by Alec Peche
"Sounds like a plan. Let's have dinner tonight and I'll leave Trixie with you. I'll leave early in the morning for NOLA."
She ended the call with Nathan and put in a call to Alicia.
She answered the call with "You're going to come!"
"Yes, the challenge is too great not to want to get to the bottom of an evil spirits diagnosis. I'll leave early in the morning and arrive at about five. Can you pick me up?"
"It's the least I can do," Alicia replied excited to renew her acquaintance with Jill and have a trusted colleague on this case.
"Also if you could send me your reports including pictures at the scene, I'll be able to review them before I get there. I have a mini-forensic lab on my property and if a case is close by, I'll fly home with specimens to process them, but NOLA is too far away. What's your lab capacity there?"
"Actually, it's pretty good. We have a couple of medical schools, Tulane and LSU in NOLA, and LSU has a branch up the road in Shreveport. They would likely love to help with the case and I know some of the professors there so if you have something unusual, they would join us in solving this mystery."
"Excellent! Then I think we're all set," Jill said passing on her flight information for Alicia's department to book.
Chapter 5
Jill looked around her lab for useful things she could use in this case. She wouldn’t be processing tissue samples herself and in the end, she couldn’t think of anything unique to take to NOLA, so early the next morning she was on her way to the airport for her connection to Los Angeles and on to New Orleans. She’d dropped an email to her part-time teammates Jo, Marie, and Angela explaining the case and the lack of payment. Marie and Angela offered to help how they could without traveling to NOLA, Jo mentioned she would be arriving in two days for a convention and would have some evening downtime so she could help. Jill arranged to have dinner with Jo on her first night. As Jo was coming from Wisconsin she had a much shorter trip and fewer time zones than Jill.
As promised, Alicia was waiting for Jill upon arrival in NOLA. They went to the arts district to a Mexican restaurant that featured a NOLA version of Mexican food and cucumber daiquiris and Jill liked NOLA immediately despite the humidity. Jill usually avoided spicy food, but found her taste buds did just fine with Cajun flavoring in her chicken tacos. As for the cucumber daiquiris, she thought she could drink four or five of them they were so delicious, smooth, and cool to the taste.
"Do you eat here often?" Jill asked.
"Yeah, it represents the crossroads of Southern California and New Orleans. There are many fabulous restaurants here, but you know me - I was never a foodie so it's wasted on me. I prefer the great food here and I also like po'boy sandwiches and the beignets at Café Du Monde. Even though it's a tourist attraction, the donuts are great."
"I have to agree with you there. I'm not a foodie either primarily because there are many ingredients in things that I don't care to eat like onions and mushrooms. I'm thinking the chef at the Commander's Palace might have difficulty meeting my needs. It's just easier to eat simpler foods."
"Besides I'd rather put my salary into my mortgage than dine out every night."
They continued to talk for a while on the difference between Southern California and New Orleans. Eventually, they circled back to the reason that Jill had come to New Orleans.
"Tell me about your set-up here. I imagine your coroner's office is old," Jill said.
"Actually, it was rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina so it's state of the art. I arrived after it was built. I understand the old coroner's office was an old mortuary with lots of mold and a tendency to flood with heavy rain and there were refrigerator trucks in a parking lot to hold the remains."
"Wow, that sounds like something from a previous century."
"I heard that part of the problem was the elected coroner at the time never asked for additional resources. He was uncomfortable with the political side of his job. All I know is that we have great working conditions now and no refrigerated trailers holding the deceased."
"In my travels as a consultant, I've come across some scary bad coroner offices. Mostly, they're small, poor towns with an elected coroner who has no medical background. If that's the case then they care more about pleasing the mortuary in town than doing a thorough death investigation."
Alicia paid their bill and they headed into the Irish Channel area of New Orleans. She had a small and old house in the shotgun style with touches of Victorian Gingerbread. Beige on the outside with white trim and a small front patio, it was full of cuteness. She showed Jill into her guest bedroom explaining a little of the architecture style as they walked.
