by Robin Cook
"May I help you? " the woman asked in a voice barely above a whisper.
"Yes, " Jack said. "Where's the director? "
"He's in the office, " the woman said. "Should I get him? "
"Please, " Jack said. "And quickly if you wouldn't mind. This is an emergency." Jack looked over his shoulder at Warren and Flash who were close behind him.
"Shit, man! " Warren whispered. "Are you sure you need us? "
"Without a doubt, " Jack whispered back. "Just stay cool." It took only a few minutes for the worried director to emerge from a side door accompanied by a pair of brawny men in suits who could have moonlighted as bouncers. The funeral director could have been from central casting, with his immaculate black suit, crisp white shirt, and pomaded, painstakingly combed hair. The only thing out of place was his complexion. He was tanned as if he'd just come back from a Florida vacation.
"My name is Gordon Strickland, " he said in a hushed tone. "I understand there is an emergency. How can we be of assistance? "
"My name is Dr. Jack Stapleton, " Jack said with all the authority he could muster. He held up his medical examiner badge in front of Gordon's nose. "I'm a representative from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Manhattan, Dr. Harold Bingham." Gordon'tilted his head so he could see Jack around the medical examiner's badge.
"I've heard the name. How does this involve us here in Brooklyn? "
"I've been sent to view the body of Connie Davydov, " Jack said. "As well as to obtain some needed body fluid samples. I assume you got a call to that effect."
"No, we didn't get a call, " Gordon said. His upper lip began to twitch.
"Then I apologize for the surprise, " Jack said. "But we do have to see the body." He took a step forward in the direction of a pair of double doors heading into the center of the building.
"Just a minute! " Gordon said, holding up his hand. "Who are these other gentlemen? "
"This is Warren Wilson, " Jack said while nodding toward Warren. "He is my assistant. This other gentleman is Frank Thomas, the brother of the deceased." Jack couldn't help wonder how all this was going to play, since both his friends were clothe in a modified hip-hop style. Warren certainly didn't look professional by any stretch of the imagination.
"I don't understand, " Gordon said. "The body was released to a Mr.
Davydov. He's not contacted us about this situation either."
"We're investigating a potential homicide, " Jack said. "New information has come available."
"Homicide? " Gordon repeated. The frequency of the twitch increased.
"Indeed, " Jack said. He started forward again, forcing Gordon to back up. "Now if you'll just direct us to your cooler or wherever you keep your newly arrived bodies, we'll do our thing and be on our way."
"The body is in the embalming room, " Gordon said. "We've been awaiting Mr. Davydov's instructions.
He was supposed to call once it got here."
"Then we'll view the body in the embalming room, " Jack said. "It's all the same to us." Nonplussed, Gordon'turned around and pushed through the double doors.
Jack, Warren, and Flash followed. Gordon's silent minions brought up the rear.
"This is highly irregular, " Gordon voiced to no one in particular as they walked down the hall. "We haven't heard anything from the Brooklyn ME's office either. Maybe I should give them a call."
"It would save time to call Dr. Harold Bingham directly, " Jack said.
"Of course, you know the Brooklyn ME's office is under the control of the Manhattan office."
"I didn't know that, " Gordon said.
Jack pulled out his cellular phone, punched the number to speed-dial the chief, and handed the phone to Gordon. Gordon'took the phone and pressed it to his ear. Jack could hear Cheryl Sanford answer with her usual preamble, "Dr. Harold Bingham's office, Chief Medical Examiner.
How may I help you? " The entire group slowed to a halt outside a second set of double doors as Gordon spoke to Cheryl. Jack could hear only bits of Cheryl's side of the conversation. Gordon was nodding and saying "I see, "
"yes, " and "I understand" several times. Finally he said, "Thank you, Mrs. Sanford. I understand perfectly and there is no need for you to apologize. I'll do what I can to help Dr. Stapleton."
Gordon disconnected and handed the phone back to Jack.
As Jack took the phone he noticed that Gordon's lip was twitching almost continuously.
