Page 20 of Her Last Breath

Luckily for Jane, Dr Lydia had moved to the Lake District with her husband, becoming one of the few serving forensic pathologists that Lancashire Constabulary used. When DS Johnson had made such a fuss about windows of opportunity and Jane wasting resources, she was determined to pull whatever strings she could.

‘Tell me, Doctor.’

‘There was clear drowning impact on the lungs, massive water damage to the epidermis.’

Jane recalled from the post-mortem suite earlier: the bloated torso, the green algae-like patches, the gnawed bits of flesh.

‘Any indication when she might have gone into the water?’ Jane was hopeful.

‘The water has made this part of my job much more difficult. Sloughed skin, hair follicles loosened from the scalp. These signs indicate she had been alive in the water two to four weeks.’

‘We know Alice was last seen on door cam footage just after 2 p.m. on the eighteenth of August,’ Jane said, hoping it might give some context to the doctor that would be helpful.

Dr Lydia nodded thoughtfully before speaking again.

‘That would work with my findings, but I am only telling you this for your investigation, to give you parameters. I cannot confirm this officially.’

That was all the clarification Jane needed. The camera footage they had, the van, all made sense to her. Alice died on the same day she disappeared.

‘Anything that might point to someone else’s involvement? Were there any signs of strangulation, or a struggle?’

Dr Lydia shook her head.

‘No, I made sure I checked thoroughly. I know I am supposed to not have a biased hypothesis when carrying out my work, but for you, my lovely, I had that in the back of my mind. Did someone make this look like suicide?’

‘So there was nothing to suggest foul play?’

Dr Lydia smiled.

‘Not nothing.’

Leaning forward, Jane knotted her fingers to stop herself shaking from the tension she was feeling.

‘I found significant internal soft tissue damage to one of Ms Rogers’ ankles, on the right foot. The ligaments were stretched, the elastic fibres torn. Two of her small bones were displaced in the middle of the foot. I would say almost certainly done while she was alive.’

‘A sprain or twisted ankle?’

‘The ankle was twisted at an unnatural angle and then pulled. Not something you just do or that happens by accident.’

‘Could she have banged her ankle when she went into the water?’

‘Unlikely. I would expect bruising or tearing of the outer layers of skin in that scenario.’

‘How did it happen, then?’

Dr Lydia shrugged, an apologetic smile on her face. ‘That is your job, my lovely. I would venture that it was done to her, though. The damage, it would mean that your victim would have been limping for a good few hours – if not days – after it was done. And she would barely have been able to stand when the injury happened.’

The video footage of Alice from the door cam showed her walking perfectly normally, without any injury. Where did she injure herself in that case?

‘It doesn’t make sense,’ Jane said. ‘How could she fill her pockets with rocks, make her way to the river and then jump into the water, if she could barely walk? Any injuries to her knees to indicate she dragged herself on the ground? Did you find any defensive injuries?’

‘Neither. And this is odd. Why did she not fight back, if someone else was indeed involved?’

‘Because she wasn’t in a fit state to do so.’

‘Precisely.’ Dr Lydia paused for a moment before speaking again. ‘From what you told me about her life, from what the ankle injury is telling me, and most important because your instincts are usually right, I think you have enough to pursue this as murder.’

Jane smiled mechanically, forming a picture in her head of the last moments of Alice’s life. A crushing anxiety filled her chest as she thought of Alice’s lungs filling with water, suffocating her. Suddenly, she thought of Ed again, fighting for his own life. Was he terrified at the end? Did he try and save himself?