“Excellent. Like I could bench-press a boulder. Assuming, you know, I could move my arm. Neil.” She gave an awkward half hug to the youngest member of their team, while Alex shook both men’s hands. Neil, a lanky redhead who looked like he was sixteen but was actually thirty-three, was finally coming into his own. He’d even led their last investigation. Phil and D.D. still took all the credit, of course, having taught him everything he knew.

Neil had been an EMT before becoming a cop. He served as their liaison to the ME’s office and was the person most likely to answer her question.

“Chloroform,” he said now.

D.D. blinked. She and Alex came to a halt near the kitchen island. Christine Ryan’s furniture had yet to be removed, but it seemed disrespectful to sit on a dead woman’s sofa. Hence, all four of them huddled in the kitchen.

“The killer OD’d them on chloroform,” Alex asked. “Is that even possible?”

“Not overdosed, but used it to incapacitate them. Frankly, Ben should’ve caught the smell on the first body, but as he put it, the whole skin flaying proved a little distracting.”

“You can smell it on the body?” D.D. wasn’t sure if that was fascinating or horrifying.

“Absolutely. The smell lingers around the mouth and sinus cavities. One of the first steps during an autopsy is to smell the body. Many poisons and toxins present that way. Like I said. Ben sends his apologies.” Ben Whitley was the chief medical examiner, as well as Neil’s former lover. The initial breakup had proved tough, but both seemed to be handling things better these days.

“So the killer first rendered both women unconscious,” Alex stated out loud. His eyes were narrowed, mind churning. “And then?”

“Compression asphyxiation.”

“Compression asphyxiation?” D.D. spoke up, startled. “Isn’t that why doctors don’t recommend co-sleeping with newborns? Because if a grown adult rolls over on the baby in the middle of the night, it can lead to compression asphyxiation?”

“Exactly. Asphyxiation occurs when the person’s chest or abdomen is compressed to the point the person can no longer draw a breath. Hence, suffocation.”

“So we’re most likely looking for a larger perpetrator,” Alex spoke up. “Someone with enough bulk to basically crush two women?”

“Not necessarily. Compression asphyxiation can also be a matter of strategically applied force. Say, a knee dug into the victim’s diaphragm for the necessary length of time.”