help', she looked like she was about to cry again, 'You have done more than enough Ms. Malloy, and again we are sorry for your loss, but do tell us immediately if there is any more news'.

When they hopped into the car Baloc's buzzed, 'it's Stacey', he said before answering. Storm watched patiently as Baloc nodded a few times, 'alright, thanks, we're on our way', he shut off the phone and started the car, 'they found two stress fractures'.

Stacey pointed to the C2 vertebrae, 'I was correct, there's the same injury that Miss. Malloy had sustained just like Mr. Holly', but she also pointed to the broken rib down further, 'on the left side of the cage, closer to the sternum, there's a clean break on the Costal Cartilage'.

'Something hit her?

'Well, when you look at the break, the cartilage seems to have been pushed upwards, as we can see the stress fractures on the connected rib and the diagonal break from the broken rib, and when I look at the lungs, it seemed to have been punctured, I would've found it straight away, but the Cartilage most likely slipped out and back down when she collapsed, but also', she motioned at the trauma to the head, both Baloc and Storm hadn't been paying attention, 'blunt force trauma to the head, straight in the middle of the frontal  bone and nasal bone'.

'So she was hit in the face as well.. But cause of death was still the neck wound, right?

She nodded, and Baloc also added, 'and if that didn't work, then she'd certainly die from the punctured lung'.

'Also the damage on the frontal area of her skull'.

'Either way she was going to die, shit, that's terrible'.

Storm pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to take in the information, the pain that the victim had endured, 'another golf ball effect?' Baloc asked, but Stacey shook her head, 'no... Judging by the size of the break, it looks like she fell onto something, because the break where the bones went inwards, look like something had jabbed into her, not so much someone swinging something at her, and the damage to the skull, she hit some sort of flat surface'.

'She landed on something and hit her head on the ground'.

'More like she was pushed against something judging by the positioning of the fractures, because if she hit the ground, then whatever broke the Cartilage wouldn't have had an upward breakage, it would just miss the lungs'. 

Storm shrugged, 'I mean, she's still dead either way', Stacey nodded, a hint of dejection flickered across her face, 'at least we're kinda getting somewhere', Storm quickly added, he didn't like the look she gave him, and it interested him because before, that look wouldn't bother him at all, what's going on