John Lescroart - The Suspect

"Doctor Strout, could you please give your name and occupation for the record?"

They were under way.

"John Strout. Chief Medical Examiner for the City and County of San Francisco."

"And how long have you held that position?"

Normally, without great cause Gina would not intrude early and out of turn in any proceeding; it tended to annoy judges. But this time, she felt she could start making some friends in the courtroom. "Your Honor," she said, "defense will stipulate as to Doctor Strout's qualifications."

"Thank you, Ms. Roake. Mr. Abrams?"

Abrams turned to her and nodded his thanks. "Doctor Strout," he said. "You did the autopsy on Caryn Dryden, the victim in this case, did you not?"

"I did." With his accent, the phrase came out, "Ah dee-id."

"Would you please tell us your findings and the clinical observations that support them?"

Among his other attributes, Strout was thorough. He began with the delivery of the body to the morgue, still in the final stages of rigor, still warm due to its immersion in the hot tub. At Abrams' prompting, he talked about the blood tests he ran that indicated a blood alcohol level of point one one and also the presence of the narcotic pain reliever Vicodin. He described the depressed fracture behind Caryn's ear, to which Abrams said they'd return in a minute. Finally, Strout's unequivocal finding was that the cause of death was drowning.

"Now, Doctor," Abrams said, "could you talk for a minute about the time that death occurred?"

"I could," Strout replied, "but I'm not sure I could get it all done in a minute."

Strout was enjoying himself as best he could. Time on the witness stand could get stultifying if you didn't break it up. The gallery behind Gina showed its appreciation with this tiny joke. Toynbee smiled too, still obviously delighted to be where he found himself. Then, back to business, Strout ran down the various permutations surrounding death in a one-hundred-and-five-degree bath, its effect on both the onset and relaxation of rigor mortis, core body temperature, and how these issues affected the calculation of time elapsed since death.

"But you were, in fact, able to calculate the time of death, were you not?"

"Fairly precisely, I would say."

"More precisely than if she hadn't been immersed in hot water?" Clearly, Abrams and Strout had rehearsed this moment.

"Yes, sir. Slightly more so. She died between about eleven forty-five and twelve forty-five the night before."

"Thank you, Doctor." Abrams then went over to what was usually the evidence table in the center of the courtroom, although today there was very little on it. He picked up the wine bottle that Strout had referred to earlier. It was distinctive enough to be recognizable: The label said it had held Edna Valley Chardonnay. Abrams had it entered as People's One, then handed it to Strout on the stand. "Do you recognize this bottle, People's One, Doctor?"

"I do."

"When did you first see it?"

"Inspector Juhle brought it to the morgue."

"At his request, did you compare it to the injury on the victim to determine if it could have caused that injury?" In this most clinical of settings, Caryn was "the victim," and would be until the prosecutor used her name in front of a jury to humanize her at trial.

"I did."

"What did you find?"

"It was a perfect fit."

"Could you explain that further?"

"Sure. Earlier, I had shaved the hair from the scalp to expose the fracture, which was pronounced and clearly defined. I compared it to the shape of the bottle and concluded that the bottle could definitely have caused the fracture."

"But Doctor, couldn't any bottle of this size and shape have caused an identical injury?"

"Of course. Any object could have caused the injury. But it would have had to have been the size and shape of this bottle."

"Doctor, was the blow to the victim's head enough to render her unconscious?"

"Yes. Certainly enough to stun her for some period of time, perhaps enough to knock her out."

"So the blow itself didn't kill her?"

"No. As I said, the cause of death was drowning. There was water in her lungs. She was definitely breathing when she went underwater." "Thank you." Abrams turned to Gina. "Your witness," he said.

Gina took what she hoped was an invisible deep breath, pushed her chair back, and got to her feet. Her legs, much to her relief, felt strong. (Dismas Hardy had cautioned her to watch out about standing up too fast or moving too far away from her table before she felt her sea legs come in under her.) Wasting no time, she walked to the center of the courtroom. "Good morning, Doctor. Did you say that the blow from the bottle to the victim's head rendered her unconscious?"

"No. Not exactly. I said it could have."

"It could have. But not necessarily did?"

"No, not necessarily."

"Was the blow hard enough to fracture the skull, Doctor?"

"Yes."

"Doctor, how long before being submerged in the water did Ms. Dryden sustain this injury?" "I don't know."

"Well, wasn't that fracture associated with the bloody wound on the scalp?"

"Yes, it was."

"And would that injury have bled after she sustained it?"

"Yes."

"Now, typically, when you have a bloody injury, you can see by the clotting and scabbing how long the victim survived after the injury, isn't that true?"

Strout threw a glance over to Abrams. Neither of them was smiling now. "In some instances."

"Well, what you mean, Doctor, by 'some instances,' is that if there had been significant scabbing, an injury like this could have been sustained hours, or even days, before the drowning, isn't that so?"

"No. I don't think days. If able to do so, the victim would have sought medical attention after receiving this injury."

"But certainly hours? Correct? Because this body was submerged in water, any evidence of clotting or scabbing would have washed away, right?"

"Correct."

"So for all you know, Caryn Dryden could have sustained this injury hours before she was submerged in water. Isn't that the truth?" "That would be accurate."

"Now also, Doctor, you can't say that she was struck with the bottle, as opposed to striking the bottle with her head. Correct? Let me be clear. You don't know if someone hit her with the bottle or if she stumbled and fell and hit her head on the bottle."

"I'm not sure that's a likely scenario. We're talking about an awful lot of force here."

"Are we, Doctor? This injury was in front of her ear, was it not? Right at one of the thinner parts of the skull?"

"Yes."

"So, Doctor, it is true, is it not, that you cannot rule out the possibility that Ms. Dryden, for example walking on a slippery floor, full of alcohol and Vicodin, stumbled and hit her head on a bottle of wine that she was carrying?"

"Well, no, I can't absolutely rule that out."

"And by the way, Doctor, when you say the blow was enough to render her unconscious, I think you've already said it would not necessarily have done so."

"True."

"So having inflicted this injury on herself, she could have recovered from being stunned and thrown the bottle and the broken glass she was carrying into the trash compactor, true?"

"I can't absolutely rule that out."

"Well, Doctor, when you say you can't absolutely rule it out, what you're saying is that you can't rule it out. Correct?" "That is correct. I can't rule it out."

"All right. Leaving the fracture and the bottle for the moment, let me ask you what, if anything, you found on the victim's body that indicated someone had pushed her under the water?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Other bruises, finger marks on her shoulders? Tissue under her fingernails? Other signs of a struggle?" "No. There were none of those."