A Taxing Death (Jill Quint, MD, Forensic Pathologist Series Book 5)

by Peche, Alec

  The first year they had dated, Nathan had gotten used to her disappearing on cases about once a month. It was inconvenient, but really nothing more. This past year's cases had caused Nathan chest pain every time she picked up a new case. In four of her cases over the past year she had attracted the murderer. Jill and her friends, and even Nathan had been the targets of murder attempts. Nathan had been paralyzed when he was shot by a murderer's dart gun dart containing a paralytic drug. Angela had been grazed in the arm by a bullet in her last case. At least this investigation was close by and he could protect her if he saw the investigation heading in that direction.

  "It's an interesting case. The guy was feeling fine when an ambulance crew arrived and told him he was sick. Then his heart went into a mysterious rhythm and he died."

  "That is a weird story. Sounds like the ambulance crew killed the guy. Did he have a bad heart?"

  "Yes and no. He had a heart defect that he was born with and for which he was treated with a pacemaker for over thirty years. So his heart wasn't perfect, but he led an active lifestyle and exhibited no symptoms of a bad heart."

  "Wow, what a bummer. Have you heard of anything like that before?"

  "Frankly no, which is why I am itching to start his autopsy. I got a break there with the Coroner's office. I have an old friend there and they are overloaded at the moment, so the plan is for me to do the autopsy supervised by them. I like being the first and only person to perform an autopsy for a client, but I respect their legal requirement to rule on a death. So we are all going to win with this process."

  "Jill, can I just say that it's weird to be excited by doing an autopsy? I mean I understand why you're excited, but it's still weird."

  With a laugh, Jill replied, "Nathan, that's okay. I might be offended if you were excited about me performing autopsies. I am excited for any scientific discoveries that I make and for the opportunity to bring justice to the deceased. You shouldn't feel those same emotions. Okay, can I just say that this is a weird conversation? Let’s move on and talk about your day."

  Jill could hear the smile in his voice as Nathan agreed they should move the conversation along, "I've been contemplating a wine label featuring an artistic rendering of Arthur."

  Besides being the love of Jill's life, Nathan was a world class wine label artist with his designs featured on the bottles of at least five hundred different wineries. Arthur was his cat and the nemesis of Trixie whenever the two were in the same room.

  "Arthur? Oh my, Trixie will never forgive you making him a star and not her."

  "You forget that Trixie has been a beer dog for Budweiser for decades. Her calling is beer, not wine."

  "I can't argue with that line of reasoning, she is more of a beer dog. Is this for a winery with a cat in the name, perhaps Cat Napped winery, or Catnip Winery? Or is he in the background of say a garden?"

  "Hey, you're pretty creative there - it's your second option. When I met with the owners, they wanted a lazy summer afternoon garden scene for their brand. So for lunch, I sat on my own patio looking around for inspiration and there was Arthur, watching bees and butterflies around the edge of my patio garden. I snapped a picture of him including the flowers and butterfly and sent it to the client, who sent it back to me within five minutes saying I had nailed their vision. I just need to turn the picture into a sketch. This has been one of the easier brand designs to create from scratch."

  "How cool that Arthur served as such inspiration!"

  "It's hard to tell if he is impressed with himself since he is always impressed with himself. Cats are quite egotistical. I'll have a mock-up for my client by tonight. Most of my designs aren't created that fast. Of course, it helps that I won't be seeing you tonight."

  Jill could hear the smile in his voice as he said that and added, "Far be it for me to interfere with creative genius. Sail forth and create and I'll talk to you tomorrow."

  "Why don't you call me on your way home? Talking to me should help keep you awake if you're driving at a time that is late for you."

  "That's a great idea. I'll do that, talk to you later," and Jill hung up smiling.

