‘Her wrists must have been secured somehow to stop her from clawing at the bag.’
‘She got you there, Mitch,’ Keats said, stifling a smile.
She turned to the pathologist. ‘Did I pass?’
‘You did indeed. You identified all of my reasons for being suspicious.’
‘All of them?’
He nodded.
‘Then you missed one,’ she said as Bryant chuckled behind her.
He frowned.
‘The tape used,’ she explained. ‘If you make the decision to end your life this way, you’re going to make sure that the tape will withstand your efforts to rip it off. Masking tape is pretty east to tear. Duct tape would be a different story completely.’
Mitch chuckled. ‘Sorry, Keats, but it looks like she got you too.’
Kim headed outside and began to remove her shoe coverings. Bryant followed suit.
‘You want to harass me about two post-mortems now?’ Keats asked from behind.
‘That’ll be Burns’s call. Send everything along to him. I don’t think you’ll struggle to get his attention now.’
She could see the surprise on the pathologist’s face.
‘Yes, you did all the right things to pique my interest but you should know I’m not going to be manipulated into anything. I’ll let you know when I’m back.’
She turned and headed towards Bryant’s car.
‘You really not going to take the case?’ he asked, pulling off the car park.
‘Yeah, I’m really not,’ she said without further explanation.
Silence filled the car but she could feel the weight of his disappointment.
Go slowly, Woody had said.Take your time. Jump in when you’re comfortable. Let Burns take the strain. And it was what she intended to do. The observations that had been made would help him kick-start the investigation. For her it was too soon.
‘Thanks for the lift,’ she said as Bryant pulled up outside her house.
‘No problem,’ he said, staring forward.
She got out of the car and waited for him to pull away.
The passenger window started to lower.
She leaned down. ‘What?’
‘I just want to say one thing. When you’re ready to return to your team, you need to hope that it’s still the team you left.’
The window slid back up and her colleague pulled away from the kerb.
She frowned. What the hell had he meant by that?
SIXTEEN
It was 7.05a.m. when Kim entered the squad room. Her team was assembled and Burns stood at the head of the room.