Composing himself, breathing into a cupped hand, he consulted the clipboard under a fizzing fluorescent light. It contained a number of reports, most notably Molly’s medical records and the autopsy report. Her medical history was uninspiring: no mention of antidepressants or abuse of prescription or illicit medications, or history of major illness. The external examination revealed a pair of tattoos on her calf and upper back. Compression marks around her wrists and ankles indicated that she’d been bound during death. Manolis wanted to see toxicology results but there were none; it was still too soon after death. He was, however, concerned there was no record of specimens being collected and sent for analysis – that would ordinarily have been done for any suspicious death.

The internal examination was the briefest autopsy report he had ever seen. The body cavity and internal organs remained untouched. He imagined that broken bones were likely, a clavicle or ribs. Not all the rocks would have hit their desired target, even at a close range. He often missed the bin at work with his banana peel from half a metre; stones were much heavier, and if flung with enough force introduced a greater margin of error. It was simple physics.

He was most interested to see if the injuries suggested blows from two or more sources, as was the case with ‘traditional’ stonings. This approach sought to diffuse responsibility; to prevent an individual in the group from being identified as the one who dealt the death blow. It was the same in a firing squad where one or more members were issued a blank cartridge. Or an electric chair with two activation levers so neither guard knew if they were flipping the actual switch.

Unsurprisingly, the autopsy report contained no mention of blows from multiple sources. It listed the time of death as ‘between midnight and dawn’, the cause of death as ‘homicide’, and the mechanism as ‘blunt trauma, head injury, stoning’. Death came from a range of medical issues including ‘intracranial haemorrhage, swelling to the brain, exsanguination’. Mercifully, there were no signs of sexual assault.

And that was it. Manolis leafed through the pages a second time but found no more to the report. He was annoyed that it had taken so long for such a short report to be finalised. It was signed with an indecipherable scribble, but at least it was signed. To his knowledge, there was no electronic copy.