Hardly slowing, Jack rounded Cheryl’s desk. When she looked up at him, he mouthed silently,Is she available?and pointed at Laurie’s closed door. To his disappointment, Cheryl shook her head no while waving an index finger in the air.
Jack rolled his eyes but stopped just short of Laurie’s door to wait for a green light to go in.
“She’s on a brief call to the mayor’s office,” Cheryl explained when she concluded her own call. “My advice is to wait. It shouldn’t be long.”
Jack reluctantly nodded. Cheryl Stanford had been the secretary to the chief medical examiner for more than thirty years, and Jack, along with everyone else, respected her opinion. While he waited, he went over his surprising call with Bob Nielson and planned what he was going to say to Laurie. As the hours had passed that morning, he’d become even more convinced that visiting Essex Falls was quite a wonderful opportunity being dropped into their laps.
“Okay, she’s off,” Cheryl said a few minutes later while gesturing toward Laurie’s closed door.
With a nod, Jack knocked but in his eagerness opened the door even before hearing a response. “I got the most unexpected phone call and offer this morning,” Jack said excitedly as he entered Laurie’s bright and cheerful office. Instead of the dark brooding affair the place had been, the office was now painted white with colorful drapes and a couch upholstered in a matching floral fabric. Jack remembered the previous atmosphere all too well from having been “summoned onto the carpet” innumerable times for supposed transgressions during his off-site investigations of difficult cases.
“Interesting!” Laurie responded energetically, sitting behind the giant mahogany partners desk that dominated the room. It was the only remnant from the previous chief. She was clearly in a great mood and as hyped up as Jack, as evidenced by the broad smile dominating her face. “But before I hear about your phone call, let me tell you that I was just talking with the major’s office. I wanted them to be the first to know that there’s now an agreement with the CUNY Hunter College nursing school, which didn’t seem possible just days ago. What it means is that the OCME will be getting the space I wanted in the new Kips Bay Science Park and Research Campus both in terms of location and overall square footage. As I was hoping, it’s going be in the part of the complex along the southside of Twenty-sixth Street. Not only are we now finally on track for the desperately needed new pathology center, but there’s a good possibility of a pedestrian walkway bridging Twenty-sixth Street to connect the new morgue with the OCME Hirsch building on the opposite side of the street. What that will mean is no more braving the elements to connect us medical examiners with our forensic laboratories and our medicolegal investigators. I’m pleased beyond words.”
“That’s great news!” Jack said, feeling even more encouraged to tell Laurie his news as he took a seat on the brightly colored couch.
“I can’t tell you how surprised and overjoyed I am,” Laurie added. “I never expected Ms. Waters to change her mind, especially since the CUNY nursing school essentially owns the property where the entire science center is to be constructed.”
“Congratulations. Obviously your persistence has paid off big-time. It calls for a celebration, which my news could be interpreted to be.”
“Oh?” Laurie questioned, eyebrows raised. “Who was this phone call from?”
“Bob Nielson,” Jack said. “Did I ever mention his name to you?”
“I don’t believe so.”
“He was in my medical school class and we played a lot of basketball in Bard Hall together. He was both a good player and student. I know because we did third-year medicine rotation together. But despite all that, after graduation, we lost touch. I didn’t even remember where he’d done his residency or in what specialty.”
“Well, that’s a voice out of the past. I’m sure it was fun to hear from him.”
“For sure. And with a surprising twist. I learned that he’d done an internal medicine residency here in the city and ended up ingeneral practice back in his old hometown upstate. The town is called Essex Falls. It’s up in the Adirondacks near Canada.”
“I’ve heard that’s pretty country.”
“According to him, it’s a bit of Shangri-la and he loves it, although even Shangri-la has its problems. More than a dozen years ago the town’s raison d’être and major employer, including his, called the Bennet Shoe Company, suddenly went out of business. Obviously it was a huge economic downturn for the town, and it left him as the solo practitioner.”
“That’s unfortunate. Did you get the impression it was a big practice before the shoe factory closed its doors?”
“I did. But all that has nothing to do with the surprising twist I’m referring to. Five years or so ago, someone encouraged him to run for the county coroner, which he ended up doing, and he won. So, believe it or not, he is the Hamilton County coroner in addition to being the town’s sole medical practitioner.”
For a moment Jack stayed silent, allowing Laurie to absorb what he’d just told her. For a few beats she merely stared back at him, expecting to learn more.
“Surprising, isn’t it?” Jack said.
“Well, I don’t know. I think it makes a certain amount of sense for a county coroner to have legitimate medical training. It is certainly better than not having any medical training. Has he taken any forensic pathology courses?”
“I don’t believe so, but I don’t know for certain. He says he’s done a significant amount of reading. I guess I found his being a coroner more surprising than you.”
“Apparently,” Laurie agreed. “So, what was this offer you mentioned?”
“He’s offered us what sounds like fabulous accommodations ina summer paradise if we would be willing to drive up to Essex Falls and assist him in autopsying a case of a twentysomething male pest control employee whom he believes died yesterday of organophosphate poisoning. He’s concerned because the patient apparently had yet to report to work in the morning. He’d also like to get our take on several cases of neurodegenerative disease deaths he’s already autopsied. In return he promised we’d be staying at a Victorian mansion. It sounds like quite a house with something like a dozen bedrooms.”
“That would be an experience. You sound eager to do this.”
“I suppose I am. Aren’t you? A little?”
“You know as well as I that trying to do a reasonable autopsy in makeshift, fly-by-night conditions is no picnic. Why don’t you have him ship the body down here, and we can do it here? We can have him come to the city and assist.”
“He’s very committed to us coming up there,” Jack said. “He’s very proud of the place. And it sounds like the conditions he works under as a coroner aren’t so bad. He told me he’s created an actual autopsy room that even has a walk-in cooler. I’m assuming it’s a reasonable setup.”
