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Candy Solves Everything!
"David," Lorna said, walking into the room. It was clear she startled him; he leapt into the air with a squeak and dropped the syringe he'd been holding into the metal pan in front of him. "What are you doing?" she asked, looking at the table. There was what appeared to be a liver sitting in the tray. It was fresh.
"I was uh," David stammered, gathering his composure. "I was just getting the rest of Mr. Devon here ready to go to Chem."
"David, listen," Lorna said.
"Uh oh," David replied. "That doesn't sound good."
"It's not," Lorna said. "I just got chewed out from upstairs. Apparently, three times in the last two weeks the Chem samples were incomplete."
"Really?" David said. "What do you mean incomplete?"
"I mean that everything wasn't there. You sent one up with one blood sample instead of four, that woman who attacked the bus went out with sections of her brain missing, and yesterday Theresa Banks' liver managed to disappear."
"I'm sorry," David said. "I don't know what..."
"Look, David," Lorna cut him off with a raise of her hand. It suddenly dawned on her that she was getting ready to deliver a speech that she, in the odd jobs she'd had since high school, had heard in various forms repeatedly. It was the 'serious' talk that bosses had with employees who were screwing up. "I like you David. I appreciate that you work late and that you clean up and that I can get you to do almost anything. But this is serious. We got lucky the first three times. Suppose next time we have to release to a family that wants everything because of some religious conviction?"
"I don't understand how those things could have happened," David said.
"Neither do I," Lorna replied. "But however it happened, it can't happen again."
"I know how serious this is," David said.
"I don't think you do," Lorna said. "Listen, the ME program here is under review. Did you know that? The city is considering going with private dissection businesses and labs. All they need is a reason to tip the scales and we're both out of jobs."
"I wasn't aware of that," David said.
"Well I was," Lorna replied. "Why do you think the Armstrong trial is so important?"
"Hello? Excuse me?" a voice called. Lorna and David both turned around to see Holly standing in the doorway. She was holding a manila envelope in her hand. "Hi, I was hoping you had the final report ready?"
"Sure, Holly," Lorna said. She looked at David, and then walked Holly into the small room off the main lab that served as her office. She went to the stack of bins on her desk and, after a moment of leafing through them, she found the one she wanted and opened it up.
"Ok, the obvious stuff was on the postmortem we did. 63 inches, 111 pounds. Damage to vaginal mucosa is consistent with forced entry, possible a foreign object. Inflammation of the stomach lining indicates pharmaceuticals, and the small intestine still had the hamburger she ate eleven hours prior in it. Subarachnoid hematoma. Two broken ribs and some fluid accumulation in the pleural spaces. Three plastic bags removed from oral cavity and airway. Extensive trauma to the esophagus, pharynx, larynx, and cricothyroid tissues, consistent with both strangulation and the introduction of a foreign object to the esophagus. Cause of death was asphyxia; manner of death was ligature of the neck. Mode is homicide."
"Well," Holly smiled. "I'm glad we were able to determine that it was a homicide."
"Hey," Lorna replied. "When you're dealing with lawyers, you have to overstate the obvious, especially with the head and chest injury."
"What about the lab work?"
"Ok, first, Chem identified the semen of seven individuals."
"That's going to make it hard to narrow down," Holly said.
"Well, you can narrow it down to seven suspects," Lorna replied. "We can do DNA matches on the guys from the club and the photographer.
"And Rick," Holly said, with a giggle.
"He'd love that," Lorna smiled. "Ok, her internal organs were all normal size. Serology says ethanol .13 milligrams per liter, cocaine 1.7 milligrams. Urine tests positive for cocaine, caffeine, and nicotine."
"She was cruising," Holly said.
"Not just cruising, she was pushing for an overdose."
"Well, I'm going to talk to that porn guy, get his list of photographers," Holly remarked. "I was hoping this would give me some more to go on."
"There is this," Lorna said, pulling out a few photographs. "Notice the color difference between skin of the hand and the skin of the arm?"
"The hands are much lighter."
"Right. A good sign of ligature of the wrists, but no abrasions," Lorna said. "There were fibers in the hairs on the backs of her wrists."
"Knock knock," a man's voice said. Lorna looked up to see Jefferson Lambert standing in the doorway to her office.
"Can you excuse me for a moment, Holly?" she asked.
"Sure," Holly replied.
"I came by to get the final on the briquette from the warehouse," Lambert said.
"Yeah," Lorna replied. She was already digging through the stack of folders, looking for the right one.
"All right," Lambert said, clapping his hands in front of his chest. A watch on a black leather band wound its way through the thick orange hair on his wrists; Lorna noticed that the hair was thick all the way up to the second knuckle of his fingers. "What have you got for me?" he asked.