  Chapter Three

  Jill was on the outskirts of Sacramento, her GPS guiding her towards the Coroner's Office. She was trying to remember if she had been there before, but she couldn't remember when she had that opportunity. She had spoken by phone to John Garcia and she had had lunch with him at a professional meeting, but she didn't think she had been to his office. Soon she was turning into a parking lot. It was a white, two-story government-looking building with nice mature landscaping around it. Of course it could have several floors below ground level, invisible to the eye from the parking lot, and suited to metal refrigerators that contained the dead. From looking at their website, she knew they processed about fifteen-hundred deaths a year as Coroner's cases, and the building looked capable of fulfilling that duty.

  She exited her car, extracted her autopsy kit from the trunk and was soon entering the lobby where she was greeted by a receptionist who likely doubled as a records registrar. Budgets were usually too tight now to afford the luxury of a pure receptionist anymore.

  "Hi, I'm Dr. Jill Quint here to see John Garcia, the Supervising Deputy Coroner."

  "Yes, just a minute please," the receptionist said as she dialed a number to connect with John. She quickly ended the call and said, "He's coming over to reception to meet you."

  Jill waited no more than a few minutes, when a tall Hispanic man in scrubs and a lab coat opened the door into the lobby.

  "Hey, Jill, let's head over to the autopsy room," John said as he unlocked the door and held it open for Jill.

  They walked down a series of corridors and then took the elevator down one floor to the autopsy suite. Staff had weighed Mr. Valencia, x-rayed him upon entry to the morgue, and kept him refrigerated awaiting his autopsy.

  After applying the protective apparel of a gown, gloves, booties, and a facemask, Jill and John were ready to begin. She left her kit closed for the time-being as she thought she would only need it to collect duplicate specimens as the Coroner's Office would collect their own to analyze. They decided that Jill would perform the primary recording of the autopsy with John adding comments where necessary.

  Jill provided the words for the dictation software to turn into the autopsy report. She would turn the microphone off and on at different points to discuss her findings with John. Just over ninety minutes later, they were joined by Detective Stan Chang of the Sacramento Police. Jill and John had preliminarily ruled the case a homicide.

  Jill pointed out the marks on the body of Manuel Valencia, "These marks on his chest are from the defibrillator paddles. You can see these red burn marks are the likely source of his electrocution. The jolt destroyed his pacemaker, burned his lungs and skin, and completely ended all electrical conduction of the heart."

  "How do you know that isn't a side effect of being resuscitated?" the detective asked.

  "EMS and hospitals throughout the U.S. converted to biphasic defibrillators over a decade ago," Jill explained. "They don't use paddles - instead pads are placed on the chest, which do a better job of conforming to the body, present less danger for health care personnel, and damage the heart muscle less than a monophasic system that uses paddles. We checked with Sacramento EMS and indeed none of their units uses paddles on a defibrillator."

  "Okay that is a new way to murder someone. I've never handled a case of death by electrocution," observed Detective Chang looking at Jill. "I guess there is a first time for everything. Talk to me some more about how you got involved in this case, Dr. Quint."

  "Detective Chang, I am a licensed physician in the State of California and at one time worked for the state crime lab. For the past five years I've provided private autopsy services for families desiring a second opinion on the cause of death. In this case Mr. Valencia's daughter is a physician and she had suspicions about his death and the sequence of events this morning. I am due to meet the family a
s soon as I finish here; would you like to follow me there? I assume you'll be notifying them tonight?"

  "I had planned to do just that so I'll follow you to their house. Do you know this family?"

  "I only know the daughter through conversations on the phone. The spouse is an attorney, and she lobbies for the agricultural industry. The daughter is a pediatrician and the son, who was flying in from New York, is an attorney working for an investment bank. A policeman visited Mrs. Valencia at the office this morning to notify her of her husband's death."

  "Okay, thanks. Let me make one call to the California Highway Patrol to get tapes of that ambulance crew's arrival at the Capitol Building. I've also got someone working on getting data from 9-1-1 dispatch and St. Matthews to determine if any contact was made between them and anyone regarding Mr. Valencia."

