The coroner chuckled a bit. “Yes, you could say that. Ladies…a fall from that height is particularly nasty. I’ve only ever seen one before it—a construction worker that fell to his death over at the Empire State Building site. In the case of Mr. Perkins,his spine had pretty much been obliterated. His ribs, the same—with the exception of two ribs on his left side, which had blasted right through his skin. His hip had popped out of socket on both sides and had been twisted nearly one hundred and eighty degrees. I was told that removing his body from that car took nearly fifteen minutes.” He sighed and shook his head. “So now do you understand why I find it foolish to think there would have been anything in terms of evidence?”
It was indeed a grisly depiction, but Ava also didn’t think he’d be speaking so snidely to two male officers that were sitting across his desk. Still, she’d already learned that lesson multiple times, and she wasn’t about to anger what might be the one last person to keep this case from being closed.
“There was no weapon on him?” Ava asked.
“Not that I’m aware of. But that’s usually handled by your people, right?”
“Right,” she said, really starting to become unnerved by his condescending tone.
“Look, if you’re searching for something that would indicate he was perhaps pushed or thrown from that height, I’m just afraid there is nothing to support it. But here’s what I will do. I’ll bring you the things I removed from him…the glass, the metal, some grime I removed from his tongue. You can have a look at it all but after that, I’m afraid there’s really nothing I can do to assist you with this.”
Before Ava could even thank him, the coroner was up and exiting his office, leaving Ava and Pawlowski sitting by themselves.
“Gold, this is starting to seem a little crazy,” Pawlowski said. “Honestly, maybe even a little creepy. You heard the man…there was nothing left of the body.”
“Well, we’re here now. Might as well see it through, right?”
Pawlowski said nothing. She simply looked away, her eyes trailing to her hands and studying her fingernails. It then occurred to Ava that Pawlowski may have never gone to these lengths before. For all she knew, she’d never had to step foot in a coroner’s office. After all, Ava knew next to nothing about her partner’s career.
“Pawlowski…is this all new to you?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Tracking down leads like this. Having to visit a coroner in the hopes of finding a scrap of evidence.”
There was a brief moment where Pawlowski looked insulted, but it passed quickly as she nodded. “I mean, I’ve been on investigative cases in the past. But I’ve never actually run after someone like we ran after Kathleen Branson. And this is the first time I’ve had to come to a coroner’s office.”
Ava hated that Pawlowski seemed embarrassed by this admission, so she carried the conversation on as naturally as she could. “Sorry if I’ve pushed you too far. I didn’t even stop to think…to ask you what you were comfortable with.”
“Oh, there’s no need to be sorry. I don’t want Miller to shut this down, either. I’ve had more excitement in these past two days than the past twomonths.”
It did seem odd to Ava that Miller had paired them up. Sure, there was some obvious marketing and public image to the idea of two women officers working together. But it also almost felt as if they were being set up to fail all at the same time. Something about the idea snagged at the corners of her mind but none of it had time to develop. Behind them, the coroner came back into the office. He was carrying a small, metal tray which he sat on his desk directly in front of Ava and Pawlowski.
“As I said, it’s not much.” He returned to his seat and watched them both as they leaned in toward the tray. Ava could feel his eyes on them, the weight of his stare essentially tellingthem to make this as quick as possible so he could get back to work and not waste his time with a man that clearly jumped to his death on purpose.
Ava ignored his glare and looked at the meager collection of items taken from the body of Alfred Perkins. There were two keys, presumably taken from his pockets. She also saw the glass and four small fragments of metal from the car. There was also a small bit of cloth which was tucked into a plastic bag; the grime the coroner had indicated had come from Perkins’s tongue was on it. She didn’t think much of it because it really looked like nothing more than dust or dirt. And surely, falling from such a height had knocked up some dirt.
The final item, though, caught Ava’s attention. It was small and seemingly inconsequential at first glance—a piece of fabric, torn ragged at the edges. The piece of fabric was not large at all. She estimated it to be about four inches long by an inch and a half wide. It looked to be silk but as she leaned in closer, she saw that it was a cheap knock-off, a type of fabric that had been thinned out and manufactured tolooklike silk. It was blue in color, with a lazy gray stitching pattern in the shape of intertwined diamonds.
“This was on his body?” Ava asked, pointing to the piece of fabric.
“Yes. It was trapped between his middle and ring fingers. I believe he was likely clutching it as he fell, but it shifted in his fall and was lodged between his fingers.”
“Do you recall what he was wearing?”
“A suit. But the undershirt had been pretty much destroyed.”
“So nothing with this fabric, with this pattern?”
“No.”
“And…wait. You mean to tell me this wasin his handand wasn’t deemed important enough to be viewed as a piece of evidence?”
The coroner bristled a bit at her tone and she could see from the caution in his eyes that at least a small part of him knew that she was right to be upset. “Be realistic,” he said. “Given the state of things around the city and the unrest everywhere, this looks like a suicide from every possible angle you can view it. Surely you see that.”
She did. Shehad…for the entirety of this case; she knew what it looked like. But she’d felt like it was her job to find a new angle. And looking at that scrap of fabric, she was quite sure she had indeed found one.
“Seeing as how you’ve accepted this as a suicide,” Ava said, “I’m assuming you wouldn’t mind if I took this scrap of fabric.”