“No. The problem is that there was nothing distinctive about the marks that were left. I can tell you with some certainty that the person who fought with our John Doe was right-handed, but that’s about it. And it may be possible for me to eliminate suspects by the size and shape of their fists if their fists are unusually small or unusually large, but that would be as close as I could come. There is one thing, though.”

“What’s that?” Lonnie asked, and Hannah noticed that he had already pulled out his notebook and pen and he was taking notes on what Doc told them.

“The person who delivered the blows to our victim wore a ring at least part of the time.”

Hannah felt her interest pique. “Part of the time?” she asked.

“Yes. One blow was delivered while he was wearing the ring. The indentation is clear. The other blow was delivered without the ring and with a bare fist.”

“A one-two punch?” Lonnie suggested, and then he explained to Michelle, “That’s one punch with the right hand and the other with the left hand.”

“No,” Doc said, and he sounded very certain. “Both blows were delivered with the same fist, the right one. My guess is that the ring slipped off with the first blow. But the man didn’t stop fighting to pick it up. He delivered a second blow that was even harder than the first blow. It did some very serious damage.”

“How serious?” This time Delores was curious. “You told Hannah that the fight didn’t kill him.”

“It didn’t, but it did cause the inter-cranial hemorrhaging to intensify.”

Hannah sat up a little straighter. This was new! “What inter-cranial hemorrhaging?” she asked him. “You didn’t mention that before.”

“Sorry. I got a little ahead of myself. It’s been a very long day.” Doc took a sip of his coffee and smiled at Hannah. “There was already some hemorrhaging from the massive blow to the frontal bone. The combination of the two new blows caused him to hemorrhage more rapidly.”

Hannah thought she knew exactly what Doc was saying, but she still felt the need to clarify. “And all this was done before I hit him with my truck?”

“That’s right. It was prior to the impact.”

“How long before the accident was it?” Mike asked.

“It’s difficult to tell, but my guess would be shortly before Hannah hit him.”

“Can you put a time limit on it?” Lonnie asked, his pen poised to write it down.

“No more than a half hour for the massive blow to the front bone, and the blows to the face came after that. If Hannah hadn’t hit him with her truck and killed him right then, he would have died from his other injuries within an hour, perhaps less.”