Avriel Kaplan: Well dressed, well groomed, beautifully handsome, quiet and brooding and exactly the kind of man Ariel Declan doesn't need to know. But, that is not for her to decide.
Alexander Kirk: wickedly handsome, well known and well liked, egot...
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"The Body of Mrs. Claire DeMont was discovered by her husband late last night. This is Shelly Kleen reporting for Fox News at 9. More at ten."
Dr. Maldonado turned the news off. The body was in her morgue. She had examined her that morning. The death was deemed suspicious, but she could see no cause, other than natural ones, that would have caused the woman's death.
She was found, naked on the bed with a used condom lying next to her. The exam revealed sexual activity prior to her death but did not show any signs of assault. It was impossible to tell if the sex she had was consensual or not. There were no outward signs of trauma, none internal either. It was altogether infuriating. Perhaps the blood work would reveal something that the physical examination couldn't. While she was waiting for the toxicology one of the detectives that were assigned the case had come down to talk to her.
She reported her initial findings but warned that they were not complete. They weren't.
"Doctor, can you tell if Mrs. DeMont was sexually assaulted?"
"It does not appear so. I found trace amounts of a substance in her vagina that the lab identified as a common lubricant consistent with the condom that was found next to the body."
"Were you able to get any DNA from the condom?"
"I don't do DNA. You'll want to talk to the lab that processed that and get the results concerning the substance if any, that was found within the condom."
"Was there any sign of assault at all?"
"No."
"So, whoever was there, was invited? What am I going to tell her husband? He is convinced that the Mrs. was attacked."
"There is no conclusive evidence or any at all thatMrs. DeMont was attacked. You should tell him the unfortunate truth. Whoever was there had sex with her before she died. It sucks, but it is true. If you have no other questions detective, I have another body to examine." She excused herself from the conversation and started setting up for her next exam and hoped like hell that the tox-report would reveal something, at that point anything would be good.
Whatever the substance in the condom was there was no DNA, no biological profile nothing that could be garnered from the fluid. Nothing that made sense anyway. Her DNA was found on the outside so it was clear that it was used with her, but whoever her partner was he left no DNA to be sequenced. It was astonishing. Unless whatever was in that condom was not biological.
"No. You don't understand Detective, He wasn't shooting blanks. He, if it was a he, wasn't shooting anything biological. No none at all. It is as if he, she, it used a condom on a foreign object. There was lubricant on both sides of it. No DNA. That is all that I can tell you. Detective. I hope that helps your case."
"It doesn't." The detective walked away dejected and confused.
The tox-report didn't offer anything of real use either. The body had been depleted of any energy source and there was petechia in some of the organs, the liver the kidneys and the heart. It looked as if she had a heart attack and nothing more. Dr. Maldonado filed that case away with the others, keeping a copy of the report to go over later.
