Lloyd took a sip of his coffee and put his notebook and pen on the desk. ‘I take it you’re dealing with the body in the coffin?’ She nodded. ‘Right, give me a rundown on what’s happened so far.’
Jane brought Lloyd up to speed with details of the case. As he closed his notebook, Boon walked into the room eating a sandwich and carrying a brown paper bag.
‘Where have you been?’ Jane asked him.
‘Sorry, sarge, I got delayed giving a nurse some advice regarding home security.’
‘More like chatting her up, knowing you, Boony,’ Lloyd said as he turned round.
‘Bloody hell, Teflon, how you doing, mate?’
‘Not bad my friend... and you?’
‘Good, thanks. I’m working a really interesting case with DS Tennison. It looks like it could be a murder.’
‘I know, she just told me all about it.’
‘DS Johnson is assisting us as the lab sergeant,’ Jane told him. ‘So how do you two know each other?’
Boon spoke with a mouthful of sandwich. ‘Teflon was helping coach the Met football team until he got himself shot. Then his wound got infected, and he ended up with sepsis, which damaged his liver and kidneys...’
Seeing that Jane was shocked by this new information, Lloyd raised his hand. ‘I’m sure Sergeant Tennison doesn’t want to hear all the gory details, Boony.’
‘We all thought you was a goner at the time, mate,’ Boon continued, ignoring the hint. ‘I even heard they called a priest in to give you the last rites.’
‘That’s rubbish. I’m fine now and hope to be back coaching again soon.’
The mortuary technician put his head round the door. ‘The radiographer just finished developing the X-rays and Dr Pullen is ready to start the post-mortem.’
As they left the room, DS Johnson sidled up to Boon and tapped his arm. ‘I’d prefer to be called Lloyd now, Boony. Teflon was a Flying Squad nickname, which doesn’t really go with my new role as a lab sergeant.’
‘No problem.’ Boon nodded. ‘Personally, I always thought Teflon sounded a bit racist.’
As they entered the mortuary room Pullen was examining an X-ray on an illuminated viewer.
‘Found anything interesting, doc?’ Boon asked as they gathered round the viewer.
‘This is a close-up X-ray of our victim’s upper throat region,’ Pullen explained. ‘If I get too technical, or you don’t understand anything, let me know.’ Using a mortuary scalpel, Pullen pointed to a small bone at the top of the throat on the X-ray. ‘This little horseshoe-shaped bone here is called the hyoid bone. It helps support our tongue movement and swallowing. The dark line just here is a small fracture of the hyoid, which indicates trauma to the neck. Although a fracture like this can occur in road traffic accidents or as the result of a contact sports injury, it is most commonly associated with strangulation.’
‘A manual strangulation?’ Jane asked.
‘Or a ligature may have been used.’
‘There may be some fibres deposited on her neck and headdress from a ligature. I’ll take some tapings. We might find something to help identify the type of ligature used,’ Lloyd said.
Boon looked confused. ‘If she was strangled to death and put in the coffin, then how did the scratch marks get on the inside of the lid?’
‘Good question, DC Boon. However, you don’t have to be strangled to death for the hyoid bone to fracture,’ Pullen said.
‘So, she could have been strangled to a point of unconsciousness, put in the coffin, then regained consciousness,’ Jane suggested.
‘And in a state of sheer panic scratched the lid before suffocating to death,’ Boon added.
‘That’s what I thought at first... until I saw this.’ Pullen replaced the X-ray with another one and again used the scalpel blade as a pointer. ‘This is the top section of the spine, which is made up of small bones known as the vertebrae, which protect the spinal cord and nerve roots that run through them. We refer to the top vertebra, where it joins the skull, as C1, the next C2, then C3 and so on. Can you see the tiny shaded triangular shape in between the C3 and C4 vertebrae?’
‘Is her spine broken?’ Lloyd asked.
‘Severed possibly, but I can’t be certain until I dissect the neck and examine the spine,’ Pullen said. She then held the scalpel blade just below the triangular shape on the X- ray and the similarity to the tip of the blade was obvious.
‘She was stabbed with a scalpel!’ Boon exclaimed.
‘The X-ray images are smaller than the real thing, but yes, she may have been stabbed. The object in between the vertebrae could be the broken tip of a knife blade.’
‘If her spinal cord was severed would it have caused paralysis?’ Jane asked.
Pullen nodded. ‘Yes. A cervical vertebrae injury in the C1 to C5 section is the most severe. In the worst cases all communication between the brain and bod, below the injury, would instantly be cut off, including the ability to breathe properly, which would lead to a terrifying death.’
Jane looked shocked at the thought. ‘Her assailant must have strangled her, then put the body in the coffin thinking she was dead and secured the clasps... which would explain the scratch marks.’
Pullen agreed. ‘If she was originally put in the coffin on her back then a rear entry wound that high up on the spine would suggest she sat up or was let out before being stabbed. It’s also possible the killer heard her cries for help and opened the coffin to stab her.’
Boon let out a long sigh. ‘That poor woman. What kind of person could do that to a nun?’
‘Murderers come in all shapes and sizes, Boony,’ Lloyd said as he took some photographs of the body in the coffin.
Boon looked at Jane. ‘Do you think another nun or a priest might have done it?’
‘Right now, who knows. Father Floridia said the Sisters of Mercy lived and worked at the convent from the mid-1800s until the 1960s. Let’s say 1850 to 1969, which gives us a possible time span of...’ Jane paused to work it out.
‘A hundred and nineteen years,’ Boon said instantly, looking pleased with himself.
‘Whoever killed her could be long dead by now,’ Lloyd remarked, as he placed some sticky-backed ruler paper on the coffin lid to photograph the scratch marks.
‘Finding out who she is and when she was born should help narrow the time frame down,’ Jane suggested.
‘That’s not going to be easy if she’s been dead for a hundred years,’ Lloyd said.
Pullen picked up her mortuary gown and latex gloves. ‘Right, I think it’s about time we got the body out of the coffin and onto the examination table. I’m going to need everyone to help move her. We’ll have to be gentle as I don’t want any bits of her crumbling or coming away in our hands.’
The mortuary technician picked up a roll of green disposable post-mortem aprons, tore some off and handed one to Boon, then pointed. ‘There’s some plastic arm sleeve covers in the box over there.’
Jane noticed Boon grimace. ‘If you want to get involved in murder investigations, then you need to learn to cope with the unpleasant side of things.’
‘Yes, sarge,’ he replied glumly, putting on the plastic gown.
When everyone was appropriately dressed and ready to go, they gathered around the coffin which was on an adjustable table. Pullen lowered it to a suitable height and the mortuary technician put the portable examination table in front of it.