Dead Guilty

are part-time employees of the city. Some times the mayor and the chief of police forget that it’s only on paper.’’
‘‘Bureaucracies are certainly wonderful,’’ said Lynn. ‘‘I think I’ve found something on the ankle here— some kind of tattoo.’’
Diane walked over and took a look at the blackened skin with a barely visible darker design.
‘‘I see it,’’ said Raymond. ‘‘Can’t tell what it is. Want me to get the lamp?’’
‘‘I think we have enough slippage so we don’t have to burn off the skin. Get me a damp piece of gauze.’’
Raymond fetched the gauze and gave it to Lynn. Diane watched her gently rub the skin, removing a film of epidermis, revealing what looked like a yellow, blue and red butterfly.
‘‘Nice,’’ said Raymond.
‘‘Let’s go ahead and get a picture of this—use the large-format camera,’’ said Lynn.
Raymond retrieved his Horseman VH Metal Field Camera from a closet.
‘‘I want a close-up, and another that shows the en tire ankle.’’
Lynn and Diane watched Raymond remove the bulky camera from the overhead mount and place it on a tri pod. He put a metal ruler just under the tattoo, framed the shot and snapped the first picture. He moved in for a close-up. ‘‘Okay, you want some digital too?’’
Lynn nodded. ‘‘Just to play it safe.’’
‘‘Dr. Webber never expects pictures to come out.’’
‘‘It’s because I’m such a poor photographer,’’ she said.
Diane retrieved more blue cord and a strip of plastic from her case while Raymond snapped photographs of the butterfly tattoo, duplicated all his shots with a digital backup, and filled out the photo log.
‘‘Diane, I assume you want any internal insects when I go inside.’’
‘‘Yes. If you think she may have been sexually as saulted, any larvae around the vagina might be useful.’’
‘‘How’s that?’’ asked Raymond.
‘‘A rapist’s DNA can show up in the maggots who have ingested it.’’
Raymond laughed out loud, a deep-throated laugh as if that was a joke played on the perp.
‘‘Diane, why don’t you go ahead and remove the rope. I really need to get her arms untied so I can go inside.’’
‘‘Can Raymond make photographs of the process?’’ ‘‘Sure.’’
‘‘There’s two ropes around the neck,’’ Diane ex plained as Raymond set up her shots. ‘‘The noose and another loop of rope that leads down to the hands. If she moved around too much trying to free her hands, she’d only choke herself.’’
‘‘Umpf,’’ the diener grunted. ‘‘You want all the knots, right?’’
‘‘Yes, and I need you to show how the ropes around the hands and the neck are connected. You may have to angle the camera to see down through these loops on the hands to get a good view. It looks like the perp used multiple knots. Have you had much experience photographing knots?’’
‘‘None,’’ said Raymond. ‘‘No, that’s not right. There was that suicide that came in last winter. We don’t usually see the rope.’’
‘‘I need you to photograph me removing the rope. I need to have a record showing that the knots did not change as a result of my intervention.’’
‘‘How ’bout I use the thirty-five millimeter for that.’’
‘‘That’s fine.’’
Diane began with the noose. First, tying the plastic around the knot to stabilize it. After securing the knot, she pulled the rope away from the skin, bringing bits of flesh with it. She slipped one end of the cord under the rope and tied it off. Three inches away she tied the other end of the cord around a section of rope. Each end of the cord had a tag that Diane labeled, indicating how the rope was oriented to the victim. As she worked, she heard Raymond snapping the camera over and over.
She cut the noose with a sharp scalpel. She slipped the noose off over the head. She placed the rope in a flat box and stuffed more plastic inside to hold it still and labeled it. She repeated the step with the second loop around the neck.
‘‘You have to do that procedure with each loop of the rope, don’t you?’’ said Lynn.
‘‘I have to keep the rope as intact as I can. For tight rope arrangements like these on the hands, I made a plastic-covered, log-shaped form to slip
    to keep them from becoming through the loops
    tangled.’’
‘‘I didn’t realize
Raymond.
ropes were so involved,’’ said
    ‘‘There’s a lot you can learn about the perp from them. This one is going to be more