“Okay, stop. You need to say that again only much more slowly.” I huddle near an ornate cast-iron umbrella stand, and I don’t want to believe this is happening. “What do you mean she’s already stiff?”

“The first guy there checked her vitals said she’s already stiff,” Marino replies, and the connection is almost perfect suddenly.

“And have you seen this yourself or is it what you’ve been told?” I reply because what he’s saying sounds completely wrong.

“I was told.”

“Were there any attempts at resuscitation?”

“She was obviously dead,” Marino says clear as a bell.

“That’s what you were told.”

“Yeah.”

“What was obvious about it?” I ask.

“For one thing she was stiff. The squad didn’t touch her.”

“Then how did they determine she’s stiff?”

“I don’t know but apparently she is.” Marino again reminds me he hasn’t been to the scene.

“As far as we know, the first responding officer is the only one who’s touched her?” I want to know.

“That’s what I’ve been told.”

“And what about her temp? Warm? Cool?”

“Warm supposedly. But what do you expect when it’s still ninety degrees out? She could be out there all day and not cool off.”

“I’ll have to see when I get there. But the rigor doesn’t make sense,” I tell Marino. “Unless she’s been out there much longer than one might initially assume. And that wouldn’t make sense either. Even in this weather there are still some people out and about, especially near the water. She would have been found long before now, I would think.”

For rigor mortis to be obvious, the victim would have had to be dead for several hours at least, depending on what muscles are noticeably affected and how advanced the postmortem process has gotten. The high temperatures we’ve been having would escalate decomposition, meaning rigor would set in sooner. But it’s extremely unlikely that what Marino’s been told is correct. That’s also not surprising. Patrol officers are often the first responders, and they can’t always know what they’re looking at.

“… Got him waiting with the twins … uh, who found the body …” Marino is saying, and then I lose the rest.

“Okay. You must be in a bad space again.” I’m getting exasperated, but at least it sounds like he has the scene secured.

But I can’t imagine what he meant when he said that Interpol was trying to call him.

“Looks like someone was hiding in the trees, waiting,” he then says, and the connection is much better again. “That’s what I’m guessing. No eyes or ears.”