"This house dates back to about 1900. The plumbing and electrical were updated before I bought it as well as some additions for modern times like larger closets. I'm saving for central air, but in the interim, you'll have a window unit."
"Sounds like you plan on staying a while," Jill said.
"I lived in many cities as you know and yet I find it charming here and I like the pace of life, so yes, I guess I'll be staying," Alicia said with a smile.
"It's good to put down roots. When I worked for the state, I always felt like I was on the paperwork and court testifying circuit. I didn't like it. If you're ever in the San Francisco area, I'm about ninety minutes out depending on traffic," Jill said making a face. "I love my home and vineyard and they bring me peace after some tough consultant cases."
"We'll have a lot of time to talk while you're here but just tell me about your most unusual death."
"Unusual because it's a rare way to die, or unusual as far as autopsy findings?"
"Wow, the fact that you can ask me that question says that you've seen a vast array of strange cases. I'm glad I was able to talk you into coming here."
"My friend, Nathan who is an artist said that even he knew you couldn't die by evil spirits, so your case will likely be added to my list of weird ways to die."
"So back to your question, for now tell me the most unusual way to die."
Jill thought through her cases and decided she wasn't ready to talk about Nick being pushed off the castle tower, so she settled for, "Fake paramedics arrive saying that your pacemaker is sending out alerts that it's malfunctioning and then they electrocute you with over-juiced paddles."
Alicia stood there with her mouth open for a few seconds, then shut it and swallowed. All she could say was "Wow". And then after a moment she added, "I'm glad I thought of you and you were willing to donate your time. You must have expertise way beyond the average pathologist."
"Let's just say I don't get called into cases where someone watches someone else shoot someone dead."
"Okay, I'm going to ply you with cucumber daiquiris while you're my housemate so I can hear some of your stories. I also hope to learn from you tomorrow when we review the remains of Mr. Cheval."
"I'm sure you did a great job since I was your Chief Resident at one time," Jill said with a smile. "Besides from everything I looked over on my flight here it seems like you did a very thorough examination. My guess is that there's a toxin that hasn't come to light yet. Can you arrange an appointment with the family for tomorrow? I think that will help us move beyond the usual suspects to something very rare. You don't just die at such a young age without a cause. Even if he'd been shot with a curare dart, you would have seen the evidence. It wasn't cold here so exposure is out of the question. His skin didn't seem to exhibit the signs of extreme dehydration as a cause either. His heart muscle was fine and he didn't blow a major artery in his heart or brain."
Alicia had been listening and nodding as Jill went through common causes of death, and said, "So I think we're back to a poison of some sort or evil spirits."
"Somehow I must have missed that disease classification in medical school as I've never seen or heard of death by evil spirits," Jill said. "However, I'm in a culturally very different part of America and I don't mean to make fun of people's beliefs. I'm sure the family is an otherwise
rational group of people except when it comes to the death of Mr. Cheval."
"There are many obscure poisons out there, how do we narrow the list and then test for them?" Alicia asked.
"I think that is where the family will help. I think we need to know a lot more about the man. Who talked to the family?"
"The police; his mother said he died by evil spirits and I gather the investigators didn't get much beyond that explanation."
"I think they thought he was just another casualty of alcohol poisoning even though I've never seen a case in a man so young and black. Alcohol poisoning almost always occurs in older Caucasians in Louisiana."
"Have the police finished their investigation?" Jill asked.
"Yes. There were no findings from the autopsy for them to follow up on."
"Was the young man a native of New Orleans? Where does his mom get the evil spirits idea?"
"Yes he was born in this city."
"Tell me about the origin of evil spirits in New Orleans," Jill said.
"What do you mean the origin of evil spirits? Personally, I try to avoid evil people," Alicia said not understanding Jill's question.
