by Alec Peche
Jill had a quick tour before they examined Mr. Cheval. The office had a nice cooler to store the unclaimed dead. They also had a good specimen room filled with large pickle jars containing organs, eyes, and tissues, so they could go back and run tests if necessary. Their supply area carried the routine toxicology kits containing various size bottles to run tests and these were tracked as evidence with paperwork documenting the chain of custody. Alicia mentioned they sent their kits to St. Louis and there was normally a five to nine-week turnaround to get results. She'd put a priority on Mr. Cheval because of his age and the lack of an obvious cause of death.
The two pathologists walked through Alicia's autopsy. Jill could find no new findings from Alicia's autopsy. The lack of physical findings was extremely rare. Next, they examined the personal possessions the man arrived with. The fact that his body had sat out in the warm ambient air for a few days did little for the aroma of the clothing. Jill was glad for the hepa filter mask which served to decrease some of the odor. Given that his body had leaked fluids as had the ground he'd been found on, it was difficult to figure out what stains created which potential evidence.
"Was any of his clothing sampled?"
"I don't believe so; let me check the police report," Alicia said spending a few moments looking at the report. Then she turned around and said "no".
Jill looked around the room and saw lab analyzers collecting dust and asked Alicia, "Why don't you run your specimens here? This looks like new equipment."
"This building was part of the reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina. The city, county, and parishes were given money to replace buildings lost in the storm. As a part of the building plans, we were outfitted with analyzers but weren't given the staff to operate the machinery. So the equipment is new and hasn't ever been used."
"Do you have supplies for the equipment?"
"Supplies?" Alicia questioned.
"Kits to calibrate the machines, specimen tubes that each machine uses etc. I have these same analyzers in my home lab. I can run the specimens for you here. You might not want to use those results in a court of law, but they might clue us in as to what killed Mr. Cheval."
"Oh okay. Let me look and I'll ask Sylviane if she's seen anything."
Jill said, "Let me help search. I know what I'm looking for."
They spent the next half hour searching for supplies for the analyzers. They were able to locate a few kits for each machine, all expired. Jill did a scientific search on Google and decided it wasn't a good idea to use the expired kits. Alicia checked in with a pathologist friend at one of the city's hospitals and was able to arrange to borrow the kits. Meanwhile, since Jill had a supply in her California lab, Nathan would overnight them to NOLA to replace those they borrowed.
"Wow, like every twenty minutes I find a new reason to be glad you're helping me with this case. You are beyond resourceful," Alicia said.
Jill felt a little embarrassed that she was able to do more with her home lab than this big city lab could do in terms of turnaround time.
"We may find nothing after all of this effort to get those machines running," Jill cautioned. "Remember you'll get the same results in five to eight weeks from St. Louis. So your victim was still getting the same excellent examination from you, I'm just speeding that up."
"After I'm done with this case, I'm going to get certified in those analyzers so I can run the tests myself like you do. The cost of the kits compared to the cost of sending specimens to St Louis would be less and we would get results faster. There are still some tests that we will have to send out, but I think I could do away with perhaps eighty percent of them. I wonder how my fellow pathologist will feel about running the analyzers?"
"Some will agree with your approach, others will say it's beneath them. You might be able to train your mortuary assistants to run the equipment knowing that regardless the lab is not certified no matter who does it and specimen results needed for the court would still have to be sent out, but that's probably a small amount of the specimens in this lab."
"Let's see how it goes with this case, then I'll formulate a proposal to my fellow pathologists before taking the matter to our coroner. If we might be able to cut costs by screening in-house he would be all for it. We'll see."
"Let's run over to the hospital and get those kits before they change their minds. Then we can decide what we want to run here especially in regards to the clothing."
"Let's go," agreed Alicia.
An hour later they were back in the morgue carrying a box of kits. Jill pulled covers off the machinery and cleaned the dust. She'd powered them up before they left in case any of the analyzers had long computer warm-ups. She looked at the equipment and then her watch and said, “I think we'll be a while getting this equipment going and deciding our testing process. Aren't we due to talk to the family soon?"
"Oh my gosh, I feel like a kid in a candy shop with you Jill. Yes, we're due there in twenty minutes. They live in the Ninth Ward. Let's go."
Chapter 7
Alicia used her phone's GPS to find the house belonging to Mr. Cheval's mother. It was the first time Jill had seen the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina. It was shocking to see more than twelve years later that there were still houses with watermarks on them. She wondered how the homes were still livable. There were empty concrete slabs everywhere. Where had the people gone?
"Did any of your current pathologists work during Katrina? I would think that it would be a nightmare to have sorted through all of those dead bodies especially given that so many had water damage."
"They don't talk about it. I know that in addition to the misery of the storm, then the misery of the deaths, there were another one hundred forty or so bodies that floated out of their burial sites. They had coroners from across the country helping with identification and I'm not sure they ever identified them all. As you can see beyond the tourist areas, there is still damage from Katrina that hasn't been fixed. The human stories are terrible. There was one of many families profiled where home ownership passed down the family and no one ever took the time to update the records at the county. So Grandma Jones who died thirty years ago is still the registered owner and now the children can't get government money to make repairs or rebuild their house. It's really sad."
