“I’d say that’s very unlikely, judging by the injuries and the position of the body. I wouldn’t rule it out a hundred percent—hit and runs can cause any number of injuries similar to the ones this girl has—but I doubt it.” Dr. Burns paused. “Besides,” he added, “you might ask yourselves what a naked girl was doing walking down this lane in the middle of the night.”

“Oh, we’ll be doing that all right,” said Annie. “Can you tell if she was beaten by a blunt object or anything? Is there a particular weapon we should be searching for?”

“From what I can see, I’d say fists and kicking. Mostly the latter, while she was lying on the ground trying to protect her face and head, knees up to try to cover her stomach.”

Annie stared at the stained and bruised body, stiffened in the fetal position. She had curled herself up in a ball like that to protect herself from a rain of blows, but she had died anyway.

“Any idea how many attackers?”

“Could be just one,” Dr. Burns said. “But again, you’ll have to wait for the postmortem for a definitive answer.”

“What about her clothes? Any idea when or why they were removed?”

“None,” said Dr. Burns. “As far as I know, nobody’s found any trace of them yet, and they certainly weren’t removed after the beating.”

“Any signs of sexual assault?”

Dr Burns gestured toward the body. “As you can see, there’s evidence of bruising and bleeding around the anus and vagina.”

“Any idea what killed her?”

“Could have been the blows to the head.” Dr. Burns pointed to areas where the blond hair was dark and matted with blood on the skull, the broken cheekbone, the mess of the mouth and ear. “It could also be internal injuries,” he went on. “It looks as if someone stamped on her. A beating like this is likely to rupture the spleen and god knows what else. I think her hip is probably broken, too.”

“Any ideas on time of death?”

Burns sighed. Annie knew it was the question all crime-scene doctors and pathologists hated because it was so difficult to answer accurately, but she had to ask. “Based on body temperature readings and the fact that rigor is advanced, I’d say it happened sometime between one and three in the morning. It was a warm night.”

“Thanks,” said Annie. “Are you finished with her?”

Dr. Burns glanced at the body again. “God, yes,” he said. “But I don’t think you are. Not by a long shot.” And he walked off to his car.