As Jack passed Vinnie, he swatted the newspaper Vinnie was holding up in front of his face, totally engrossed in the sports pages. Vinnie didn’t respond overtly because Jack did it every day. When he first started doing it years ago, Vinnie used to visibly jump and complain. But after so many repeats, he took the harassment in stride in the vain hope Jack would tire of it.
Approaching the desk where Jennifer was sitting, Jack said, “What kind of night was it? Are people still dying to get in here?”
“Very funny,” Jennifer said. “It was a relatively busy night.” Jack was known for his black humor, which some people thought was clever, others less so.
“Any intriguing cases?” Jack asked. It was his modus operandi to cherry-pick cases according to his interests, which was why he made it a point to arrive before anyone else other than the ME on call. Most of the other medical examiners tolerated this behavior because everyone knew that he did more cases than anyone else, a lot more.
“Quite a number of interesting cases,” Jennifer said. “Especially if you find getting run over by a subway train interesting.”
“Was it accidental or suicide?” Jack questioned. In general, he didn’t find such cases particularly interesting since the OCME saw about thirty of them a year. When a person got hit by a train there wasn’t a lot of question what killed the individual. Jack liked mysteries and challenges.
“Neither,” Jennifer said. “It’s possibly a little complicated, or so the MLI thought, and the MLI was Bart Arnold.”
“Complicated how?” he asked, immediately becoming interested.
“The subway part wasn’t accidental or suicide,” Jennifer said.
“You mean, someone pushed the victim in front of the train?” Jack asked. Unfortunately, that was becoming more common of late.
“Yes. According to Bart it was a homeless-appearing man who fled the scene,” Jennifer said. “The police are still going over the video feeds, and as of yet there are no suspects in custody. There’s also several eyewitnesses. But here’s the catch: There were almost twenty-four hours between the event and the death, with the patient having spent the time in the Bellevue ICU, where she had been conscious and oriented. She had survived getting run over by the train. The terminal event was a heart attack.”
“Hmm, the plot thickens,” Jack said. “I get your point. If a good defense attorney could convince a jury that the death was due to something that was done in the hospital to cause a heart attack, a suspect could potentially get off with a slap on the wrist.”
“That’s the fear,” Jennifer said.
“Let me take a look,” he said. He took the folder from her and quickly read through Bart Arnold’s investigative report of Madison Bryant. As the head of the MLI unit, combined with his years of experience, Bart’s work was always top notch. Besides describing the victim as an NYU hospital social worker, he had laid out the problem just as Jennifer had described. Prior to the final heart attack or ventricular fibrillation, there had been no history of heart disease, and there had been no symptoms or signs of impending heart trouble during the time she was in the emergency room or in the ICU.
“It’s got me hooked,” Jack said. “Mind if I take this one to start?”
“Be my guest,” Jennifer said. “How many more do you want? There are plenty to go around today.”
“As many as you need to give me,” Jack said with a smile. Normally he would go through the rest of the stack to see what else caught his eye, but he was adequately intrigued with the Madison Bryant case. For him it was a good way to start the day and get his mind off Laurie’s upcoming surgery and JJ’s imminent psychological evaluation, the two things that were weighing him down.
“There’s a case of a high school baseball player that looks interesting,” Jennifer said. “He got hit in the chest with a baseball.”
“That sounds good, too,” he said. “Put my name on it. I’d also like to ask you to do me a favor.”
“Of course,” she said.
“If and when the NYU pathology resident Dr. Nichols decides to show up, would you tell her she has been assigned to work with me once again?”
“Does Dr. McGovern know about this?” Jennifer asked.
“He does indeed,” Jack said. “We discussed it yesterday late afternoon.”
“I’ll be happy to tell her,” Jennifer said.
Jack walked over to the overstuffed easy chair where Vinnie was sprawled and this time snatched away the newspaper. Vinnie clawed after it but without bothering to sit up. This paper grab was also a daily pantomime. He and Vinnie had been working together for so long that teasing each other had become ritualized.
“We have work to do,” Jack said, keeping the paper just out of Vinnie’s reach for a few beats before giving it back.
“Why can’t you act like every other civilized medical examiner and start at eight or even nine?” Vinnie griped as usual.
“The early bird gets the worm,” Jack repeated for the thousandth time.
“I haven’t finished my coffee,” Vinnie said, pretending to go back to reading his sports page.
“Actually, I have a surprise for you,” Jack said, catching Vinnie off guard. This statement was not part of the usual script.
Vinnie lowered the paper and regarded him quizzically. “What kind of a surprise?”
“Remember the gracious debutante we had assist us yesterday on our first case?”
“You mean Dr. Nichols?”
“None other,” Jack said. “I’ve invited her for an encore.”
“Why?” Vinnie complained.
“It’s too long a story for your pea brain,” he said. “But I want you to be on good behavior for a change.” He then dropped Madison Bryant’s folder in Vinnie’s lap. “Let’s go, big guy.” He extended his hand and hoisted Vinnie to his feet.
In the elevator on the way down, Vinnie reiterated his question about why Jack was willing to work with Aria Nichols. “It doesn’t make sense after the way you carried on yesterday when she disappeared at the end of the gunshot case.”
“As I said, it’s a long story, but a condensed version is that she’s giving Dr. McGovern a hard time, and I offered to help.” Jack didn’t say anything about Laurie and her specifically asking him to lend a hand with Aria so that it was one problem she didn’t have to think about. He knew that Laurie had yet to announce that she would be having surgery except to the deputy chief, so the rest of the OCME was in the dark.
Working in tandem, which was the way they always handled the first case of the day, Jack helped Vinnie get Madison Bryant’s body put out on table #1 and the X-ray up on the screen. The endotracheal tube that had been inserted during the resuscitation attempt was still in place, which was standard procedure with such a case. Jack removed it after making sure it had been positioned properly.
“She looks pretty damn good for having been run over by a train,” Jack commented as he continued his external exam. He and Vinnie had noted the broken left humerus, the three broken ribs, and the linear skull fracture on the X-ray, as well as the missing left foot.
“We’ve seen worse with people falling off their front stoop,” Vinnie agreed.
“My sense is that she fell headfirst between the rails,” Jack said, examining the scalp laceration that had been sutured in the emergency room after the area had been shaved. “Had it not been for the foot getting caught, she might have been able to walk away.”