Page 157 of Nash Falls

Rhett glanced at Nash. “You can say anything in front of him you want to say to me.”

Ramos shrugged. “Okay. Are you still in touch with Mrs. Nash?”

“I am, yes, why?” asked Rhett.

“The thing is, sir, we’ve seen her out at the spot where her daughter’s remains were recovered.”

“What do you mean yousawher?”

“We’ve kept an eye on the place from time to time, just in case anyone shows up there. Killers sometimes come back to see if they missed anything.”

Nash felt his gut clench and he lowered his gaze to the floor.If they saw me…?

“I didn’t know she was doing that,” said Rhett, looking genuinely concerned.

“And another thing. She’s apparently leaving items related to her daughter there.”

Rhett leaned forward. “Items related to her daughter? What sorts of things?”

“A pom-pom, a framed picture, that sort of thing.”

Rhett sat back and adopted a weary expression. “Look, I’ve tried to get her to seek counseling, but she refuses. I’ll keep trying.”

“I just worry that her, well,obsessionmight lead to something… personally destructive.”

“Understood. I’ll do whatever I can. Anything else?”

“Yes, we discussed a long while back that the pathologist suspected that your father’s death was not a suicide, but a homicide.”

“I’m not convinced of that. And you never said why the pathologist concluded that.”

“There were marks around the neck, and the hyoid bone was fractured.”

“Excuse me, the hyoid bone?”

“Yes, when it’s damaged or broken, it usually means someone was strangled. Now, they ran some additional tests recently and because of backlogs and paperwork snafus I just got those results, which is the reason I came to see you.”

“What results?” said Rhett dully.

“It took specialized testing by an outside expert, but it has now been determined that one of the marks on your father’s face was not caused by the impact with the ground. It was blunt force trauma caused almost certainly by a fist. This was determined by an exacting examination of the indentations of the skin at that spot, the manner in which the facial bones were damaged, and the like. It was difficult because the impact with the ground tended to cover up any such underlying and preexisting injuries. That was why additional testing was called for. And it took a great deal of time. We even had to have the body exhumed.”

Rhett looked outraged. “You exhumed my father’s body? Without telling me? Or getting my approval?”

Ramos didn’t look so deferential to Rhett right now, Nash noted.His look was one of professional stiffness. “It’s a homicide investigation, Mr. Temple. We didn’tneedyour approval.”

Rhett immediately backed down. “Right, of course. I’m sorry if I implied that you did. I’m just… this is just so out of left field. So you think someone struck my father and then strangled him, breaking his hyoid bone?”

“Yes sir.”

“Did he die by strangulation?”

“No. The impact with the ground killed him. That was conclusive.”

“So what are you envisioning actually happened?”

“He was beaten or strangled until he was unconscious, and then he was carried through those doors and thrown off the balcony.”

“It would have taken a strong man or men to do so. My father was not small.”