BLOOD STAINED an unputdownable crime thriller with a breathtaking twist (Detective Claudia Nunn Book by Rebecca Bradley (rooftoppers .TXT) 📕

Krish locked his own stuff away and the pair of them walked into the morgue.

There was an overwhelming smell of disinfectant and an underlying smell of Julie. Her body was starting to break down. Dominic recognised the scent of decomposition.

‘Morning, Nadira.’ Dominic gave her a smile and she turned around from the notepad she had been scribbling in and gave him a wide smile in response.

‘Morning, you two. It’s good to see you, even if it is under these circumstances.’ She stared hard at Dominic. ‘How are you feeling today?’

Dominic groaned. ‘I don’t believe it.’

Nadira raised an eyebrow.

‘That you’ve heard about last night here.’

‘We have,’ she said. ‘It was a very heroic thing you did going into that house.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘And very dangerous. Really, how are you?’

This wasn’t a good time but Dominic had a huge urge to cough and couldn’t stop it. He covered his mouth and coughed as lightly as he could. Then he smiled at Nadira. ‘I’m fine, honestly. A little residual cough, but other than that, I’m fine.’

Her look was serious. ‘You have to be careful. If you find it difficult to breathe then you need to get checked out again. Are you listening to me?’

Dominic couldn’t help himself, he saluted her.

Nadira rolled her eyes. ‘For your own good.’

He realised this and thanked her for her concern and advice.

‘Are we ready to go ahead?’ she asked, looking at the woman in the centre of the room.

‘We are,’ Dominic agreed.

Smithy, the morgue tech, took each item of clothing off Julie one at a time and Krish bagged them up meticulously, sealing each bag and signing the exhibit label with his signature and the item details, date and time. One item per brown paper bag. Items sweated if you placed them in plastic bags. A photographer was there recording every move they made and recording the process Julie went through. He took shots of her whole body, then closer shots with a ruler at the side of all the marks and injuries so they could be logged correctly.

She was still wearing the clownish looking lipstick that had been smeared around her lips, overlapping the edges. The bruising around her throat was dark and vivid against her now chalky skin.

‘While the last of the photographs are taken shall we have a look at the X-rays we took before you got here?’ Nadira walked over to her computer monitor in the corner of the room. She moved the mouse and woke the screen up, bringing the X-rays into view; she had obviously prepared them before their arrival.

‘Anything interesting?’ asked Dominic.

‘Actually . . .’ Nadira scrolled through the images until she found the one she wanted. ‘If you look at this one here—’ she pointed with a pen — ‘you can see a couple of breaks, here and here.’

Dominic peered at the monitor and could see black lines cutting across the white of the bone, and white bone sticking out past the sleek line of the external edge. ‘What are we looking at?’

‘Her right arm, and—’ Nadira clicked the slide to another image and pointed again — ‘see again here.’

‘What a bastard,’ Krish breathed behind them.

Nadira clicked through to another screen.

‘What, more?’ Dominic clenched his fists.

‘These are her ribs. There are two breaks in here as well.’

‘And strength needed to cause these injuries?’ he asked, his fingers dug into his palms.

‘She’s only a petite woman, an average sized man who was angry enough could cause these injuries, and looking at the state of her I’d go so far to say he was pretty angry, wouldn’t you?’

Krish huffed behind them both again.

Nadira and Dominic turned around to face him and Dominic unfurled his fists and placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘Come on, mate. This is going to be a tough morning. We can do it, for her.’ Krish lifted his chin and they all made their way back to the table.

Nadira logged each injury by drawing it on a body map, even though photographs had been taken. Next she took more swabs, even though she had taken some at the scene. She swabbed Julie’s neck where the bruising was. There was utter silence in the room as Nadira worked. All samples were logged and signed so the evidence could be forensically examined and to ensure it would be allowed should a case go to court. Then she swabbed the victim’s lips and the lipstick.

The rest of the post-mortem went by without a hitch. Julie was a healthy woman who had no sign of illness and was reasonably fit and was capable of putting up a fight. Her muscle tone was good and her internal organs healthy. Cause of death was exsanguination from the cut across her throat.

Having finished up, Krish leaned on the counter writing up the exhibits list with all the items they had seized. It was important the continuity be kept for all items so nothing could jeopardise a court case.

‘I have the lipstick here for you.’ Nadira walked to a drawer under one of the counters. It was locked. Nadira pulled a key from a pocket and unlocked the drawer, pulled out a bag and held it up so Dominic could see inside. There was a single lipstick container. It was dirty from being buried with Julie.

Dominic reached out and took the bag from Nadira. ‘What’s his thing with the lipstick?’

‘I don’t know, it’s obviously important to him. It has some meaning, I imagine.’

Dominic stalked over to Krish and took the pen out of his hand. Krish glared at him. Dominic signed the exhibit label then handed the bag over to Krish to add to the exhibit list.

‘Pen.’ Krish held out his hand.

Dominic dropped the pen into