The Edge

She said, “This was a distant gunshot wound. The abrasion collar was typical, meaning there was no deformity of the bullet before entry into the body. A contact wound would look much different, with triangular-shaped tears in the skin and evidence of searing along with soot deposits. And there was no indication of soot, seared skin, or gunpowder tattooing on the body. You’ll usually get soot with close-range wounds of half a foot or less. Now, tattooing of the skin with powder grains is pathognomonic of intermediate-range gunshot wounds. It’s burned into the skin so it can’t be removed. That’s why I ruled out an intermediate-range gunshot. There was no bullet wipe on her clothing since the bullet did not pass through any of that.” She looked up at Devine. “That’s residue from the surface of the bullet itself that ends up on the clothing.”

“I understand she was immersed in salt water,” commented Devine. “Even if there was bullet wipe it probably would not have survived. Along with any soot.”

“But there wouldn’t have been soot with a distant gunshot wound, and water would not have impacted any tattooing.” Guillaume pointed to Silkwell’s forehead. ”There you can see what’s referred to as the ‘comet tail.’ It usually shows the direction of the bullet’s flight, from left to right. The minimal presence of the tail here demonstrates the entry was pretty much straight-on.” She turned Jenny’s head to the side to show the exit wound. “People assume the exit wound is always larger than the entry,” she said. “But it’s a fallacy to determine entry and exit wounds based on the sizes of the holes. And abrasion collars, soot, and tattooing are not associated with exit wounds. As you can see, her abrasion collar clearly shows the entry came in the front. The exit wound is gaping, which speaks to the transfer of energy through the frontal bone of the skull, then passing through the soft brain tissue, and exiting out the occipital bone. Skull fragments were propelled through the wound track, which also widened the exit wound. Her death would have been instantaneous,” she added in a less professorial tone. “She would have been dead before she knew it.”

Death would have been instantaneous. She would have been dead before she knew it.

Devine had heard those phrases many times, and though he knew the physiology behind it, he had never really believed it. He had come close to death several times, and each time, it was like the brain sped up as though not to miss a second of its imminent demise.

Even for a millisecond or less, I think you know that it’s over. That it’s the end of you.

He said, “I suppose the tox screens haven’t come back yet?”

“Good Lord, no. And they won’t for a while, along with the blood workup. I know how fast they do it on TV. Get a tox and DNA report back by the second commercial break. But the real world moves a lot slower. I guess we don’t have the budget Hollywood does.”

“What else can you tell me?”

“Her stomach was empty and the prelim blood work and examination of her tissue suggested nothing unusual in her system. But the tox screens will be far more definitive. All tox screens in Maine go to a private accredited lab in Pennsylvania for analysis, but I understand these are going to a federal lab for testing. So the turnaround might be faster.”

“We also had two MDIs over from the medical examiner’s office to help in the investigation,” volunteered Harper. “They’ve gone back to Augusta now.”

“MDI?” said Devine.

“Medicolegal Death Investigator,” replied Guillaume. “They’re part of the OCME. There are only three in the entire state, but this case was important enough to get two of them here.”

“But all in all we didn’t make much progress,” said Harper. He glanced at Devine, and his look was not friendly. “Guess that’s why they sent you in.”

“I think it’ll take more than one person to solve this,” said Devine diplomatically.

Harper said, “Hell, we have fewer than thirty homicides a year in the whole damn state. And now I got two of ’em in a short period of time.”

“Two?” said Devine.

“Hit-and-run,” interjected Fuss. “Not connected to this.”

“Did you autopsy that one, too?” asked Devine, looking at Guillaume.

“The deputy ME did the actual workup, but I assisted. It was a suspicious death, and Chief Harper immediately reported it to the OCME. There was no question a full autopsy would be done under the circumstances.”

“Don’t they autopsy all of them?” asked Devine.