The man obviously wasn't entirely comfortable with the situation, but at least he was momentarily mollified.
"In here, " Gordon said, pointing to the double doors.
The entire group entered the embalming room, which was redolent with the cloying smell of a sickly-sweet deodorant. The space was larger than Jack expected, about the size of the autopsy room where he worked most days. But in contrast to the autopsy room's eight tables, here there were only four, two of which were occupied. The farthest table held a male who was in the process of being embalmed. The nearest held an obese woman.
"Mrs. Davydov is right here, " Gordon said, pointing to the nearest corpse.
"Right! " Jack said. He quickly put his satchel down on a nearby wheeled table and pulled it close. After snapping open the bag he looked up at his two friends. They were frozen in place near the door.
Warren was transfixed by the embalming process going on in the end of the room, Flash was staring at his sister. Both their faces had gone slack. Jack could only imagine what they must be feeling.
Jack clapped his hands loudly to keep the situation from deteriorating.
The sound was like a gunshot in the tiled room. Every one was jolted.
Even the two people doing the embalming looked up from their gruesome task. "Okay! " Jack said eagerly, as if he relished what he was about to do. "Let's get this show on the road so these gentlemen can get on with their business. Frank Thomas, can you identify this woman? " Flash nodded his head.
"It's my sister. Connie Thomas Davydov."
"Are you absolutely certain? " Jack asked while he looked down at the deceased's face for the first time. He was immediately surprised by the obvious evidence of trauma. The left eye was purplish and swollen almost shut. The skin over the cheekbone was bruised.
"Dead sure, " said Flash. He took a step closer and pointed to the swollen eye. "And the bastard popped her just like he'd done in the past."
"Let's not jump to conclusions, " Jack said quickly.
"Remember! The EMTS found her in the bathroom, where she'd collapsed.
A bathroom is a dangerous place to collapse between the sink, tub, and toilet, not to mention the towel racks and the faucets."
"About a month ago when I had lunch with her, her eye looked just like that, " Flash said, ignoring Jack.
"She told me he'd punched her. The only reason I didn't go flying out there to beat the shit out of him then was because she made me promise not to do it."
"Okay, calm down! " Jack said. Now that he was about to get his samples, he didn't want Flash to gum up the works. To that end he suggested to Flash that it might be best for him to wait outside.
Flash offered no argument, he spun around, banged open both double doors, and left. With a nod from the director, the two funeral home heavies quickly followed.
"This is very difficult for him, " Jack explained. "So, it's best we do what we have to do, and get him out of here." Gordon stepped up to the table while Jack snapped on his latex gloves.
"I hope you're not planning on marring the body in any visible way, " Gordon warned. "We have no idea if Mr. Davydov is planning on an open casket or not."
"All we're going to do is take some body fluids, " Jack said. He motioned for Warren to come closer and handed him several sample bottles.
He had to make it look as if Warren really was his assistant to justify his intimidating presence. Jack wanted him there because Jack was planning on doing what Gordon had just warned him not to do, namely taking a sample of the bruised facial skin. Of course, he
also would have liked samples of brain, liver, kidneys, lung, and fat, if he could have thought of some way to get away with it.
The first thing Jack did was take out his camera. Before Gordon could complain, he took a series of photographs of the body with particular attention to the facial trauma. Jack was careful to position the head for maximum exposure. In the process, he also looked for any subtle signs of strangulation or smothering. There weren't any.
After putting the camera away he completed his rapid but thorough external exam. While he worked, he kept up a verbal description for Warren's benefit. He mentioned that there were no signs of injections other than iatrogenic ones, no trauma other than to the eye and cheek, and no signs of infectious disease.
Next, Jack got out his collection of syringes and began taking body fluid samples. He got blood from the heart, urine from the bladder, vitreous from the eyeballs, and cerebrospinal fluid from the central nervous system. Then he got out the nasogastric tube and got some stomach contents. He worked quickly for fear of being interrupted before he was finished. Warren tried to keep his eyes closed through it all.
