Tony Hill u Carol Jordan 08 - Cross and Burn

said, bringing it up on her screen.
    ‘What’s Grisha got to say?’
    ‘He’s finished the post-mortem. I need to call him.’ She plugged her phone into the car jack so she could make the call on speaker and keyed in the number.
    ‘Shatalov speaking,’ came from the tinny speakers.
    ‘DCI Fielding. I got your message. What have you got for me?’
    ‘I completed the post-mortem on Nadzieja Wilkowa. Cause of death was internal bleeding from multiple blunt trauma injuries.’
    ‘Not the head injury?’
    ‘The blow to the head was probably sustained first, given the bleeding around the site, but it’s doubtful whether that would have been enough to kill her on its own. I’d say she was beaten with a tapering cylindrical object such as a baseball bat. And she was kicked repeatedly. So much so that the skin was torn and bleeding. That’s not all. There was a considerable amount of old bruising at various sites all over her body, consistent with regular assaults over a period of up to two weeks.’
    ‘Not longer than that?’
    ‘Bruises generally fade completely after two weeks. So any predating that will have disappeared.’
    There wasn’t much to say to that, Paula thought. But Fielding found something. ‘On the scale of beatings you’ve seen, where would this figure? Top five? Top ten?’
    A moment’s silence then, his voice flat, Grisha said, ‘I have only ever seen one body more severely beaten than this. And that was the victim of a biker-gang punishment beating.’
    ‘Thank you. What about sexual assault? I mean, before the superglue, obviously.’
    ‘I treated the superglue with solvent so I could examine the genital area. I would say she had recently had violent sexual intercourse, vaginally and anally. There are internal tears that would suggest a pretty brutal rape scenario. Again, there’s old bruising in the genital area, and some internal tearing that is partially healed.’ He let out a heavy sigh. In all the years she’d known him Paula had never known Grisha to be blasé. Being confronted with the terrible things humans did to each other still caused him distress. ‘No semen. Either he used condoms or a foreign object.’
    ‘A foreign object?’ Fielding’s question was clinical.
    ‘A dildo. Maybe even the baseball bat he used on her head. It’s impossible to say.’
    ‘Then theoretically it could be a woman?’
    Grisha gave a hollow laugh. ‘Theoretically it could be a woman, yes. She’d have to be pretty strong, to move your victim around. But yes, it could be a woman.’ Silence, while they all thought about that one. ‘One other thing,’ Grisha said. ‘It was hard to pick up at first because of the bruising and the damage to the skin. But I found three instances of two puncture wounds close together. One on her right shoulder, one on her left thigh and one on her stomach, by the navel. The one on her shoulder was almost totally healed. All that’s left are the purple-pink marks of scar tissue.’
    ‘Knife wounds?’
    ‘No. Much smaller and shallower. There are some tears to the skin in four of the cases. I can’t be sure but I think they might be damage inflicted by taser probes.’
    ‘You think he’s tasered her?’ Fielding sounded intrigued.
    ‘I can’t be certain, I don’t have much experience in this area. I’ll need to do some research. But yes, that would be my cautious opinion at this point.’
    ‘That would explain how he acquired her without any report of a struggle somewhere public…’ Fielding’s voice tailed off as she thought through what she’d just heard.
    Paula took her chance. ‘Hi, Grisha. It’s Paula here.’
    ‘Hi, Sergeant Paula. How’re you enjoying your promotion?’
    ‘I can’t remember when I last had this much fun without laughing. Grisha, what have we got on time of death?’ Fielding gave her a dirty look, as if she’d been caught speaking out of turn.
    ‘I’d say between nine in the evening and four in the morning. Can’t do better than that, sorry. Stomach contents are no help because there are none. The small intestine’s also empty, so it looks like it was at least twelve hours between her last meal and the time of death.’
    ‘No question that he kept her before he killed her, then?’
    ‘Looks that way. And that he beat her regularly while he had her.’
    ‘That fits with our thinking,’ Fielding snapped. ‘Thank you, Doctor. I appreciate your help. When will we have your full report?’
    ‘My