As Good As Dead (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #3)

by Holly Jackson

There are three main mortis factors used to determine the estimated time of death, and some of these tests are performed at the crime scene itself, as soon as possible after the victim is found.

Immediately after death, all the muscles in the body relax. Then, typically around two hours postmortem, the body starts to stiffen due to a buildup of acid in the muscle tissues.[2]

Warm temperatures will increase the rate of rigor, whereas cold temperatures will slow it down.[4]

Also known as “lividity,” livor mortis is the settling of the blood inside the body due to gravity and the loss of blood pressure.[5]

But this process can be affected by factors such as temperature and changing body position.

Algor mortis refers to the temperature of a body. After death, the body starts to cool until it reaches equilibrium with the ambient temperature (wherever the body is discovered).[9]

Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears? Ps. remember to always kill two birds with one stone.

Echoing five times,

wearing the blood of a dead man she couldn’t save.

Max Hastings—

Will be involved majorly withh end scene. Potentially murdered or an accomplace.

Jason Bell—

Possible suspect: Maybe anger about Stanleys death?

Detective Richard Hawkins—Fuck him.

Is it normal for one person to have this many enemies? I’m the problem, aren’t I?

I understand why they all hate me. I might hate me too.

Chalk dust on her fingers, gritty and dry.

Not many left now. She’d have to text Luke Eaton again soon, ask him for more, those burner phones lined up and ready.

Her against them. Save herself to save herself.

There was a kind of thrill in it, watching someone when they didn’t know you were there. Invisible to them. Disappeared.

The good kind of fast heart, not like that other trigger-happy kind.

“I see,” he said, “not even a glance back, or one of your scornful looks. Not a hug, not a kiss. Not an Oh, Ravi, darling, you look devilishly handsome today and you smell like a spring dream. Oh, Pip, my dear, you are too kind to notice. It’s a new deodorant I’m trying.” A pause.

He tucked his finger under her chin, guided it back. “Look at me, please. Pip.” He sighed. “This isn’t good for you. It really isn’t.”

“It’s me and you, Trouble. Team Ravi and Pip.

“If he hasn’t learned by now that you’re—annoyingly—always right, then he never will.”

“We’re going out for a walk. Oh, what a fantastic idea, Ravi, you’re so smart and handsome. Oh, Pip, I know I am, but do try to keep it in your pants, your father is downstairs.”

“Come on, Sporty Spice, you can put your sneakers on and run circles around me if you really want.”

And now Jamie’s alive but another man is dead, and you must feel really quite stupid about the whole thing.”

“Deserved to die, though, didn’t he, so I guess it all worked out nicely in the end.”

He winked. He fucking winked at her.

You’re my person. My little one. My Sarge. And I’m supposed to protect you.”

more than half of female homicide victims reported stalking to the police before they were killed by their stalkers.

DT Killer Still at Large After Claiming Fourth Victim

Connecticut, pigeon, stalk, chalk lines.

“ ‘The DT Killer,’ ”

the article was from February 5, 2014.

Short for the Duct Tape Killer.”

Stratford Strangler—keep

And just saying those words, Stratford Strangler, took her back to the last time she’d said them. Sitting in this very chair, on a call with Stanley Forbes,

but not for long because his blood is dripping out of the edges of her phone, covering her hands and—

“Pretty coincidental for a stab in the dark.

in standard gray duct tape,

strangulation by ligature,

the killer leaves his victims bound in the duct tape for a while before killing them, and then dumps their bodies in a different location.

Distance Decay Theory.

This leads me to believe that our killer lives in a different nearby location, one that hasn’t yet come up in the investigation, his untouched buffer zone.

meticulous the victim selection appears to be, that there is a degree of surveillance before he abducts them. I think that’s part of the thrill for him.

“No,” Pip said. “And it’s a very distinctive MO, the duct tape around the face.”

“Oh yeah, with an unsolicited knock at the door from an overly persistent Pippus Maximus.”

“So…” He smiled the little smile that always got her, and he dropped her phone into her hand. “Investigate it.”

475-555-0183.

Down to her last four pills now.