Doctored Death

by P. D. Workman

  She remembered how he had been with Madison, Luke, and Rhys when they’d had people shooting at them and several medical crises on their hands. Zachary had been focused and planned things out. He hadn’t freaked out and panicked. The same was true of when Lorne and Pat were in danger or when he had been looking for a bug that Walter might have planted. He was a different person when he was protecting someone else. He didn’t disappear into himself. He had laser focus.

  She tipped her glass toward him, toasting him. “Good job.”

  Zachary smiled. He scooped a curl of tangerine ice cream into his bowl. “You want chocolate?”

  “Yes. As if you need to ask.”

  He scooped a couple of balls of double chocolate fudge swirl into Kenzie’s bowl. Kenzie picked up her spoon and had a couple of bites of cold deliciousness.

  Best supper ever.

  While Kenzie couldn’t tell Zachary any confidential details about the cases she was working on, she could tell him what she knew about the break-in and what she had or had not seen. She told him about the theft of the recent samples, files from Dr. Wiltshire’s office, and the possible hacking of their computer systems.

  “I can see how they could break in through the loading dock,” Zachary said. “There is a weakness in security there. You don’t generally have people trying to break into the morgue. It’s not an area that’s targeted. But the computer systems...” He thought about that and shook his head. “You’ve got good security. I think... you would need a pretty heavy-duty hacker to break into that.”

  “I would hope so. I always thought we had all the firewalls and encryption and everything to protect the Medical Examiner’s Office and the police systems. It’s kind of scary to think that someone could break into it.” Kenzie took another sip of her wine. “Everything should be backed up, unless they’ve somehow been able to break into that too. I think it is at another location, with some security company.”

  “It should be.”

  “Yeah. Well, we’ve all seen system fails before. Usually on the human end.” She breathed out heavily. “They broke into the lab too, and I guess... they had injuries over there. At least one of their security guards in critical condition at the hospital.” Kenzie rubbed the bump on the back of her head.

  “You’re lucky that all you had was a bump. If he’d decided to pull a gun on you or to make sure that you couldn’t follow or identify him... You’re always telling me to be careful. Who would have guessed that you would be in danger in the Medical Examiner’s Office?”

  “Not me. I thought I had a pretty safe job. I haven’t even heard of anything like this happening before. People don’t... people just don’t break into a Medical Examiner’s Office like that. Even on TV.”

  “The way that this was coordinated, it couldn’t all have been perpetrated by just one person. This is a group acting in concert. And a pretty powerful group. You need money and influence to pull something like this off.” Zachary ticked points off on his fingers. “Break in at your office, taking both samples and files, break in at the lab around the same time, with more violence, breaching your server and the lab’s server. The kind of person you hire to do a smash and grab is not the same kind of person as you hire to hack sophisticated computer systems. Even if one person hacked both systems, that is still at least three teams coordinated to act at once.”

  “And with the body being cremated today... I mean, that just doesn’t happen. The funeral home doesn’t usually cremate a body the same day that they pick it up. And I had the feeling...” Kenzie trailed off, not sure how much she should say. She was only speculating, and she might be building the situation up to be worse than it was. She didn’t need to make it worse. It was bad enough without her blowing it up.

  But Zachary leaned forward, his eyes searching her face. “What? What is it?”

  “I got the feeling... I know Dr. Wiltshire wasn’t really ready to release the body yet. I know he was being pressured by the governor’s office. And then my dad trying to talk me into influencing him. He talked about the governor too. And then Dr. Wiltshire just decided to release the body when he hadn’t yet made a determination. Just the timing of it... do you think he was threatened or coerced somehow?”

  “If you think he was, then you’re probably right. You know him. You know how he usually works. If this was unusual, and he was under that much pressure.... then you’re probably right.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  “Do you have other avenues of investigation you can pursue while you wait to see what can be recovered from the lab and the computer backups?”

  “No... not really.”

  “What about the woman that you were looking for? Have you talked to her?”

  Kenzie thought about Francine Mudd. It seemed like a long time ago. “Yeah. I talked to her today. But I would still like to talk to her ex-boyfriend as well. It’s his place that the dog lived at before. I can’t go back any farther to the previous owner, because he passed away. But I should probably at least take a look at the place Lola lived at before the nursing home, see if there is any obvious source of infection. If we’ve got a zoonotic virus—a virus that can be passed from animal to human—then it is possible that the dog got it from another human in the first place. That could be Francine’s boyfriend.”

  “Why don’t we see if we can track him down tomorrow, then?”

  “We?” Kenzie repeated with a smile.

  “I could help you with that. I’ve already done half of the work, tracking Francine down. I have most of the background I need to start with.”

  “Well... since it’s probably going to take at least a day before they’ve been able to restore whatever information they can from the backups, I guess we might as well. You don’t have anything else you have to do tomorrow?”

  “Nothing I can’t reschedule. I’ve got a pretty good relationship with the head boss of Goldman Investigations.”

