Killer Smile

by RC Bridgestock

  ‘No... no... I didn’t,’ he said sadly.

  ‘You will be able to go and see her and touch her, spend some time with her later, I promise.’

  ‘Thank you,’ he said.

  ***

  Experienced Family Liaison Officers like PC Bullock were an invaluable asset to Dylan. The role took such a burden off the SIO’s shoulders and for the victims’ families to have someone on hand whom they could ask questions, at any time, it was most necessary.

  Senior Crime Scene Investigator Sarah Jarvis was made aware that her presence was also required imminently, as were the other officers nominated to work on the investigation.

  ‘Although this sounds really morbid boss, I’m interested to see what the PM tells us about how her teeth were removed,’ said Vicky.

  ‘Me too Vicky, post-mortems are never pleasant but it may be what helps us to catch the killer and put the bastard away for life, that’s why we endure them.’

  Chapter Three

  It was four o’clock and Dylan was pleased that Professor Stow was predictably punctual.

  Dylan had to look twice as the pathologist walked through the door of the mortuary. The usually rotund, loud and jovial pathologist displayed the signs of a poorly man; he was concerned.

  ‘Hey, slim Jim!’ Vicky called. ‘Care to share your secret?’ she said grabbing the spare tyre around her middle.

  ‘Kidney stones,’ he said flatly. His face was ashen.

  Vicky cringed. She bit her lip.

  ’Trust you. Feet first as usual,’ said Dylan.

  ‘Sorry,’ said Vicky quickly.

  ‘Worst bit is not being able to drink my usual fix of strong coffee. Caffeine supposedly causes one to lose fluid too quickly,’ he said in a stern deep voice and with a scowl. He looked over his half-rimmed glasses. ‘And in turn it makes me bloody dehydrated! But there’s always a positive. Since I‘ve stuck to the low fat diet and drunk more water the cramping in my legs seems less frequent.’ Professor Stow’s eyes held Dylan’s and a twinkle of his old self was present. He stepped into his protective clothing and held his gloved hands in the air whilst his splash apron was tied behind his back. He winked at Vicky. ‘It’s nothing to look forward to, getting old lass,’ he said in his thick Yorkshire accent. ‘But at least now they’ve been broken up they’ve passed through successfully.’ He put his chin to his chest as the neck tape was secured.

  ‘Too much information,’ she said with a little gasp, for Dylan’s ears only.

  Dylan related the facts of the case to the Professor as the group stood around the examination table in the mortuary. Davina’s body was still inside the body bag. He told him of the attendant circumstances.

  Professor Stow was as methodical and thorough as ever, taking care of every detail that needed to be accounted for and asking for all photographs that were required, along the way. All was done in the usual chronological order that the team present was able to follow.

  The task of removing the body bag was completed with the utmost care. It was passed intact to DC Granger the exhibits officer to bag and tag, record and retain, and further photographs were taken of all that the action revealed.

  Dylan watched Professor Stow scan the front of the body first. He took tapings, fingerprint impressions and nail scrapings. In silence, he stopped and indicated where necessary more photographs were required. Davina’s clothing was removed layer by layer. The tiny framed, naked body of Miss Walsh now lay before him. At first glance, apart from a thin dark line on the neck and dried blood crusted around the mouth, that looked like it could be dirt, nothing else seemed unusual. More tapings were taken, vaginal and rectal swabs, head and pubic hair samples, which were both cut and pulled, before the mortuary assistant was asked to assist him to turn her body over on to her stomach.

  ‘There is nothing obvious to suggest she has been subjected to a sexual assault,’ Professor Stow said. ‘No bruising,’ he continued for the purpose of the tape recording. Standing perfectly still, his head moved from her head to her toe. ‘Now what do I see here?’ he said stopping at her left shoulder. Stow’s gloved hand hovered above the marble looking skin. ‘We have what looks like it could be a bite mark on her left shoulder. Can you see it? It’s not very visible, but that may be because it was done through her clothing.’ Stow never lifted his head. ‘And what else do we have? In the middle of her lower back I believe we have some bruising. Already I can see a partial mark in the shape of a foot appearing. Can you?’ he said, following the outline of the imprint with his finger. ‘Her clothing might give you more... but I don't need to tell you that Inspector,’ he said with a quick glance up at Dylan.

