Night Shift

Chapter 27

Wednesday, December 8, 10:30 a.m.

Arriving at the administrative office, Jack approached Cheryl’s desk. As per usual, she was on the phone with headphones fitted with a small microphone. Although she wasn’t at the moment speaking, it was clear to him that she was listening, as she was also scribbling some notes. When Jack was about to pass, she raised her left hand and motioned with a thumbs-down, meaning Laurie was currently occupied, and he’d have to wait.

For Jack, waiting under such circumstances was like adding insult to injury, but he dutifully went over to the outer-office couch and sat down. Luckily, he didn’t have to wait long. Within minutes her office door opened, and the deputy chief, George Fontworth, emerged. His expression was glum.

“Is she in a bad mood?” Jack questioned, getting to his feet as George passed.

“The worst,” George whispered back. “Good luck! You are going to need it. Something happened that has made the incoming mayor’s support a little rocky. She wouldn’t tell me what it was.”

“Jesus H. Christ,” Jack mumbled. He looked over at Cheryl, who now gave him a thumbs-up. Progressively curious as to why he was being called on the carpet, he walked into Laurie’s cheerfully decorated domain. In sharp contrast to the décor, her expression was somber as she drilled Jack with her intense blue-green eyes. Her flushed cheeks reflected the bright red silk dress she was wearing. She was standing behind her large desk, leaning forward on her fingertips with her arms straight. It was apparent she had been again closely examining the morgue architectural plans, which were still spread out on the desk.

“I got a most disturbing phone call a few minutes ago from a member of the mayor-elect’s transition team,” Laurie said while straightening up. She folded her arms in a way that reminded him of his hard-nosed sixth-grade teacher.

“Oh, good,” Jack said brightly. “Were they calling to compliment you anew on your presentation yesterday?”

She shook her head. “Always the wise guy,” she said irritably. “Quite the opposite! The person I spoke with said that she had gotten an angry call from Marsha Schechter, who was a big donor to the campaign and has the incoming mayor’s ear. Schechter called to lodge an official complaint that a medical examiner by the name of Jack Stapleton had been caught at the hospital, going into locked offices without permission, and, worst of all, looking into hospital papers that he had no clearance to be reading and was escorted off the campus. Is all that true?”

“No, it is not!” he said with authority.

“It’s not?” Laurie questioned, momentarily taken aback.

“I never got to look at the hospital papers, much less read them,” Jack explained.

She rolled her eyes and waited a beat before responding to try to calm herself down. “Okay, smart aleck. The critical fact here is that you went over to the MMH one time. Is that true, yes or no?”

“I did not go one time,” Jack said.

“No?” Laurie again questioned with equal surprise.

“I went twice,” Jack confessed. “In the early afternoon and in the late afternoon.” He was now as irritated as Laurie for unfairly being attacked for doing his job.

“Oh, God!” she exclaimed. “You are impossible. You know you are not supposed to go out on site visits. It’s been a major policy here for years, which I am now responsible for enforcing. Can you imagine, just once, what kind of message it sends to everyone if I allow my husband to break such an established rule? On top of that, what if I lose the mayor’s support for the new morgue building over something like this?”

“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.”

“Interesting you should ask,” Jack said. “It initially confused me, too, because Kevin Strauss had unequivocally signed it out as an overdose. When I asked Lou, he admitted his concern was based more on a gut feeling than a rational one, worried that the death was a homicide gussied up to look like an overdose. But the idea wasn’t based on much.”

“Like what?” she asked.

“The woman’s apartment was in disarray, as if there had been a struggle of some sort, and one tenant thought there might had been a scream. But that was it. Lou admitted his suspicions probably had more to do with his taking personally the uptick in homicides during the pandemic. Halfway through the autopsy, he pretty much had changed his mind to agree with Kevin’s assessment. Everything pointed toward an overdose. One way or the other, though, we will know tomorrow from John.”

“Did Lou say what he might do between now and then?”

“No, he didn’t,” Jack said. “Not specifically. But he did agree to give me one more day to see what I could find out before calling in the cavalry.”

“You mean your upcoming meeting with the nursing supervisor?”

“Exactly,” he added. “I am going to put pressure on him to talk today. If there is time, I’d like him to come here.”

