"Hi Patty, what have you got for me?" Glen Pavardy needed answers.

"Ok, Glen." Patty pushed her chair back and stood. She gave them each a face mask, and then said, "Follow me."

She led Glen and Sean into the morgue and turned on the lights. They flickered and gave the polished stainless steel an eerie glow before they settled into a bright light.

"I don't know how you can work in here," said Sean as he pulled on his mask. "The sterile smell is enough to make me puke, let alone the stench of dead bodies."

"It can be overwhelming at times but you get used to it," Patty said as she opened one of the refrigerated drawers. "I like talking to dead people when I'm frustrated." She laughed, jingled her eyebrows and pinned Glen and Sean with her eyes. "They don't talk back and let me say whatever I like about pushy detectives who piss me off."

"Who? Me. Never." Glen laughed and nudged his head at Sean. "He's the annoying one."

"Hey." Sean held out his palms. "I follow orders."

Patty chuckled and unzipped the bag. "Body is male. Six foot four. He's been dead, maybe, four to seven months. Decomposition is at various stages." She pointed at the skull. "As you can see one side of the head has decayed more than the other due to the state of the skull." She pulled the zip lower and said, "The Entomology team are still working on this to get a more accurate time of death." Patty indicated the lower half of the body. "The right hip is broken. High impact like he's been hit with something."

"Maybe a hammer?" Sean screwed up his face in question.

"No. Bigger. I'm thinking Bull Bar. A car or quad bike." She pointed at the breaks. "The impact wasn't hard enough to kill him but enough to hurt him and knock him off his feet."

"A four-wheel drive?"

"No, I don't think so. A four-wheel drive is too high. There'd be more breaks. My guess is they didn't intend to kill him but just wanted to cripple him."

"Would he have been knocked unconscious?" Sean queried.

"Could have been but I can't tell. Too much damage to the skull due to a bullet." Patty took a breath. "My theory is. He was knocked over by a vehicle with a bull bar or something like that. Hit fast and hard. He'd have been in a lot of pain and it's doubtful that he'd have been able to move much with his hip as it is. So, he's hit and then shot in the middle of the forehead. Markings on the clothes show signs he was dressed when hit but naked when shot so that could indicate he was unconscious."

"What? Why? That's a bit weird, isn't it?"

Patty nodded. "We've examined the clothes. Blood splatter indicates that the perpetrator has put them on. I think it was to cover their clothes but..." Patty smiled. "We have a couple of hairs which don't belong to the body." She held up her hand. "Before you ask, we're running DNA samples to see if we can match anything on our database."

"What about the dead man? Is he a match to Beau Hawkins?" Sean and Glen blurted in unison.

Patty smiled again. "I think you two might have worked together a little too long. You're starting to sound like each other," she chuckled, then added, "We're still waiting for the results to come through. Should be back tomorrow or the next day." Patty looked back at the body and sighed. "It wouldn't have been a pleasant death." 

Below is a four wheeler with a black bull bar attached for those who are unsure of what they are.

Any theories? I'd love to hear them. 

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