When the Evil Waits by M Lee (top fiction books of all time txt) 📕

comforting tobacco smoke rather than the disinfected air of the mortuary.

He was also glad Dr Schofield had not said how happy he was to have him back at work. In fact, it was almost as if the doctor was unaware he had ever been away.

Dr Schofield returned dressed in exactly the same way but his apron was now clean and he was wearing a fresh pair of blue gloves. ‘You’re not suited up yet?’

‘Was I supposed to?’

‘You know the rules.’ He glanced at the clock. ‘I’ve a pathology class for the interns at eight thirty, they’ve missed so much of their coursework because of the lockdown. We’d better get a move on.’

Ridpath followed him into the changing room and quickly donned protective overalls and a cap while Schofield went on into the mortuary itself. It wasn’t dissimilar to the gear used at a murder scene by the CSI team. Ridpath finished it off by tucking his hair under his cap and going through the same door as the pathologist.

At the far end, Dr Schofield was standing in front of a stainless steel table. On it lay a tiny body covered up to the shoulders by a white sheet.

David Carsley.

‘Come on in, Ridpath. I’ve dug out my notes for this client. I presume you’ve already read them.’

‘Last night.’

‘Any questions?’

‘I’d like you to take me through the major points of the post-mortem.’

‘I didn’t know you were on the case. I thought the SIO was DCI Turnbull?’

‘It is. I’ve been asked to review the investigation.’

‘Checking if there were any mistakes, including mine.’

Ridpath didn’t answer.

‘Well, no matter, you won’t find any in my work.’ He turned to face the boy, placing his notes on a small table next to the body. ‘I remember this case. Who could forget working on the body of a child?’

‘You were the medical examiner?’

‘Yes, called out at 9.15 a.m. on 23 July to a place near the Mersey. I certified the boy was dead at 10.05 a.m., and he was transported back to the mortuary an hour later after having been released by the crime scene manager. I took an internal temperature at the scene and another when it arrived here.’

‘When did you start the post-mortem?’

‘Almost immediately. As you can imagine, there was a certain amount of pressure to reach some quick conclusions, which I ignored. It was important to get it right, not to get it quickly.’ He chuckled audibly. ‘Turnbull was being his bullying self over the time of death. It gave me great pleasure to remove him from my examination room.’

‘I bet he didn’t take too kindly to being asked to leave.’

Another chuckle. ‘He didn’t. Threatened to have me removed from the police list of approved examiners. As if such threats could ever influence me.’

Ridpath was always amazed at the single-minded focus of Dr Schofield. The only thing that mattered as far as he was concerned were his clients lying on the table in front of him.

The doctor whispered a few words that Ridpath didn’t catch and then slowly folded down the white sheet to reveal the young boy’s body.

Ridpath caught his breath. On such a small, frail, thin body, the Y-section looked more horrific than usual. He looked away for a second before forcing himself to look back as Dr Schofield began speaking.

‘You’re looking at the body of a perfectly healthy seven-year-old boy. Or at least, he was perfectly healthy until somebody put a noose around his neck and strangled him.’

‘I don’t understand. I thought a noose was used in a hanging?’

‘There is some evidence to suggest he was hung before he was strangled.’ The doctor produced a long metal pointer. ‘See here, the bruising around the neck and jawline close to the ear?’

Ridpath leant forward to look. There was a marked discolouration of the skin. ‘I see it…’

‘Classic evidence of a hanging. I also looked at both pedicles of the axis vertebra, the ones closest to the head, which show signs of compression. The mechanism of an injury by hanging is forcible hyperextension of the head, usually with distraction of the neck. The weight of the body has sufficient force to cause the fracture. Survival from this fracture is relatively common, as the fracture itself tends to expand the spinal canal at the C2 level. It is not unusual for patients to walk in for treatment and have such a fracture discovered on X-rays. Only if the force of the injury is severe enough that the vertebral body of C2 is dislocated from C3 does the spinal cord become crushed. This was not the case with this child.’

‘Could the fracture happen during strangulation?’

‘Possibly, but I don’t think so. The classic signs of strangulation are also there. There’s an abrasion to the front of the neck, there, and evidence of regional venous obstruction in the neck, petechiae in the skin, conjunctival hemorrhages, and a deep internal rupture of the organs of the head and neck. This child also bled from the ears; the veins are obstructed at the level of the stranglehold, but the arteries are still open, allowing the distal capillaries and venules to overfill with blood, and rupture.’

He stepped back from David Carsley’s body and looked at it dispassionately. ‘If I were to hazard a guess, which as you are well aware I hate to do, I would say this child was hung and then killed by a chokehold or shime waza. As practised, illegally I might add, by many police officers seeking to quickly quieten prisoners.’

‘So let me get this right. You’re saying this boy was both hung and strangled?’

‘Didn’t you read my report? I thought I made that clear.’

‘Yes, Doctor, but I’m trying to understand. Why would a killer do both?’

‘I would have thought that is a job for the police to discover?’

‘Of course, but…’

‘If I were to hazard a guess again – the hanging didn’t kill the child so the murderer finished him off with a chokehold.’

‘I see…’

‘Shall we move on? We have so little time.’

Ridpath nodded.

‘I made three other