  60

  Kenzie had a restless night. Even after a couple of glasses of wine, her mind was still whirling as she tried to make sense of what had happened and tried to predict how things would unfold over the next few days. And the bump on the back of her head hurt. It wasn’t bad, but it reminded her every time she moved. She couldn’t lie on her back comfortably. Not that she was usually a back sleeper, but knowing that she couldn’t made her hyperaware of her position and she couldn’t get comfortable on her stomach or sides either.

  She jumped at every sound in the house, even though the house’s night noises were familiar to her. Zachary stayed with her for a couple of hours, but then she was aware that he was gone, and every time she awoke, she listened for him, trying to discern where he was in the house and what he was doing. He was quiet, either working on his computer or sleeping on the couch where he wouldn’t be disturbed by her tossing and turning.

  She fell into a restless sleep full of dreams early in the morning, just as she gave up on being able to get any sleep before it was time to get up.

  Kenzie shut off her alarm when it buzzed and went back to sleep. Dr. Wiltshire wouldn’t be expecting her in with all that had happened, and they probably wouldn’t be able to do any work until at least the afternoon, maybe the next day. She slept for another hour and a half and then got up, feeling sore all over and still exhausted, but she was too restless to sleep anymore. She wandered out to say good morning to Zachary before her shower.

  “Hey, hon’.” Kenzie covered a big yawn.

  “You look like you could use some more sleep.”

  Kenzie rubbed her sticky eyes and looked at him. “Well, to be honest, so do you.”

  “I slept okay.”

  Of course, his “slept okay” was different from the average person’s. He regularly survived on less sleep than a hyperactive squirrel.

  “You still want to go looking for Francine’s ex today?” Kenzie asked.

  “Yeah. I’ve done some background. Shouldn’t be too hard to find him. He is at the same address as you c
hecked already.”

  “Doesn’t help much if he doesn’t answer the door.”

  “We can still scout around. You said you want to see if there are any obvious sources of infection nearby. We can do that, and hopefully be able to raise Jeremy by phone, find out what time he will be home... meet him somewhere so you can ask your questions.”

  Kenzie nodded. She ran her fingers through her hair, which felt coarse and sticky. “Okay. I’m going to have a long shower. Then something to eat, and then we can go.”

  Zachary nodded his agreement and went back to his work.

  “Jeremy?”

  Zachary was going through the cryptic-looking notes in his notepad when Kenzie got out of the shower and walked into the living room, towel-drying her hair, another towel wrapped around her torso.

  After a moment, Zachary looked up. “What?”

  “You said Jeremy, we would try to get a hold of Jeremy.”

  He nodded. “Right. Francine’s ex.”

  “She said her boyfriend was Jay.”

  “Nickname. Full name Jeremy...” Zachary flipped through the pages of his notepad to find it. “Jeremy Salk.”

  The name sounded familiar to Kenzie, so it must be right. “Oh, okay. I’m going to get ready now. Have you eaten breakfast?”

  He opened his mouth to answer and Kenzie shook her head. “Of course you haven’t. Why don’t you brew some coffee and pop a couple of pieces of bread in the toaster? You can tell me what we know about this Jeremy, and then we’ll go over to his building. If he’s got a nine-to-five job, he’s still going to be working, so it’s sort of a waste of time, but it isn’t like I have a lot else to do right now, until the office is back up and running.”

  She had emailed Dr. Wiltshire before getting into the shower, and he had confirmed what she had already suspected. That he wasn’t expecting her in and they couldn’t work until the police had cleared the area and the techs had the computers working properly.

  Zachary nodded and Kenzie went back into the bedroom to dress and make herself look presentable. She suspected that Zachary was too involved in what he was doing to get the coffee and toast started, but she wasn’t in a hurry, so it didn’t matter. For once, they could have a long, relaxed breakfast if they wanted to.

  Kenzie was feeling somewhat more like herself when they reached the building she had previously visited in trying to reach Jeremy Salk. She looked around, unsure why she thought she would be able to find anything significant by just looking at the building. But Zachary’s eyes were bright and alert, looking around for anything that was out of place.

  “Were you able to get into the building?” he asked.

  “No, everything was locked up. I mean, the glass doors are unlocked, but there is a hall door at the top of the stairs, and that’s locked.”

  “Did you try to get anyone to buzz you in?”

  “No... I just tried reaching Jeremy. Or rather, Francine. But I couldn’t get her.”

  Zachary nodded. He pulled out his phone and placed a call. To Jeremy’s number, she assumed. He walked toward the glass doors that she had previously used. Kenzie followed him in. There was a panel near the door, but it wasn’t quite like the electronic directories Kenzie usually saw at apartment buildings. Only four buttons, and none of them were properly labeled. Some numbers and names had been struck through, but Kenzie couldn’t make out who the current residents were or which apartment Jeremy lived in.

  Zachary pressed each of the buttons, a long press on each of them.

  One of the residents answered over the speaker. A woman’s voice, mature. Slightly suspicious or irritated.

  “Yes?”

  “I have a delivery for Jeremy Salk.”

  “Then ring his doorbell.”

  “I have, but he’s not answering. He’s not answering his phone, either. I can’t stand around here all day. Can you buzz me up and I’ll just leave it outside his door?”

