‘That’s not post-mortem discoloration,’ Kay told him.
‘Oh really?’ Tullik pushed. ‘So what is it then?’
‘I don’t know.’ Kay was still analyzing the subject’s lower eyelids. ‘Some sort of burn mark or skin irritation, for sure. We’d need a biopsy to properly determine what this is.’
‘No, it isn’t,’ Tullik disagreed, also stepping a little closer to have a better look. ‘And no, we don’t need a biopsy, Kay. That’s post-mortem discoloration, pure and simple.’ He paused and looked at Myeong. ‘What do you think?’
‘I’m not really sure either,’ Myeong replied, giving them a shy shrug. ‘I think that the best we can do right now is describe it as part of the external examination, noting your observation that a biopsy could be needed.’ She addressed Kay. ‘How does that sound?’
Kay was about to say something, but Tullik saw it coming and halted her with a look. ‘No butting in until it’s your turn, Kay, remember? You agreed. Myeong is right – the best we can do right now is to describe it as part of the external examination.’
Kay accepted it with a nod before positioning herself at one end of the autopsy table, by the body’s feet. Her eyes moved down to the file that she had with her and she was immediately surprised to find out that the man they were looking at was not in his fifties or sixties like Myeong and Tullik had initially thought. Not even close. His name was Terry Wilford and he was only forty-three years old at the time of his death.
In the police report, Kay found out that Mr. Wilford’s body had been found a week ago by two LA Sanitation & Environment Division employees, as they cleaned the LA River concrete channel during their nightshift. Terry Wilford had jumped off the 7th Street Bridge.
Kay returned the file to the instruments tray and allowed her attention to go back to the body. When Myeong spread the body’s legs just a couple of inches to get a better look at the inner thighs, Kay caught a glimpse of something else that immediately intrigued her.
‘Myeong,’ Kay said, grabbing her colleague’s attention. ‘Have you seen this?’ She indicated the body’s right foot.
Myeong and Tullik joined Kay at the far end of the examination table.
‘What am I looking at?’ Myeong asked.
‘Right there,’ Kay said, as she indicated. ‘In between the big toe and the pointer one.’
Myeong used both of her index fingers to spread the two toes apart. There was something that looked like some sort of lesion on the soft flesh between those two toes.
‘So he suffered from athlete’s foot,’ Tullik said, after looking at the lesion for a mere second.
‘I don’t think that’s athlete’s foot,’ Myeong said, as she looked between all the other toes.
Just like the color change in his eyelids isn’t post-mortem discoloration,Kay thought, but kept it to herself.
‘Why not?’ Tullik disputed.
‘Athlete’s foot is a fungus infection,’ Myeong replied. ‘It’s caused by damp socks or shoes together with warm and humid conditions—’
Tullik chuckled, as he cut Myeong short. ‘Well, you just described LA’s yearlong weather. All he needed to do was go for a long run and step into a puddle right at the beginning of the run. Keep the wet shoes and socks on for longer than necessary and bingo, bango, bongo.’ He pointed to the body’s right foot. ‘Athlete’s foot.’
‘True,’ Myeong agreed. ‘But you didn’t let me finish – because it’s a fungus infection, it’s practically impossible to develop it in between only two toes. Inside a close and tight environment like a shoe, it would’ve spread like butter.’ She finished checking the rest of the body’s right foot. ‘But we don’t have that here.’ She indicated, so that Tullik could have a look. ‘All his other toes look healthy.’
Kay quickly checked the body’s left foot, where she found a very similar lesion, once again, only between the big and the pointer toes. ‘And he’s got the exact same thing on his left foot.’
‘OK,’ Tullik lifted his hands in a tentative surrender gesture. ‘So it’s not athlete’s foot, but it’s clearly just some other skin condition.’
‘Like what?’ It was Kay’s turn to challenge him.
‘It could be one of many different types of eczema,’ Tullik offered, while reaching for the file that Kay had returned to the instruments cart. ‘Or even psoriasis. With his skin in the condition that it is now, we’d need a full lab analysis to know for sure.’
That paused Kay for an instant. Tullik did have a point. The lesion between the toes could be psoriasis.
‘Regardless of what that really is…’ He pointed at the body’s feet before turning to face Myeong. ‘I can tell you what it’s not.’
Myeong’s eyebrows lifted at him.
‘That’s not the COD,’ Tullik continued. ‘Which is what we’re supposed to be identifying here. It’s also none of the other things that Dr. Hove asked us to unearth – old surgeries, bone breaks… whatever. If you want to spend any more of your “fast running out” forty-five minutes on some “who gives a damn” toe infection, go right ahead. I’m sure that Kay would love you to do so, but when my turn comes, I’m cutting right into him because that’s what great pathologists do.’
Tullik delivered those words in such a way that Myeong looked at Kay a little sideways, as if the lesions on the body’s toes had been some sort of expert ploy from Kay to make the other two group members waste their time as the head pathologist.
