A little more than two weeks had passed since Val had become a death investigator. Each time she examined a dead body, she surprised herself with how much she knew and was happy to be learning quickly. Today she was on her own and would be from now on. Her training wheels had been removed and Howie would no longer be at her side.

“So, what do you think?” Officer Perez asked.

One thing Val noted quickly: new death scene, new officer in charge. At the rate she was going, she’d get to know the whole force soon.

The deceased female lay on the living room carpet. Her lifeless eyes stared at the ceiling. Val thought for several minutes, evaluating the woman, carefully estimating time and preliminary cause of death. There was a slight amount of lividity starting on her back. Body temperature was about ninety-six. Rigor was just becoming apparent in the small muscles of the face. The rest of the body was still pliable.

“She probably died about two hours ago,” she replied, confident of her answer. There was nothing to indicate the decedent had been dead any longer than that. She looked at the woman’s arm then sat back from the body. All signs pointed to an overdose. Open, empty bottles of the prescription opioid pain narcotic Percocet were all over the apartment. She counted the bottles she’d noticed. There were at least five. Val reached out and turned the arm upwards, taking another look at the telltale sign of more than just prescription drug abuse.

On the inner surface of the arm was a small hole that resembled an injection site. It was a little raised, pinkish red and very recent. Val wondered where the heroin was because she hadn’t seen any in the house. Nor could she find any needles. She glanced over at the victim’s boyfriend who was being questioned by another police officer.

Val’s attention returned to the body. Her preliminary account listed cause of death as overdose, this was obvious, but for some reason, the neck just didn’t look right. It appeared swollen. So did the lips, and the skin seemed a little blotchy. She pulled the dead woman’s mouth open and looked inside. The tongue was swollen too. She wasn’t entirely sure if the edema was a consequence of how this woman died. It could just be a normal finding.

After several minutes Val decided to release the body for transport to the medical examiner’s office so Dr. Blythe could figure it out. She had taken her part of the job as far as she could go. Only an autopsy could determine the rest. She stood up and addressed Officer Perez. “She’s ready to go.”

“Do you think it’s drug related?” he asked.