“Hallelujah,” Jack said. “I wish the rest of the world could be so reasonable. Did he happen to mention what Nadia and Jamal decided? What a unique opportunity.”
“Curiously enough, they are both agnostics. Obviously neither religion won out, at least not yet.”
“Interesting,” he said vaguely. “To change the subject a little, I’ve already heard back from John. Toxicology found no ketoacidosis and normal glucose levels. Obviously, Sue’s diabetes was under perfect control, just as you suspected.”
“I’m not surprised except by the speed of your getting the results. How did you manage to build a fire under John?”
Jack laughed. “It wasn’t difficult. He’s truly a new man with his relatively new laboratory and a real office. He’s a far cry from his previously irascible self.”
“Getting back to Abby,” Laurie said. “I told him he would be hearing from you straightaway about the results of the autopsy. Cheryl has his mobile number so get it from her and make the call.”
“The problem is there ain’t much to tell,” he said. “After insisting on an autopsy against his wishes, it’s not going to sit right for me to tell him his dead wife was found to be perfectly normal.”
“Don’t make this more difficult than it need be,” Laurie said with the first signs of impatience. With all the administrative stresses and strains she was under, it was a frequent occurrence as conversations with anyone dragged on. As the chief she was always dealing with one or more pressing problems from early in the morning until she turned out the light at night. “You figure it out,” she snapped. “Just make the call. I also told him you are responsible for releasing Sue’s body to the funeral service, and I said you’d be doing it today so that the burial can proceed.”
“I don’t know if I can release the body,” Jack said.
Laurie audibly groaned before leaning forward to rest her face in the palms of her hands with her elbows on the desk. She took a couple of deep breaths while rubbing her eyes with the tips of her fingers. When she looked up at him, her eyes were reddened, and she needed to blink a few times. “I’m not asking for the moon,” she said in a tired, restrained voice.
“Maybe not the moon, but it is significant,” Jack said. “This morning when we talked about this, I told you I was having trouble with the cause and manner of death and what I was going to put on the death certificate, assuming I don’t get something convincing from Maureen, John, or Naomi, which seems more likely than not. Call it experienced forensic intuition. Where does that leave me with the manner of death if it is not natural, accidental, or suicide? I’ll tell you where it leaves me... homicide!”
“Don’t tell me you are still thinking of the insurance issue?” Laurie demanded.
“I haven’t totally dismissed it,” he admitted.
“Well, you should,” she said. “Abby brought it up when he explained about needing the death certificate. He said getting the life insurance was at Sue’s insistence to have a backup to pay off the kids’ sizable medical training if for any reason her salary became compromised. He said he never thought it would be needed and got choked up when he said she was right.”
“All that does make sense,” Jack agreed. “But listen, I’m not overly invested in the why or the who, and I won’t be until I’ve figured out the how. I’m consumed by finding out what is the actual cause and mechanism of death, and I’m completely stymied. The only halfway positive finding was the mild pulmonary edema. Given that we both are reasonably confident Sue wasn’t using drugs, maybe somebody slipped her something like fentanyl. I know I’m sounding desperate, but you have to see my conundrum because I’m not going to sign it out as indeterminate. That’s a cop-out.”
“Toxicology surely will find fentanyl if fentanyl is involved,” Laurie said impatiently.
“Yes, of course, but that’s not my point. My intuition is telling me John isn’t going to find it. I’m mentioning it out of desperation, pulling a possibility out of thin air no matter how unlikely, because there is something inherently weird about this case. I can feel it in my bones. The problem comes down to whether I can, in good conscience, release the body. What if new information becomes available and I’m forced to look into something else that I hadn’t anticipated and the body is gone?”
“Good gravy,” Laurie complained. “You are overthinking this! Tell me, did you take samples of everything, every organ, every fluid, etcetera?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Well, there you go. That should cover just about any contingency.”
“I wish I shared your confidence.”
“Just take care of it!” she ordered with obvious exasperation. “I’d be happy to be more involved, but I’ve managed to schedule a presentation this afternoon with the mayor-elect and a bunch of his people about why our budget and the new autopsy suite are justified. It’s going to be in the main auditorium at 421 an hour from now, and I’ve just started to prepare.”
“Okay,” Jack said with a shrug of resignation. He got to his feet.
“As I said earlier, the death certificate can be amended if new information becomes available.” Laurie redirected her attention back to her computer screen.
“Yeah, sure,” Jack said without enthusiasm. “Good luck with the mayor.” As he headed toward the door, he wondered anew why he’d encouraged her to become the chief.
Chapter 13
Tuesday, December 7, 2:50 p.m.
Emerging from Laurie’s office, Jack practically bumped into George Fontworth, the deputy chief, who’d obviously been waiting for him to leave. They did a little dance to get around each other. To make matters worse, he was clutching a significant number of OCME brochures to his chest.
Jack stopped at Cheryl’s desk. She was speaking to someone on the phone but had anticipated his need of Abby’s mobile number and produced it without having to be asked. Jack took the slip of paper and mouthed a thank-you. Cheryl responded with another of her thumbs-up gestures without interrupting her conversation.
After making a detour to get a candy bar from one of the vending machines in the second-floor employee lunchroom, Jack went up to his office. There he took off his jacket and sat down at his desk, putting Abby’s phone number center stage. He stared at it for a time, wrestled with the idea of calling the man, but ultimately put it off. Instead, as he munched on the candy bar, he called University Hospital, where Laurie’s father had been one of the top-notch cardiac surgeons when he’d been alive. Once he got the operator, he identified himself as Dr. Stapleton and asked to speak to Dr. Camelia Gomez.
It took a long time to get the doctor on the line, as Jack had to go through several different clerks at different clinics, each time being put on a lengthy hold. He wasn’t surprised, as he was well aware that modern American medicine had devised multiple ways to shield doctors from contact with the outside world. As he waited, he tried to think of how he was going to proceed with the Passero case. He could see Laurie’s position as Sue’s dear friend and understand her wish to be as helpful to Abby as possible, and he respected it. He also recognized that Laurie was correct in that he had obtained samples of every tissue and fluid he could think of during the autopsy, making it difficult for him to imagine a circumstance that would necessitate a redo. Consequently, he decided to follow Laurie’s order and release the body. But the death certificate problem was another issue entirely. He had never signed one out as being indeterminate, and he wasn’t going to do it now, no matter what Laurie said. For him it was a matter of professional integrity.