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“Where’s Jack?”Marcus asked.
“Dr.Kazarian was taken ill, last night,” said Dr.Yu, somewhat stonily.“I’m a fully qualified M.E.,” she added.“With ten years’ experience in Hong Kong and Maryland.”
Kate felt a stab of sympathy for Dr.Yu, whose fresh complexion – and probably her size and gender, too – meant she would be perpetually obliged to justify her presence.She must have trouble buying a beer, too.
“Wow,” said Marcus.
If Kate had been closer, she would have nudged or kicked him.Instead, she moved closer to the screen.
“Cindy, hello, I’m Agent Kate Valentine.We were expecting to speak to Jack this morning.”
“Last night the doctor suffered a myocardial infarction, probably due to underlying rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque.”
Kate mouthed the words “heart attack” at Marcus.
“He’ll be undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention in a few hours’ time,” the M.E.added.“Doubtless entailing some sort of paxol-based elutive stenting system.”
As the daughter of a cardiothoracic surgeon, Kate understood more of this than her colleague, but even so, she felt Dr.Yu could have made some concessions to her audience.There were better ways to say that Jack Kazarian was having an operation to unblock an artery in his heart.However the doctor put it, though, Jack was out, for now.And Cindy was in.So, like the roomful of cobwebs and the blurry photos, it was just something they had to deal with.
“I’ve got some preliminary findings to share.The subject was a sixty-seven-year-old male.Particulate analysis of the lungs, respiratory tract, and nostrils indicate asphyxia caused by smoke inhalation.Body posture consistent with rapid loss of consciousness.”
“How can you tell that?”Kate asked.
Dr.Yu blinked, as if she hadn’t expected questions.“The body’s natural response to danger is to make itself as small as possible.We curl up, wrap our arms around ourselves, tuck our heads between our knees.That won’t provide protection from a fire of several thousand degrees Fahrenheit, but it’s what our instincts tell us to do.By contrast, the subject here was found in an open posture, legs apart, arms outstretched.” Dr.Yu looked up from her notes.“In other words, he lost consciousness before the fire caused any tissue damage.”
“Guess that’s a blessing,” Marcus said.
Dr.Yu continued.“Due to the clenched presentation of the pugnus, some eighty percent of the unguis digitus is intact.Fingernails,” she added.“Analysis yielded minute fragments of wood and a nitrocellulose substance.Varnish.On first impressions, the wood seems to be the same wood from which the confessional box was made, along with most of the benches inside the church building.It comes from theacer sacchinarumtree: the silver maple.”
“So he tried to claw his way out,” said Kate.
Everyone was silent for a while.
A short time later, after thanking Dr.Yu for her assistance, they decided to quit the office.Officially, it was to visit Annie’s Place, the cheery, homespun-looking diner across the street.But really, they wanted to be out of that room, to put the autopsy and the murder behind them, however briefly.A lot of the job was like that: situations you could only endure for very short intervals, like hot sun, or radiation.
“Think Jack’s going to come back?”Marcus asked, as they slid into a booth.“I’ll put that another way.I really hope Jack’s coming back.”
“Cindy’s okay.”
“Cindy’s a robot.A robot disguised as a sixth-grader.”
“And can you imagine how often guys like you question her ability to do her job?”
“’Guys like me?’Don’t make me out to be some kind of frat bro.You were shocked when she popped up on that screen.”
“Momentarily.”
“Like a little elf.”
“Stop it.I was just expecting Jack.”
A tall, broad waitress approached, like a cruise ship docking in a small harbor.Middle-aged, and wearing it well, with bright, pink, plastic earrings and a slash of matching lipstick.Her name was sewn in cursive script on her blouse.Annie.
“What can I fetch you, folks?”
They ordered apple pie and coffee.Annie, who wore her hair pinned up in a complicated forties style roll, shouted their orders to someone called Clyde, who was nowhere to be seen.With that business seen to, she put a hand on the edge of Marcus’s seat and said, “This was where he always sat.”
Kate and Marcus exchanged a glance.News travels fast.
