Chapter 12
Professor Jane Dore, the state pathologist, was always busy, her time regularly in demand. In addition to her day job, she held a series of lectures and talks for prospective forensic pathologists.
Arriving at Russell Avenue, she suited up and entered the Healy home.
First impressions were important. She and Lottie Parker agreed on that.
Unusually today, Jane’s first impressions were not of a scientific or forensic nature, but rather a feeling that this was a family trying hard to be something they were not.
The decor exploded in a mismatch of colour and designs, and while it might have cost an arm and a leg, it looked cheap and tacky.
Whether it was the decor or not, she was irritated on entering the sitting room.
Grainne Nixon, head of the SOCO team, informed her that the deceased male was Cameron Healy, thirty-nine years old.
‘Who identified him?’
‘His passport was located in his home office.’ She pointed to a door across the hall.
‘Thanks. Good work.’
Before Jane began her tasks, she looked all around. ‘Were the blinds up and curtains pulled back?’
‘The man who reported the incident saw Mr Healy through the sitting room window.’
‘Did he enter the house?’
‘No. At least he said he didn’t, but we’ve swabbed and fingerprinted him. It will be an easy task to eliminate him. Or not.’
‘Was the light on?’ Jane said. ‘Might help when I’m trying to determine time of death.’
‘There were no lights on when first responders entered.’
‘God, that means we have a highly contaminated scene.’
‘Exactly.’
While Grainne hovered in the background, Jane examined the body in situ.
She inspected the wound on Cameron’s wrist. ‘Lost a lot of blood. It’s seeped into the cushions beneath him.’ She noted blood spatter on the wall behind the dead man, indicating the direction of the wound. It puzzled her a little. ‘Has everything been photographed?’
‘Yes, and videoed.’
‘Good. It might be helpful for the SIO to get a blood-spatter analyst to examine the scene before the body is moved.’
‘Will the photos and video not be sufficient?’
‘It would be better for someone to see it first-hand.’
‘I’ll mention it,’ Grainne said. ‘I figure the budget will be the deal-breaker.’
Next Jane carefully moved the man’s head and leaned over him.
No head wound. At a glance she felt he was a strong man, so if he’d been attacked, wouldn’t he have resisted, defended himself?
But there was no indication that someone had stunned him with a blow to the head.
Toxicology would be important in case he had been sedated, either by himself or someone else.
‘To my eye it appears to be a self-inflicted wound, but…’
‘But?’ Grainne filled the space.
Jane straightened up. ‘I don’t want to speculate, but the blood spatter isn’t necessarily consistent with that hypothesis, hence my request for a professional analyst. Where are the other bodies?’
‘Upstairs. In two bedrooms.’
‘Let’s go then.’
Upstairs, Jane entered the main bedroom and stared at the body of Caroline Healy.
‘She may have been posed,’ she said, surprising herself that she had said it aloud.
‘Detective Inspector Parker thinks so too. By the way, she’s en route.’
‘Bag and tag that pillow,’ Jane said, pointing to the floor.
‘We were waiting for you to complete your examination before we removed anything from the scene. As per good practice.’
‘I wasn’t being critical.’
‘And I was just explaining our protocol.’
The sharpness in Grainne’s tone rankled, but Jane let it pass. She’d come to learn that detectives and SOCOs were very territorial about their crime scenes.
She pulled down the collar of the victim’s blouse and turned to look at the SOCO as Lottie appeared in the doorway.
‘Shit,’ Grainne said, her green eyes flaring.
‘She was strangled,’ Lottie said, spotting what could be strangulation marks on Caroline’s neck. ‘Was the pillow a decoy?’
Jane acknowledged her with a nod, her eyes gleaming above her mask. ‘Or the killer put it over her face so he wouldn’t have to look at her as he took her life away. But I’m speculating and I don’t normally do that.’ She silently admonished herself for her indiscretion. ‘Did you find a ligature?’
Lottie shook her head. ‘Nothing yet.’
‘Where is the child victim?’
‘Next door.’
Before leaving the room, Jane said, ‘The clothing doesn’t suit her.’
‘I thought that too,’ Lottie said as Grainne went back down the stairs.
‘Too dowdy and unappealing for such a young person.’
‘Yeah, she’s only in her thirties.’
‘Now to the toughest part of the job,’ Jane said, and preceded Lottie into the little girl’s room.
The dark silence was in direct contrast to the bright colours of the bedclothes and curtains. Jane could see the beginnings of a teenager emerging in the display of pop singers’ posters Blu-Tacked to the wall behind the door. She let out a sorrowful sigh and looked at the body on the bed.
‘Twelve-year-old Freya Healy,’ Lottie said. ‘It was her birthday party yesterday.’
‘Healthy-looking child. Once again, the dress doesn’t tie in with a current-day twelve-year-old. It’s old-fashioned, don’t you think?’
‘I noticed that.’
Jane carefully turned down the collar of the dress.
‘Evidence of strangulation there too,’ Lottie offered.
‘Yes, and no other visible marks or wounds that I can see. No blood on the bed.’
‘Time of death?’
‘You know better than to ask me that at this stage. I’ll know more once I do the post-mortem on all three.’
‘Sequence of deaths?’ Lottie pressed.
‘I’m not jumping to any conclusions, and you shouldn’t either.’
‘It would help the investigation if we could say Cameron Healy killed his family and then himself.’
‘So that you can say no one else is being sought in connection with the deaths? Can’t help you with that yet. I’ll prioritise them. And you should get an expert to analyse the blood spatter downstairs.’
Outside, Jane whipped off the suffocating protective gear and put it in the bag being held by a uniformed garda. It felt good to breathe in the cold October air, but it did nothing to lighten the load resting on her shoulders.
She left the scene before Lottie could ask any more questions.