As they walked to the front door, Howie read from his report and explained the circumstances the responding officer provided to them. “The wife had no idea where he was or what happened. The visiting nurse found him dead in the bedroom and called 911. She noticed some odd bruising on the man’s head and was suspicious. Officer Reynolds responded to the call.” Howie pointed to the uniformed man standing in the doorway. “That must be Officer Reynolds.”

“We’re not expecting foul play. They’re both in their nineties,” Reynolds said. “We’re here mainly because no one can find the name of this guy’s doctor to see what his pre-existing medical conditions were.”

“He was in his nineties?” Val asked. “What pre-existing conditions didn’t he have?”

The officer didn’t respond, but sized Val up. He continued to look at her and she felt herself shrinking. She repeated Julia’s advice to herself. Don’t be bullied. Stand up to them.

“Where’s the body?” she asked, her voice firm.

“He’s in there.” Reynolds pointed towards the bedroom.

Val walked into the room, then stopped suddenly. She expected the dead man to be lying on the bed or the floor, but that’s not where he was. Holy crap, she thought, thankful that her thoughts didn’t make it to the ears of others.

A portable commode sat in a tight space between the bed and a dresser. The man was still on the seat and would have slumped to the floor if the furniture hadn’t supported him. His head leaned against the corner of the dresser. This could have easily accounted for the large bruise on the side of his head, the same side still in contact with the dresser. The visiting nurse who’d found him dead stood several feet from the body.

Val took a deep breath, walked up to the man and started her exam. Both the nurse and Officer Reynolds watched as she inspected him. She had been busy for about five minutes when Howie spoke. “By the condition of the body, he’s been dead for how long?” he asked.

Val tried to remember what she read in the textbooks about rigor mortis, lividity and body cooling. All of these circumstances of decomposition would help her estimate this.

As she tried to move the man’s arms, it was obvious that they were starting to grow stiff. He was definitely in rigor. So, he’s been dead at least a few hours.

Lividity is the settling of the blood in the body. When it stops circulating it causes dark purple patches on the skin where it comes to rest. The process starts anywhere from twenty minutes to three hours after death. There were no purple spots that she could see.