"I mean the concept of 'evil spirits' has to originate somewhere. It's not something that someone would say in Los Angeles so it must be culturally related to this area. Is it a religion or an ethnic group?"
"Oh, now I get your question. I've only lived here about two years and haven't had the time to explore some of the more obscure parts of the city including understanding Voodoo and Hoodoo. Heck they call NOLA the most haunted city in America, but I've yet to experience any ghosts at home or work."
"So Voodoo and Hoodoo are not just tourists attractions; they are a religion for a certain group of people here?" Jill asked trying to understand the two terms.
"You know," Alicia said thinking, "someone in my office practices voodoo. Let me call Sylviane and see if she's doing anything. We could meet her somewhere for a drink."
Alicia grabbed her cellphone checking the time. Eight was a little late to call and ask for information, but she could always turn them down. She dialed the number and had a short conversation from what Jill could hear from her side of the conversation. She ended the call and said, "Let's go, she's going to meet us at a bar on Magazine Street so it's not too far from here and we can walk if you like."
"Yes let's walk. I always feel like I sit for hours when I travel. What does Sylviane do for your office?"
"She's a mortuary aid."
"Ah," Jill said knowing that meant the woman went on scene to pick up the deceased and performed duties like tagging clothing and other personal effects and took the weight of an incoming human. Bodies could be in a state of awful decomposition at the time the mortuary aid was called to remove remains.
They had a four block walk and Jill could already feel the humidity in the perspiration drops that ran down her spine. The air felt moist and green like she was smelling plants whose names she didn't know, but they had no particular fragrance other than green. She loved walking the streets as you learned more about a city like the smell of green. They soon reached Magazine Street and Jill was charmed by the myriad of small restaurants, bars, and businesses.
They came to a stop outside what looked like a house, but the sign on the door indicated it was a tavern. Alicia opened the door and they entered a long narrow room with beautiful wooden ceilings, panels, and a bar. Alicia walked up to the women from work. She was black, with short coiffed hair and a friendly smile. Alicia asked if they wanted wine and so she ordered a bottle and three glasses and they went outside to a tiny patio that was empty. There no one would be able to hear their conversation. It wasn't a secret or confidential, Alicia just wanted the freedom for them without strangers listening in.
After introductions were completed Jill asked, "As Alicia mentioned, I'm here consulting on a death that the family says is due to evil spirits. I'd like to understand what evil spirits are and who worries about them in this city.”
Sylviane laughed at Jill's question and said, "Don't you worry about evil spirits in your life?"
"Ah, no. Of all the bad things that have happened to me in my life, I've had a role in causing them. I worry more about self-stupidity or self-centeredness causing me to miss clues about the world around me."
"Perhaps then since you're such a pragmatic person you have trouble understanding the culture here. I practice voodoo and I'm also Catholic."
"Catholic? I thought Voodoo involved the worship of something other than God," Jill asked.
"Many people in New Orleans have roots in West Africa or the Caribbean and so Voodoo is a melting pot of those cultures with that of Native Americans from this region. So at the heart we believe in the visible and non-visible world. We're sitting in the visible world, but once my grandmother died she went to the invisible world."
"Is your invisible world heaven?"
"Yes in a way, but to a practitioner of Voodoo it perhaps feels a lot more tangible as we can look at the world around us and feel the love of our forefathers. It also gives us a focus on the community. We want both worlds to be happy and do better," Sylviane explained.
"Do you have evil spirits?" Jill asked.
"We have spirits that create mischief which can test your patience, but we don't recognize bad or evil spirits as the work of the devil."
"Are you aware of an African or Caribbean group of people that worry about evil spirits?"
"Perhaps you're not putting the term in context. Did the family say the deceased was killed by evil spirits, did his body contain evil spirits, or was the family saying that the murderer must be filled with evil spirits?"
