Genesis

Chapter 22

May 9th

2:05 P.M.

Aria was duly impressed upon stepping off the elevators into the sixth-floor toxicology lab, her first visit there since she’d arrived at the OCME at the beginning of the month. Although the entire building was slated for demolition sometime in the not-too-distant future, the lab looked as if it had recently been renovated with banks of spanking-new, obviously high-tech equipment, and lots of counter space. The only thing that looked old and outdated were the windows. Two technicians in laboratory garb were monitoring the mostly automated machines. Aria went up to the nearest individual, a tall black woman whose hair was completely contained in a hood.

“I’m Dr. Nichols,” she said. “I need some samples of blood that was sent up yesterday. How can that be arranged?”

“You’ll have to speak with the department head, Dr. DeVries,” the woman said, pointing to an open office door.

Aria walked over and into the office. A slim, older Caucasian man with thinning white hair was seated at a desk, signing a stack of reports. Aria repeated her request but was shunted to the neighboring office to find the assistant supervisor, Peter Letterman. Yet again she asked for the samples, this time from a youthful-looking, diminutive tow-haired man.

“What was the name?” Peter asked with a pleasant smile after Aria introduced herself and repeated her request.

“Kera Jacobsen,” Aria said. “There was also a fetus associated, obviously with no name but perhaps with a different accession number. I don’t know how that is handled.”

“I remember the case,” Peter said. “It was an overdose.”

“That’s right,” she said.

“What do you need blood samples for?” Peter asked.

“DNA test,” Aria said.

“Blood had already been sent over to the Molecular Genetics lab at 421 for DNA analysis,” Peter said.

“This is for a different DNA test,” Aria said irritably. She didn’t want to have trouble with this nerd after making so much potential progress on the phone with Vijay Srinivasan.

“How much blood will you need?” Peter said. “There wasn’t a lot obtained from the fetus, considering the age and size.”

“Whatever you can give me,” she said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. She was about to say something abusive when Peter got to his feet.

“I’ll be right back,” he said. He smiled. Aria did the same but hers wasn’t as sincere.

As she waited, Aria glanced around the windowless office. Although it looked newly redecorated, the desk was as old and pitiful as the one she’d just been sitting at in the residents’ room. There were pictures of two kids thumbtacked to a cork bulletin board, and one framed photo of an overweight, smiling woman on the desk.

Just when she was about to go out and search for Peter he returned. He handed her two tiny, capped test tubes with labels. One obviously contained about a cc of blood, the other a quarter of that amount.

“That’s all we can spare of the fetal blood,” Peter said. “Sorry, but we might have to redo our drug screen for the fetus if a problem develops with the first sample.”

Aria merely nodded and walked back into the lab proper. Without wasting any time, she continued out into the hall and summoned an elevator. As she waited, she checked the time on her phone and inwardly groaned as it was already after two. As she boarded the elevator, she acknowledged it wasn’t a good time to be wandering around on the first floor since the afternoon conference that Dr. McGovern ran would soon be starting. Yet she had little choice. With the blood samples in hand, she was intending to head directly over to the Meatpacking District, which required going out the front door. The problem was that she preferred not to run into McGovern even though it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

As it turned out she needn’t have worried about running into him on the first floor because the elevator stopped on the fourth floor, and he boarded, to her exasperation.

“My goodness gracious!” he marveled, making an exaggerated expression of total surprise. “The Phantom herself! I’m so lucky! Such a nice coincidence. Here I thought you might not grace us with your presence until morning.”

Aria took a deep breath to gird herself against this Don Juan who obviously took himself way too seriously, coming up with such a stupid nickname.

“Where have you been?” Chet snapped with a 180-degree change in his demeanor. “I’ve texted you and tried to call. This is getting absurd, young lady.”

She gritted her teeth. There was that offensively condescending “young lady” again.

“I really don’t understand your attitude,” Chet said. “Dr. Stapleton was reasonably complimentary this morning, but he said you just disappeared at the end while he was finishing his bullet-tracking diagram. And you were supposed to find me after the case so I could assign you another. Where on earth did you go?”

“I’m still working on the case I did yesterday,” Aria said. “There’s a big difference between observing and doing. I’ve done enough observing.”

“What do you mean ‘the case you did’?” Chet asked. “Are you talking about Dr. Montgomery’s autopsy yesterday?”

“Dr. Montgomery let me do the case,” Aria said. “I was the prosector, and she the observer, which is a lot more appropriate considering I’m a senior pathology resident. And now I’m doing some follow-up investigating on the case to try to determine the manner of death. Most important, I’m learning something, which you should applaud as the supposed director of education.”

“Let’s not be sarcastic,” Chet said.

“You can be patronizing, and I can’t be sarcastic?” she questioned with exaggerated uptalk. “How is that fair?”

“How am I being patronizing?” Chet asked.

“The fact that you have to ask is pathetic,” Aria said as the elevator bumped to a stop on the first floor and the doors opened. Aria didn’t wait. In a blink of an eye she was out and heading toward the front of the building.

“Hold up!” Chet called after her. “Aren’t you coming to the conference?”

She didn’t even bother turning around. Instead she flipped him the bird over her shoulder as she pushed through the door leading out to the building’s public foyer.