“All right,” Laurie said. “But I want you to promise not to cause any more aggravation with Schechter. Can I at least count on that?”

“Absolutely! Scout’s honor,” Jack said, giving a reassuring smile and a thumbs-up. “There is one administrator who I’d love to talk with, who was apparently Sue’s nemesis. Well, along with two doctors, including the anesthesiologist I mentioned who I did get to talk with briefly, but I will avoid talking with the administrator. If by speaking with the night-shift nursing supervisor again, I get even the slightest hint of an active serial killer, I’ll let Lou and his team take over. He and his detectives can talk to this administrator, who I’d describe as a person of interest along with the two doctors.”

“You said you spoke to Kevin Strauss about Sue’s case. Did you happen to tell him that you’d been over at the MMH making a site visit?”

“Of course not,” Jack said. “I was careful to avoid it. Interestingly enough, Kevin encouraged me to talk with the night nursing supervisor. Kevin was complimentary about the man, saying he’d worked with him on numerous occasions. I can understand why. Ronnie is clinically astute and personable, just how he was described to me.”

“Do you think I should call Bart Arnold and let him know this is a special situation, in case he or one of his MLIs get wind of your visiting the MMH?”

“I don’t,” he said. “I think it is better to let sleeping dogs lie. I’ve been careful to avoid anyone knowing and will continue to be.”

“All right,” Laurie said with a sigh and a wave of dismissal as her line of sight reverted down to the architectural plans. “Keep me informed.”

“Will do,” Jack said. He got to his feet and started toward the door, feeling he was being summarily dismissed.

“Just a minute!” she called out. “Hold up. I’m sorry I got so mad at you. I’m under a lot of pressure. Your seemingly cavalier disregard for one of the explicit rules set me off, especially if you doing so is going to ruin what progress I made yesterday with the mayor-elect. I understand now that wasn’t the case.”

Jack stopped and turned around. “I appreciate you saying that. I’m sorry I got mad at you for getting mad at me. You did, after all, ask me to take Sue’s case. Of course, neither of us had any idea it was going to be so involved, and I truly had to bend the rules to have gotten where I am.”

“I appreciate the effort you are making but want to make absolutely certain you understand the varied pressures I’m under.”

“I do,” he said. “You are trying to keep this variegated ship afloat in the rough seas of New York City politics, which ain’t easy. There are so many competing demands. But for the life of me I can’t understand why you are willing to do it, knowing how much you liked forensics, how much effort it took to become an ME, and how much satisfaction it gave you. I couldn’t do what you are doing, nor would I want to.”

Laurie came out from behind her massive desk, and she and Jack met in a spontaneous and warm embrace, holding each other tightly for a few beats in recognition of the appreciation, respect, and affection that they shared and which had continued to mushroom over the years despite the strains of their children’s medical issues.

As they separated, yet still holding hands, Laurie said, “I do miss being an ME and the opportunity to speak for the dead as you are continuing to do. Medical forensics is a true calling. But now I see this job as speaking to the living, which in many ways is equally as challenging and rewarding. A lot of people in high places in this city do not understand the tremendous service and value of the OCME, which can more than justify its considerable budget. It’s my role to change that misunderstanding while keeping everyone here happy and motivated and working as a team. As you rightly said, all of this ain’t easy. It’s like juggling a dozen balls all at the same time.”

“Touché,” Jack said. “Very well expressed. Being the chief is still not my cup of tea, but I’ll accept it is yours when you explain it so eloquently. Accordingly, I will proceed with my inquiries with the utmost tact to avoid any possibility of making your job more difficult. It was pure coincidence that I ran into Marsha Schechter, and I will make damn sure it doesn’t happen today.”

“Thank you, sweetie,” Laurie said. “And definitely keep me actively in the loop and Lou, too, particularly if anything whatsoever hints a medical serial killer is involved. Promise?”

“Promise!” he said. “One way or the other, I’ll fill you in as soon as I talk with Ronnie this afternoon, and then we decide how to proceed.”

“Be careful,” she advised.

“I’m always careful,” Jack said with a laugh.

“Yeah, right,” Laurie responded with a disbelieving shake of her head.