Page 94 of This is Why We Lied

The recent wounds weren’t the only sign of damage.

Mercy’s body revealed a lifetime of abuse. The scar on her face had drained of color, but it was no match for the other scars that riddled her skin. Deep, dark slash marks wrapped around her belly where she’d been whipped with something heavy and textured, probably a rope. Sara easily recognized the impression of a belt buckle imprinted on Mercy’s hip. Her left thigh had been burned by an iron. She had multiple cigarette burns around the nipple of her right breast. There was a thin, straight slash bisecting her left wrist.

She asked Nadine, “Do you know of any suicide attempts?”

“More than a few.” Biscuits had answered the question. “She had a couple of overdoses. That scar you’re looking at is back from high school. Got into another knock-down with Dave. Cut her wrist open in the supply closet off the gym. Coach found her or she would’a bled out.”

Sara looked to Nadine for confirmation. The woman had tears in her eyes. She nodded once, then picked up the camera to document the damage.

Again, Sara aligned the ruler for scale. She wondered how long it would take to stab a woman this many times. Twenty seconds? Thirty? There were more stab wounds on the back and legs. Whoever had murdered Mercy McAlpine had well and truly wanted her dead.

That he hadn’t completely succeeded, that Mercy had still been alive after the cottage had been set on fire, after Will had run through the forest to find her, was a testament to her grit.

Nadine finally put down the camera. She took another deep breath to brace herself. She knew what was coming next.

The rape kit.

Nadine unsealed the cardboard box that contained everything needed to collect evidence from a sexual assault: sterile containers, swabs, syringes, glass slides, self-sealing envelopes, nail picks, labels, sterile water and saline, a plastic speculum, a comb. Sara could see her hands shaking as she laid each item out on the tray. Nadine used the back of her arm to wipe tears under her safety glasses. Sara’s heart went out to the woman. She had been in Nadine’s position many times before.

Sara asked, “Should we take a break?”

Nadine shook her head. “I’m not going to fail her this time.”

Sara was carrying her own guilt about Mercy. Her brain kept taking her back to that moment in the bathroom off the kitchen. Mercy had told Sara that almost everyone on the mountain wanted to kill her. Sara had tried to press her, but when Mercy had pushed back, Sara had easily let it go.

Sara told Nadine, “Let’s begin.”

Because Mercy was still in rigor, they had to force her thighs apart. Sara took one leg. Nadine took the other. They pulled until the hip joints gave way with a terrible popping sound.

In the doorway, Biscuits cleared his throat.

Sara held a white square of cardboard below Mercy’s pubis. She used the comb first, carefully pulling the teeth through pubic hair. Stray hairs, dirt, and other debris fell onto the paper. Sara was glad to see roots on some of the hairs. Roots meant DNA.

She passed the card and comb to Nadine so that she could seal both in a collection bag.

Next, Sara used several different lengths of swabs to check for semen on the insides of Mercy’s thighs. Her rectum. Her lips. Nadine helped her force open the mouth. Again, there was a loud pop from the joint breaking apart. Sara adjusted the overhead light. She didn’t see any contusions inside the mouth. She swabbed inside the cheeks, the tongue, the back of the throat.

The plastic speculum was sealed inside a wrapper. Nadine peeled the edges apart, offering the instrument to Sara. Again, Sara adjusted the overhead light. She had to force the speculum into the canal. Nadine handed her swabs.

Sara said, “It looks like there’s a trace amount of seminal fluid.”

Biscuits cleared his throat again. “So she was raped.”

“The fluid suggests sexual intercourse. I don’t see any signs of edema or contusions.”

Sara handed Nadine the last of the swabs to process. While she waited, Sara changed into fresh gloves. Her thoughts were on all of the men who’d been at the lodge last night. The chef. The two young waiters. Chuck. Frank. Drew. Gordon and Paul. Max, the investor. Even Mercy’s brother, Christopher. Sara had sat at the dinner table surrounded by them. Any one of them could be the killer.

Nadine came back to the table. Sara drew blood from the heart into a large syringe. She used a twenty-five-gauge needle to take urine from the bladder. She handed the syringes over to Nadine for labeling. Then, she held a small piece of white cardboard under Mercy’s fingers and used the wooden pick to clean out under her nails.

“This might be skin,” Sara said. “She could’ve scraped her attacker.”

“Good girl, Merce.” Nadine sounded relieved. “I hope you made him bleed.”

Sara hoped so, too. There would be a better chance of isolating DNA.

She was about to ask for Nadine’s help to turn the body over when a phone buzzed.

Nadine said, “That’s me. X-rays are probably uploaded.”