have a liver transplant?’
‘Not that I know of,’ Lou said. ‘He’d been sick for a number of years,
but I never knew the diagnosis. I hadn’t heard anything about a liver
transplant.’
‘If he didn’t have a liver transplant, then the floater isn’t Franconi,’
Jack said. ‘Even though the DNA lab is having a hard time confirming it,
I’m personally convinced the floater has a donated liver.’
‘What else can you people do to confirm that the floater and Franconi
are the same person?’ Lou asked.
‘We can request a blood sample from the mother,’ Laurie said. ‘Comparing
the mitochondrial DNA which all of us inherit only from our mothers, we
could tell right away if the floater is Franconi. I’m sure the mother
will be agreeable, since she’d been the one to come to identify the body
initially.’
‘Too bad an X ray wasn’t taken when Franconi came in,’ Jack said. ‘That
would have done it.’
‘But there was an X ray!’ Laurie said with excitement. ‘I just found out
this evening. Marvin had taken one.’
‘Where the hell did it go?’ Jack asked.
‘Marvin said that Bingham took it,’ Laurie said. ‘It must be in his
office.’
‘Then I suggest we make a little foray to the morgue,’ Jack said. ‘I’d
like to settle this issue.’
‘Bingham’s office will be locked,’ Laurie said.
‘I think this situation calls for some creative action,’ Jack said.
‘Amen,’ Lou said. ‘This might be that break I’ve been hoping for.’
As soon as they had finished eating and cleaning up the kitchen, which
Jack and Lou had insisted on doing, the three took a cab down to the
morgue. They entered through the receiving dock and went directly into
the mortuary office.
‘My God!’ Marvin commented when he saw both Jack and Laurie. It was rare
for two medical examiners to show up at the same time during the
evening. ‘Has there been a natural disaster?’
‘Where are the janitors?’ Jack asked.
‘In the pit last time I looked,’ Marvin asked. ‘Seriously, what’s up?’
‘An identity crisis,’ Jack quipped.
Jack led the others to the autopsy room and cracked the door. Marvin had
been right. Both janitors were busy mopping the expansive terrazzo
floor.
‘I assume you guys have keys to the chiefs office,’ Jack said.
‘Yeah, sure,’ Daryl Foster said. Daryl had been working for the medical
examiner’s office for almost thirty years. His partner, Jim O’Donnel,
was a relatively new employee.
‘We’ve got to get in there,’ Jack said. ‘Would you mind opening it?’
Daryl hesitated. ‘The chiefs kind’a sensitive about people being in his
office,’ he said.
‘I’ll take responsibility,’ Jack said. ‘This is an emergency. Besides we
have Lieutenant Detective Soldano with us from the police department,
who will keep our thievery to a minimum.’
‘I don’t know,’ Daryl said. He was obviously uncomfortable, as well as
unimpressed, with Jack’s humor.
‘Then give me the key,’ Jack said. He stuck out his hand. ‘That way you
won’t be involved.’
With obvious reluctance, Daryl removed two keys from his key chain and
handed them to Jack. ‘One’s for the outer office, and one is for Dr.
Bingham’s inner office.’
‘I’ll have them back for you in five minutes,’ Jack said.
Daryl didn’t respond.
‘I think the poor guy was intimidated,’ Lou commented as the three rose
up to the first floor in the elevator.
‘Once Jack is on a mission, look out!’ Laurie said.
‘Bureaucracy irks me,’ Jack said. ‘There’s no excuse for the X ray to be
squirreled away in the chiefs office in the first place.’
Jack opened the front office’s outer door and then Dr. Bingham’s inner
door. He turned on the lights.
The office was large, with a big desk beneath high windows to the left
and a large library table to the right. Teaching paraphernalia,
including a blackboard and an X-ray view box, were at the head of the
table.
‘Where should we look?’ Laurie asked.
‘I was hoping they’d just be on that view box,’ Jack said. ‘But I don’t
see them. I tell you what, I’ll take the desk and the file cabinet, you
look around the view box.’
‘Fine,’ Laurie said.