“That’s their problem, not mine,” Aria said dismissively. “I became a doctor so I didn’t have to do that kind of shit.” She turned around and recommenced heading for the door.
Once again Jack was dumbfounded, and before he gave any thought to the propriety of what he was about to do, he quickly caught up to her and grabbed her left arm just above the elbow, yanking her to a stop. Aria reacted with even more speed by twirling around and using a karate-like blow to free her arm. “Don’t you dare touch me,” she snarled, loud enough for most people in the pit to hear.
The background conversation and activity in the autopsy room suddenly stopped, and for the briefest moment there was a pregnant silence as people either turned their heads or raised their eyes to stare at the two people glaring at each other. But then Aria broke off and continued to the door, which she shoved open with an outstretched hand, like a football player stiff-arming an opponent.
In the next instant all the conversations and activities in the room resumed as if nothing had happened. Jack took a deep breath, realizing that he had his fists balled despite still holding the pencil and the now crumpled trauma diagram. With a twinge of embarrassment, he glanced around to see if anyone was still looking at him, but no one seemed to until he locked eyes with Chet, who immediately came over.
“What on earth was that about?” he asked in a forced whisper.
“I almost lost it again,” Jack said with a shake of his head. “She certainly knows how to push buttons. I was just trying to get her to help clean up and prepare for the next case.”
“Did she tell you to fuck off like she told me?” Chet questioned with a smirk.
Jack shot his former roommate a sharp glance. They had shared an office at the OCME for several years, back when they’d been first employed. “Don’t you start,” Jack warned, but then added a laugh. He knew that Chet was teasing him, and he knew he deserved it.
“Do you want to renege on having to put up with her for another case?” Chet asked. “I’m sure I could find someone. Maybe you deserve a rest.”
“No, I’ll do it,” Jack said. “I told Laurie I’d help with her, and I’ll see it through. It’s my cross to bear.”
“What about tomorrow, if I’m not being too bold to ask?”
“Sure, why not?” Jack said. “By then I should be immune.”
Aria couldn’t quite believe it. The moment she had started to think that her rotation through Forensic Pathology wasn’t that bad and wasn’t a total waste of time, someone tried to shame her into acting like a maidservant. She’d found the mortuary technicians hard to bear, as they all had gigantic chips on their shoulders. There was no way she was about to let them shame her into doing their job.
Pushing into the locker room, Aria first used the toilet. Then she went to get her phone. As soon as she opened it, she was encouraged. Vijay Srinivasan had sent her a text a little after eight. It wasn’t a newsy message because all it said was for her to call him. Although the phone signal wasn’t all that great in the locker room, she placed the call. It went through okay, but then she had to wait for Vijay to be found. Since the office was essentially one big room, she wondered why it took so long.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Vijay said when he finally came on the line and before even saying hello. “I was on the other phone, but I was working on your leukemia project, so I deserve a bit of leeway.”
“Are you making any headway?” Aria asked, eschewing small talk as usual.
“We are indeed,” Vijay said. “That was the reason I asked you to call. The kits were completed for the mother and the child overnight by keeping our lab open instead of closing by five, which is our usual time. By the way, we have given them the names Hansel and Gretel with the child being Hansel, of course, and the mother being Gretel, and the witch being leukemia. Don’t ask me how the names came about because it should be mother and son and not brother and sister, but I wasn’t consulted. It was a team decision. If I had to guess, I’d say it was the product of one of our best programmers having been a literature major.”
“I’d much rather hear about your progress,” Aria said impatiently.
“As soon as the kits were available the team went to work,” Vijay said. “We created phased kits, including an evil twin, and uploaded all of it into our system. Our software automatically created a Lazarus kit for the missing father by phasing the child and the evil twin against the mother, but that’s probably more detailed than you want to hear. The long and short of it is that we got a match right off the bat that has proven to be one better in terms of a generation than what the people got with the first match associated with the Golden State Killer’s DNA. We have been able to find a paternal great-great-grandfather of Hansel with a family name of Thompson using Y-DNA testing, which, as you know, is inherited through the paternal line. And of particular significance it has already been confirmed as IBD, or identical-by-descent. Next we are going to upload the kits into GEDmatch, as well as check and see if Family Tree DNA has a Thompson surname project.”
“That’s encouraging,” she said. “At this stage do you have any guesstimate how long it might take to find the father?”
“No, and I don’t want to mislead you into the trap of that kind of thinking,” Vijay said. “Just because we’ve made significant progress, there is no guarantee of ultimate success. It all depends on how many of Hansel’s paternal relatives have joined the genetic genealogical craze, sent in the DNA sample, and constructed a genetic family tree.”
“But you are optimistic?” Aria questioned.
“Of course I’m optimistic,” Vijay said. “I wouldn’t be pushing my team as hard as I am if I wasn’t optimistic. We will be actively searching for more matches by using the databases of other genealogical companies through GEDmatch. And if we can find a close relative, I’ll start getting progressively more optimistic.”
“How close is close?” Aria asked.
“Anything closer than a third cousin of Hansel would be great,” Vijay said. “And if we come across first cousins or aunts and uncles then it is almost a given that we’ll be successful, provided there are some family trees available. Even if we get that close and there are no family trees, we can start constructing one for Hansel, but that would take time. Let’s hope there are some trees already in existence that Hansel can be added to.”
She remembered what Madison had told her in Nobu, and it was pretty close to what Vijay was saying now. “What if you find half-siblings of Hansel?” Aria asked. She thought that the existence of half-siblings was a definite possibility because of her belief that Lover Boy was married. If that was true, and children were involved, they would all be Hansel’s half-siblings.
“If half-siblings were found, the case would be solved as their father would be the person we are seeking. But I personally think the chances of that happening are statistically negligible. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Presently I’m hoping that GEDmatch will give us a number of new matches that we can use for triangulation.”
“I’ll be waiting for any news,” she said.
“I’m sure we’ll have information in the next few hours,” Vijay said. “Perhaps it would be best if you came by and we can show you what we have been able to do.”
“Why not?” Aria said. She was beginning to share Vijay’s optimism.