“I want to get through this without one or all three of us coming down with the same illness,” Jack said. “What makes it particularly scary is that it’s an unknown virus.”
“Oh, no,” Vinnie said, feigning concern. “Don’t tell me it’s unknown.”
“What difference does that make?” Carlos stuttered.
Jack had to take a deep breath to keep from laughing. For some reason it seemed that tagging a microorganism as an unknown did providean extra aura of danger. “Unknown viruses are a lot easier to catch than known viruses,” Jack said, now making an attempt at humor. For a moment he worried he’d overdone it, but Carlos quickly proved him wrong.
“Do you think you have to be on a subway to catch it?” Carlos asked.
“Now, there’s a good question,” Jack said. “If we take these two cases as indicative of the nature of the illness, we’d have to say yes.”
“Then we should be okay,” Carlos said. “I mean, as long as we don’t go on the subway.”
“Easier said than done,” Vinnie said. “Besides, we might still be at risk. We’re in the basement here at the OCME. It’s kind of like the subway.”
“Good point,” Jack said. He inwardly smiled as he got his ventilator battery pack and hooked it up. He listened for the hum of the fan to be sure it was functioning normally. “This could be the start of something really big. The only other time people died this quickly on the subway was the 1918 flu pandemic. Back then at the height of the pandemic, New York City saw two to three hundred people dying each and every day.”
“No shit,” Carlos exclaimed.
“I kid you not,” Jack said, as he got his head up into the moon suit. It made his voice sound slightly deeper. “All right, I’m ready. Let’s do it.”
As a group, they walked the short distance from the moon suit locker room to the decomposing room. Carlos lagged behind, using a shuffling gait that made him look like he was walking in wet pants. Once inside the small autopsy room, they first went to the X-ray view box, so Jack could view the film that Vinnie and Carlos had previously taken.
“Well, at least this one surely didn’t have a heart transplant,” Jack said. He didn’t see anything abnormal, like old bone fractures or extensive dental work. “So now we know that having a heart transplant is not a requirement to come down with the subway pandemic.”
Next they got the body out by folding the body bag over the sides of the autopsy table, just as they had done with Carol Stewart. It was obvious Carlos was an unwilling participant.
“I’d guess she’s about the same age as Carol,” Vinnie said. “And nice duds. She looks like she, too, had gotten dressed up for something.”
“Very similar to Carol,” Jack said. “To me it means she was feeling normal when she got on the subway. It’s truly amazing how fast this subway pandemic kills. I hope you are not going on the subway tonight, Carlos.”
“No, not tonight,” he said nervously.
Jack took a series of photographs with the body clothed for identification purposes while Vinnie did the fingerprinting and uploaded the prints into the OCME database. Then Jack removed the woman’s jewelry, which included a watch and a ring, both of which matched what was removed from Carol, further suggesting to him that it was not a coincidence her name was Helen. Although she had pierced ears like Carol, she wasn’t wearing earrings. Jack then told the two mortuary techs to go ahead and start cutting off the clothes while he put the jewelry aside next to the specimen bottles.
Carlos was on the patient’s right, and as soon as Carlos had the right arm exposed, Jack rolled it over to look at the volar surface. As he had anticipated, there was a duplicate of Carol’s puzzle tattoo, with the only difference being the name. In this instance it was Carol.
“Shit!” Vinnie said, looking at the tattoo. “These two women must have been lovers.”
“They might even have been married,” Jack said. “I suspected that they might be a couple the moment Bart said this woman’s given name was Helen.”
“Do you think Helen caught this unknown virus from Carol?” Vinnie asked.
“That’s my fear,” Jack said. “Or maybe the other way around. One way or the other, it means it’s contagious. That is for damn certain.”
“I don’t want to be in here,” Carlos suddenly blurted.
“You’re not having fun?” Jack questioned.
Carlos backed up from the autopsy table. He was still holding thebandage scissors in his gloved right hand. “You people are crazy. I don’t need this.” He tossed the scissors onto the countertop next to the sink as if he no longer wanted to touch them.
“If you are thinking of leaving the party, you have to disinfect yourself,” Jack said, while he pointed to the side door that led into the connecting room designed for that purpose. “I trust you remember how it’s done?”
Carlos didn’t say another word before turning and barreling through the side door.
For a moment Jack and Vinnie paused and stared at each other, even though it was difficult to see their faces through the plastic face guards. When they suddenly heard the shower start in the other room, they high-fived.
“I think you accomplished your goal,” Jack said. “Congratulations.”
