Nic said, “How long would it have taken for her to die?”
“Not long. She would have tried to scream, even just tried to breathe, but since no air could pass through, it wouldn’t be possible. Every time she tried to breathe, her lungs would have collapsed. She might have been able to fight back for a minute or two, but as the oxygen content of the blood dropped, she would have become more frantic and confused. In twenty to thirty seconds—two minutes on the outside—she would become so weak that she collapsed. Death would come pretty quickly afterward.”
That didn’t sound quick at all to Nic. “Could Katie have survived if she had been brought to a hospital right away?”
“She wouldn’t have made it to a hospital. If someone had performed a tracheotomy on her right there in the park, maybe she could have made it. But that’s very much a maybe.”
“Okay,” Nic said. “She died from a blow to the throat. Then that means there’s only one reason she has a leash around her neck.”
“Right,” Tony said. “Someone wanted this to look like a suicide. But Katie Converse was definitely murdered.”
MYSPACE.COM/THEDCPAGE
Trouble
November 24
I think I have a problem. If I’m right, it’s a big, big problem. All I want to do is sleep & not deal with it.
I can’t deal with it.
I mean, what would I do?
GOOD SAMARITAN MEDICAL CENTER
January 5
What kind of shape is the girl in?” Allison asked Dr. Sally Murdoch. They were in her cramped office, tucked into a corner of Good Samaritan Medical Center.
Dr. Murdoch’s dishwater blonde hair had once been caught back in a bun. Most of it had escaped to curl in tendrils that framed her gray-blue eyes.
“I’d have to say excellent. No evidence of sexual molestation, no scars, no bruises, healthy weight, very fit.” As Dr. Murdoch spoke, she tucked pieces of hair behind her ears. “The girl’s even fairly clean, especially when you consider she says they bathe in water from a creek. A creek! That can’t be any fun this time of year. Heck, even her teeth are in great shape. She’s never had a cavity. Starshine says she’s ten, and I see no reason to doubt it.” The doctor flashed Allison a tired smile. “Honestly, the kid’s in better shape than a lot of the ones I see in my private practice.”
“Did she say anything to you about the dead girl? We found her body not far from where Starshine was living.”
“No. And I didn’t ask. I figure that’s your purview. I did talk to her about her father.” Dr. Murdoch’s hands stilled. “The two are obviously each other’s whole world.” She held Allison’s gaze. “If you separate them, it would break this girl’s heart, her spirit.”
Allison sighed. “I wish I could promise you that we could keep them together, but that’s going to depend on what the father tells us. And whether we think he’s telling the truth. Right now, he’s definitely a suspect.” She looked at her watch. “This is really bad timing, but I have a doctor’s appointment myself in twenty minutes. Could you ask Children’s Services to bring Starshine over to my office in two hours?”
“Sure.” Dr. Murdoch looked at Allison more closely. “Is everything okay?”
The two women had known each other for years. “Better than okay,” Allison said, and left it at that.
Allison lay back on the crinkly white paper that covered the exam table. Marshall, who was standing at the head of the table, smiled at her and squeezed her hand. It was still hard for Allison to believe this was happening after all these years. The one good thing about the Katie Converse case was that it kept her from obsessively ruminating about the baby. At least some of the time.
Dr. Dubruski said, “Now if we don’t hear anything today, don’t worry.” She was a tall, thin woman with close-cropped blonde hair. “This is about as early as we can expect to hear fetal heart tones.”
She squirted jelly on Allison’s belly, then picked up the black Doppler wand. Pressing lightly, Dr. Dubruski began to run it back and forth in the area just under Allison’s navel.
There was silence for a few seconds, long enough for Allison to begin to get anxious.
Then they could all hear the sounds magnified through the microphone. Clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp, so fast the thumps were barely separated. Every few seconds there was a burst of static.
A delighted laugh spurted from Allison’s lips. Marshall was squeezing her hand so hard that it hurt, but her mind was on what she was hearing.
The doctor looked down at the readout. “One hundred fifty-eight beats per minute.”
“That’s so fast!” Marshall said, sounding a little panicked.
Dr. Dubruski smiled. “Right in the middle of the normal range.”
“What’s that staticky sound?” Allison asked. She realized she was grinning.
“Fetal movement.”