  Dylan gave him a slight nod of his head.

  Senior CSI Supervisor Sarah ‘Jarv’ Jarvis’s camera flashed and there were several clicks in quick succession. More photographs were asked for, after which the naked body of Davina Walsh was turned on its back once more.

  ‘Body block please,’ Professor Stow said as he looked around for the assistant who handed him the necessary equipment.

  The block in place under the body caused Davina’s arms and neck to fall backwards, whilst pushing her chest upwards. This would make it easier for Professor Stow to cut her open and give him maximum exposure of the trunk.

  ‘Okay, let’s look at the neck wound because I think it’s pretty obvious this little lady has been the victim of a garrotte,’ he said very matter-of-fact.

  Vicky winced.

  ‘The representation of the footmark on her back suggests to me that this was how the perpetrator tightened this ancient execution device to slit her throat.’ He stopped and looked up from the body and pushed his half-rimmed glasses further up his nose. Sweat glistened on his brow. ‘Did you know the garrotte has been around in some form or other since the first century BC?’ Stow said. His head dropped down and he was quickly back to the job in hand which was carefully swabbing the wound. ‘There is also evidence that this ligature had a knot at the centre, look, here,’ he said pointing to a slightly bigger indentation near the larynx. ‘This comes from the Indian version of the assassination device which aids in crushing the larynx when the perpetrator applies pressure to the victim’s back, usually as in this case with a foot but the same amount of pressure can be applied from a bended knee. Her neck has been sliced as easily and neatly as a piece of cheese by a cheese wire, in fact I can confirm by her injuries, that this has been done by a handheld ligature but not by a rope, scarf, chain, telephone cord, cable tie as is often used but by a thin wire or catgut,’ he said screwing up his face. ‘The evidence we have before us suggests that only one ligature was used however a typical garrotte used by soldiers of the French Foreign Legion had a double-loop, referred to as la loupe, where a double coil is dropped around a victim’s neck and then pulled taut. You didn’t happen to find any sticks or pieces of wood with a wire around them at the scene did you?’ he said looking up at the officers. ‘Pieces of wood at each end of the wire would have helped to tighten the ligature,’ he said acting out the action with his gloved hands.

  Dylan looked at DC Granger, the exhibits officer who silently shook his head.

  ‘No, and it was Peter Stonestreet’s team who sealed the scene, so I’m pretty confident there was nothing left lying around, even though we lost it pretty quickly to heavy rain.’

  ‘Okay then,’ Stow said with a little dry cough. ‘So let’s move on to look inside the mouth and at her teeth.’ He carried on speaking whilst gently washing away the blood from her lips. ‘Humans like other mammals are diphyodonts, which in simple terms means we have two sets of teeth,’ Professor Stow allowed himself to take a breath. ‘Human beings lose their milk teeth at around six years of age.’ The professor stopped, looked up from the corpse and pondered for a moment. ‘What a lovely sounding word diphyodonts is, don’t you think?’ he said to Dylan before continuing the examination.

  Dylan saw another glimpse of the old mischievous Professor Stow and Vicky noted that the professor’s smil
e reached his eyes.

  ‘First the lower jaw or the mandible and then we’ll move to the upper – the maxilla, its prime function is to hold our teeth in place.’ Blindly Professor Stow searched inside the mouth with his gloved index finger. His eyes found the fluorescent light fitting on the ceiling and remained there while he silently counted. ‘Twelve... and in the upper jaw... ten, eleven. Well, her remaining teeth appear to be firmly attached but... as I’m sure you know, humans have thirty-two teeth, sixteen in the maxilla and sixteen in the mandible... so we’ve lost nine here in total.’

  Professor Stow opened the mouth wide and peered inside.

  ‘We’re told the first thing that you noticed about Davina was her brilliant white teeth. According to her boyfriend she’s never had any dental work done,’ Dylan said.

