“Derrick is a master. He’ll edit everything down so it sounds perfect.”
“These are Drs. Schultz and Tilly, the other pathology fellows here in Raleigh.”
Handshakes all around as Sidney tried to ignore the autopsy tables on each side of them, and the white sheets that covered in lumpy fashion the bodies underneath.
“I told Dr. Schultz and Dr. Tilly about your request that I have a look at the Julian Crist autopsy. I asked for their help. All three of us reviewed the autopsy—the photos, the reports, the analysis, everything. We all came to the same conclusion.”
“Which was?”
“Somebody screwed up.”
Sidney slowly looked to the corner of the morgue where Derrick was filming. He gave a thumbs-up; he was getting it all.
“And you can prove this?”
“The autopsy report and photos are ten years old, but we’ve combed through them very carefully. Yes, we think we can show without doubt that the conclusions in the report are incorrect.”
Sidney nodded slowly. Tomorrow night’s airing would put her three episodes in, ratings were thin, and the audience was growing at a slower clip than anticipated. She needed an explosive installment. She needed an “aha moment” that caught viewers off guard, and made them talk about the documentary with friends and coworkers.
“Which conclusion?” Sidney asked.
“The one that suggested Julian Crist’s skull fracture was caused by a boat oar. It was not.”
“How were you able to determine this? And how can you prove it?”
“Here’s the deal,” Dr. Cutty said. “Our one-year pathologyfellowship runs from July fifteenth last year to July fifteenth this year. That’s a few days from now. So the three of us are all but finished with our training. We’ve written our boards, we’ve reached our autopsy numbers, and we’ve each accepted job offers. That means we’re stuck here for two more weeks and we’re bored as hell. The only thing we have left to complete is our end-of-year projects, which require each of us to conduct an experiment to prove or disprove a theory common to forensic pathology. We’ve all started researching our own projects, but, frankly, none of us has very good ideas. Typically, this end-of-training exercise is a way to kill the last week or two of fellowship and no one, including our chairman, takes it particularly seriously. But after you and I spoke, and we all had a look at the Julian Crist autopsy, the three of us figured we’d take a stab at changing that. We’re going to conduct an experiment to show that it was impossible for the boat oar in question to have caused Julian Crist’s skull fracture. In exchange, you agree not only to give it a prominent place in the documentary, but also to give each of us face time through interviews. Plus, list us as consultants in the credits.”
Sidney lifted her chin. “Better than being published.”
“We’re already published.”
Sidney shrugged her shoulders. “Agreed. Depending on what, exactly, you can show me. And what theory you’re trying to prove or disprove.”
“René Le Fort created classifications of skull fractures. We’ll use his theories as our guide to refute the conclusion in Julian Crist’s autopsy.” Dr. Cutty lifted her hand to the autopsy table. “We did some experiments on our own to reproduce Julian’s skull fracture. We’ll do them again now, and we’ll show you why that boat oar theory is complete nonsense.”
CHAPTER 23
Thursday, June 15, 2017
DR. CUTTYPULLED THE WHITE CLOTH FROM THE FIRST AUTOPSYTABLEto reveal a cadaver. Sidney had trouble making the connection between the rubbery, bleached thing on the table and a human being.
“I know,” Dr. Cutty said. “Damian here has seen better days. But without a grant to conduct this experiment, we had to get cadavers from anyone willing to donate. Each of the fellows received one for our end-of-the-year experiments. To reproduce the results for you, we needed more. The medical school had two they agreed to part with. Damian is in the worst shape, but his skull is remarkably well preserved.”
Dr. Cutty turned to the other table and whisked away the white sheet like a magician pulling a tablecloth free from a china-lined dining table. “This is Martha. Also, not in great shape anatomically, but, again, her skull is perfect for our purposes. We also have Synbone models if we need to run an exercise twice, because once we crush Damian and Martha’s skulls . . . well, we can’t really do it again.”
“Synbone?”
“A polyurethane model of a skull. It reacts almost identically to the cranium, minus the vascular system, of course. But for the purpose of our experiment, we’re interested only in the skull fracture. So we’ll use the cadavers to reenact the assault, and then reproduce the results with Synbone models to confirm our findings. That’ll be more high-tech, and we’ve got a wiz upstairs who can create computer models for you on what is happening with the skull during the impact. He’ll show you the exact method by which bone fractures and the concussion wave radiates through the entire cranium and brain.”
“Perfect,” Sidney said.
“Which episode will this air on?” Dr. Schultz asked.
“Probably episode four, if I can cut it in time,” Sidney said.
“With my fellowship, I haven’t watched much television in the last year or so, but damn if I’m not hooked on your Grace Sebold special.”
Sidney smiled. “Thanks.”
