The Taking of Eleanor Ainsworth

Chapter 12

Even in death she was beautiful. Her straight blonde hair laid sprawled out along her naked shoulders and covered her protruding collar bones. Her skin was a deathly white, and contrasted perfectly against the silver slab of metal she was laying on.

She looked as if she was sleeping, but Matthew new better, this girl was dead.
Her blue lips were parted but no air passed through and her eyes were open, but she did not blink. Instinctively Matthew reached out to touch her face, but was pulled back by Detective Mitchell.

"You can't touch her Matthew." Mitchell whispered, his hand on Matthew's shoulder. He briefly cast his eyes away from the dead girl to Mitchell's hand and shrugged it off. If there was one thing he hated, it was unnecessary touching and Mitchell's hand on him made him uncomfortable.

The examiner cleared his throat, and the two men turned their attention back to the girl.

"As you can see here," the examiner said, pointing to the black stitches lining her throat, "the victims throat was slit, but what amazes me, is the level of care this person took to slice her neck open."

He then proceeded to cut the stitches open, snipping away at the black thread one by one. Matthew watched as the two pieces of skin being held together by the thread sprung apart. He suddenly felt queasy and had to lean on the wall for support.

"Are you sure you're okay ?" Mitchell asked. He knew he was breaking the rules by bringing Matthew in here, but the boy was persistent, so Mitchell gave in.

Matthew swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded. "Yeah, i'm good."

He looked back down at the gaping hole and back up to the examiner who was pulling the skin further apart. "

"This person clearly knew what he was doing." The examiner said, sighing and putting down his scalpel.

"How so ?" Mitchell asked, stepping further into the room and looking down at the dead girl.

"Well, if you look here, he severed her jugular vein rather than the carotid artery. If this person was intent on killing then he would have cut the carotid artery." The examiner let go of the skin and leaned on the slab of metal.

"So, you're saying this person did not want the girl to die straight away, they had another agenda ?" Mitchell asked, sneaking a glance over at Matthew who had gone pale and was looking rather ill.

"Precisely, a severed carotid would have rendered the girl unconscious within three minutes or less, with death following shortly afterwards." He picked up a small flashlight and shone it inside the girls neck.

"This person went for the jugular veins, meaning exsanguination took longer and she was alive for at least six to eight minutes, whilst he done whatever it is that he done." The examiner cleared his throat again, "judging by the wound on her chest, she was also stabbed."

"Exsanguination ?" Mitchell asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"Yes, exsanguination. It means she lost or was drained of bloo-"

"You said him." Matthew piped up, his gaze fixed on the examiner.

"Excuse me ?"

"You said she was attacked by a man, why would you think this was done by a man ?" He said, watching as the examiner tugged at his collar and cleared his throat.

"Well, this girl was held down and the injuries she suffered could only have been inflicted by a man. The sheer force of some of the injuries is astonishing."

He pulled the white sheet up and showed the men, the scarring on the girls torso.

"She was cut open at some stage and stitched back up. If you look here, she was clearly hit with an instrument of some sort, i'm guessing by a baseball bat." The examiner pulled the sheet back over the girl and pushed the metal slab back into the hole in the wall. He sighed and took off his gloves, following the two men out of the room.