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“Specifically, that fentanyl shit,” growled Harper.
Guillaume nodded. “It’s blowing up the OCME’s budget. Full autopsy and full tox and blood workups are not cheap. They’re building a new OCME facility in Augusta with more capacity, but it’ll be a while before it’s online. We used to only fully autopsy for those cases necessary for criminal prosecution, or unexpected deaths in people under fifty-five or where there’s a public safety concern like an infectious disease. But now, because of the fentanyl crisis, the decision has been made to fully autopsy all decedents under age thirty if there is any question as to cause of death. But with, say, a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head, we’re not going to autopsy. Jenny was otherwise in remarkable physical shape, probably would’ve lived to be a hundred.”
“Time of death?” asked Devine as he watched Harper and Fuss watch him.
“Between nine and eleven p.m. on the night she was found.”
“You’re comfortable with that window?” asked Devine.
“The deputy ME was, and I concurred. Your ME signed off on it, too. It’s not just based on forensics, but also the time window from when she was last seen alive and then found dead.”
“I understand a military ammo casing was found at the scene?”
Harper answered. “A ‘federal’ round. You think one of her own killed her?”
When Devine looked at him, the man’s expression was mocking, and Devine had to fight back the urge to voice hisdispleasureat the comment.
“Early days yet,” replied Devine. “Can you describe more fully the damage you saw in the wound track?”
“It was substantial,” said Guillaume.
“Definesubstantial.”
She looked a bit put out by this query.
“I’m not trying to be a jerk,” said Devine. “But a .300 Norma Magnum round is a high-velocity ordnance with a heavy load. It’ll drop large game with no problem.”
“You doubt the casing we found matches the bullet that hit her?” said Harper.
“Since the actual round was not found, I’m just dotting thei’s and crossing thet’s.” He looked expectantly at Guillaume.
“I would say that a high-velocity round was indeed used. The kinetic energy was substantial, as was the exit wound, where, as I already showed you, there was a large amount of bone and tissue extruded from the wound. The bullet was not a dumdum, because there was no evidence of mushrooming in the wound track. It went pretty much straight through her head and out the rear.”
“Then maybe a full metal-jacketed, or ball round, as the military often refers to it?” said Devine.
“It’s certainly possible.”
“What does that matter?” asked Fuss. She looked genuinely curious.
Devine said, “Most NATO military forces only use FMJ—or full metal-jacketed—ammo because of a Hague Convention international treaty signed well over a century ago. They banned the use of expanding bullets, even though FMJs have a greater risk of hitting unintended targets. Mushrooms tend to stay in the body. That’s why cops all around the world use dumdum ammo, because they put the target down with little risk of doing damage to nontargets.”
Guillaume interjected, “But the tumbling effect does catastrophic damage to the target.”
Devine continued, “The U.S. never ratified the treaty, but they’ve followed it, mostly. However, the Army now uses hollow points in some of their ammo chains. Sidearms and the like. The Hague treaty only applies to wartime—but let’s face it, the landscape of war has changed. It’s more like urban and rural street fighting rather than big armies going at each other over far-flung, isolated ground.”
Harper looked at Guillaume. “So just to be clear, Jenny was not shot by a dumdum? But by something that would include this .300 Norma round?”
“Correct,” said Guillaume. “I believe I already said that.”
Harper looked triumphantly at Devine. “Satisfied?”
“For now. Did she see anyone while she was up here? Her sister or brother?”
“We don’t know,” said Harper. “Leastways about Alex and Dak.”
“You haven’t spoken to them after all this time?” said Devine. He might not be an experienced investigator, but he knew the importance of collecting statements from persons of interest as quickly as possible because memories rapidly faded or became distorted. Or stories could be made up, practiced, and falsely corroborated.
“They’re grieving,” replied Fuss. “We’ll talk to them at the appropriate time. It’s how we do things up here.”