"Not a whole lot I'm afraid," Lorna replied. "Toxicology was negative. No bone abrasions, no cranial damage. One GSW, and damage to the throat consistent with strangulation, but which killed him is anyone's guess. That's about it."
"You're not giving me a whole lot," Lambert said, taking the folder from her hands.
"Whoever did this covered their tracks," Lorna replied. "Best I can do is tell you that he was dead before he was burned and he was lit with gasoline."
"That's it?"
"And dental matched to Ken Rucker," Lorna smiled.
"Excuse me," Holly said, standing at Lorna's side. "I have to go, can you just tell me about the fibers real quick?"
"Yeah," Lorna said. "Ok, the fibers came back as rabbit."
"Rabbit?" Holly asked.
"Just tell me one thing," Lambert said, stepping between Lorna and Holly. "You're absolutely sure about this toxicology report?"
"Yes," Lorna said.
"There's no way it could be wrong because of the fire?" Lambert asked.
"No," Lorna replied.
"What about the dental match," he asked. "How accurate is that?"
"I don't know," Lorna said. "I'm not an odontologist. I'd have to talk to..."
"I don't think looking for a shooter on the street is a waste of time," Jake said, walking through the lab. His voice several decibels higher than the small lab required.
"And I think you're an idiot," Ford said. "It's obvious that the shot came from inside the van!"
"Lorna, we need the..." Jake stopped himself in the doorway. "Oh, sorry, didn't realize you had people in here."
"It's ok," Lorna smiled. She went over to her desk and pulled out one of the remaining three folders. It was the thinnest of the bunch. She handed it to Ford.
"See?" Ford said, pointing at the report. "The shot did come from inside."
"What?" Jake said. He pulled the folder from Ford's hand and looked at it, then looked up at Lorna.
"Sorry Jake," she said. "There were too many traces on the entrance wound. Antimony, lead, carbon, it was all there."
"But the blow back pattern on the window," Jake said. "There was blood around the bullet hole on the window indicating a entrance wound."
"It could have been an exit," Lorna said. "The secondary wound is ragged. If his head was turned to the right instead of the left then..."
"Ms. Perry," Lambert said, tapping her on the shoulder. He was looking down at the report. "What you have indicated as 'damage to the hyoid bone and surrounding tendons,' how do you know that's not evidence of post mortem contractions?"
"Because it's my job to know," Lorna said. "That kind of damage to the bone doesn't occur because of..."
"Excuse me," Ford said, interrupting. "Did you get a blood work on this guy yet?"
"Not yet," Lorna said. "It's been sent up..."
"Lorna," Holly said. "I really have to go. Can you just tell me what was important about the rabbit hair?"
"Well think about it," Lorna said. "There was no damage to the skin on the wrists, but signs that the blood flow was cut off. What does that indicate to you?"
"What about the firearms results?" Jake asked. "Did you get a weapon typing back yet?"
"I still don't get it. Fur-lined handcuffs?" Holly asked.
"Could the throat damage have been caused by the board on top of him?" Lambert asked.
"What about the interior damage from the bullet?" Ford asked.
"Yeah," Jake said. "Is the exit consistent with reflections inside the skull?"
"All right!" Lorna snapped. "That's it! All of you shut up! You two," she wheeled on Jake and Ford, who both flinched backwards, their eyes wide with surprise. "Your guy pulled the gun out from under the seat, rear-ended the car in front of him and the gun went off. No homicide, go see Webber for blood patterns if you don't believe me. You," she said, pointing her finger at Lambert. "Your guy was dead, dead as a doornail. He was deceased when lit. A corpse flambé. If you want more information I suggest you go look up 'dead' in the dictionary. Now all three of you get out! Out of my office."
Lambert looked at Ford, who looked at Jake, who looked at Lambert. Lambert looked over at Jake, Jake looked back at Ford and Ford looked over at Lambert, who shrugged. All three turned around and slinked out of the office. When they were gone, Lorna slammed the door and rubbed her forehead. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself then walked over and sat down at her desk.
"I'll just let myself out then," Holly said.
"Oh," Lorna replied, surprised. She'd actually forgotten that Holly was there. "Holly. I'm sorry."
"Lorna, are you all right?" Holly asked, pausing at the door.
"Do you want the considerate answer or the truthful answer?"
Holly looked down at her watch. "Tell you what, I've got a spa appointment in fifteen minutes. Why don't you come with me? I know the manager, I can get you in without an appointment. And afterwards we'll go to Shaw's for some ice cream and fudge, my treat."
"You know," Lorna said. "I don't think anything in the world sounds better than fudge and ice cream right now."
"I knew you'd see it logically," Holly smiled.
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