“That’s exactly how Dr. Henderson described her,” Laurie added. “He also said she wasn’t popular with the other residents. She doesn’t seem to have any social sense. Whether it’s ingrained or learned, I haven’t the foggiest.”
“On the plus side, she is smart,” he said.
“I agree,” Laurie said. “And so does Dr. Henderson. And to her credit, she has really immersed herself in the case I did with her yesterday. So much so, it reminds me of you and I when we were new hires.”
“In what way is she immersed?” Jack asked.
“She’s convinced that it’s imperative to find the father of the unexpected fetus we found. She thinks the father might well have had something to do with the drugs the patient used to overdose. And as a millennial, she has come up with a novel way of possibly tracking him down that I don’t think you or I would have thought of, namely using genetic genealogy.” Laurie briefly filled him in on the logistics of Aria’s plan.
“Really?” Jack questioned. “Now, that is a uniquely cool idea. You’re right, I wouldn’t have thought of it.”
“I wouldn’t have, either,” she said. “I’m afraid it just shows how quickly we can fall behind the times, given how fast technology is changing. Anyway, I find it all fascinating, and I’ve encouraged her to look into it. At the same time, I made it absolutely clear that our Molecular Genetics Department can have nothing to do with it or we would lose our accreditation.”
“That’s for sure,” Jack said.
“I’ve encouraged her to keep doing what she’s doing, provided she stays away from our DNA lab, keeps me informed of what kind ofprogress, if any, she is making, and respects HIPAA rules. For someone who’s obviously not going to go into forensics, and whether or not she’s ultimately successful in finding the father, she’s probably learning more about forensic pathology’s capabilities than by observing a disjointed bunch of autopsies.”
“Could be,” he said.
The intercom light on her desk phone illuminated. She picked up the receiver. It was Cheryl, saying that Dr. McGovern was there to see her.
“Send him in.” Laurie said, after getting a nod from Jack that he was okay with Chet’s joining them.
A minute later, an aggravated Chet McGovern swept into her office. “I give up! I cannot handle this woman, and she’s driving me crazy,” he barked as he strode in, heading for her desk. Halfway there he caught sight of Jack sitting on the couch and stopped. “Oh, sorry,” he added, redirecting his attention to Laurie. “Am I interrupting something? I didn’t know you were busy.”
“No problem. She’s all yours,” Jack said. He got to his feet. “I’m on my way out.”
“No, stay!” Chet said. To reorganize his thoughts, he smoothed back his receding hair and stroked his goatee. “Where was I? Oh, yeah! You have to hear this. I just had another crazy run-in with my bête noire resident, Aria Nichols. I’d been more or less looking for her since she disappeared after Jack’s gunshot case, and thenbingo, I ran into her in the elevator. When I tried to ask her where she’d been, she accused me of being patronizing. Can you believe it?”
“Were you?” Laurie asked. She remembered what Aria had said about Chet asking her to have a drink soon after their initial meeting and how she felt about his following her over to the Langone Medical Center. She was tempted to bring both issues up but decided against it.
“Hell, no,” Chet said. “Unless calling her ‘young lady’ could be considered patronizing. I actually wanted to call her something else entirely but resisted.”
“Calling a senior pathology resident ‘young lady’ certainly qualifies as being out-and-out patronizing,” Laurie said. Then she turned to Jack. “Do you agree?”
Jack raised his hands as if surrendering. “This is an issue for the chief medical examiner to adjudicate. I’ll take the Fifth.”
“Coward,” she said with a smile.
“Hey!” Chet said. “Whose side are you guys on? I’m the aggrieved party here, not this sassy pathology resident.” Then he smiled himself, realizing how he was sounding. “All right, I get the message. Maybe I’m taking this a bit too personally.”
“I can actually commiserate with you to a degree,” Laurie admitted. “I find her provocative also. It’s as if she has no empathy.”
“I’d call her outright hostile,” Chet said. “As we were getting off the elevator, I asked her if she was coming to the afternoon conference. And you want to know how she responded?”
“I can’t imagine, knowing how she’s responded to you on previous occasions,” Laurie added with her smile returning.
“She flipped me off,” Chet said with great indignation. “She didn’t even answer. She just gave me the finger.”
“In a way she did the same to me,” Laurie said. “When we finished the case yesterday, I asked her to help Marvin clean up. She told me she didn’t have the time and walked out. She might as well have given me the finger.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you guys,” Jack interjected. “I got along with her fine this morning. She couldn’t have been nicer.”
“Really?” Chet questioned, but then he saw Jack’s smile and knew Jack was merely teasing.
“Don’t let Jack get your goat,” Laurie said. “He was on artificiallygood behavior with Dr. Nichols for my benefit. Ironically enough, we had been talking about her just before you arrived.”
“That reminds me,” Chet said. “She justified her absence by saying she was still working on the case that you let her do yesterday, trying to investigate the manner of death. Is all that true?”
