“Oh, come on,” he complained. “The mayor isn’t going to stop supporting the OCME because I irritate the MMH president. That’s absurd.”
“Is it?” Laurie questioned. “That’s not what the caller from the transition team suggested, and I’m not interested in testing it. No way! And you understand the bind I’m in vis-à-vis the MLI situation. If they find out I’m allowing our MEs to chip away at their prerogatives, the attrition rate is going to balloon. They have become rightfully proud of their role.”
“Yeah, well, do I need to remind you that you were a frequent violator of this rule when you were a mere ME? We both trained at programs that encouraged site visits. It can be critical, and you know it.”
“We both know that neither of our training programs had what we have here,” Laurie said. It was apparent her anger was lessening but still palpable. “They didn’t have the kind of medical legal investigators who are highly trained to do forensic fieldwork. And I happen to know that on Sue’s case Kevin Strauss was assigned, and I also know he is more than capable of doing whatever needs to be done. If you want something from the field, ask him to do it.”
“The problem with Sue’s case is that I didn’t know what I didn’t know, so I didn’t know what to ask him to do,” Jack said. “Listen, I still don’t have a cause and mechanism for Sue’s death, which you insisted I handle. This morning I went back to believing it had to have been an overdose despite you and I not being able to imagine she’d be using drugs. But then, just an hour ago, John DeVries threw that idea out the window by telling me her toxicological screen was negative. Then I looked at the histology. It was essentially clean. So where am I now? Nowhere! I’m reduced to grasping at straws. To give you an idea of my desperation, I just had a conversation with John about looking for any possible evidence of succinylcholine because one of the muckety-mucks who I found out hated her guts is an anesthesiologist. After all, she did have multiple insulin injection sites. What if one of those injection sites had been SUX, not insulin?”
“Good grief,” she said. “Are you really convinced Sue’s death was a homicide?”
“No!” Jack snapped. “I’m not convinced of anything. Well, that’s not quite true. The only thing I am convinced of is that had I not gone over to the MMH, I wouldn’t have gotten wind about Sue’s concern about an active serial killer. Who the hell knows whether that’s at the bottom of all this malarkey? The long and short of it is that I need a cause or mechanism or a manner of Sue’s death. One way or the other, I have to come up with something.”
“Oh, right,” Laurie said. In her fury following the call from the mayor’s transition team, she had forgotten about the Jack’s mentioning the possible existence of a medical serial killer at the MMH. After admitting the issue had slipped her mind, particularly after Jack had told her the hospital mortality ratio had gone down, she added, “Any more news about that scary possibility?”
“Not really,” he admitted. “I just spoke with Bart, who had Janice Jaeger gather the number of monthly deaths that have been reported to us from the MMH over the last two years.”
“And?” Laurie asked.
“The numbers have fallen, not risen, consistent with the falling mortality ratio.”
“That’s hardly confirmatory,” she said. “In fact, it’s the opposite. When are you going to be meeting today with the charge nurse who told you about it and find out what statistics were responsible for Sue’s suspicions?”
“That’s another weird, unexpected curveball,” Jack said. “The orthopedic charge nurse, whose name was Cherine Gardener, died last night. I just posted her this morning.”
Laurie’s mouth dropped open and the fire in her cheeks faded. “You’re joking,” she said hesitantly. Slowly she sank down into her desk chair with her forearms resting on the desk. She appeared stunned.
“I wish I were joking,” Jack said. Following her lead, he retreated to the colorful couch and sat. After waiting a beat to give Laurie a moment to digest what he had just told her, he added, “Needless to say, I was flabbergasted, and frankly disappointed, when I saw her name on an autopsy folder. It shocked me almost as much as seeing Sue’s name yesterday. I’m hoping this isn’t becoming a daily habit.” He chuckled sarcastically.
“It’s not a joking matter,” Laurie said. “Good grief! Could this death be related in some horrid way with Sue’s passing?”
“Obviously that was one of my first concerns,” Jack said. “Especially having learned that both Sue and Cherine were seen as partners in crime by some of the MMH higher-ups. But at this point, I’m tending to believe it is just an unfortunate coincidence. With Ms. Gardener, there is evidence it was an overdose and not just because there was typical pulmonary edema, which there was. In contrast with Sue’s death scene, a bag of suspicious powder was found in Cherine’s apartment that tested positive for fentanyl. Some of the powder was also visible in her nostrils.”
“But the timing is so suspect.”
“Agreed,” Jack said. “So here again the burden is on John, who will have the last word.”
“Oh, God!” Laurie complained while gesturing with her hands. “As if I don’t have enough to worry about. I’m glad that you are on top of this. What is your sixth sense telling you?”
“To be honest, my sixth sense is reminding me of my favorite Shakespeare quote: ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.’ However, at the same time I’m also cognizant of my reflexive hatred of AmeriCare and hence to the administration of its flagship hospital, the MMH. I’m not sure I can be my usual analytic self, but I’m trying. On the positive side, another nurse was in cahoots with both Sue and Cherine and at odds with the same hospital heavyweights. I already got a chance to speak with him briefly. He’s an impressive fellow, and he was helpful to an extent under the time constraints. He works the night shift, so he’s undoubtedly sleeping at the moment. But he said he doesn’t need much sleep, so I’m expecting a call at any time. My hope is that Sue had been as open about her medical serial killer suspicions with him as she had been with Cherine, which I have reason to believe was the case. When I spoke with him, I tried to find out if he knew anything about it without flat-out asking him, but I wasn’t successful because we ran out of time. Hopefully, that won’t be the case today, so if he knows about it, I’ll be able to find out. Of course, I’m also hoping he doesn’t end up here for an autopsy like Cherine.” Jack let out a short, mirthless laugh. “To be truthful, I’m getting paranoid.”
“That’s understandable,” Laurie said. “I hope your talk with this second nurse is fruitful. It sounds promising. But let’s talk about how to proceed in a general sense. Last night, I asked if it was time to let Lou know about this possible serial killer issue, but you said that it was a little early. Do you still feel that way? With even the slightest possibility of Sue’s and Cherine’s deaths being related, I think it’s better to be safe than sorry. Your thoughts?”
“Lou is already on board,” he said. He inwardly winced since once again he wasn’t being entirely up-front. He had purposely not mentioned anything about a potential serial killer to Lou, fearing that Lou’s tactics would undoubtedly spook a serial killer, if there was one, making it more difficult if not impossible for Jack.
“Did you talk with him this morning?” Laurie asked.
“I certainly did! He was here when I arrived, which surprised me. I hadn’t seen him for almost a month, and then he shows up two days in a row. He had come in to observe the post on Cherine.”
“Really?” Laurie questioned. “Why on earth was Lou interested in observing an overdose? They’re sadly a dime a dozen these days.”