"Yes, it has a feel to it of being deserted by the rest of America," Jill said. "Are they rebuilding homes that will be flooded by the next hurricane?"
"The Army Corps of Engineers rebuilt the levees and made them higher so they should withstand another large hurricane. They also are making an effort to restore the wetlands as those help prevent storm surge. Let's hope they got it right. If you have ten to fifteen thousand dollars, you can buy a lot here and plant another vineyard.”
Jill looked out the window as they traveled down streets, amazed to see signs of optimism on some streets and bleak despair on others. "I don't think that would work, my vines would rot here as the ground is so moist. Grapes really like dry heat."
Shortly they pulled up in front of a two-story house that looked well maintained.
Alicia looked at the house and said, "This is a house that was refurbished after the hurricane. It's a little farther from the canal and the foundation is higher although not as high as some built recently. The newer construction has a parking space below the house and it's on stilts."
They walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell, a black woman in her fifties or sixties answered the door. She looked like she'd been crying. This had to be the victim's mother.
"Mrs. Cheval? I'm Dr. Hudson and this is Dr. Quint from the coroner's office."
She nodded and opened the door wider inviting them in.
"Would you like a cup of tea?" asked Mrs. Cheval.
Jill hated tea but followed Alicia's lead on southern manners.
Alicia nodded and said, "Thank you for the offer, we would love some."
She left the room and Alicia whispered, "I bet she's making a drink called sweet tea here in t
he south. If you still have that sweet tooth, you'll love it."
They looked around the living room while they waited and noticed several family pictures. Jill didn't want to be caught staring at a picture of the man they just cut open. Fortunately, Mrs. Cheval returned to the room holding the tea tray.
She poured a cup and passed it to Jill first and then Alicia. Then there was silence.
Alicia cleared her throat and said, "As I mentioned on the phone, I'm puzzled by your son's death. I don't have evidence to rule on the mode of death. I've asked a second pathologist to examine my work and help me with the case. Dr. Quint is from California."
Jill spoke for the first time and said, "I'm sorry for your loss Mrs. Cheval and I know this is a bad time for you, but we wanted some more information about your son to understand his death."
"Thank you," nodded Mrs. Cheval.
"First can you tell me something about your family? Can you tell me if your parents and siblings are alive and if so their ages and any health problems. Also, I understand you have a grandson, can you tell me his age and about his health. If any of our questions seem too personal, we mean no disrespect, we're simply looking for clues in our investigation."
"My parents perished during Katrina like many elderly in this neighborhood. They were stubborn and didn't believe the warnings. We found their bodies when the waters receded. We found them together in what was left of their house. They were seventy and seventy-two and both took medication for high blood pressure but were otherwise in good health. I have nine brothers and sisters and three are suffering from diabetes. I'm going on two years as a breast cancer survivor. My grandson is seven and he's in good health, a smart and strong boy. He's been staying with his mama since shortly before Julien died."
Jill observed there was nothing unusual in this family's health history other than the tragedy of Katrina.
"Did your grandson normally stay with his mother or did he spend time with you and his father?"
"I would say that Julien had Jayden, that's my grandson's name, about one-third of the time. He and Jayden's mother have a cooperative sharing arrangement and since Julien lived here, I've also helped raise Jayden. He's a good boy." There was joy and love in Mrs. Cheval's face when she spoke of her grandson.
Then she added, "Julien had something bothering him for the past three months or so, but he wouldn't tell me what it was. This last month his anxiety really started climbing. He was spooked, and he lost weight. Then last week he moved Jayden to his mama's house; he said it wasn't safe for him here. At times he seemed to hallucinate, but then he'd be fine by Sunday evening. He went to work Monday and when he got home from work, he wouldn't eat, he just lay down in his bedroom. I called Father Jules as he knew Julien as I didn't know what to do. I thought Julien was in spiritual pain as he wouldn't tell me what was wrong."
"What kind of hallucinations did he have? Was he seeing people or things? Do you have any sense of when they started and stopped?" Jill asked, thinking about toxins.
Mrs. Cheval thought about her question and then responded, "If I didn't know better, I would have said he was taking one of those sixties drugs LSD or something, he was seeing bugs and people shortly after he got home from work. They would go away by the end of the evening and his brain would be back and focused the next morning before he left for work."
Both Alicia and Jill started to ask questions at the same time, and Alicia deferred to Jill as her guest, "So it seemed to you that something was making him sick at work which would wear off in time?"
She nodded and said, "I asked him about it."
"What was his job?" Jill asked.
"He was an agriculture inspector so he worked mostly in the field inspecting farmer stuff in the state."
Her explanation gave the two pathologists a range of additional diseases and conditions that might have struck him if he was around livestock.
