One Hundred Degrees

Chapter 8: Skeletons

A/N: Hello my lovelies, so it's a bit delayed I now, but to make up for it here's a super long chapter to enjoy. Hope you enjoy, your thoughts will be appreciated.

"Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it."
Haruki  Murakami, Blind Willow,Sleeping Woman: 24  stories

The pungent stench of death and formaldehyde assaulted Del as they entered the mortuary. She wrinkled her nose as she looked around for Professor George . A middle-aged Indian lady in a lab coat was busy talking to a group of people over a cadaver. She paused and turned to look at Del and Dev whose entry had interrupted her train of thought. Her expression brightened upon recognition , she waved at them and excused herself from her students.

"Afternoon Delia and Devon, I take it you are both working on the Smith case?"
"Afternoon Prof. Yep, the case is assigned to the two of us. We came because we were told you guys are done with the autopsy, do you have time to discuss your findings with us."
"Sure, come lets go into the office and then you can see the body if you wish."

Del and Dev trailed Prof into her little office at the back of the mortuary. The room was immaculately clean. The filing cabinets was labelled in alphabetical order, and Prof pulled open the drawer labelled 'S-Ta' before extracting a slim folder labelled 'Isabella Smith (3/4/1990-9/7/2018)'. She sat down in her chair and indicated to Dev and Del to seat themselves across her.

"Wow Prof , you really on top of your filing", Del observed, impressed by the organisational skills of the pathologist.
"Ah, with all the legal cases we are involved in it is best to have your work in order, so you can pull it out when you need to. I got called into testify for a case that happened in 2002 just last week. ", she shook her head in exasperation over the backlog in criminal cases that often got pushed back, for the bigger, more media hyped cases.

"Ok, so let's start. The primary cause of death is hypoxia secondary to drowning. The patient had sustained third degree burns secondary to boiling hot water- this conclusion was reached by the blistering and peeling skin, consistent with burn wounds that occur when exposed to hot liquids. The mucosal lining of the buccal region and tongue also showed evidence of scalding.

There was water logged in the lungs and airways which is consistent with a drowning incident.
The victim also had bruising around her wrists and occipital region which is suggestive of resistance towards the perpetrator. The bruising was pinkish in colour which is what suggests it was a recent injury, done within the last 6 hours prior to her death.

The bruises around the wrist appeared quite large and patchy, unlikely to be due to any form of restraint, such as a rope or cable ties.

The victim also had a large haematoma over the left knee, she possibly knocked her knee against an object or had fallen on that knee.

There were no injuries or evidence to suggest recent sexual activity or trauma.
There were no other obvious bruising or lacerations other than that which I have described. And there were no obvious injuries or abnormalities regarding the abdominal organs."

Professor George looked up from the report she had read to them, as they examined the pictures she had handed to them while speaking.
"That's my report, do you still wish to see the body?"
"Yes please."
" Ok good, do you guys have any questions?"
"This might sound like a silly question, but were there any scrapings under her nails?"
"Her nails were cut really short, as expected of a chef, but there were no tissue sample below them that I could obtain for testing if that's what you inferring.
Let us go and see the body now, I'm sure you guys would like photos of your own for the reports."