a dentist in several years preceding death. I hardly listened. I was anxious to get to the bones.
Finaly, Grimes finished, and he and Emma left to begin filing out an NCIC case form. One by one, I examined the ful-body films. Skul. Upper limbs. Lower limbs. Pelvis.
Zip. That didn't surprise me. I'd noticed nothing obvious while handling the bones.
I moved on to the torso.
Since no flesh remained to hold the ribs in place, the technician had spread them flat and shot from above. I saw nothing suspicious in the right arcade. I was finishing with the left when I spotted a dark crescent near the vertebral end of the twelfth rib.
Moving to the gurney, I selected that rib and took it to a scope. Under magnification the imperfection appeared as a tiny gash bordered by a curl of bone on the rib's lower edge. Though smal, the defect was real.
Had the gash been caused by a knife blade? Had our unknown been stabbed? Or was the nick a postmortem artifact? From a trowel? A snail or crustacean? No matter how much I angled and reangled the rib, no matter how high I kicked the magnification or adjusted the fiber optic light, I just couldn't tel.
Returning to the X-rays, I inspected the breast- and colarbones, the shoulder blades, then the rest of the ribs. Nothing looked amiss.
I moved on to the spine. The vertebrae had been filmed separated and placed flat, like the ribs, then articulated and lying on their sides.
In a stabbing, it's often the posterior arch or the back of the vertebral body that takes the hit. I moved through the vertebral films. None gave a clear view of these surfaces.
Returning to the skeleton, I began a bone-by-bone inspection, rotating and scrutinizing every element under a magnifying lens surrounded by a fluorescent bulb.
I found nothing until I started on the spine.
Every one's a specialist. Even the vertebrae. The seven cervicals support the head and alow for neck mobility. The twelve thoracics anchor the rib cage. The five lumbars throw in a lower-back curve. The five sacrals form the tail side of the pelvic girdle. Different jobs. Different shapes.
It was the sixth cervical that got my attention.
But I oversimplify. The neck vertebrae have tasks other than head support. One of their jobs is to provide safe passage for arteries traveling to the back of the brain. The transit route involves a smal hole, or foramen, in the transverse process, a tiny bone platform between the body of the vertebra and its arch. CCC-2006020277 had a vertical hinge fracture snaking across the left transverse process, on the body side of the hole.
I brought the bone closer to the lens. And found a hairline fracture on the arch side of the hole.
No signs of healing. Hinging. No question here. Both fractures had involved trauma to fresh bone. The injury had occurred around the time of death.
I sat back, considering.
C-6. Lower neck.
Fal? Fals cause sudden excessive impaction. Such impaction can lead to vertebral fracture. But fractures due to fals are generaly compressive in nature, and usualy involve the vertebral body. This was a hinge fracture. Of the transverse process.
Strangulation? Strangulation most often affects the hyoid, a smal bone in the front of the throat.
Whiplash? Not likely.
Blow to the chin? Head?
I could think of no scenario that fit the pattern I was seeing.
Frustrated, I moved on.
And found more.
The twelfth thoracic vertebra sported a pair of nicks similar to the one I'd spotted on the twelfth rib. The first and third lumbar vertebrae had a single nick each.
Like the neck fracture, the pattern of the nicks was confusing. Al were located on the bely side.
Knife marks? To penetrate to the front of a lumbar vertebra you'd have to thrust hard enough to pass through the entire abdomen. That's a mighty big thrust.
And these were very smal nicks. Made with a very sharp tool.
What the hel had gone on?
I was stil speculating when Emma returned.
"Grimes gone?" I asked.
Emma nodded. What color
Finaly, Grimes finished, and he and Emma left to begin filing out an NCIC case form. One by one, I examined the ful-body films. Skul. Upper limbs. Lower limbs. Pelvis.
Zip. That didn't surprise me. I'd noticed nothing obvious while handling the bones.
I moved on to the torso.
Since no flesh remained to hold the ribs in place, the technician had spread them flat and shot from above. I saw nothing suspicious in the right arcade. I was finishing with the left when I spotted a dark crescent near the vertebral end of the twelfth rib.
Moving to the gurney, I selected that rib and took it to a scope. Under magnification the imperfection appeared as a tiny gash bordered by a curl of bone on the rib's lower edge. Though smal, the defect was real.
Had the gash been caused by a knife blade? Had our unknown been stabbed? Or was the nick a postmortem artifact? From a trowel? A snail or crustacean? No matter how much I angled and reangled the rib, no matter how high I kicked the magnification or adjusted the fiber optic light, I just couldn't tel.
Returning to the X-rays, I inspected the breast- and colarbones, the shoulder blades, then the rest of the ribs. Nothing looked amiss.
I moved on to the spine. The vertebrae had been filmed separated and placed flat, like the ribs, then articulated and lying on their sides.
In a stabbing, it's often the posterior arch or the back of the vertebral body that takes the hit. I moved through the vertebral films. None gave a clear view of these surfaces.
Returning to the skeleton, I began a bone-by-bone inspection, rotating and scrutinizing every element under a magnifying lens surrounded by a fluorescent bulb.
I found nothing until I started on the spine.
Every one's a specialist. Even the vertebrae. The seven cervicals support the head and alow for neck mobility. The twelve thoracics anchor the rib cage. The five lumbars throw in a lower-back curve. The five sacrals form the tail side of the pelvic girdle. Different jobs. Different shapes.
It was the sixth cervical that got my attention.
But I oversimplify. The neck vertebrae have tasks other than head support. One of their jobs is to provide safe passage for arteries traveling to the back of the brain. The transit route involves a smal hole, or foramen, in the transverse process, a tiny bone platform between the body of the vertebra and its arch. CCC-2006020277 had a vertical hinge fracture snaking across the left transverse process, on the body side of the hole.
I brought the bone closer to the lens. And found a hairline fracture on the arch side of the hole.
No signs of healing. Hinging. No question here. Both fractures had involved trauma to fresh bone. The injury had occurred around the time of death.
I sat back, considering.
C-6. Lower neck.
Fal? Fals cause sudden excessive impaction. Such impaction can lead to vertebral fracture. But fractures due to fals are generaly compressive in nature, and usualy involve the vertebral body. This was a hinge fracture. Of the transverse process.
Strangulation? Strangulation most often affects the hyoid, a smal bone in the front of the throat.
Whiplash? Not likely.
Blow to the chin? Head?
I could think of no scenario that fit the pattern I was seeing.
Frustrated, I moved on.
And found more.
The twelfth thoracic vertebra sported a pair of nicks similar to the one I'd spotted on the twelfth rib. The first and third lumbar vertebrae had a single nick each.
Like the neck fracture, the pattern of the nicks was confusing. Al were located on the bely side.
Knife marks? To penetrate to the front of a lumbar vertebra you'd have to thrust hard enough to pass through the entire abdomen. That's a mighty big thrust.
And these were very smal nicks. Made with a very sharp tool.
What the hel had gone on?
I was stil speculating when Emma returned.
"Grimes gone?" I asked.
Emma nodded. What color
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