  Kenzie had no idea what Zachary was planning to do if the woman said yes and then wanted to know where the package they were supposedly delivering was. Maybe it was a ploy he had used other times in other cases, but she would think that he would at least want to carry a generic parcel around and put it down in front of the door if someone let him in.

  “No, you can’t leave it outside his door.”

  “Can I leave it with you? Would you give it to him?”

  A deep sigh. “Who are you?”

  “Delivery.”

  “Come up.”

  There was no buzz. There was no vestibule to go through like there was at Francine’s building. They both climbed the stairs and tried the door at the top, and this time there was no resistance. It was unlocked and they were able to let themselves through. Kenzie looked down the corridor and saw a woman looking out one of the doorways. She was an older woman, brunette turning gray, jowls starting to sag, wire-rim glasses, and a knotted housecoat.

  “You’re not a deliveryman,” she said accusingly.

  Zachary handed her one of his cards. “Private Investigator.” He looked at the door down the hall from her. “Do you know what time Jeremy gets off work? He isn’t answering his phone.”

  “What would you be investigating him for?” She shook her head. “And he doesn’t go by Jeremy, he goes by—”

  “Jay. Yes, I know. I’m not investigating him. I have some questions that he might be able to answer about a consumer transaction.”

  Her brows lowered. “What?”

  Kenzie wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean either. Did he mean the sale of the dog? Except that it hadn’t been a sale, it had just been Francine taking the dog when its previous owner had died.

  “Do you know what time he gets off work?”

  “I don’t think he’s even in town.”

  Zachary looked at Kenzie and then back at the woman.

  “You think he’s out of town? Did he tell you that?”

  “He hasn’t been around for... at least a week. More. Maybe two.”

  “Oh.” Kenzie was disappointed. “Do you know if he’s having his mail forwarded somewhere else? Or where he might have gone? Was it a vacation?”

  “I don’t know. Why would he tell me? We’re not close. He’s just a neighbor.”

  “Is there someone else we can talk to? Maybe he is friends with someone else in the building?” Zachary looked at the other doors in the hallway. “Or is there a building manager who would be in charge of sorting mail that might know something?”

  “You can call the building man,” the woman shook her head. “But he isn’t going to be able to tell you anything.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because he was asking the other day if I knew anything about where Jay was. He missed paying his rent.”

  “So he’s just disappeared. No one has any idea whether something is wrong or whether he’s just gone on vacation.”

  She shrugged. “What could be wrong?”

  “He could be sick, hurt, who knows?”

  “He could be dead,” Kenzie pointed out. Since that was her wheelhouse. Then she had a sudden feeling of vertigo. He could be dead?

  Jeremy Salk.

  Zachary held Kenzie’s arm to keep her from falling over. “Kenz? What is it?”

  Jeremy Salk.

  “I thought that name sounded familiar.”

  “Yeah.” She could see him nodding even though she couldn’t focus on anything in the present. “Because that’s the name of Francine’s ex-boyfriend.”

  “Francine? Oh, I remember her,” the old lady said approvingly.

  “No,” Kenzie said, shaking her head slightly. “Because that’s the identify of our John Doe.”

  61

  Kenzie was leaning against the wall for support. Zachary held on to her to steady her, but he wasn’t following her train of thought. “What?”

  “The one who was in the news. You remember? You looked at his picture and said that he wasn’t homeless. And you were right. Once they stopped look
ing for him in the homeless shelters and community, they were able to identify him. And his name was Jeremy Salk.”

  Zachary looked at her, then looked at the woman in the doorway. “How long has he been gone?”

  She was tentative, uncertain in the face of this news. “Maybe two weeks.”

  Zachary looked back at Kenzie. “If it’s been two weeks and he’s been identified, then why doesn’t anyone here know? There should have been someone to get his personal effects. Clean the apartment out. And inform the landlord that he’s passed.”

  “No. Next of kin is out of state. They have to make arrangements to travel here, get his things, arrange for the body to be cremated and shipped, all of that. It will be up to them to clear out the apartment and let the landlord know.”

  “So Jeremy Salk is dead.” Zachary considered this. “What did he die of?”

  “Alcohol poisoning.” Kenzie swallowed and gave a little bit of a head shake. “Not a virus or unexpected death.”

  “Alcohol poisoning?” the neighbor demanded. “Jay? He wasn’t a big drinker. Every now and then, he’d have a beer, but I don’t think he ever had much more than that. How would someone like that get alcohol poisoning?”

  “I don’t know. But that’s definitely what he died from,” Kenzie told her firmly.

  “How would you know that?”

  “Because I’m with the Medical Examiner’s Office.”

  The woman looked a little taken aback by this. She looked at Kenzie and Zachary, then shrugged her thin shoulders. “Well, if you don’t have anything to deliver, and now you don’t have anyone to talk to, then I assume you’ll be leaving now.” She shut the door firmly.

  “Yeah,” Kenzie said. “I guess I am. Leaving. Now.”

  “Just take a minute,” Zachary said. “You’re very pale. Are you sure your head isn’t bothering you?”