pulled the short end against the other to have created the killing force.â
âYou mean it was tied then retied,â Steve said.
âYes, and by a righty. And according to the report, the victim was left-handed.â
Then Steve said, âYouâre saying the autoerotica was staged.â
âYes, Lieutenant. I think she was murdered and set up to look like accidental asphyxiophilia.â He made a happy-face grin.
âBut there were no signs of struggle,â Neil protested. âNo forced entry. And nobody heard any cries or disturbances. No reports of visitors entering her apartment.â
âYes, and no signs she was raped,â Ottoman added. âNo semen, no vaginal bruises. No sign of condom lubricants. And no unattached foreign hairs on her body. And no sign of vaginal, anal, or oral sex. And, as you can see, no ligature marks on her wrists or ankles. No fingernail marks and scratches of the assailant on the neck. No defensive wounds anywhere.â
âSo she knew her assailant but didnât have sex with him,â Steve said.
âThat would be my guess.â
âWhat does that tell us about him?â Steve asked, wishing Ottoman would cover Terryâs face with a cloth. The grotesque disfigurement was making his brain feel soupy.
âOr her,â Neil said. âIt could have been a woman.â
âIf so, a very strong woman.â
The thick purple ring of broken blood vessels looked like a tattooed necklace. âLetâs assume she was strangled with two hands on the stocking,â Steve said. âAfter she died, one end was tied to the bed to look like an accident. Given the force and speed it took to knock her out, she had no time to resist.â
âCorrect. And thatâs why her hands arenât bruised and her fingernails arenât broken even though weâve taken scrapings for DNA.â
âSo, she knew the attacker and let him in,â Steve said, as the image came together. And Ottoman nodded him on. âWith her consent they go into the bedroom and engaged in some kind of sexual activity that did not involve intercourse. And during that the assailant suddenly strangles her and sets an accidental autoerotica scenario, then covers his tracks and leaves.â
âThat would be my guess,â Ottoman said.
If he was correct, Farinaâs murder was premeditated, organized, and compulsiveânot impulsive. In his mind he saw a faceless killer going through the place, wiping clean surfaces he might have touched, maybe even returning his own champagne glass to the cabinet, and pressing Terryâs dead fingers on the bottle to make it look as if she drank alone.
Except nobody drinks champagne alone, Steve thought. The killer had screwed up.
While Ottoman continued, Steve looked down at Terryâs face. Slitted open, her eyes, once bright blue, were now dead gray globes of jelly. If Ottoman was correct, the last thing those sad smoky eyes had taken in was the face of the person who did this to herâwho came into her bedroom, took pleasure in her nakedness, then wrapped that stocking around her neck and pulled until she passed out of this life. If only those dead jellies could project their last light.
The thought quickened his pulse. And out of the black, that sensation winged its way in and nearly came to roost but turned and sliced back into the gloom.
âWhat would you estimate for the time of death?â Neil asked.
âBetween three P.M. and three A.M. â
âTwelve hours. Is that the best you can do?â
âIâm afraid so. The AC was turned to sixty degrees, which slows down the pooling of the blood, and, thus, postmortem lividity and decomposition. The temperature of her skin when she was found was room temperature, but her liver was sixty-four degrees. It takes about eight to twelve hours for the skin to reach ambient temp, but three times longer at the center of the body, which
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