I roll the idea through my mind. “You think he leaves hair from a previous victim and takes hair from the next one? Was Perrete’s cut off?”
Simon exhales heavily. “I honestly didn’t look for that. Her hair was rinsed and lying back against her head and her face seemed like the only part worth studying.” He tucks the braid in his tunic. “Madame Emeline took this body, too. I’ll make sure to note if her hair was cut off when I go there later.”
I suppress a shiver. “What other things will you look for?”
“I’ll do some measurements to confirm what was used to crush her head was the same as what was used on Perrete.” He heads back to where Juliane waits, watching and listening. “I’m already quite sure it was, though.”
I turn as he passes, a sick suspicion tightening my chest. “How could you tell?”
He motions with his hands, approximating size and form. “It was unusual—flat and squarish and very heavy. Like a shaped stone. A brick perhaps.”
I can’t tell him, but I know it wasn’t either of those.
It was a hammer.