Page 33 of Forever Dead

Arnold’s voice softened. “You okay, Selena?”

She kept the photograph in her hands for another second before setting it carefully on the bed.

“Yeah.”

“You don’t have to do this tonight.”

“Yes, I do.”

Arnold waited.

Selena picked up another photograph, though she was not really seeing it yet. “Miss Marsh helped me through a bad time when my mother was sick. I never forgot what she did for me.”

Arnold pulled the motel chair away from the little table and sat. “Yeah. I’ve been hearing plenty of stories like that since this morning. Everybody’s got one. People are real cut up about her.”

“They should be.”

Selena lifted the first photograph again. Grief could wait for a few minutes. The dead deserved more than grief while the person responsible was still free.

“I appreciate you sharing this. I just want to help.”

“I know. Anything you find comes through me, though. No calls, no interviews, no scenes.”

“Agreed.”

Arnold studied her for a moment. “And if Connor asks me directly where it came from, I’m not lying to him.”

“Fair enough.”

She spread the photographs across the bed in approximate scene order. The act itself calmed her. Exterior. Entry. Kitchen. Dining room. Body. Chair. Close-ups.

“Right,” Selena said. “Take this down.”

Arnold sighed, reached inside his jacket and produced a small notebook. “I knew you were going to say that.”

“Then you came prepared.”

He clicked his pen.

Selena picked up the closer photograph of Eleanor’s neck.

“First thing, whoever did this was strong.”

Arnold wrote. “Blethan said the same.”

“How strong?”

“Considerable strength. Probably male, but he wouldn’t narrow it any further from the injuries.”

“Good. You can’t age somebody from strength.” Selena angled the photograph toward the lamp. “But this wasn’t a simple choke followed by a fall. Her neck was violently rotated. Look at the displacement here.”

Arnold leaned closer. “I don’t know how much strength it would have taken.”

“More than you think.”

She pointed to the visible distortion at the upper neck.

“Blethan’s report says multiple cervical fractures with major rotational force. There’s also this area where the injury has displaced the tissue outward. That kind of damage takes force and commitment. Whoever grabbed her was strong.”