radiologists examine it and they theorised on a twisting motion. Let me demonstrate.’
She took my arm and stretched it behind my back, twisting it until the pain registered and I pulled away.
‘Imagine dragging a child down a hallway like that,’ she said slowly. ‘No wonder the boy wouldn’t stop crying.’
She frowned and I knew she was thinking about the toddler in Shepparton as much as she was Dallas Boyd. I had my own demons, cases I’d never forget. Cases where evil had prevailed. Clearly it was the same for Wong.
‘It’s a similar story with your boy here,’ she said, snapping out of the trance. ‘The bone literally shatters. As you can imagine, an injury like that would have caused tremendous pain and taken months to heal.’
Cassie had turned away from the slides. I wanted to ask if she was all right but thought it might embarrass her. Instead I studied the third slide of Boyd’s leg.
‘Have a look at this one,’ Wong said, stepping in beside me. ‘This is the femur, the largest bone in the body and the hardest to break.’
I stared at a blister-like lesion in the centre of the upper thigh. ‘What would cause an injury like this?’
She shrugged. ‘Something hard and blunt, probably a single blow.’
‘Like a bat?’
‘Again, I couldn’t go up in court for it, but I’d say that’s a good possibility.’
I turned to the outline of Boyd’s body under the sheet. The GHB might’ve stopped his heart beating, but I knew his dying had started many years before.
‘This is what I’m telling you,’ Wong concluded. She stepped over to the autopsy table and held her hands over Dallas Boyd’s body like a priest giving the last rites. ‘This boy lived in constant pain for many of his early years. Most people break only one or two bones, if any, in their entire lifetime. I haven’t finished yet, and already I’ve counted more than thirty-five separate fracture lesions.’
‘Jesus,’ Cassie said from behind me.
I thought of the pain I’d lived with since the shooting, and tried to imagine this boy living in pain every day of his life.
‘Is this recent?’ I asked, pointing at the femur bone. ‘I mean, how long since these have all healed?’
‘You’re asking all the right questions, detective, but they’re not easy to answer, not without appropriate time.’
‘A guess?’
‘I’d say well over six years since the last break, which may suggest the abuse ceased some time ago, but I’ll be keeping the body for further analysis. I’ll also bring in a radiologist for this.’
That fitted with Dallas Boyd having been in state care since he was ten. I wrote it all down. ‘Anything else?’
Dr Wong walked back to the counter and went over her notes again. I stayed by the body, lifted the sheet and stared at the pale face of the boy I’d found dead against the bin. Dallas Boyd was at peace now and no longer in pain.
‘That’s all for now,’ said Wong, closing her notebook. ‘From a forensic point of view, I hope I’ve been able to help.’
‘You have,’ I said, ‘and thank you for the trouble you went to. And please thank Matthew Briggs for us also.’
She nodded. ‘I just hope you find whoever did this.’
‘The abuse or the murder?’ Cassie asked.
‘Both,’ Wong said. ‘No one deserves any of this.’
I looked down again at the body beneath the sheet and thought about the LEAP reports I’d printed out on the stepfather. Though I was yet to study them, I knew there would be answers in there. I imagined breaking down the door and dishing up my own style of blunt-force trauma. If only it were that easy.
‘One more thing,’ Dr Wong called out as we walked to the door. ‘Will you call the Homicide Squad or should I?’
10
OUTSIDE THE WATCH-HOUSE, I left the car in gear while I waited for Cassie to get out.
‘You’re not coming in?’ she asked.
‘Nope. Eckles made his thoughts clear enough.’
‘So did you.’
I wasn’t going to argue. ‘Look, I’m going home to read through the LEAP reports on the stepfather. Can you get a status on my CCR request on Boyd’s mobile phone and see if the mug shots on Parks and Jardine have come through?’
‘They the mates you mentioned?’
‘Yeah, I need to talk to them, especially Parks. He left a message on Boyd’s answering machine, said they were supposed to meet up the night he was killed. Sounded like he was hanging on to something for him. We need to know what that