She moved closer to Morrison and Lynch, remaining fixated on the dead man’s eyes. What had they seen before death? She swallowed hard, working to maintain her composure. She imagined the killer in the room – what were his or her last movements? Had guilt, ecstasy or both run through their mind during the attack? Had they felt fear? How well had they known the victim? What role had Shevlin played in his own demise?
As she stared at the dead man, another image was forming in her mind, that of a crucifixion. The room, suddenly, felt clammy. She could smell the Luminol kit that the techies were using on the blood spatters, and in her mind, it was as if everything was overlapping, different images criss-crossing with endless possibilities.
It was the tying of the ankle that had first made her think of a crucifixion, but if it had been a crucifixion, the ankles would have been tied together; the left leg had been left free. The positioning of the arms was important too, both bent at the elbow joints, each hand under the body at the midpoint of the back.
‘Are the hands tied behind his back?’ she asked Morrison, keeping her voice even.
‘Yes. The same as the ankle, a double overhand knot.’
‘It’s certainly frenzied,’ she said, moving even closer, her eyes studying the wounds on the dead man’s torso.
‘We always seem to get the cut-and-slash ones, don’t we, Kate?’ Lynch smiled.
The smile didn’t impress her. At first, she had warmed to Mark Lynch, liking his efficiency and attention to detail, but during the last investigation she had noted a darker side to the young detective. It had slipped out while he was interviewing a vagrant, and once she had witnessed it, she had felt that something not so sweet teetered below the surface. She let his last remark go unanswered.
‘The body has been purposely positioned,’ she continued. ‘It’s more than the use of ropes. The killer has something to say.’
Ian Morrison leaned over to examine the victim’s fingernails, but Lynch’s interest was spiked by her last comment. ‘Which is what?’ he asked.
‘At first I thought of a crucifixion, but then …’ She paused, as if contemplating the value of her next point.
‘Go on.’
‘Look at the positioning. It’s very specific.’ She tilted her head to the side, again staring into the dead man’s face. ‘Mark, do you know anything about Tarot cards?’
‘I’m not into fortune-telling, if that’s what you mean.’
‘The body …’ once more, she hesitated ‘… is laid out like the Hangman card from a Tarot deck.’
‘Meaning?’
‘It’s one of the higher Arcana cards. I profiled a case in the UK a few years back. The killer believed the cards had powers. He thought they were guiding him. The Hangman,’ she continued, ‘depicts a man hanging upside-down by one foot, usually suspended from a wooden beam or a tree. The gallows he’s suspended from forms a tau cross, while the position of the legs,’ she pointed to the body, ‘forms a fylfot cross. You can see how one leg is bent under the other with the hands tied behind the back.’
‘So what does it tell us?’ A slight impatience had entered the detective’s voice.
Morrison looked up, his interest, too, aroused.
‘It’s associated with a god called Odin from Norse mythology,’ she replied. ‘Odin hung from a world-tree, an Yggdrasil, for nine days. He wanted to obtain wisdom and retrieve the runes, or words, from the Well of Wyrd.’
‘The Well of what?’ Lynch raised his eyebrows.
‘Wyrd,’ she repeated. ‘It was regarded as the source of mystery and knowledge. The moment Odin glimpsed the runes, he died, but the knowledge was so strong that he immediately regained life.’
‘I don’t think there’s much chance of that happening here,’ interjected Morrison, in his deadpan style.
‘No, I agree,’ Kate said, matter-of-fact. ‘What are your observations, Ian?’
‘Our guy was tied up after death. Although the ropes are secured tightly, the blood vessels haven’t reacted as I would have expected them to if they had been active.’
‘Go on.’ Lynch looked down at the body as if it had taken on a whole new meaning.
‘Blood vessels leak, imparting a blue-black colour to the tissues. There’s no sign of that here.’ Morrison pointed to the area around the ankle, before moving further down the body. ‘There are whip marks on the buttocks, but judging by the skin, they were probably made prior to death.’
‘If the ropes were applied after death, Ian,’ Kate stood back from the bed, ‘then the scene was stage-managed by the killer.’
‘That’s not my area of expertise. I’ll know more later on, but for now, all three of us can see the obvious. His throat has been cut. If it turns out to be the cause of death, the most likely scenario is exsanguination, with the external jugular vein and carotid artery severed.’
‘And the other possibilities?’ Lynch asked, pushing the pathologist while he still had him in his sights.
‘It’s possible he choked to death on his blood or an embolism occurred, air entering the jugular vein.’
‘Was the same knife used throughout?’ Kate, like Lynch, was keen to get as many answers as possible.