  ‘Lucky girl, but that’s not the case now,’ he said. Standing upright he stretched his back. ‘Four central incisors and an upper molar have been extracted from the upper jaw and four incisors from the lower jaw. And when I say extracted I mean just that.’

  ‘So they weren’t knocked out by the fall?’ said Vicky.

  ‘No, I would suggest they’ve been neatly removed, using possibly dental instruments such as an elevator to lift upwards and forceps to take each one out. Your attacker knew what they were doing.’

  Vicky looked at Dylan. ‘But why would they do that, to sell?’

  ‘Like most things teeth are a saleable commodity. A famous film star just sold his kidney stone for fourteen thousand pounds to an online casino, to raise money for a housing charity.’

  ‘Really?’ said Vicky.

  ‘Really,’ said Stow. ‘Maybe I should try...?’ He stopped and considered. He leant against the examination table as if he had suddenly felt giddy. His face was suddenly the colour of clay.

  ‘Get an action raised to ascertain how much teeth are worth on today’s market and where someone might sell or buy them?’ Dylan said to Vicky although his eyes were fixed on the professor.

  ‘A friend of mine makes jewellery out of teeth,’ said Ned thoughtfully.

  Vicky gave him a wide stare. ‘That is actually gross,’ Vicky said.

  Professor Stow pushed himself away from the table and carried on.

  ‘Do you know where your friend gets them from Ned?’ said Dylan.

  ‘No, I never thought to ask.’

  ‘Find out will you.’

  Ned gave a nod of his head.

  ‘May be of little comfort to her loved ones; she wasn’t tortured. The teeth have been pulled after she died,’ said Professor Stow.

  ‘How can you be sure of that?’ Vicky said.

  ‘If she’d been tortured they would have been ripped out, we would see damage here,’ he said, pointing to the cavity in the jaw bone that went through to the sinus. ‘This act has been done, dare I say, professionally,’ said Professor Stow.

  ‘So the teeth came out whole do you think?’

  ‘Oh yes, absolutely, it strikes me you have a planner here. Someone who is focused and determined.’

  The room was silent as relevant samples were taken from around and inside the mouth – more photographs were taken.

  The post-mortem continued to be executed and Professor Stow opened up the body with a simple scalpel blade. It was a large and deep Y-shaped incision starting at the top of each of Davina’s shoulders and met at the lower part of the sternum.

  The bleeding of the cut was minimal. The pull of gravity producing the only blood pressure at this point, related directly to the complete lack of cardiac functionality. Professor Stow opened up her chest cavity and sawed through her ribs on the lateral sides to allow the sternum and attached rib to be lifted out as one chest plate. He placed it to the side to be replaced at the end of the examination; this done the heart and lungs could be seen in situ. He proceeded to remove the organs in a systematic fashion and the weighing plus more detailed examinations of each organ took place. Samples in the form of slices were taken from each organ. There were no clots found in her heart. Her left lung was removed by cutting the bronchus, artery, and vein at the hilum. The right lung taken from its rightful place in the body was followed by abdominal organs which were plucked one by one. Next her stomach and intestinal contents were examined and weighed.

  At the bursting of the sac to allow the stomach contents to be revealed Dylan popped a mint in his mouth. Vicky closed her eyes briefly. Jarv clicked the camera and Ned held the evidence bag open.

  ‘This may seem unnecessary as we have a definite window of time when she died and we know the cause, but by doing this procedure we can glean more exact information by the areas in the intestines that are empty,’ he said with his hand cupped under the bowel. This tells me approximately how long the deceased has gone without a meal,’ said Professor Stow studiously.

  The body block that was used earlier to elevate the chest cavity was moved to elevate the head so that Stow could examine the brain. An incision from behind her left ear, over the crown of her head, to a point behind her right ear, was made with precision. The scalp was pulled away from the skull in two flaps with the front flap falling over the face and the rear flap over the back of the neck. Professor Stow was handed a Stryker saw to create a cap in the skull that he pulled off to expose the brain, examining it in situ before lifting it out for further examination and weighing. In this case there was no need for Davina’s brain to be preserved so the container of formalin that stood waiting on the side was not required.

