by Dave Sypher
Logan’s reply was anything but cordial. "You sued us for emancipation, stating that you were well aware of the consequences of taking charge of your own life. You said you didn’t want us having anything to do with either your academic or your personal future. You said you were gainfully employed and taking online classes to finish both your diploma and degree, a degree that I advised you against pursuing due to its uselessness, but you wouldn’t hear it. I’m sorry, but we are going to continue honoring your court order and having nothing to do with your academic and personal future. In closing, perhaps you could get a job if you know the difference between 'to’, 'too’, and 'two’. You should’ve written 'too great’. Logan.”
"Ouch,” Shinju murmured. "Logan’s response was harsh.”
"Keep reading,” Cassandra urged.
"Logan,” the follow-up email read, "I know you’re angry about what happened, but it needed to happen so I could live my own life. I’m sorry that you can’t forgive me for my youthful mistakes. Maybe mom will be more sympathetic. Griff.”
"Griff,” the next mail read, "This is Trinity. I may be your mother, and I’ll always love you, but you rejected us. You also ejected us from your life, and we haven’t heard from you since you got your emancipation papers and walked away from our house. I don’t know what you’re expecting, but from my point of view, it sounds like you want us to just forget what you did to us when you sued us. That’s not going to happen. If you want to live like an adult, then live like an adult. If you hadn’t cut us off completely, I might feel differently, but as it is, you’re on your own.”
"She didn’t even sign her name,” Shinju shook her head.
"Thorntons,” the final email from Griff read, "My car was repossessed, and I’m being evicted from my apartment and will be homeless. I hope you’re happy.”
"This email is dated less than a week before Logan and Trinity went missing,” Cassandra pointed out. "I’m afraid to admit it, but I’m thinking he may have had something to do,” her phone rang, and she checked who was calling.
"It’s the police,” she said as she took the call. "Yes, this is Mrs. Nash. You did? Where is he?” Her face fell. "Yes, I’ll come down as soon as I can.”
Hanging up, she looked up at Shinju, her expression stricken.
"They found Griff.”
Shinju was initially happy for Cassandra before realizing she was upset. "Where is he?”
Cassandra’s eyes teared up. "He’s in the morgue.”
Chapter sixteen
"Oh, no,” Shinju said. "I’m so sorry.”
"Well, they’re not certain it’s him. They want me to go to the morgue and identify a body that they believe is Griff. He was found without any identification, so they need a relative to come confirm it’s him.”
Tears began running down Cassandra's face as she spoke, and she wiped them away with effort.
"I need to tell Bryce I won’t be available for the next couple,” Cassandra’s voice cracked and she couldn’t continue.
"Would you feel better if I drove?”
"You’ll come with me?”
"Of course.”
Cassandra nodded.
"I’ll go get the car while you tell Bryce,” Shinju took charge.
Cassandra nodded and immediately left to find Bryce.
Seeing the nearly empty coffee pot sitting on an active burner, Shinju turned it off before heading out to her car.
Their drive into town was silent, and Shinju relied on her phone’s GPS to direct her to the city morgue.
She turned off the engine and was going to give Cassandra her privacy, but Cassandra looked at her, and Shinju realized she was expected to accompany Cassandra inside to give her additional emotional support.
As expected, the morgue was quiet, but rather than somber clothing, the clerk was wearing a pink lace top and form fitting red jeans. Her hair was cropped short and streaked with several colors, and in addition to her ears, her lip, nose, and eyebrow were pierced. Her name tag identified her as Kennedy.
When she spoke, Kennedy’s voice was calming, her tone sympathetic. "Are you Mrs. Nash?”
Cassandra nodded.
Kennedy turned to Shinju. "Are you also a relative?”
"I’m a family friend.”
The clerk stood up. "Follow me, please.”
Kennedy walked ahead, and Shinju couldn’t help but admire her boots. They had short heels and zipped up on the insides of her ankles and had patchwork patterning to their leather.
