AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Anya groaned. “Oh no.”
“I’ve asked her not to approach you for now. She has no idea what’s going on with you and Vance, or here in Denton with the Sharon Eddy murder—and now Keri Cryer—but she agreed not to talk with you about it yet. I’m just not sure how much longer I can hold her off. You know how she is when she digs her heels in on something.”
Anya laughed drily. “Yes. Of course I do. She’s legendary. But I suppose I have it coming.”
TWENTY-FIVE
They stopped as Trout paused to sniff the base of a telephone pole vigorously. Josie asked, “What do you mean?”
“I reviewed Jana Melburn’s autopsy report. It brought a lot of things back.”
Trout relieved himself on the pole and then went back in for another sniff. Josie waited for Anya to continue.
“That case was extremely difficult. From what I remember, the police had absolutely no evidence to suggest that Jana Melburn had been murdered. I went to the scene with them. It was very plausible that she fell, tumbled down the embankment, and hit her head.”
Josie said, “The injuries to her head were catastrophic.”
Anya held up a hand as they continued on their walk. “I know that, and I know it’s hard to believe that a person could sustain such severe injuries in a simple fall.”
“Her eye sockets were shattered. The back of her head—”
“I know,” Anya interrupted. “But listen to me, in the absence of evidence of homicide, as a pathologist, you’re obligated to rule the manner of death as accidental or undetermined. Josie, sometimes these freak injuries just happen. Believe me, I struggled with this case. You’re right. Those kinds of injuries are not typically caused by a fall like that but they can be—the odds are extremely low but itcanhappen.”
It was the same argument that Josie had used on Trinity the day before.
“You should know,” Anya went on, “that even in light of that, I still wanted to rule the manner of death homicide. Just like you—and your sister—I couldn’t get past just how catastrophic the injuries were.”
They stopped again so that Trout could investigate a patch of grass. “Why didn’t you?” Josie asked.
“My initial draft of the report ruled it a homicide,” Anya said. “But I was pressured into changing it, and I’m sad to say that I caved. Like I said, it was a very difficult time for me. Please understand that I am not using my own personal crisis or the situation with Vance as an excuse, only an explanation.”
“Who pressured you?” Josie asked.
“My boss. My mentor, Garrick.”
Josie’s arm jerked as Trout continued on down the street. She followed but kept looking over at Anya, whose gaze was locked on her feet. She tried to think of who benefited from the case not being classified as a homicide. Mathias Tobin. Assuming he was the person the police had had in mind as a suspect all along.
“When you discussed the case with the police,” Josie said, “what did they think? Did they have a suspect in mind?”
“At the time? If they did, they didn’t discuss that with me, but it wasn’t within my purview to discuss suspects, only my findings. I do know that they were leaning toward homicide, just as I was, because of the injuries, but they had no evidence other than the injuries. They made that very plain. I think they were just as frustrated and baffled as I was, but what could we do?”
Josie said, “From what I understand, Mathias believed Jana was going to meet someone the night she died. The police didn’t discuss that with you? That she might have met someone and he killed her?”
“I had heard that, yes, but they couldn’t find anyone or any evidence that there had been anyone she was meeting with. I’m telling you, there was nothing to go on.”
“They didn’t suggest that you list the manner of death as undetermined? As opposed to accidental?” Josie asked.
“If they did, I don’t remember it.”
“But you remember Garrick pressuring you to list it as accidental.”
Anya nodded.
“I assume you know that Mathias Tobin became the main suspect in the case. Both the police and the citizens of Bly believed he had murdered her.”
“I had no idea,” said Anya. “I left shortly after Jana’s death. I never spoke to anyone from Everett County or Bly again after that. Not until today when Vance showed up on my porch. I had no idea that this—this lore had grown up around Jana Melburn’s death.”
“Did you know Mathias Tobin?” asked Josie.
