Genesis

Chapter 8

May 8th

5:35 P.M.

As Laurie expected, Cheryl had departed for home but not before leaving a carefully written note of all the calls that had come in while Laurie was down in the pit. Sitting at her desk, she scanned the list. Two of the calls concerned the Health Committee meeting that morning, and one of those was from the City Council member from the Bronx. Remembering it was well after five P.M., she decided to put that call off until the morning. Not only was it after business hours, she guessed it probably involved more complaints about the closure of the Bronx morgue.

Several of the other calls Laurie felt she couldn’t put off, especially the one to Twyla Robinson, chief of staff, about several employees who Twyla intended to terminate. Laurie had made a point with all department heads that she wanted to be notified prior to all termination proceedings. As it turned out, Twyla had more than enough reason to fire the individuals involved and had actually acted with great restraint. Laurie gave her approval without reservation.

With the required calls out of the way, Laurie searched for Dr. Carl Henderson’s number. At the time she’d written it down, she thought the chances of her needing it were slim. But since there had been something out of the ordinary found at Kera Jacobsen’s autopsy, she thought it would be appropriate to let him know as she had promised. She also thought she might ask a few questions about Aria Nichols, as she still wasn’t sure how she was going to deal with the problematic resident even though she felt somewhat positive about the woman’s renewed interest in forensics. After searching in vain in her center drawer, she found the number right on top, tucked into the corner of the desk blotter pad.

As the call went through, Laurie pictured the man from the few times she had seen him at New York University functions that she had been required to attend. On one occasion after Dr. Henderson had been recently hired following an extensive search, she’d been formally introduced by the dean of the NYU Medical School, and she remembered him as having light-brown hair, and being slender, tanned, and unapologetically dapper. But even more than his appearance, she remembered him as gregarious, humorous, and quick-witted. In short, she had been impressed.

“Carl Henderson here,” he said in the baritone voice Laurie clearly remembered from speaking with him earlier. His faintly upper-crust accent reminded her of her father, Sheldon.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” she said. It was approaching six P.M., and she knew that many people had already started their evening activities by that time. She could imagine him at an elegant, old-world New York club enjoying a cocktail.

“Absolutely no bother, Dr. Montgomery,” Carl said, recognizing her voice. “I’m glad to hear from you, but I hope this isn’t because there was something out of the ordinary found during the autopsy of Miss Jacobsen.”

“I’m afraid there was,” Laurie said. “But not terribly out of the ordinary. It was more of a surprise than anything. Kera Jacobsen was about ten weeks pregnant.”

“Oh, no,” he said with obvious distress. “That makes it a double tragedy.”

“That is exactly what I said when we found the embryo or fetus,” Laurie said.

“It also makes it more important to keep the media from knowing about the case,” Carl said. “That’s the kind of lurid detail the tabloids thrive on. They’d hype it up big-time.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she said.

“Anything else of note?” he asked. “I’m assuming it was a typical overdose.”

“Seemed reasonably typical,” Laurie said. “There was a very positive rapid screen for fentanyl, which we’re unfortunately seeing in far too many of the overdose cases. The only other somewhat surprising thing was that there wasn’t as much pulmonary edema as usual. It will be interesting to get the toxicology results and see what the blood concentration of fentanyl is. My guess is that it’s going to be sky high, meaning it depressed the patient’s breathing very rapidly instead of over time like usual. Your resident raised the possibility of a cardiac channelopathy being involved, which is an interesting idea but probably not the case. But we’ll rule it out. It’s one of the benefits that the OCME has perhaps the best forensic DNA lab in the world.”

“That answers my next question,” he said. “I was going to ask if you did the case with Dr. Nichols as you suggested earlier?”

“I did indeed,” Laurie said.

“Is it normal for the chief medical examiner to do a case with an anatomical pathology resident?”

“No, it isn’t,” she admitted. “Far from it, and thank you for noticing. When you called earlier, I was tempted to ask you about this particular resident. It had been brought to my attention by our director of education that Dr. Nichols wasn’t taking her rotation over here seriously. There was also a question about her attitude. I wanted to see for myself, so I had already scheduled to work with her.”

“That’s a very generous way to put it,” Carl said with a short laugh. “I’ve had more than a question about her attitude. She’s been one of the most disruptive residents I’ve had to deal with. Actually, it’s been Dr. Zubin, our residency program director, who has had to deal with her, but he keeps me up to speed. She’s not a team player. In fact, she’s rather antisocial and is not popular among her fellow residents. But, on the other hand, she’s extraordinarily bright, and a few of our attendings think she is the best resident they’ve come across. I’ve been told that her skills with surgical pathology are exceptional. It’s like she has a sixth sense.”

“She certainly isn’t social,” Laurie said, remembering some of Aria’s comments, particularly to Marvin. “She freely admitted to me that she does not like men or patients. With that kind of attitude, it makes me wonder how she managed to get into medical school or get a residency here at NYU.”

“I wondered the same thing,” he said. “When I went back and read the interviews in her application, I got the impression that my predecessor thought she’d be particularly sensitive to patients’ needs from having suffered through a difficult childhood. I think she managed to turn her history to her advantage.”

“I’m not surprised,” she said. “She’s obviously smart and clearly manipulative.”

“Smart or not, I’m not sure I would have voted for her. Needless to say, she was accepted into the program prior to my becoming the head of the department.”

“Personality notwithstanding, I do have to give her credit where credit is due. She’s hardly likable, but she did a superb forensic autopsy today, so my reservations in her technical abilities have been lessened. It’s amazing how much basic forensics she’s apparently picked up from just observing a few cases over a little more than a week. And the finding of the unknown pregnancy seems to have kindled at least some interest in the field. I’ve gotten the impression she’s seriously committed to following up on this particular case. It seems almost like she’s emotionally invested, which is what happened to me on my first forensic autopsy.”

“Well, that’s encouraging,” Carl said. “Maybe some good will come from this double tragedy.”

“It would be nice to believe,” Laurie said.

“I personally want to thank you for all your help in this affair,” he said. “And I assume any investigating she does will be under your close mentorship.”

“Completely,” she said. “Although I let her do the autopsy, I was there for the entire procedure and would have intervened if necessary. Legally the case is mine, and when the death certificate is filled out, it will be my signature on it. I specifically told her that she has to keep me informed of any and all progress as it happens, and she has to do it in close conjunction with one of our medical-legal investigators.”

“Perfect,” Carl said. “And can I ask you to keep me updated as well? Also, I would like as much input about this resident as I can get, particularly favorable information like you are suggesting. After all, ultimately it will be up to me whether she is certified as a board eligible pathologist.”

“I’ll be happy to keep you updated,” Laurie said. As she hung up the phone, she only hoped she’d be able to send favorable reports — with Aria, she was quickly learning, one just never knew.