The funeral director had moved back against the wall. He stood vigilantly with his arms folded across his chest. It was obvious by his expression and the fact that his lip continued to twitch that he was not enthralled about Jack's efforts, but he stayed silent. At least until Jack's scalpel flashed in the bright fluorescent light.
"Wait! " Gordon cried when he caught a fleeting view of the knife.
Pushing off the wall he quickly came forward. "What are you going to do now? "
"It's done, " Jack said. He straightened up and plopped a wedge of facial tissue and eyelid into a sample bottle. He'd taken the sample with blinding speed.
"But you promised, " Gordon sputtered. With dismay he looked down at the gap in the skin of Connie's face.
"True, " Jack said. "But I realized we're obligated to make sure this swollen eye isn't the result of an infectious process. And with my usual surgical precision I took only the tiniest sample. I've full confidence that you can all but make it disappear with your cosmetic wizardry."
"This is outrageous! " Gordon complained. He bent over to study the defect and was dismayed. In his estimation, it was hardly tiny.
Connie's face looked horribly and irrevocably altered.
As rapidly as possible Jack threw all the sample containers, his used supplies, and even his inside-out rubber gloves into the. satchel and snapped it closed. At this point he felt like a bank robber who'd just been given the cash and had to make his getaway. Grabbing Warren by the sleeve of his hooded sweatshirt, he pulled him toward the door.
"Let's make this fast but orderly, " Jack whispered.
They went through the first set of double doors still hearing Gordon swearing in the background. After clearing the second set of doors, they began looking for Flash. He was nowhere to be seen. Exiting the building, they found him pacing on the front walk.
"Let's go! " Jack ordered.
The three men walked quickly to the car. Jack wasn't worried they'd be pursued, yet he wanted to get away as soon as possible. He knew he'd pushed Gordon over the edge with the skin sample maneuver.
To a funeral director, disfiguring the face was the worst possible sin.
They piled into the car. Warren got it going, and they headed back toward Prospect Park, driving in silence. It was Flash who finally spoke, "Well, aren't you guys going to say anything? What did you find?"
"I found out that I'm never going back into a funeral home until I'm carried in, " Warren said. "What in God's name were they doing to that guy on the other table, vacuuming out his insides? I almost lost it, I gotta tell you. Man, this has been the worst experience of my life."
"In other words, " Flash said angrily, "you didn't learn crap about what happened to Connie."
"We got the samples we needed, " Jack said. "Now you're going to have to be patient. Like I said earlier, we won't know anything definitive until these samples get processed."
"I could see that he smacked her in the face, " Flash said. "That's enough for me." Warren glanced up at Jack in the rearview mirror.
"See what I'm up against with this guy? It's like talking to a wall, you know what I'm saying." >, , "Listen, Flash, " Jack said heatedly. "I've put myself out on a limb here for you. Do you understand? "
"I suppose, " Flash admitted reluctantly.
"I could be in deep trouble if Strickland or the Brooklyn office makes a stink about this, especially if the samples turn out to be negative.
Now the least I can expect from you in return is to promise you won't go out there to your brother-in-law's house."
"What about that black eye? " Flash demanded.
"For the last time, we don't know how she got it, " Jack said. "I took a skin sample and we'll see what it shows. It might have been from a punch, but then again, it might not have been. I'm telling you, I've seen bathroom falls much worse. In fact, I've seen it where it was the fall itself that killed the victim, not whatever went on before."
"Promise the man, " Warren said. "Or I'm going to be royally pissed myself. I mean, there's a lot of things I'd rather be doing today than standing in that funeral home getting grossed out, you know what I'm saying? "
"All right, I promise, " Flash said. "Are you guys happy now? "
"Relieved is a better word, " Jack said. He looked out the window at the rush-hour traffic and wondered what kind of price he would have to pay for his shenanigans.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19
4:35 P. M. The snow stretched in an immaculately white blanket all the way down Fatherland Hill. Yuri and his brother, Yegor, had named the slope in celebration of its being the finest sledding hill in all of the Soviet Union. After crowding onto a sled that they had fashioned themselves out of discarded wood and metal, they pushed off down the steep slope.
