Her eyes opened wide as Jack reached into the box of latex gloves, grabbed two and put them on. He placed a finger over the jagged opening on the forehead. “Now, where did you come from?” He spoke to the injury. Then turned towards Val and pointed out the obvious wound on the forehead, grinning as he did so. “This was caused by a bullet, not a fire.”

“I know that already!” Val snapped, “I didn’t need to have it pointed out to see he died from a gunshot wound to the forehead. The big hole kind of gives that away.”

“Not a gunshot wound to the forehead, Dr. Knight.” He picked up the man’s head, inspecting the back of it. This time the joking nature was gone when he spoke. “The hole on the forehead is an exit wound. Obviously, we would expect to see an entrance wound somewhere else, and this is it.” He pointed out a small opening at the base of the man’s skull and then explained further as Val just stared, mortified at making such an error. This examination had just gone from bad to worse.

“You see, this well-defined marginal abrasion is characteristic of an entrance wound, while the irregular larger injury on the forehead is the exit wound. The manner of death is homicide, but I think you already knew that, especially with the way this body was burned.” Jack’s tone was serious. He spoke as if he were discussing possibilities with a colleague, not pointing out that colleague’s deficiencies. There was no sarcasm in his voice.

Val did have homicide written down. Obviously, the man didn’t shoot himself in the head, get into the trunk of a car, and then set himself on fire, but she would have gotten the direction of the bullet wrong. She was too worried about the broken teeth to even think of looking anywhere else.

Jack set the head back down. Next, he reached for the victim’s mouth and pulled back the lips. Val became light-headed and for a second she thought she was going to pass out. Here it comes, he’s going to see my other error; the broken teeth.

“Most people think fire will destroy the evidence. It doesn’t. Look at this poor soul’s teeth. Except for these on the right side, they look in good shape. My guess is he was lying face down in the car.”

Val was surprised that Jack said nothing about the broken incisors. “That’s a very nice theory,” she managed to say.