"Good point Sylviane," Alicia said. "I haven't spoken with the family yet so I'll get that clarified tomorrow. You've been a big help, thanks for coming out at this late hour to chat with us."
"You're welcome. There are so many misconceptions about Voodoo that I try to clear the air whenever possible. I'll give my auntie a call when I get home to see if she knows of any local religions that might fear evil spirits."
While they finished sipping their wine they moved on to a discussion of strange cases each had seen. Sylviane volunteered the story of a middle age man killed by fire ants.
"I was terrified when we went to retrieve the body that the ants would come after us, but they had an exterminator spray the area first. Still, I was constantly checking my body over the slightest itch. When we returned to the office, I quickly hosed the victim down, then went and got a shower and incinerated my clothing as well as his. I wanted to be sure the bugs were very dead."
All the women shuddered at that story and Jill asked, "Did you have nightmares that first night?"
"No I went to church, and then I went home and ate a big meal washed down with nearly an entire bottle of wine. I was fairly sure that the carbohydrates and wine would put me into a coma to sleep and it did."
"That's an excellent solution. With the big meal you would hopefully not wake up hung over the next day," Jill suggested.
"Exactly, I was fine the next day."
Alicia offered her strange case. "I had a female that had been sawed apart by her husband and placed in the freezer. Since it was obvious what killed the woman, I looked for evidence that he hadn't done it to her while she was alive. Fortunately, from her perspective, he shot her in the head first. He actually sawed her into gallon freezer bag pieces; so for the family's sake, I made sure I had all of the baggies containing her remains. It took me a few hours to assemble all the parts and make sure she was all there."
Again the women commiserated on the awfulness of the case and they were expecting Jill to tell a story. She was sorting through her memory on what was the most disgusting of her cases. She didn't have a story to match theirs, and so told this story, "There was a woman in Antwerp that I tried to save from a peanut-induced allergic shock reaction. She made it alive to the hospital with a friend and I doing CPR in an ambulance but then the murderer slipped in the hospital emerge
ncy room and sat her up which the heart can't handle after all the epinephrine we gave her to counter the anaphylaxis. The Belgium doctor that performed her autopsy found diamonds in her stomach which was an interesting case."
"What was the value of those diamonds?" Alicia asked.
"I have no idea," Jill said with a laugh. "But the stomach was unusually heavy and that's what made the pathologist look inside."
Alicia looked at Sylviane and said, "Why don't we get those kinds of cases - where the patient pays us as we cut them open?"
"Well, I've only had one of those in my life," Jill said.
"Yes but imagine the value of say half a pound of diamonds," Alicia fantasized searching for something on her cellphone. "This website says it would be about eight and a half million dollars. Yep, I could retire on those stomach contents."
"Except you would have to turn them over to the police," Jill reminded her. "Wouldn't you agree that anyone found with half a pound of diamonds in their stomach must be related to a criminal case? There's no reason to swallow diamonds unless you're trying to hide them and it only works for a short time as you would poop them out in say twenty-four hours."
"Yuck," Sylviane said.
"If I knew there was even a hundred thousand dollars of diamonds in a pile of poop, I'd search," Alicia said. "Certainly compared to a corpse with maggots in it, it couldn't be any grosser."
"We sound like a bunch of ten-year-old boys trying to gross each other out," Jill said with a laugh.
Sylviane stood up and said, "I have to get up in eight hours to go work tomorrow so I'd better head home. I'm thinking I'll see both of you there tomorrow."
Jill and Alicia went back the way they came. The evening was still warm, but she could get a glimpse of the average citizen of New Orleans through the lit windows as they passed homes on their way.
Chapter 6
Jill and Alicia were standing over Mr. Cheval. He was laid out on a stainless steel table in a brightly lit room. Windows gave them natural light which was better for an autopsy. The table tilted slightly downhill so that fluids drained away from the body. The usual scale was nearby as was a microphone suspended from the ceiling for dictation. There was room for two other autopsies to take place.