Angels Fall

she heard Denny ask as she walked away. The door was open, and Mardson was already coming around the desk to meet her. "Thanks for coming in."
    "They found someone. A woman. A body."
    "Sit down now." He took her arm, gently, led her to a chair. "Kids came across her. She matches your description. I got some pictures. I'm going to tell you they're not easy pictures, but if you can look at them, tell me if you think she's the woman you saw, that would be a big help."
    "Was she strangled?"
    "There's some indication she might've been throttled some. You think you can look at the pictures?"
    "I can look at them." She gripped her hands together in her lap to anchor herself, while he took a file off his desk.
    ""Take your time now."
    He sat in the other visitor's chair, then held out a photo. She didn't take it; she couldn't unknot her fingers. But she looked.
    Then looked away as her breath wheezed out. "She's— Oh God."
    "I know it's hard. She was in the marsh for a time. Maybe a day or two. Coroner's got to determine time of death and so on."
    "A day or two? But it's been weeks."
    "If she walked away with him that day, was hurt but not dead, this could've happened later." When she started to shake her head. Rick held up a hand. "Can you say, without a shadow of a doubt, she couldn't have still been alive?"
    She wanted to say she could, absolutely. But how could she?
    "There isn't much of a shadow in my mind."
    "That's enough for now. Is this the woman you saw, Reece?" She gripped her own fingers until they hurt, then used the pain to brace herself to look again. The face was so bruised, so swollen, with bloodless cuts all over it, down the throat, which was raw and red. Whatever lived in the marsh had sampled her as well. She'd heard once that fish and birds often go for the eyes first. Now she knew it was true.
    Her hair was dark, long. Her shoulders seemed slight.
    Reece tried to superimpose her memory of the woman she'd seen over the ruined face of this one. 
    "I don't… She seems younger, and her hair… her hair seems shorter. I don't know."
    "You were a good distance away that day. I know."
    "He didn't beat her. Her face—this face—someone beat her. He only pushed her down before… He didn't beat her face like this."
    Rick said nothing for a moment, then when Reece looked away again, he turned the photo facedown.
    "It could be she wasn't dead when you ran for help. That he dragged her off, covered his trail. Might be she came around, and they patched up for a while. Traveling around the area, maybe. Had another fight a couple weeks later, and that's when the rest of it happened. A man puts his hands around a woman's throat once, he could do it again."
    "The rest."
    "We've got to wait for the autopsy and other evidence to be processed. I'm saying that the odds are pretty good this is the woman you saw But it you could take another look, clearing your mind out first it would help. She didn't have any identification with her. They've run her prints, but there's no record of them. They'll use dental, and they're running Missing Persons. But knowing it she was where you saw those two people, knowing it she was with the man you saw, that might help some, too." Reece kept her eves on his, level, steady. "You didn't believe me before. You didn't believe I saw what I said I did, or that anyone was even there."
    "I had my doubts. I won't lie to you. That doesn't mean I didn't look into it, or that I'm not still doing just that."
    "All right." And this time she held out her hand for the photograph. The shock had waned, so now there was pity as she studied the face. "I don't know. I'm sorry. I wish I could say this is the woman I saw, but I can't. I think she was older than this, and that her hair was longer, her face narrower, but I'm not sure. It they, when they identify her, if I could see a picture of her before this was done to her, I think I could say yes or no with a lot more certainty."
    "Okay." He took the photo, then laid a hand over hers and squeezed. Hers felt as it she'd stuck it into a freezer. "I know this was hard for you. You want some water?"
    "No. Thanks."
    "Once they get her identified, we'll have you look. I appreciate you coming down this way. I'm going to have Denny drive you back home."
    "I think he had to go on a call."
    "I'll take you back myself."
    "I can walk." But when she got to her feet, her legs wobbled. "Or maybe not."
    "I'll take you on back. You want to sit a few more minutes first? "