“I wish all your requests were so easy,” Cheryl said. “I called over to Dr. Scheffield’s office and the secretary couldn’t have been more helpful. Henriette Kaufman and Dwight Sorenson were both patients. Does that help you?”
“I’m not sure,” Laurie said. “But it is interesting indeed. Thanks.”
Laurie went back to Lou and told him what she had learned.
“Wow!” he said. “That takes it out of the realm of coincidence. At least I think it does.”
“Five for five,” Laurie said. “The possibility of that happening by chance is extremely small.”
“But what does it mean?” Lou asked. “It seems like an awfully strange way to get at Cerino, if that’s what it’s about. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I agree,” Laurie said.
“One way or the other,” Lou said, “I’ve got to look into it immediately. I’ll be in touch.” He was gone before Laurie could say so much as goodbye.
Laurie hazarded one last glance at Calvin. He was still talking with George and didn’t seem the least perturbed by her presence.
Back in her office, Laurie called Jordan. As usual he was in surgery. Laurie left a message for him to please call back.
Trying to go back to work, Laurie wasn’t much more successful than she’d been earlier. Her mind was in a turmoil concerning her precarious job situation from having alienated so many people, her overdose series, and the odd coincidence that Jordan was treating a string of five gangland-style murder victims.
Laurie’s thoughts drifted back to Mary O’Connor. She suddenly remembered what she’d been trying to think of earlier. The abrasions on the lip, the florid petechiae, and the face’s deep purple discoloration suggested “burking,” the suffocation by compressing the chest while occluding the mouth.
With that thought in mind, Laurie phoned down to the autopsy room and asked for Paul.
“I’ve had a thought,” Laurie said once he was on the line.
“Shoot,” Paul said.
“What do you think about burking as a possible cause of death in the O’Connor case?”
Her suggestion was met with silence.
“Well?” Laurie questioned.
“The victim was in Manhattan General,” Paul said. “She was in a private room in the Goldblatt wing.”
“Try to forget where she was,” Laurie said. “Just look at the facts.”
“But as forensic pathologists we’re supposed to take the scene into consideration. If we didn’t, we’d misdiagnose tons of cases.”
“I understand that,” Laurie said. “But sometimes the scene can be misleading. What about homicides set up to look like suicides?”
“That’s different,” Paul said.
“Is it?” Laurie questioned. “Anyway I just wanted you to give burking some thought. Think about the lip abrasion, the petechiae, and the amount of congestion of the face and the head.”
As soon as Laurie put down the receiver, the phone rang. It was Jordan.
“I’m glad you called,” Jordan said. “I was about to call you. I’m up in surgery and I only have a second. I’ve got a number of cases, including, you’ll be glad to hear, Mr. Paul Cerino.”
“I am glad—” Laurie said.
“And I have a favor to ask,” Jordan said, cutting Laurie short. “In order to get Cerino on the schedule, I’ve had to do some juggling. So I’m going to be stuck here until late.
Could we take a raincheck on our dinner plans? How about tomorrow night?”
“I suppose,” Laurie said. “But Jordan, I have some things I have to talk to you about now.”
“Make it fast,” Jordan said. “My next patient is already in the operating room.”
“First, about Mary O’Connor,” Laurie said. “She had heart disease.”
“That’s reassuring,” Jordan said.
“Do you know anything about her personal life?”
“Not much.”
“What would you say if I told you she’d been murdered?”
“Murdered!” Jordan sputtered. “Are you serious?”
“I don’t know,” Laurie admitted. “But if you told me she had twenty million dollars and was about to cut her wicked grandson out of her will, the possibility of murder might enter into my thinking.”
“She was well-off but not wealthy,” Jordan said. “And do I have to remind you that you were supposed to make me feel better about her death, not more uneasy?”
“The doctor who did her autopsy is convinced that she died from heart disease,” Laurie said.