The autopsy provided a lot of information, but few answers. Death, probably had been due to exposure to the extreme cold, but when was difficult to tell. Outdoors the temperature, while always cold, fluctuated between -3 to 15° F. While the temperature in the garage might have been different, not as low, maybe not as high, moderated by even the thin insulation that the unheated garage provided it was still a wide variation open to interpretation and error.

Maybe they wouldn’t get a good fix on the time, but it was probably at night. After all, that’s when it’s the coldest.

“What do you have for us, Steph?” the taller detective asked.

“Just got some of the photos. Let’s go over them,” the scientist replied.

She reached across the desk, stretching out her lab coat, and somehow it along with it her blouse opened just enough to notice that her breast did not have a tan line. They correctly concluded that she still went to Fiji Tanning Salon on State Street. The tall detective nudged the shorter one “Don’t forget”, he said quietly, while tapping his left ring finger. He liked her glasses, made her seem smart, interesting. But the shape of her lab coat did not hurt either.

She either did not hear the comment or she ignored it, he liked that about her too. She opened the manila folder. Some of the photos slid out, one fell to the ground. Neither detective offered to pick it up. She bent over to scoop it up, both detectives watched.