“So far I’ve only gotten trouble from you,” Angela said. “And I understand that you happen to be one of the people who’s not so sorry about Hodges’ death. I understand you mistakenly blame him for your wife’s death.”
Robertson stopped directing traffic and turned to Angela. His chubby cheeks had become beet red. “What did you say?” he demanded.
Just then David slipped in between Angela and Robertson, forcing Angela away. He’d been eavesdropping on the conversation from a few feet away and he didn’t like the direction it was taking.
Angela tried to repeat her statement, but David gave her arm a sharp tug. Through clenched teeth he whispered to her to shut up. When he got her far enough away he grabbed her shoulders. “What the hell has gotten into you?” he demanded. “You’re taunting a man who’s obviously got some kind of personality problem. I know you have a penchant for the dramatic but this is pushing it.”
“He was ridiculing me,” Angela complained.
“Stop it,” David commanded. “You’re sounding like a child.”
“He’s supposed to be protecting us,” Angela snapped. “He’s supposed to uphold the law. But he isn’t any more interested in this threatening note than he is in finding out who murdered Hodges.”
“Calm down!” David said. “You’re making a scene.”
Angela’s eyes left David’s and swept around the immediate area. A number of people had paused on their way into the church. They were all staring.
Self-consciously, Angela put the note away in her purse, smoothed her dress, and reached for Nikki’s hand.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s not be late for the service.”
With Alice Doherty recruited to watch over Nikki and Caroline, David and Angela drove to the hospital. Nikki had met Caroline after the church service, and Caroline had accompanied them to the Iron Horse Inn for brunch.
At the hospital, David and Angela met Donald Schiller and his in-laws, the Josephsons, in the lobby. They sat on the benches to the right of the entrance to discuss the proposed autopsy.
“My husband has asked you for permission to do an autopsy,” Angela said. “I’m here to tell you that I will be the one to do it if you agree. Since neither the hospital nor CMV will pay for this service, I’m offering to do it on my own time. It will be free. It also might provide some important information.”
“That’s very generous of you,” Donald said. “We still weren’t sure what to do this morning, but after talking to you, I think I feel okay about it.” Donald looked at the Josephsons. They nodded. “I think Mary Ann would have wanted it too, if it could help other people.”
“I think it might,” Angela said.
David and Angela went down into the basement to retrieve Mary Ann’s body from the morgue. They took it up to the lab and rolled it into the autopsy room. The room had not been used for autopsies for several years and had become a storeroom. They had to move boxes from the old stainless-steel autopsy table.
David had planned to assist, but it quickly became apparent to Angela that he was having a hard time dealing with the situation. He was not accustomed to autopsies, and this was the body of a patient he had been treating only the day before.
“Why don’t you go see your patients?” Angela suggested when she was ready to begin.
“You sure you can manage?” David asked.
Angela nodded. “I’ll page you when I’m done, and you can help me get her back downstairs.”
“Thank you,” David said. At the door he turned. “Remember, consider the possibility of an unknown viral disease. So be careful. And also, I want a full toxicological workup.”
“Why the toxicology?” Angela asked.
“I want to cover all the bases,” David said. “Humor me, okay?”
“You’ve got it,” Angela said agreeably. “Now get out of here!” She picked up a scalpel and waved for David to leave.
David let the autopsy room doors close behind him before he took off the hood, gown, and mask he’d donned for the post mortem. He was relieved to have been excused. David left the lab and climbed up to the patient floor.