“Our initial information says that this is Amelie Pichou,” the other man said. “Twenty years old. Died sometime last night.” He looked over at Paige. “Who’s this?”
“This is Paige King,” Christopher said. “She’s working with me on this. Paige, this is Lamar Smithson, with the coroner’s office here in D.C. If there’s anything to find out about a body, he’ll manage it.”
“But not so soon after arriving,” Lamar said. “We’re only just getting ready to turn the body.” He looked around at a cluster of other techs. “On three. One, two, three.”
They turned the young woman onto her back, so that she stared up at Paige with unseeing eyes. She would have been pretty in life, but in death, her features had taken on a hardness that seemed almost accusing.
“Ok, initial impressions suggest that this is a young woman who died late last night, possibly in the early hours of this morning. Certainly not within the last couple of hours, or there wouldn’t be the kind of lividity we’re seeing here. I can’t give you an official cause of death, but I’m seeing multiple stab wounds.”
“Seven?” Paige said, before she could stop herself.
“That is something I won’t be able to determine until the autopsy,” Lamar replied, with a note of reproach. “I see that you have the same kind of impatience Agent Marriott usually exhibits.”
Paige felt a hint of embarrassment at that rebuke, but when she looked across at Christopher, he shrugged.
“Don’t mind Lamar. He never wants to commit to anything until he’s sure he’s examined every speck of evidence.”
“Anything else is just guesswork,” the coroner said.
Paige didn’t want to imagine what he might think of her role in all of this, then, trying to get into the head of the criminal behind all of this.
“Was Amelie alone here in the house?” she asked Christopher.
He nodded. “She was house-sitting while her employers took a vacation in St Moritz with their children.”
“So how do we even know about the murder?”
Christopher looked momentarily impressed, and Paige was glad that she’d done something he thought was good.
“It turns out that her employers had a live feed from a camera above the TV. Ms. Helen von Ryan saw the body and reported the death.”
Paige tried to imagine what that would have been like for Helen von Ryan. She knew firsthand how awful it could be finding a body, having been the one to find her father’s, but to spot one over a camera, unable to do anything about it… in some ways, that was even worse.
“My office has arranged to speak to her when we’ve taken a look at the house. For the moment, though, I want to check the security here.”
Christopher led the way out of the room, up through the house, to a spot where an alarm keypad sat on the wall. It was blinking green, suggesting that it had power.
“The alarm wasn’t disabled,” he said.
“Meaning that Amelie didn’t have a chance to arm it?” Paige asked.
“Exactly. I think we have enough to talk to Helen von Ryan. We’ll go through to the kitchen and do it there.”
He led the way down through the house, to a bright, modern kitchen complete with breakfast bar. They sat at that while Christopher got out his phone and made a call.
“Yes, this is Agent Marriot. I’m ready to FaceTime with Helen von Ryan, if you can get her. Thanks.”
Paige was slightly impressed by the fact that Christopher could just make a call to have that kind of thing arranged for him. It was a reminder that he was just one part of the bigger machine that was the FBI. That they both were, even if she wasn’t entirely official yet.
It wasn’t long before a call came through to Christopher’s phone. He answered it, and a woman’s face appeared on screen. She was probably in her forties, with dark hair and brown eyes, looking utterly stressed out and nervous to Paige, her hair in disarray, her hands moving constantly, her eyes darting around.
“Ms. von Ryan?” Christopher said. “I’m Agent Marriott, with the FBI. This is my consultant, Dr. Paige King. I know this must be hard for you, but if it’s possible, we’d like you to answer a few questions for us.”
Paige saw Ms. von Ryan hesitate, but then nod.
“Yes, yes, of course. Eddie is with the children, but all of this… it’s such a shock, I’m sorry.”
“You were the one who made the report about the murder?” Christopher said.