Yegor was in the front and Yuri in the back.
For Yuri, it was like being launched into a fairyland. The crystalline snow swirled about them as they hurtled down toward the farmhouses along Lake Niznije. It was like flying, and Yuri yelled with delight.
As they streaked toward the main road, they saw a sleigh coming from town pulled by two horses as white as the snow. As their paths drew closer, Yuri could hear the sleigh bells jangle in time with the horses' canter. It got louder and louder until Yuri was yanked from his favorite dream. The jangling wasn't sleigh bells, it was the phone.
Sitting up suddenly, Yuri nearly fainted. He steadied himself and leaned over so his head was between his knees. When he felt normal, he slowly sat up. The dizziness had disappeared, but the phone was still insistently ringing.
Yuri got up on slightly unsteady legs and headed for the kitchen. He'd fallen asleep on the sofa, and a quick glance at his watch suggested he'd slept soundly for more than four hours. Snatching the phone from its cradle, he found that his voice was hoarse and. that he had to clear his throat.
"This is Gordon Strickland calling. I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Davydov, but there's been a problem that you should know about." Yuri rubbed his forehead while his sleepy mind wrestled with the name Strickland. He knew he'd heard it, but he couldn't remember in what context. Then, with a start, he remembered. It was the funeral home that he had arranged to take Connie.
"What kind of problem? " Yuri asked. His mind fought through the fog of sleep. He didn't like the sound of "problem."
"Something very irregular has happened, " Gordon continued. "Not long after your poor deceased wife arrived here at our facility, three men appeared demanding to see her body and take samples."
"What kind of samples?"
" Yuri demanded.
"Body fluids for analysis, " Gordon said. "I want to apologize for this whole affair and for not calling you immediately and asking your permission. Unfortunately, it all happened so quickly. They were authorized by the chief medical examiner, but now, after the fact, I'm confused as to the legality of it. You might consider retaining counsel.
You could possibly have grounds for a big award from the city."
"But I don't understand, " Yuri said. "My wife wasn't autopsied."
"Precisely, " Gordon said. "That's why this is so irregular. I've been in this business for almost thirty years, and my father for a lifetime before that, and nothing like this has ever happened in either of our experience."
"Who were these men? " Yuri asked. He put the phone in the crook of his neck so he could get a glass.
From the freezer he got the vodka and poured himself a slug.
He needed it.
"One of them was a medical examiner, " Gordon said. "Dr. Jack Stapleton.
He had an assistant.. ."
"What was the doctor's name? " Yuri demanded, interrupting the funeral director mid-sentence. Even in Yuri's sleepy state the name rang a discordant bell in his mind.
When Gordon repeated the name, Yuri took another belt of his vodka.
Jack Stapleton had been the man in the Corinthian Rug Company office!
"The medical examiner was also accompanied by a relative of your late wife, " Gordon went on to say.
"At least that was what we were told.
He was introduced as Frank Thomas, although I heard Dr. Stapleton refer to him by the sobriquet Flash.
"' Yuri felt a chill down his spine. He grabbed one of the kitchen chairs and pulled it over to the phone so he could sit down. His legs had suddenly turned to rubber.
Flash Thomas was the one person in the world who Yuri truly feared.
Not only was he a big, muscled man, he'd threatened Yuri on several occasions. The last time had been on the telephone, when he'd said that if Yuri ever hit Connie again he'd come out there to Brighton Beach and kill him.
"Are you still there? " Gordon questioned. Yuri had not responded to his last statement.
"Yes, I'm still here, " Yuri managed. His pulse was racing. What could it mean that Flash Thomas was with this mysterious Jack Stapleton? What kind of weird coincidence could this be?"
"We're going to need some directions from you, " Gordon repeated.