  A few minutes later after making his call, Jill, with Detective Chang following in his car, made the short drive to the Valencia house. Soon they parked down the street from a stately one-story home in an impressive neighborhood. There were cars in the driveway and on both sides of the street in front of the home. It was ablaze with lights perhaps a reflection of friends and family who had come to offer comfort to Mr. Valencia's immediate family. Jill and the detective looked at each other as they walked up the driveway, each possibly contemplating how to handle a conversation with a large extended family. The detective had briefly debated leaving Dr. Quint out of his conversation with the widow, but in truth she likely could better explain the autopsy's findings than he could.

  As they stood at the front door, Jill said, "Why don't I introduce myself and then you. If you like, I can deliver the news to the family and we can both answer questions. I won't answer any police procedure questions and you stay away from the autopsy. Deal?"

  "Sounds like a plan. We should offer to speak just with Mrs. Valencia, but I'm guessing she'll want the entire family in on our discussion."

  "I would agree with your guess," Jill said as she rang the doorbell.

  The door was opened by a petite Hispanic woman in her late 20s to early 30s, red-eyed with bags forming under her eyes from swollen tear ducts. She said, "Hello, I'm Christina. Are you Jill?" and then she looked with puzzlement at Detective Chang standing to the side and behind Jill.

  "Hello, Christina, and yes I'm Jill. This is Detective Chang. Is there somewhere private we can speak to you and your mother?"

  "Detective Chang? That must mean that there is something suspicious with Dad's death," Christina said as a new round of tears began slipping from her eyes. "Damn these tears, I should be too dehydrated to cry anymore today. Mom will want the entire family to hear her news with her, so come on in to the living room."

  They entered a lovely home, with marble floors in the entry and mahogany woodwork apparent in the built-ins and crown moldings. Sculptures that looked like they had been created by Degas were displayed on an entryway table. They followed Christina into a well-lit living room that was filled with ten to fifteen people seated on a variety of sofas, armchairs, and mismatched chairs brought in from other areas of the house. Christina walked across the room to a woman who was obviously an older version of herself.

  "Mom, this is Dr. Jill Quint, and Detective Chang. They have some news for us. They wanted to know if you would want the conversation in private and I thought not."

  "My daughter knows me well, Dr. Quint, Detective. Michael, please get our guests some chairs. Would you like something to drink?"

  "No thank you," Jill replied.

  The detective gave a negative shake of his head as well and they were soon both seated in the tight circle of the family.

  "Mrs. Valencia, I had several conversations with your daughter so I assume you know that the Sacramento Coroner's Office did a joint autopsy with me on your husband. I'll provide you with my own report of the autopsy and the Coroner will file the official report, but your husband's death will be declared a homicide. Detective Chang joined me at the Coroner's office when we determined the mode of death. To be more specific, whoever provided the defibrillator shock to your husband this morning, did so with equipment not in use by EMS squads in this area and likely modified it to deliver excessive electricity to his heart damaging both his pacemaker and heart muscle."

  Jill stopped here knowing the family would need time to digest her words and to answer the questions that would soon start. For a few moments, there was silence in the living room except for a few sniffs. Then brains started working, and the questions started flowing, like a train slowly gathering steam, sometimes one on top of another until there was a fast moving locomotion of words and questions aimed at Jill and the Detective.

  "Whoa, slow down folks," said Jill over the noise. "I'll stay as long as long as you need to answer questions and the Detective has time as well," at least Jill hoped that was true since she had just volunteered him.

  "I'll answer a few questions that I heard and then I'll pause for the Detective to answer his. First question I think was why didn't you know this earlier in the day? Why wasn't it recognized as a crime scene?"

