Page 29 of Hidden Daughters (Detective Lottie Parker #15)

Professor Jane Dore had had to deal with her fair share of unusual deaths over the course of her career.

As the country’s state pathologist, she handled unexplained fatalities.

Murders. Grisly cases. Torn bodies. Crushed bones.

Also, those that at first appeared to be unexplained.

A perfect body. Unblemished. A mystery contained within the shroud of skin.

Those were the cases she craved, where her skills as a pathologist thrust her into the heart of an investigation.

Today she was in the mortuary at Galway University Hospital.

The location was familiar to her, as she’d worked on suspicious deaths there before.

She was in Galway to speak at a conference, and her assistant was covering for her in Tullamore.

Being in the locality, she felt obliged to accede to the Galway gardaí’s request.

The body laid out on the stainless-steel table told its own story before the pathologist even took up the cold scalpel in her gloved hand.

Lottie suspected that Jane was a little surprised to see her arrive with Mooney, even though she’d been given permission to be present.

She eyed the pathologist and waited anxiously until she spoke.

‘Age is hard to determine. Like I told you at the scene I’d say this woman was somewhere in her fifties.

You can verify it once you identify her.

The hands were thrust into boiling water.

’ Jane paused before continuing. ‘Skin is blistered, and in places it’s slid off.

Third-degree burns. Her face has suffered similar injuries. ’

‘Is that what killed her?’ Lottie asked.

‘Short answer – I don’t know yet. The shock could have led to a heart attack, but until I open her up…’

‘What can you tell us now?’ Mooney asked.

Lottie studied the unfortunate victim, avoiding the face, and felt her breakfast rise from her stomach to her throat. She swallowed down the acidic taste, but it lingered in her mouth.

The scene she’d encountered in the bathroom of the cottage was one of the most horrific she’d ever walked into.

And looking at the victim laid out on the steel table, it was difficult to figure out if the woman had been flayed or scalded.

Blisters had sprouted in places, but in others the skin had sloughed off completely.

No identifying features. No eyebrows or lashes.

The pathologist would have to determine the cause of death; SOCOs would forensically sweep and analyse the scene.

Then Lottie could… No, she couldn’t do anything.

It was Mooney’s investigation. But he’d asked for her help. That was something at least.

She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the woman’s hands. Long, slender fingers. Blistered where the skin remained, otherwise they were skinless. Just bone and sinew.

‘You okay?’ Jane asked her.

‘Not really. How could someone do this to another human being? This was torture.’

‘You think?’

‘Do you not?’ Lottie raised an eyebrow.

‘I have no idea what happened to this unfortunate woman. But it was painful, that’s for sure.’

‘There was an empty kettle on the bathroom floor,’ Mooney said.

‘I noted that,’ Jane said. ‘Too far away from the body. Someone did this to her.’

‘She could have brought it in herself. It might have fallen…’ Mooney argued, but he looked doubtful.

‘Yesterday you didn’t think she killed herself, but now you do?’ Lottie asked incredulously. ‘There are less painful methods to?—’

‘No, I don’t think she did this to herself,’ he said gruffly.

Jane cut in. ‘Neither do I. There’s bruising on the upper arms. She was held. Tightly. And the boiling water was applied more than once. I had a quick look at her back before we turned her over again. Someone stood over her and poured boiling water along her spine. She was badly scalded.’

‘But she hardly stood or lay there and let someone do that, did she?’ Mooney was getting more animated.

‘I have to run toxicology,’ Jane said.

‘You think she was drugged?’ Lottie asked.

‘I don’t think anything at the moment. I’m only pointing out what I can see.’

‘Sorry, Jane. I’m shaken, that’s all. Human nature continues to horrify me.’

‘And me. This is one of the worst I’ve come across.’ Jane walked slowly around the table, and Lottie watched as she stopped at the woman’s feet.

‘There was a wine bottle and glass in the cottage. Maybe she’d had a few. That would impair her, wouldn’t it?’ Mooney asked.

‘You’ll have to wait for toxicology results.

’ The pathologist looked up along the body from her vantage point, then back down again.

‘The soles of her feet are blistered too. Don’t quote me, but this may have come first to keep her from fleeing.

Then the hands, to stop her fighting back, and there’s evidence they may have been bound.

Then all that was followed by the burns to her back.

When I examine her lungs, I’ll know if she drowned.

If that isn’t the cause of death, then she died as a consequence of the burns.

Shock? Heart failure? You’ll have to wait until I have all my tests completed. ’

‘Sure, thanks,’ Mooney said. ‘So what kind of a sicko am I looking for?’

As Jane moved to the other side of the table and picked up a scalpel, Lottie could see the pathologist had been wondering the same thing. ‘The most dangerous person one can face. Someone with no fear.’

Mooney gulped.

Lottie digested this nugget. Jane had been unusually candid. After all, providing her personal opinion was not part of her brief.

‘Send your report as soon as you can. Thanks again.’ Mooney made for the doors. It seemed he couldn’t escape fast enough.

Lottie took a last look at the woman’s body and gave Jane a sympathetic nod. ‘I’ve faced a lot of murders in my time, but this seems to be one of the cruellest.’

And as she let the door swing shut behind her, she wondered how Mooney would go about identifying a woman with no face.