Leading them past a number of doors, several of which were labeled "autopsy suite”, Kennedy motioned for them to wait for her while she went into a room with an unmarked door.
Shinju could hear Kennedy speaking quietly with someone in the room before she returned.
"You can go in now. I’ll be up front if you need anything.”
Taking the initiative, Shinju opened the door, looking around.
A middle-aged man in a white doctor’s coat waited for them next to one of the body storage bays. Its door was open, its covered occupant lying motionless on the extended tray.
"It’s okay, Cassandra,” Shinju told her.
Cassandra came in weeping, unable to speak.
"Mrs. Nash,” This man’s voice had a bit of a burr to it, but he spoke in muted tones, "We’re sorry to have to ask you to do this. The man we found matches the description of your nephew, but with his ID missing, we need to ask you to look at him and tell us if it’s him. I need you to brace yourself, as he was deceased for several days before he was reported to the authorities, and there is some discoloration and bloat, uh, swelling, but he should look enough like himself to make identification possible.”
Seeing her trembling, Shinju slipped one of her hands into Cassandra’s. Cassandra’s hand closed tightly over hers, and she took a big gulp of air, nodding when she was ready.
The man turned the sheet back to reveal the head and shoulders of the deceased. There was no smell in this antiseptic environment, but the skin had turned dusky, and in places, there were shades of green. A line of staples starting just below the shoulders and meeting in the center of the chest showed where the incisions had been made for the autopsy.
Cassandra didn’t see any of this, however, as her eyes were fixed on the face of the corpse.
The man’s cheeks and lips were bulging, his swollen tongue protruding slightly, revealing the absence of his teeth, but fortunately his eyes had already been glued shut. His shock of short dark brown hair looked sparse and bristly with the swelling of the skin on the scalp.
Cassandra put a hand over her mouth, running to a nearby sink, recoiling from it, and looked frantically around the room, before seizing a trash can and vomiting into it.
She fell to her knees beside it, coughing and gagging.
"I’m so sorry, Mrs. Nash,” the man said, his tone insistent, "But I have to ask, is that your nephew, Griffin Thornton?”
Cassandra nodded. "Yes,” she gasped, "That’s Griff. My God, what happened to him? Where are his teeth?”
"I’m so sorry you have to see him like this. Usually bodies in this condition are cremated when no one comes to claim them after several weeks, but he was being held over since the final toxicology reports aren’t back yet. If you’re going to have a funeral for him, I highly suggest you make it closed casket or a memorial service with an ash urn as its centerpiece.”
"Yes, that will be fine.”
"I’m sorry, but since you’ve identified him, a funeral home is going to have to handle those arrangements for you. I’m afraid I have to inform you that we need to keep his body a while longer, since, as I said before, the final toxicology reports haven’t come back.”
"How do you think he died, Mr.?”
"Doctor. Dr. Lowe. I’m not the examiner who performed the autopsy, but I have the report right here. It reads that his death appears consistent with a cocaine overdose, but the preliminary toxicology suggests something else was mixed in with it, so samples were sent out for
more tests to give us a definitive COD, that is cause of death, before we released the body for dispos, uh, cremation or burial.”
Cassandra stood back up, looking around. Dr. Lowe went to a desk in the corner of the room, coming back with a tissue so Cassandra could wipe her mouth.
Returning to his desk, he wrote the name Griffin Thornton on a tag that also read "hold”.
Moving back to the drawer, Dr. Lowe gently placed the sheet back over Griff’s face before closing the drawer and labeling it with his name.
"We need you to sign some paperwork for us, stating that this is your nephew, and that you understand that you need to make arrangements for his body after the hold on it is released. Kennedy will have that at her desk. There’s a bathroom up front that you can use to clean yourself up before you leave.”
