Lee wasn't surprised. He was beginning to believe that no one would be able to think of anyone who wanted to hurt this unfortunate girl-except, of course, her killer. He shuddered as the team from the ME's office loaded poor Marie into a shiny black body bag. Marie. He forced himself to recite her name, to think of her as a person, not as "the vic," as precinct detectives often referred to their crime victims. It was more painful to keep a sense of her as a person, but it helped to motivate him. Lee held his breath as they zipped up the body bag. He hated the sound of the metal teeth as they caught one another-so cold, so final, a young life reduced to that terrible, sad sound of metal on metal.

He approached one of the techs from the ME's office, the thin young Asian woman who had been taking the photographs earlier. Her skin was as uncreased and pristine as Marie's-he thought she might be Korean, or possibly Chinese. Her shiny black hair was looped back in a ponytail, and her jumpsuit looked two sizes too big for her slender body.

"Can you tell me if the wounds were postmortem or-" Lee began.

She replied quickly, as if wanting to get this over with as soon as possible. "Most likely postmortem. There wasn't much bleeding."

"Most likely? Is there any chance-?"

She shook her head, her black ponytail slicing the air. "It can be difficult to tell, but here you can see where the blood trickle ends. I can't say for sure, but my best guess is that these wounds were postmortem…I hope to God," she added in a low voice. Lee thought he saw her shiver inside her oversized jumpsuit.

"And the weapon?"

She frowned. "Hard to say for sure, but nothing fancy-possibly an ordinary knife, the kind you could get anywhere."

"Thank you," he said, turning away.