Dead Guilty by Beverly Connor Read Free Book Online

the
gauze
and gave
it to
Lynn.
Diane
watched
her
gently
rub
the
skin,
removing
a
film of epidermis, revealing what looked like a yellow,
blue and red butterfly.
‘‘Nice,’’ said Raymond.
‘‘Let’s go ahead and get a picture of this—use the
large-format camera,’’ said Lynn.
Raymond retrieved his Horseman VH Metal Field
Camera from a closet.
‘‘I want a close-up, and another that shows the en
tire ankle.’’
Lynn and Diane watched Raymond remove the bulky
camera from the overhead mount and place it on a tri
pod. He put a metal ruler just under the tattoo, framed
the shot and snapped the first picture. He moved in for
a close-up. ‘‘Okay, you want some digital too?’’
Lynn nodded. ‘‘Just to play it safe.’’
‘‘Dr. Webber never expects pictures to come out.’’
‘‘It’s because I’m such a poor photographer,’’ she
said.
Diane retrieved more blue cord and a strip of plastic
from her case while Raymond snapped photographs
of the butterfly tattoo, duplicated all his shots with a
digital backup, and filled out the photo log.
‘‘Diane,
I
assume
you
want
any
internal
insects
when I go inside.’’
‘‘Yes. If you think she may have been sexually as
saulted,
any
larvae
around
the
vagina
might
be
useful.’’
‘‘How’s that?’’ asked Raymond.
‘‘A rapist’s DNA can show up in the maggots who
have ingested it.’’
Raymond laughed out loud, a deep-throated laugh
as if that was a joke played on the perp.
‘‘Diane, why don’t you go ahead and remove the
rope. I really
need to get her arms untied
so I can
go inside.’’
‘‘Can Raymond make photographs of the process?’’
‘‘Sure.’’
‘‘There’s
two
ropes
around
the
neck,’’
Diane
ex
plained as Raymond set up her shots. ‘‘The noose and
another loop of rope that leads down to the hands. If
she moved around too much trying to free her hands,
she’d only choke herself.’’
‘‘Umpf,’’
the
diener
grunted.
‘‘You
want
all
the
knots, right?’’
‘‘Yes, and I need you to show how the ropes around
the hands and the neck are connected. You may have
to angle the camera to see down through these loops
on the hands to get a good view. It looks like the perp
used multiple knots. Have you had much experience
photographing knots?’’
‘‘None,’’ said Raymond. ‘‘No, that’s not right. There
was
that
suicide
that
came
in
last
winter.
We
don’t
usually see the rope.’’
‘‘I need you to photograph me removing the rope.
I need to have a record showing that the knots did
not change as a result of my intervention.’’
‘‘How ’bout I use the thirty-five millimeter for that.’’
‘‘That’s fine.’’
Diane began with the noose. First, tying the plastic
around the knot to stabilize it. After securing the knot,
she pulled the rope away from the skin, bringing bits
of flesh with it. She slipped one end of the cord under
the rope and tied it off. Three inches away she tied
the other end of the cord around a section of rope.
Each end of the cord had a tag that Diane labeled,
indicating
how
the
rope
was
oriented
to
the
victim.
As
she
worked,
she
heard
Raymond
snapping
the
camera over and over.
She cut the noose with a sharp scalpel. She slipped
the noose off over the head. She placed the rope in a
flat box and stuffed more plastic inside to hold it still
and labeled it. She repeated the step with the second
loop around the neck.
‘‘You have to do that procedure with each loop of
the rope, don’t you?’’ said Lynn.
‘‘I
have
to
keep
the
rope
as
intact
as
I
can.
For
tight
rope
arrangements
like
these
on
the
hands,
I
made
a
plastic-covered,
log-shaped
form
to
slip
to
keep
them
from
becoming
through
the
loops
    tangled.’’
‘‘I
didn’t
realize
Raymond.
ropes
were
so
involved,’’
said
    ‘‘There’s
a lot you can learn about the perp from
them. This one is going to be more complicated,’’ said
Diane as she examined the ropes. ‘‘This guy knew