Fielding emerged into the autopsy room the same time I did.
‘Let’s get her into X-ray,’ I said.
We rolled the steel table across the corridor into the X-ray room and lifted the body and accompanying fire debris by corners of the sheets. This we transferred onto a table beneath the C-arm of the Mobile Digital Imaging System, which was an X-ray machine and fluoroscope in one computer-controlled unit. I went through the various set-up procedures, locking in various connecting cables and turning on the work station with a key. Lighted segments and a time line lit up on the control panel, and I loaded a film cassette into the holder and pressed a floor pedal to activate the video monitor.
‘Aprons,’ I said to Fielding.
I handed him a lead-lined one that was Carolina blue. Mine was heavy and felt full of sand as I tied it in back.
‘I think we’re ready,’ I announced as I pressed a button.
By moving the C-arm, we were able to capture the remains in real time from many different angles, only unlike the examination of hospital patients, what we viewed did not breathe or beat or swallow. Static images of dead organs and bones were black and white on the video screen, and I saw no projectiles or anomalies. As we pivoted the C-arm some more, we discovered several radiopaque shapes that I suspected were metal objects mingled with the debris. We watched our progress on screen, digging and sifting with our gloved hands until I closed my fingers around two hard objects. One was the size and shape of a half dollar, the other smaller than that and square. I began cleaning them in the sink.
‘What’s left of a small silver metal belt buckle,’ I said as I dropped it into a plasticized carton, which I labeled with a Magic Marker.
My other find was easier, and I did not have to do much to it to determine that it was a wristwatch. The band had burned off and the sooty crystal was shattered. But I was fascinated by the face, which upon further rinsing turned out to be a very bright orange etched with a strange abstract design.
‘Looks like a man’s watch to me,’ Fielding observed.
‘Women wear watches this big,’ I said. ‘I do. So I can see.’
‘Some kind of sports watch, maybe?’
‘Maybe.’
We rotated the C-arm here and there, continuing to excavate as radiation from the X-ray tube passed through the body and all the muck and charred material surrounding it. I spotted what looked like the shape of a ring located somewhere beneath the right buttock, but when I tried to grab it, nothing was there. Since the body had been on its back, much of the posterior regions had been spared, including clothing. I wedged my hands under the buttocks and worked my fingers into the back pockets of the jeans, recovering half a carrot and what appeared to be a plain wedding band that at first looked like steel. Then I realized it was platinum.
‘That looks like a man’s ring, too,’ Fielding said. ‘Unless she had really big fingers.’
He took the ring from me to examine it more closely. The stench of burned decaying flesh rose from the table as I discovered more strange signs pointing to what this woman may have done prior to dying. There were dark, coarse animal hairs adhering to wet filthy denim, and though I couldn’t be certain, I was fairly sure their origin was equine.
‘Nothing engraved in it,’ he said, sealing the ring inside an evidence envelope.
‘No,’ I confirmed with growing curiosity.
‘Wonder why she had it in her back pocket instead of wearing it.’
‘Good question.’
‘Unless she was doing something that might have caused her to take it off,’ he continued to think aloud. ‘You know, like people taking off their jewelry when they wash their hands.’
‘She may have been feeding the horses.’ I collected several hairs with forceps.
‘Maybe the black foal that got away?’ I supposed.
‘Okay,’ he said, and he sounded very dubious. ‘And what? She’s paying attention to the little guy, feeding him carrots, and then doesn’t return him to his stall? A little later, everything burns, including the stables and the horses in them? But the foal gets away?’