‘So,’ said Matt Moran, ‘do you want the short version or the long version?’
Moran was a tall, slightly gangly man with fading brown hair that usually flopped over his brows, but which today looked as if he had attacked it with a pair of scissors, leaving an uneven fringe. He was wearing a thick jumper covered in a zig-zag pattern and with a hole in one elbow, and comfy-looking cords.
‘The long version, of course,’ said Maud.
‘Good.’
He took his laptop out of its protective cover and laid it on the desk, pulling up a chair so they could look at it together.
‘We will start with the drop,’ he said, as the computer came to life. ‘I have diagrams.’
‘I do love a diagram.’
‘First of all, though, here’s a chart with the data. From the autopsy, Kira Mullan was 165.2 centimetres in height – that’s taking into account the stretching that naturally occurs with a hanging. You will have noticed how the neck is longer.’
Maud nodded.
‘The heel of her boots, which I have not actually measured, but have estimated from the photographs…’
‘Estimated?’ said Maud. ‘Is that accurate enough?’
‘This is me,’ said Moran in an affronted tone. ‘Of course it’s accurate. The estimated height of the heel is about 3.5 centimetres, which brings her up to 168.7 centimetres. The stool is 43.18 centimetres. The photographs show that Kira’s body was hanging from a beam 248.5 centimetres above the floor, which is 205.32 centimetres from the stool. The rope,’ he continued, ‘measured, to the nearest few millimetres, 53 centimetres from the knot at her neck to the beam, 53 centimetres. Okay?’
Maud’s face was screwed up in concentration.
‘I’ll take your word for it,’ she said.
Moran double clicked on the next file.
‘You can see the diagram.’
‘I can see it. What does it mean?’
‘That this woman could not have used this stool to hang herself.’
‘Even on tiptoes?’
‘Even on tiptoes.’
‘That’s good,’ said Maud. ‘I mean it’s terrible, but it’s what I needed.’
‘I’ve also looked at it from a different angle.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘I am not a pathologist, and I don’t want to be disrespectful of the idiot who carried out the post-mortem.’
‘Don’t hold back.’
‘Obviously the body has now been cremated. But from the photographs, it seems evident that Kira Mullan died of ligature strangulation rather than hanging. Those little red dots around her eyes – they’re called the petechiae, if you’re taking notes – are a tell-tale sign. They don’t generally occur in a hanging except in an incomplete one where the weight is partially supported. Which as we know was not the case. In my view, Kira Mullan was strangled, and then hung from the beam, presumably using the same rope, though of course that’s not demonstrable.’
‘Wow,’ said Maud.
Moran closed the laptop.
‘Really, it’s a very straightforward case.’
‘Your short version is that Kira Mullan did not hang herself.’
‘Yes.’
‘This will keep Weller quiet for a bit.’
‘I’ll send you the PDF.’
‘Fantastic. Thanks, Matt.’
‘No problem. It was fun.’