"Thank you, Dr. Lowe,” Cassandra said, voice now steady. Surprisingly, she had stopped weeping, and Shinju wondered if now that the uncertainty was over that Cassandra had reasserted her self-control, or if she was so shocked by the things her family was going through that she had shut part of herself off, leaving her functional but otherwise unable to process what was happening.
Taking a last look at Griff’s covered form, Cassandra turned and walked from the room.
"Thank you, doctor,” Shinju said before following her.
Cassandra wasn’t quite running down the hall, but Shinju had to jog a little to catch up to her.
Cassandra stopped at Kennedy’s desk, asking in a cracking voice, "Paperwork?”
"Is that your nephew, Mrs. Nash?”
"Yes, it’s Griff,” Cassandra's voice steadied somewhat as she composed herself more after getting away from the horrific sight of her nephew’s body.
"I’m so sorry for your loss, Mrs. Nash,” Kennedy said, her eyes moistening as she reacted to Cassandra's emotions. "We need you to sign this statement saying that you’ve identified the man in our facility as your nephew. This one states that you understand that you will be taking responsibility for him after the hold on his body has been released.”
"I would like a copy of the autopsy report,” Shinju said in a quiet voice.
Cassandra glanced sidelong at her before nodding. "I need a copy of your autopsy report.”
"Just a moment,” Kennedy turned to her filing cabinet. Pulling open a drawer, she sorted through the folders until she found the one she wanted.
"If you’ll sign this records release, I’ll print up a copy of that report for you while you wait.”
Cassandra signed the paper while Kennedy pulled up the file on her computer. A printer across the room spit out three pages, which Kennedy neatly folded into thirds and placed into an envelope before handing the bundle to Cassandra.
Accepting the report, Cassandra immediately handed it to Shinju.
"Would you like a copy of the follow-up toxicology report as well?” Kennedy asked in the same gentle tone.
"Yes, please,” Cassandra decided.
"You can either come in to retrieve a copy or we can email it to any address you specify here,” Kennedy pointed out the appropriate line on release.
Cassandra looked at her phone before writing down an email address. "Send it to this email address.”
"I would like a copy of that report when you get it, Shinju told Cassandra as they left the morgue.
"I’m having it sent to your email address. I don’t know what help it will be, but I hope you find something useful in it,” Cassandra said as got into Shinju’s car.
"Sometimes a small detail will stand out to me or to a family member that would go unnoticed by the medical professionals,” Shinju explained as she drove Cassandra home.
"I know. I’ve seen enough TV crime shows to understand that knowing the state of a discovered body can reveal vital information.”
Shinju nodded, grateful that Cassandra understood that there was more than morbid curiosity behind Shinju’s request.
"I just don’t get it that Griff would die of a cocaine overdose. Trin mentioned that she and Logan would sometimes snort a little, and that Griff knew about their use, but they never did it excessively, so it makes no sense to me that Griff would suddenly die of an OD.”
"You don’t think either Trinity or Logan became addicted to cocaine, do you? If their use escalated, Griff could’ve seen this before leaving home and ended up using more himself to the point that it took all his money to support his habit. It would explain him losing his car and his homelessness.”
"I don’t see any evidence of that in the financial records that were in the safe. Their expenditures weren’t excessive, and they didn’t have any non-specified large withdrawals—cash or otherwise—that stand out to me, so I don’t think they were in financial troubles, nor does their cash flow indicate that one or the other of them may have developed an expensive drug habit.”
They rode in silence the rest of the way back to the distillery, and Shinju opted to just drop Cassandra off. She didn’t want to be there when Bryce heard the news about Griff, as she felt her presence would be intrusive.
"I’m going to go back to my hotel and read this report,” Shinju told Cassandra, "And then I’m going to go to Yosemite Park tomorrow. I’m going to hike the trail and see if there’s any evidence the search parties missed.”