  The reconstruction of the body could now take place. Davina’s body looked like an empty vessel; open and void of its internal organs. The chest was a casket ready for the contents to be returned. The chest flaps lay open on both sides. The top of the skull was missing, and the skull flaps were still over the face and neck.

  ‘There is no need to examine arms, hands or legs internally,’ said Professor Stow.

  By this time in the examination the smell wasn’t as much of a problem, standing on the cold floor with the air conditioning on constantly was. The chill went through the soles of Dylan shoes and he could feel the cold creeping up his legs and his muscles tightened. His calves ached. He knew the others felt the same as he watched them step from foot to foot and shuffle on the spot.

  It was time for the team to leave Davina’s body in the hands of the mortuary assistant and Dylan knew when he had finished his work, Gary would not be able to tell the procedure had been done or what Davina’s body had been subject to, which was ultimately a blessing.

  The team left Senior CSI Jarvis taking the final post-mortem pictures. Last of the officers to leave the room, Dylan stopped and looked back over his shoulder to see Davina’s face being reconstructed. Vicky stepped back and stood with him.

  ‘Remarkable isn’t it?’ he said.

  ‘What is?’ said Vicky.

  ‘The skin on the face goes back perfectly on the skull, like a mask. Or as long as the skin is still attached at the tip of the nose it does,’ said Dylan.

  Cotton wool was sourced by the mortuary assistant who proceeded to pack the chest cavity. The organs were placed in a plastic bag, to prevent leakage, and they too were returned to the body before the chest flaps were closed and sewn together. The skull cap would be replaced and the body wrapped in a shroud ready for make-up to be applied to cover abrasions and bruising on Davina’s face.

  Post-mortems always left Dylan with a renewed impetus – if ever one was needed to catch the perpetrator of such a heinous crime.

  ***

  Professor Stow sat behind the desk in the office. ‘I can’t see anything else untoward, Dylan. All the visual checks show me that Davina Walsh was a healthy young lady. It would appear the attacker, as I said in the post-mortem, used a garrotte, with a foot in her back and as she was down on the ground the attacker bit her shoulder. In my experience that is something usually more commonly seen in a sexual attack. But, we can never presume, nothing surprises me anymore, and it looks like in this case, the murderer has gone on to r
emove her teeth instead.’

  ‘A fetish you think?’ said Dylan.

  ‘Who knows, as I said earlier there is no doubt in my mind the perpetrator knew exactly what they were doing. This is someone with a practical knowledge of tooth extractions. Dentist, medic? She hasn’t been sexually assaulted.’

  ‘Which leaves the mystery of the used condom that was found close by her body,’ said Dylan? ‘Unless it’s his in which case if he is on our system we’ll have him.’

  ‘What the hell could be the motive? Teeth are his trophies perhaps?’

  ***

  The day had been a long one, but he still needed to debrief the staff, do a press release and Davina’s boyfriend needed updating. He picked up the phone to speak to the Family Liaison Officer to find their present location. PC Bullock and Gary were at his home address, Gary’s station sergeant Frank Jessop was still with them, Dylan was informed.

  Dylan dropped Vicky off at the police station to arrange for the officers who had been identified to work on the murder to be in the incident room within the hour for him to update them. Dylan then drove on to Spring Bank to update those present with the findings of the post-mortem. No matter how unsavoury the task was, he knew from experience, Davina’s boyfriend would be on the edge, waiting for news.

  ***

  Like giving the death notice there was no easy way of sharing results of a post-mortem examination to tell someone how their loved one had died. In this case it was to tell Gary how his girlfriend had been murdered.

  ‘This is going to be hard for you to take in right now,’ Dylan told Gary. ‘But I want you to hear this from me, first hand and not at a later date at an inquest or a trial.’

  Dylan sat opposite Gary and painstakingly he went through the details of each injury Davina had sustained. He knew he had to be open and honest, no matter how uncomfortable the conversation was. It was important that Davina’s family had confidence in him, the person in charge of the investigation, so that in the future they could also trust him implicitly.