Robin Cook - Marker

"Are the police actively involved?"

"Most definitely. Detective Lou Soldano is here right at this moment, talking to his people over at the hospital."

"I think it would be inappropriate for you to do the post."

"It never crossed my mind. Jack is on his way in."

"Jack's not on second call."

"I know. I thought that not only could he do the autopsy, but he could lend me some needed moral support."

"Okay, that's fine," Calvin said. "Are you sure you want to stay? I could have someone take your place for the weekend. I imagine this is rather a shock."

"It's a shock, but I prefer to stay."

"That's your call, Laurie, and I won't force the issue. At the same time, I have to be clear about the stand of the OCME in regard to your series. As I said before, we are not in the speculation business. There's no proof any of these patients of yours are homicides. Are we on the same page, Laurie? I have to be sure, because I don't want you going to the media. There's too much at stake here."

"There was another case for my series this morning," Laurie said. "A healthy thirty-seven-year-old woman. That makes eight at the Manhattan General alone."

"Numbers are not going to sway me, Laurie, and they shouldn't sway you. What would sway me is if John came up with something toxicological. I'll see if I can put some pressure on him on Monday to redouble his efforts."

A lot of good that is going to do, Laurie thought dejectedly, knowing how much effort had already been expended.

"What else is going on?" Calvin asked. "You implied there was something more."

"There is," Laurie admitted. "I wouldn't have bothered you about it, but since I have you on the line, I might as well inform you." Laurie went on to tell the story about the two teenage boys. When she got to the end, she mentioned the media people in the lobby and then added, "I would like permission to inform them about my findings on these two cases. I believe it is in the public interest for this information to get out sooner rather than later, in hopes of discouraging kids from doing it again in the future."

"Are the media people aware of the headless corpse?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"If you talk with them, will you be able to restrain yourself from talking about the headless corpse or your series? They'll undoubtedly ask you."

"I believe so."

"Laurie, it's either yes or no."

"Okay, yes!" Laurie voiced with some impatience.

"Don't get testy with me, Laurie, or I'm not going to allow you to talk with any media."

"Sorry! I'm a little stressed."

"You can talk to the media about the subway incident, provided you emphasize your findings are a preliminary impression pending further study. I want you to say that specifically."

"Yes, fine, okay," Laurie said, eager to get off the line. Suddenly, she was tired of talking with Calvin, as he was a constant reminder of the political side of being a medical examiner.

When Laurie finally hung up, she turned around to face Lou, who'd also completed his calls. She inwardly winced with a sudden sharp pain in her lower right abdomen. Luckily, it was a far cry from what she had experienced in the taxi the evening before, but it got her attention nonetheless.

"Jack's coming in," Laurie said. She changed her position to relieve the pain. It did to some degree, but not completely. "He'll do the post on the headless corpse."

Lou nodded. "I overheard. It's a good call, because there's no way you should do it. I also overheard about your plan to talk to the newsmen downstairs. I can help you out by talking to them about the headless corpse while you stick to the subway accident. That way, you'll stay out of trouble with Calvin."

"Sounds like a good plan," Laurie said. She stood up, and the pain lessened.

"And I have to tell you that I already found out something very interesting. This Dr. Najah has a sheet. He was arrested four years ago trying to board a plane to Florida with a pistol in his briefcase. Of course, he claimed it was an accident and that he had forgotten it was in there, and he did have a license for it."

"Was it a nine-millimeter?"

"It was."

"Interesting!" Laurie placed her hand on her hip so that she could use her fingers to surreptitiously massage her abdomen. Similar to that morning, the maneuver was almost immediately curative.

"And something else," Lou said. "Before he retrained as an anesthesiologist, he'd been a surgeon."

"My word," Laurie said while picturing the neatly cut ends on the corpse where the head and hands had been removed.

"We're going to pull him in for a few days and have a couple of our more experienced interrogators have a crack at him. We're also going to get a search warrant and see if we can't come up with that nine-millimeter he was trying to take to Florida."

"Sounds like a very good idea to me," Laurie agreed.

It wasn't long after Laurie and Lou had gone down to face the media that Jack arrived, much to Laurie's surprise. She had suspected he had taken a cab, but Jack had corrected her. He had explained that at that hour of morning, his bike was the vehicle of choice for any crosstown travel when time was of the essence.

For Laurie and Lou, dealing with the journalists had been taxing from the start. Just getting them to quiet down had been difficult, since they had worked themselves into a minor frenzy. The story possibilities of a nameless, headless, handless corpse discovered by accident in the anatomy cooler of a major hospital were in some respects better than those of the two male teenagers getting run over by the A train. With characteristic imagination, some truly lurid scenarios had been envisioned.

Laurie had addressed the journalists first. The idea that the kids had been electrocuted while peeing on the third rail had raised a few eyebrows but no abiding interest. The group had been much more attentive, as well as rowdy, when Lou talked about the unidentified corpse, despite his cleverly not saying anything of substance.

Jack autopsied Rousseau a little while later, working with Marvin while Lou observed. Laurie made it a point not to even watch. Instead, she teamed up with Sal to post the college student found in the park. The cases were finished at about the same time.

Up in the lunchroom, over vending-machine sandwiches and drinks, Jack gave a thumbnail sketch of the findings on Rousseau. He explained that the first bullet had severed the man's spinal cord so that the victim would have been a paraplegic, had it not been for the second bullet. Jack described the second projectile as the coup de grâce, since it pierced the heart after grazing a rib, ending up in the left ventricular wall.

During the short monologue, Laurie struggled to maintain a calm exterior, actively suppressing that the details of what she was hearing concerned someone who was dear to her. To maintain the charade, she actually asked a few technical questions, which Jack was happy to answer. He said there was absolutely no doubt in his mind that the hands and the head had been removed well after the heart had stopped beating. It was also his opinion that the man had not suffered, as death had been almost instantaneous. As far as the bullets were concerned, they were definitely nine-millimeter.

After Lou had called his captain to fill him in on the details of the autopsy, he suggested that Laurie come over to the Manhattan General Hospital with him to help locate and identify whatever kind of lists could be found in Rousseau's office. Laurie agreed immediately. Not to be left out, Jack had asked to tag along. He said he wouldn't miss an opportunity to participate in AmeriCare's deserved comeuppance, certain the media was going to have a field day once they got a whiff of what was going on behind the scenes. Particularly after hearing about Patricia Pruit, he was now firmly in Laurie's camp.