"Thank you, Shinju,” Cassandra opened her door, stepping out while talking. "I don’t think you’ll find anything because so many people have been through the area, but thank you for looking all the same. With Griff gone, I’m thinking that I’m just wasting your time and that Trin and Logan are also gone for good as well.”
Cassandra shut the car door, putting a hand over her mouth before turning and hurrying away.
Chapter seventeen
Bracing herself, Shinju opened up the autopsy report in her hotel room. The front of the first page showed images of Griff’s body as it was found and after it had been taken to the morgue and prepared for autopsy. A chart on the back of the same page showed no overt wounds were found, ruling out shooting or stabbing as his cause of death.
The second page was the report itself. The autopsy was performed by Dr. Michelle Clemons, who systematically examined the body.
"Victim was brought in inside a black body bag. Opening the bag revealed a deceased Caucasian male body that had to have been unattended for three to five days before being discovered. There is considerable swelling of both the head and body. The mouth is open, and the protruding tongue is also swollen. Gross examination of the head reveals bloody foam issuing from the mouth and nose. Swabs were taken of both fluids and sent to the pathologist for both gross examination and toxicology. Dental impressions were taken, but due to the amount of swelling, identifying the body via dental records may not be possible.
"The deceased was wearing a black hoodie, a blue t-shirt with the words "Free Health Care For All” printed on it, blue jeans, and tennis shoes. The clothing was removed and sent for gross examination.
"Gross examination of the remainder of the front of the body reveals no visible external wounds. Liver temperature was not taken due to the state of the body, as TOD cannot be accurately determined with the body already in an advanced state of decomposition.
"Turning the body prone revealed no visible external wounds, revealing several bruises that could have been caused by the body falling when the victim deceased. After exterior examination was finished, the body was turned supine again for the autopsy.
"Height is approximately five feet nine and three quarter inches. Weight cannot be determined due to the state of the body, but examiner estimates the weight of the victim when living to be anywhere from one hundred ninety-five pounds and two hundred and five pounds. Hair color is dark brown. Eye color is brown. The white skin is taut due to bloating, but given the lack of overt acne or other blemishes, the age of the victim is estimated to be anywhere from seventeen to twenty-three years. There are no visible tattoos anywhere on the body. The penis and testicles appear to be normal circumcised male genitalia. The
re are no bruises on the front of the body to indicate that the victim was involved in a fight shortly before deceasing. There are no marks on the hands to indicate that the victim was involved in a fight shortly before deceasing.
"After finishing the gross examination, I performed the usual Y incision to open up the body cavity. There were no gross rib fractures apparent despite the bloating of the body. A considerable amount of decomp fluid flowed out of the body cavity. A sample of this fluid was obtained and sent for gross examination and toxicology. The condition of the internal organs is consistent with the advanced decompositional state the body was discovered in. Due to this, the size and weight of the internal organs could not be attained.
"Gross examination of the remains of the internal organs revealed no gross evidence of heart disease. A portion of the remaining lung tissue was teased apart, and there was evidence to suggest that the deceased may have been a smoker. Given the state of the examined tissue and the young estimated age, it is possible that the deceased had been using a vaping device from a medium to a moderate degree, but it is impossible to determine whether this could be the COD.
"Opening the head revealed the brain to be mostly liquified. A sample of this fluid was obtained and sent for gross examination and toxicology. Due to the state of decomposition, it is impossible to determine if a problem here led to the death of the deceased.
"Due to the state of decomposition, heart blood, urine, and intestinal contents could not be obtained. Instead, the above-listed samples of decomp fluid were sent for examination and analysis. Time of death: Three to five days prior to the body being discovered. Manner of death: Indeterminate at this time. Immediate cause of death: Indeterminate at this time. Michelle Clemons, M.D.”
The third page consisted of the preliminary toxicology report on one side, and the examination of Griff’s clothing on the other.
"Several samples of decomp fluids from various areas of the body of an unidentified Caucasian male, age approximately seventeen to twenty-three, were received.