"Did you ever talk or text with him mid-day? Do you know if he felt okay at lunch?" Jill asked.
"Some days he did and some days he didn't. I thought it must be connected to the weather as he felt worse on hot days."
Alicia and Jill were taking notes as fast as they could, their minds swiftly adding to a list of potential causes of death.
"Did he drive his vehicle or did the state provide him with one?"
"He drove a state vehicle as it carried gadgets that he needed to do his job. In fact, the truck is still here - it's parked behind the house."
"Do you have the keys to it?" Jill asked.
"No, at least I haven't searched Julien's room for them as no one has asked me for the keys. After you leave, I'll make sure I locate them."
The two pathologists could tell that the woman was barely holding it together and no wonder given she'd recently suffered the death of her son. Alicia reached over and offered the woman a second cup of her own tea.
She briefly smiled her thanks and took a few moments to regain her composure. Jill stood up and looked out the window giving the mother privacy. She also looked through the room that must have been the kitchen to the utility type truck parked beyond that window.
Mrs. Cheval signaled that they could resume questioning and Jill returned to the seating area.
"Mrs. Cheval, would you mind if we took a look at that truck after we finish our conversation here?" Jill asked. She nodded her agreement and they moved on to other questions.
"Your son was found in a residential area of the French Quarter, is there an agricultural area close to that area? Did he have a work-related reason to be there and since his truck is parked here, how did he get there?" Alicia asked understanding Jill's process for asking questions.
"He wasn't feeling well that day and so he called his friend Keith to see if he could get a ride to work. Keith said he started feeling nauseated as he drove him to Baton Rouge and asked to be let out of his car in the French Quarter. Keith was anxious for Julien, but he also didn't want him throwing up inside his car. Julien told him he was just stepping out to get a drink of bottled water and he would find another way to get back home, so the friend drove on as he didn't want to be late himself."
"When did you realize there was something wrong?” Alicia asked.
“I didn’t know about Julien getting out of the car until later that night. He didn’t come home and so I called Keith and spoke with him about that morning and he gave me the location of where he’d dropped Julien off. He offered to take me over to the location that evening and so we found ourselves knocking on doors around the area where he got out of the car, but no one had seen him. I called the police but they wouldn’t take a report as he was an adult and he hadn’t been missing twenty-four hours yet. I told them he’d been sick, but they still refused to take a report.”
Alicia looked at her notes and then said, “Was that Monday evening?” Today was Friday.
“Yes, I went back to the police after the twenty-four hour mark and filed a report on Tuesday. He was found Wednesday.”
As Alicia had done the autopsy Wednesday afternoon, she knew he’d been found Wednesday morning.
With tears in her voice she murmured, “He was only discovered because it was garbage day and the residents saw him when they approached their garbage cans to put them at the curb. He might have laid there for a week if it hadn’t been garbage day on Wednesday. He had identification on him and so the police came calling to my house. Clearly, from their attitude, they thought he was just another alcohol-related death in the French Quarter. They were skeptical that he’d been on his way to work.”
Jill and Alicia waited a few moments to give Mrs. Cheval a chance to regain her composure.
“Can you tell me more about your son’s symptoms?” Jill asked.
"It started slowly perhaps two months ago? Julien came home from work feeling nauseous. As time passed, he felt a whole lot more nauseous to the point that I heard him throwing up some nights. Perhaps a week before his death, he started hallucinating in the evening. Often times when he came in fro
m his truck, he would stumble, nearly falling. If I didn't know better I would say he had too much to drink, but I couldn't smell alcohol on his breath and he swore he hadn't drunk any alcohol."
"Tell me more about the hallucinations. Was he seeing things that were not there? Was he seeing people in the room who weren't there? While he was hallucinating was he happy or scared or angry?" Jill asked.
Julien's mom took a few moments to think about her son over the past couple of weeks. She replied as though thinking out loud while she spoke, "Julien has always been a genuinely happy man and so I would say that the hallucinations must have been mostly happy experiences for him because he didn't seem afraid or angry. As for the actual hallucinations, he was either seeing dead people or flowers sometimes."
"What do you mean by dead people? Relatives or friends that you have lost? Or perhaps people that look like they belong in a zombie movie?” Jill asked.
“He saw his grandparents and one of my brothers that died during Katrina. As a family, we follow the Catholic faith, but we also believe in voodoo with the second world of our dead relatives around us in the environment. Some people say there's a fine line between feeling the presence of our departed ones and thinking that we've actually seen them as we go about our day."
Alicia said, “Yes I understand what you're saying Mrs. Cheval. There's a woman in my office who also practices voodoo and that's exactly how she explained it so I can see the difficulty when the hallucinations first set as to whether your son was feeling the presence of deceased family members or did he actually believe they were in the living room with him.”
“Exactly.”
While they were talking, Jill had been sifting through a variety of poisons and their symptoms in her head. Some poisons were hard to find on testing, while others were hard to find because they were rarely used to commit murder. She had one last question for Mrs. Cheval.