“The boy had his throat cut as he lay on the altar.” Val’s skin prickled. Though she knew what she was about to say next—hell she knew from the first moment she saw the crime scene—nothing prepares you to utter these words. “He was alive when it happened.”

“Are you sure?” Gavin asked, coming forward, careful to step away from the pools of blood.

“No doubt.” Val pointed to varying blood patterns on the ground. “Those spurts in an arcing pattern show arterial spray. If his heart wasn’t beating that wouldn’t have happened. That can only occur if blood was still pumping through his system, and at full force. See how some arcs are very big and some are small. You’ll get a different pattern with each beat of the heart. As the blood pressure drops, as he’s losing his blood supply, the patterns get smaller. Then after his heart stopped, he simply bled out as seen by the large amount of blood that seeped down the side of the altar creating the massive pool beneath him.”

“All of that blood is from him? He’s just a kid,” Warren said.

“We’ll double check the DNA to see if anything got mixed, but there’s 1.2 to 1.5 gallons of blood in a human body. By the age of six, children have the same amount as an adult,” Val said.

Officer Powell pointed to the mother. “There’s very little blood on her dress. If she’s the one who killed him, wouldn’t she have been covered in it? There’s no way it wouldn’t have splashed on her.” Powell was right. The gown was almost pristine.

Val positioned herself near the boy’s head. “If she’s the one who cut his throat and she did it while standing behind him, she could have missed most of the spray, especially if she stood back far enough after the cut. If she stepped back, I wouldn’t expect much, if anything, to have gotten on her since the blood spray is localized to the sides of the body, not behind.” Then Val added, “Anyone who cut his throat in this manner would have avoided becoming a bloody mess.”

“Any blood in her car in the parking lot?” Warren asked, directing the question to Officer Powell. “She also could have slashed his throat, gone somewhere, and then returned in her white gown.”

“Some. The crime scene techs found a small amount on the front driver’s side and the rear passenger seat,” he said. “But it was no greater than if someone had a minor cut or had a bloody nose. Nothing to account for something like this.”