The mouth must have been what got him.

Nina felt a blurry sea of hot juicy emotion, part anger, part self-dislike, part hatred of this woman, part admiration for her. Sum it up as jealousy, a feeling she remembered well from the days before her divorce from Jack McIntyre had become final.

Klaus was supposed to do the cross-exam, but Nina knew by now not to rely on him, so she began taking notes, though her eyes burned and she found it hard to look at the witness.

Dr. Misumi looked hard back at her. She must know about Nina’s place in Paul’s life, and she must care.

Misumi went through the autopsy report for the jury. She had been called to the scene, made sure photos were taken of the body of Christina Zhukovsky in situ, and ordered the body taken to Natividad Hospital in Salinas, where the county morgue was. She had also supervised the opening of the coffin and the photos and removal of any leftover bits of human remains.

At the morgue, she had determined from the relaxation of rigor mortis and other signs that the victim had been dead for between approximately twenty-six and twenty-eight hours, making time of death between one and three A.M. the previous morning, April 12. The victim had not been killed at the scene, but had been brought there at some indeterminate time-Nina noted this-and then buried. Stefan claimed he had spent Friday night into Saturday morning drunk, in the arms of Erin, who could hardly corroborate, being drunk herself.

“The immediate cause of death was asphyxia. The jugular veins were pressed, which prevents blood returning from the brain. The blood backing up in the brain leads to unconsciousness, depressed respiration, and asphyxia. She suffocated due to blunt force trauma to the neck,” Dr. Misumi said directly to the jury.

“And on what do you base this opinion?” Jaime asked.

“Well, on both exterior and interior evidence. I examined the exterior of the victim, the skin and hair first. The body exhibited obvious contusions on the anterior neck,” she said. “The front of the neck.” Photos went around the jury. Toughened by the relentlessly graphic photos by now, nobody batted an eye. “I noted one thumb touch pad contusion on the left posterior section.”

“Indicating?”

“Manual strangulation. Often only the thumb makes a mark on the neck. The fingers don’t press as deeply.”

“What if anything did you conclude from this mark?”

“That the victim was approached from behind by a right-handed person who reached around”-she clasped her own neck with her right hand-“and squeezed deeply, fingers against the throat. She was probably being held tightly against the body of the killer behind her.”

“Any other bruises?”

“On the neck, there were also two curvilinear abrasions on the anterior neck. The photo marked Exhibit A-twelve.”

“Do you have an opinion as to what would have caused such abrasions?”

“The abrasions were caused by fingernails.”

“The killer’s?”

“No. The victim’s. What happened is that the victim put her hands up to try to pry away the fingers of the attacker.” She paused and looked at the jury. Madeleine Frey’s eyes filled and she rubbed her leg, and Nina thought, This woman is going to be a problem.

“There were also petechiae, small hemorrhages of the skin. They look like pinpoints of red on the skin. They are a sign of asphyxiation.”

“And where were these located?”

“I found petechiae in the mucosa of the lower lip. I didn’t find them on the neck or anywhere on the external skin, on the conjunctiva of the eyes, or on the deep internal organs. You do look for petechiae there, but their absence doesn’t disprove strangulation.”

Copies of photos of Misumi’s “petechiae” were now going around. Even the hardened jurors blanched at the one Misumi was now discussing.

“There were also internal signs of strangulation. Here. Exhibit A-fourteen,” she said. “I took that photograph at the postmortem.”

“And what does it indicate?”

“See the little red spots? Petechiae.”

“Located where?”

“On the underside of the scalp. In the picture, the scalp was shown reflected forward over the face”-and this was something even Nina couldn’t stand to look at-“which shows the undersurface of the scalp. Petechiae due to strangulation were found there.”

“And did you note any other internal evidence of strangulation?”

Misumi picked up her report and read from it. “I did a complete dissection, removing the larynx, including the hyoid bone. It wasn’t broken, but it only gets broken in about one third of strangulation cases, so that’s not telling. I examined the superficial and deep musculature. Nothing there, no contusions. I examined the laryngeal skeleton for fracture. Nothing. I then opened the cervical spine and examined it for injury. Nothing. So the internal examination of the neck was, I would say, inconclusive, but the external evidence was quite clear.”

Jaime had been sitting at the counsel table as he fired these questions. Now he went around the counsel table, sucking in his gut, an imposing, stocky, authoritative figure for the jury to observe. Standing near both the jury box and Stefan, he asked, “Is there any way to tell whether the attacker was a man or woman based on your postmortem, Doctor?”

“You could estimate the amount of force involved, which in this case was considerable, to leave the thumb impression. But no, that wouldn’t rule out a woman. Very little force is needed to strangle someone who is unconscious or intoxicated, especially a small woman like this one. Although the blood tests showed the victim had not been drinking much, even a small force applied in the right place can get past the protective muscles and skeleton.”

“And-”

“May I add something?”

“Surely,” Jaime said, waving his hand in courtly fashion.

“The amount of force required also varies depending on the amount of neck musculature of the victim. In this case the victim was somewhat frail, with rather less musculature than I would expect. That means less force would have been needed, than, for example, to strangle a football player.”

“You’re saying it would have been easy for a muscular young man to do the job?” Jaime asked.

“Oh, yes. If she was unable to get away from him.”

“Did you try to match the thumb contusion with thumbprints of the defendant?”

“That can be done only very rarely, and not in this case.”

Nina noted this, thinking, Maybe Ginger can do better.

“Which leads us to that glass,” Jaime said.

“The broken glass?”

“Yes. Did you find any glass slivers in the clothing or on the body of the victim?”

“No,” Misumi said definitely.

“Lastly, did you do an examination on the bones that were found in Stefan Wyatt’s car on the morning he was arrested?”

“We examined the bones and established that they belonged in the coffin found in the grave below the body of Christina Zhukovsky. After that determination was made, the bones were returned to the next of kin, Alex Zhukovsky, and it is my understanding that all the bones were then cremated.” She glanced at some notes. “Oh, let me correct that. The defense forensics expert still has two bones pursuant to an agreement with our office.”

“Thank you.” Jaime sat down. As he did, a stocky blond man sitting at the back of the courtroom left. Nina felt Paul turning to watch, and she glanced at the man, but quickly returned to her study of Susan Misumi. First, Misumi’s eyes studied Paul, who was looking away. He turned back to the front and she caught him with her eyes.

She smiled. Nina, observing her, did not see Paul’s reaction, but the smile went on for a significant period of time, about as long as it takes for two smiles to tango.

Then, as Klaus took the cross-examination, Misumi looked disappointed, maybe, as though she had wanted to engage Nina. Klaus had two points to make, and he repeated them several times in different ways-the thumbprint couldn’t be matched to Stefan, and no other testimony she had given implicated Stefan in the crime. And Christina could have been strangled by a woman.