A 68-year-old woman is discovered dead in her locked bedroom in Mumbai on a winter morning. The room temperature is 16°C. On examination, the body shows early rigor mortis in the eyelids and jaw, and faint livor mortis over the dependent areas. The rectal temperature is 32°C. The estimated ambient temperature-to-body temperature gradient suggests a postmortem interval of approximately 8–10 hours. Which of the following best explains the discrepancy between the early rigor mortis and the relatively slow algor mortis in this case?