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Finally, she continued. ‘There was something added to make her burn. You can see where it dripped, and on her clothes, the fire has scorched places, and left it somewhat close to whole. I wonder what it was. And here.’ She pointed to pile of charred black bone where Ebony’s nose would have been.
Daniel tried, but he could not see anything recognisable. He looked up at Miriam, confused.
‘This lump.’ Miriam picked up black, charred pieces with her forceps. ‘That’s fabric, burned badly. Used to feed the fire, I imagine. I found a small piece of oiled silk near her bosom. Caught in the folds of her dress.’
‘What . . .?’ Daniel began.
‘Oiled silk is highly flammable,’ she said grimly. ‘It’s great stuff. Waterproof, light, bends or sews evenly. But it burns like a beacon fire. Pour a little more oil on cotton, or something light, and you have a fire that would burn flesh.’
Daniel swallowed. ‘What sort of oil?’
‘Fat, lard, even butter, I suppose. Didn’t you say the son painted?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, the linseed oil that artists use would be perfect!’
‘You don’t think Arthur . . .?’ Daniel shook his head violently.
‘No, I don’t. But somebody else could have.’ She straightened up. ‘Come. Sit down here, away from what’s left of her.’
He did not argue. He felt a little queasy, and was glad she did not remark on it. He sat down on a chair opposite the one in front of her desk.
‘Isn’t that what you want to know?’ she asked. ‘What burned her? At a well-educated guess, I’d say highly flammable oiled silk, and a bit of lightweight cotton or muslin, and the whole lot doused with linseed oil. Lights quickly, hot, and burns very well if there was cotton to feed it. Quite enough to burn her face. And . . .’ She hesitated. ‘I’m sorry to say this, but I can’t even say for sure that this is Ebony. With all the burns . . . plus the boots and dress don’t fit. Maybe it isn’t her.’
‘But her family – her daughter identified her!’
‘Before or after this was done to her?’ Miriam asked. Her face was white, and her lips moved stiffly at the horror of the thought.
‘Oh God!’ Daniel stared at her. ‘What have we fallen into? What is this?’
She put her hands over his. ‘We’ve still got a few days left. We must find out.’
Chapter Sixteen
Daniel stayed a little longer, helping Miriam lift the body, although it was not very heavy. He watched while she took samples from various parts of the intestines, lungs, and other regions. She spoke very little, except to dictate the notes to him on everything she discovered. He wrote it down exactly as she said, once or twice asking her how to spell certain long words, names of chemicals, or little-known anatomical terms.
She seemed to learn little that was unexpected until they very carefully laid the body on a machine that Daniel had never seen before, and could not work out its purpose.
‘X-ray,’ she said proudly. ‘Father gave me that for Christmas and birthday combined.’ Her face lit with pleasure and suddenly it was easy to imagine her opening an enormous parcel with a bow on the top on Christmas morning, and discovering this strange monstrosity.
She was already explaining to him, with pride, what it could do and he had not been listening
‘Daniel!
‘I’m sorry . . .’
‘It can see through flesh and make pictures of the bones beneath. Or it can find anything solid, or metal we may have eaten, and trace it anywhere through our digestive system. It can find bullets, or broken-off pieces of a knife, for example.’
‘Is that what it’s used for?’ He was surprised. How often could they need such a thing?
‘Not in the hospitals,’ she dismissed the idea. ‘But we may find something useful in her bones. For example, an old break, or an abnormality.’
He did not reply, but watched her as she put one part of the body, and then another, in front of the machine. It was rather like a camera, but fastened to the table with clamps from which two metal rods of about an inch in diameter held it at a height of two feet above the table’s surface. The table itself was long enough for an adult man to lie upon.
The machine itself consisted of several distinct parts. The first was an eye piece, like a funnel, through which the operator looked. It was attached to a complicated box with projecting lenses and dials. In front of that was another, larger box made of something transparent. Inside it was more machinery, smaller and circular; attached to it was a large frame, as if to hold another part. It was all focused downward, less than a foot away from the body Miriam was examining.
Then suddenly she stiffened, and stopped completely. ‘Look!’ she ordered him. ‘Look at this!’ She stepped back for him to see through the focus.
