“Are you absolutely certain?” Jack asked while he looked down at the deceased’s face for the first time. He was immediately surprised by the obvious evidence of trauma. The left eye was purplish and swollen almost shut. The skin over the cheekbone was bruised.

“Dead sure,” said Flash. He took a step closer and pointed to the swollen eye. “And the bastard popped her just like he’d done in the past.”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Jack said quickly. “Remember! The EMTs found her in the bathroom, where she’d collapsed. A bathroom is a dangerous place to collapse between the sink, tub, and toilet, not to mention the towel racks and the faucets.”

“About a month ago when I had lunch with her, her eye looked just like that,” Flash said, ignoring Jack. “She told me he’d punched her. The only reason I didn’t go flying out there to beat the shit out of him then was because she made me promise not to do it.”

“Okay, calm down!” Jack said. Now that he was about to get his samples, he didn’t want Flash to gum up the works. To that end he suggested to Flash that it might be best for him to wait outside. Flash offered no argument; he spun around, banged open both double doors, and left. With a nod from the director, the two funeral home heavies quickly followed.

“This is very difficult for him,” Jack explained. “So, it’s best we do what we have to do, and get him out of here.”

Gordon stepped up to the table while Jack snapped on his latex gloves. “I hope you’re not planning on marring the body in any visible way,” Gordon warned. “We have no idea if Mr. Davydov is planning on an open casket or not.”

“All we’re going to do is take some body fluids,” Jack said. He motioned for Warren to come closer and handed him several sample bottles. He had to make it look as if Warren really was his assistant to justify his intimidating presence. Jack wanted him there because Jack was planning on doing what Gordon had just warned him not to do, namely taking a sample of the bruised facial skin. Of course, he also would have liked samples of brain, liver, kidneys, lung, and fat, if he could have thought of some way to get away with it.

The first thing Jack did was take out his camera. Before Gordon could complain, he took a series of photographs of the body with particular attention to the facial trauma. Jack was careful to position the head for maximum exposure. In the process, he also looked for any subtle signs of strangulation or smothering. There weren’t any.