  "The detective is pulling surveillance video, but from what we heard, a real ambulance pulled up to the Capitol building and two real-looking first responders took a stretcher and equipment into the building looking for your husband. He was the target. No one had any reason to question the actions because under normal circumstances, if it was a true emergency, you would not want to delay treatment while you verified someone's credentials. When Christina spoke with Amanda, your husband's receptionist, she said she overheard your husband say that he was feeling fine and this must have been a mistaken call. Whomever these fake first responders were, they knew in advance that your husband had a pacemaker and said that it had signaled an alert for heartbeat problems. Those words were a heads up to your daughter and I as we have never heard of a pacemaker calling out to a remote computer to report heart problems."

  "Detective Chang, from what Dr. Quint has explained, my husband was the target. Do you have a motive? Who would possibly want my husband dead?" asked Mrs. Valencia.

  "Mrs. Valencia, we are just beginning this investigation so we don't have a motive yet. We'll need to start the case by interviewing everyone in this room. Those interviews will give us clues to follow up on. We've already requested the recordings from your husband's office building security cameras to see if we can identify the first responders. Also just to close the door on the question, we'll check with 9-1-1 Dispatch, St. Matthews, and the first responders groups that operate in this region. Those activities will give us more information about our suspects, but won't fill in the reason for motives. As you can imagine we have just begun the investigation, so I don’t have a lot of information for you just yet.”

  The detective answered a few more questions, took the names, phone numbers, and family relationships of the people in the room with a promise to schedule interviews the next day, and left the house, perhaps an hour after he had arrived.

  Jill was left inside with the family. She saw her role as likely ending, but wanted to get any questions answered before she left.

  “Do you think that the Coroner would have discovered the problems if Christina hadn’t been suspicious?” Michael asked.

  “Probably, but it’s hard to say. The evidence on the surface seemed appropriate to the description of medically what occurred with your father's heart. Frankly I noticed the problem right away because I had renewed my advanced cardiac life support certificate last month and part of my continuing education contained a section devoted to the latest technology in defibrillators. So I was alerted by the burn marks on your father's chest. Are there any other questions I can answer for you?"

  "What are the next steps for us as a family?" asked Mrs. Valencia.

  "There are a couple of things I would recommend. You should expect to be contacted by the media tomorrow as word of this homicide gets out, so appoint a family spokesperson and think about what you might want to say. Secondly, as the police are
involved in this case, I would suggest that you have no need of my services. I do provide a broad range of investigative services but I believe you should rely on the police as your first level of investigation. Certainly it is easier and legal for them to obtain copies of video feed. If you would like to retain my services down the road, I would be pleased to help.

  "The coroner should release a final report and your husband's remains to a funeral service, so think of who you want to use. If you're planning on a cremation, I would suggest waiting until the police finish their investigation in case Manuel's body contains any clues. A mortuary can store his body indefinitely for a price."

  "I would plan on the entire family being individually interviewed tomorrow. This is because some sixty percent of deaths are at the hands of family members. I would just say that this doesn't feel like it was directed by a family member. It's too well-planned for starters. The sooner you are all cleared, the sooner the police will move on to someone else."

  "Did Manuel suffer this morning?" asked a tearful Mrs. Valencia. Her daughter reached over to place a hand on her arm while she croaked out, "oh Mom."

  "Mrs. Valencia, that kind of jolt of electricity would be so quick, that I think Mr. Valencia would have felt little pain," Jill offered. On one hand she had a real desire to comfort Anna Valencia, and yet in the small recesses of her brain, Jill was thinking, how long do you retain consciousness after your heart stops? It seemed like the two would go hand in hand, but it was the kind of question that you couldn’t study and so she let it go.

  Jill felt like she had reached the end of the conversation with the family. They needed her to leave so they could get on with the grieving. She rose and said to Anna and Christina, "I'll have a final report for you tomorrow. Here is my business card and don't hesitate to call or email me with any questions that I can help with. I am so sorry for your loss and Mr. Valencia was lucky to have this large supportive family." Jill left the room and headed for the door, one of the family members escorting her.