Using a magnifying lens and moving her hair, I find what look like several red hash marks, tiny red burns no bigger than dashes on the right and left sides of her neck. There’s nothing in front, and then I envision Elisa Vandersteel again, hot and sweaty but alive and friendly on the sidewalk in front of the Faculty Club. She was wearing a neckerchief.

A blue paisley print, I’m fairly sure, and I recall having the impression it was somewhat faded, possible a little frayed as if it might be something old. I ask Marino if a neckerchief has shown up, and I describe it. Did the twins possibly have it in a knapsack, and he didn’t realize where it came from?

“Nope,” he says. “I didn’t see anything like that but I’ll have Flanders double-check while she still has them in the daisy room.”

“If not, then it should be around here somewhere,” I reply, “unless she took it off after I saw her on Quincy Street. The important point is if she were wearing something like that it might have protected the front of her neck if the fabric was under or partially under the chain when it got heated up. If we find the neckerchief there may be burns that would verify this.”

Then I tell him we also need to check on whether there might have been thunderstorm activity reported in the area early this evening. And I add that flipping the necklace around to her back may have been the worst thing she could have done.

“Even though she would have been sweaty and electricity loves sweat. But even so, skin isn’t the best conductor,” I explain. “But finding a chunk of gold is another story, and that may be why she’s dead.”

“Because the current would have hit her heart.” Marino watches me work a small brown paper bag over one of the hands. “And there’s a lot of resistance to pass through, which is why some victims have nothing more than burns after the fact. I know a guy who lost a finger but that was it.”

“If the electrical charge didn’t pass through her body, it’s possible she would have survived,” I agree. “And I’m betting we’re going to discover her head injury isn’t what killed her.”

“That’s why I’m careful about wearing jewelry when I’m around anything that can shock me. It used to piss off Doris because first I wouldn’t wear the big clunky silver ID bracelet she gave me. Then I wouldn’t wear my wedding ring, and she’d say it was so I could screw around on her.” Marino confides this as if it’s a new story, and at this stage of things very few of them are.