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tried to defend himself.”
    “Did someone whack him from behind before he knew what was going down?”
    “Definitely not.”
    “You’re that sure?”
    “About that, yes. Let me lay it out for you.”
    Buchanan began to shift the plates around the table. The women were blatantly staring now. “This is the washroom. This is the south entrance on Euclid. This is the little garden patch.”
    Mann pictured the station lot in his mind. “I remember. Kydd said that you knew for sure that the body had been moved. You followed the blood trail?”
    “Yes, but at the time, we didn’t know for sure who’s blood it was. Confirmed it was all the vic’s. Anyway, let me show you how it worked.”
    Buchanan pointed at the plate representing the washroom. “The trail went from the garden to the washroom. CSU searched the garden and came up with our murder weapon – a rock.”
    “Somebody tossed it there?”
    “No, it was buried with only about thirty percent above ground. It was in the dirt, solid and deep, so it hadn’t been moved in years. But it had a good point on it and there was blood on the rock and surrounding ground. We even got some hair.”
    “So, are you ruling this accidental or maybe a fight?”
    “On the accident side, there appears to be fresh orange juice on the vic’s boots and pants with some spatter on the sidewalk. Maybe he slipped in it or maybe he spilled it himself. We’ll know if he was drinking any later today. If it was a fight, there wasn’t much to it. No evidence of the vic having landed any blows. Whatever put him down did it fast and with enough force to put that rock into his skull. He didn’t have a chance to throw a single punch. That sounds like a fall. I’d rule it accidental, except for what happened postmortem.”
    “So the kid lands on the rock and death is instant. And then, the body was moved to the washroom?”
    “Actually, given the position of the body in the bathroom, something happened before the body was moved. There was some damage to the upper torso. Most likely, the perp landed several kicks to the midsection resulting in bruised ribs and contusions. All those injuries were postmortem.”
    Buchanan mopped up gravy with his roll and poured more tea. “The interesting thing is the wounds on the back of the head. As I said, the initial wound was low and punched through the cerebellum and into the brain stem. The wounds from the wall were much higher. The beating in the washroom was vicious. You saw the cracked tiles. That was nothing compared to the condition of the skull itself. Whoever did it was pissed. These were very personal injuries.”
    Mann shoved his salad plate aside and drank some Pepsi. “So, the kid was killed accidentally, then kicked repeatedly, then dragged to the washroom and then the back of his head was bashed in?”
    “That’s about it. He might have been pushed but I see no evidence of it.”
    “What about the time of death?”
    “I’d put it somewhere between ten and two, give or take an hour. Because the bathroom door was open after the body was discovered, we couldn’t get an accurate ambient temp.”
    “Kydd said that the attendant came on at eleven. The guy he replaced used the john before he left. So, it was between then and two or three?”
    “My best guess is the closer to eleven, the better.”
    “Anything else?”
    “CSU got a footprint out of the garden. The top layer of the garden was peat. It was pretty deep but not much detail.”
    Mann could picture someone lifting the kid, his foot sinking into the soft soil because of the added weight. Peat was useless for prints. He stared at Buchanan, realizing he was still no farther ahead. “Was it gang related or not?”
    “I’m guessing the powers on The Hill have already answered that question for you,” Buchanan said, smiling.

Chapter 7

    When Mann got back to the squad, Kydd was questioning a young man wearing tattered jeans and a black T-shirt with a blazing skull etched