by Billy Wells
“Can’t we talk about something else?” Max said with his eyes rolling. “I can’t believe my mother works with dead bodies. Why would anyone choose such a thing for their career? It must be one slot down from proctologist.”
“Hey, big man. I’m training new doctors to save lives. Think about the end result. Without people like me, more people would die a much earlier death. My job also helps to keep you in video games.”
After dinner, Jeff and Max resumed their earlier activities, and Blanche started watching TV.
* * *
A couple of months later, Blanche received a call from a colleague who knew about her extreme dislike for the sixty-day rule. “Blanche, I’ve found someone who works in the morgue who’s willing to look the other way on the waiting period for an extra $100 per head.”
“Who would do this?” Blanche said incredulously, “and why would you not report him?”
“It doesn’t matter who it is. I heard you wanted fresher corpses on unidentified homeless people to help teach your medical students. If you don’t think a measly $100 per head is worth it, and you want to wait an extra thirty days, be my guest. It’s no skin off my ass.”
“Wait!” Blanche said, considerably softer. “Let me think about it. It’s not worth ending my career over something like this.” She thought about the old black and white movies where grave robbers supplied researchers with fresh corpses, and grimaced, realizing she was actually considering it.
“No one will be the wiser, and you don’t have to get involved at all. I’ll call you tomorrow at the same time. Keep in mind, you’re not the only one who’s requested this service, I promise you. And even If you decide to join the others, you’ll still have to wait your turn.”
After carefully considering the pluses and minuses, Blanche decided to take the chance for the sake of her students and the advancement of medicine.
A week later, when Blanche was about to pull back the sheet on a body, an arm slipped from the gurney on her side. She looked at the exposed limb in wonderment. It looked much different than any arm on a cadaver she’d seen in ten years. When she touched it, it felt hard and cold as usual, but in spite of the rigor mortis, it had a pinker color, was definitely less rigid to the touch, and had much less discoloration than normal. The time of death on the toe tag was November 6, which was 31 days ago. Blanche knew the date was wrong.
Gerald, a tall, nerdy looking student, who she selected to dissect the corpse turned to his partner and said, “Wow, this cadaver seems different, Leonard, is he really dead?”
Blanche pulled the sheet further down the abdomen and said coyly, “I think the autopsy incision on his chest is a testament to his stature as a cadaver.” The rest of the class roared with laughter.
As the weeks passed, it became more common to see fresher cadavers in Blanche’s anatomy class. She was happy her students could learn more than she had when she started out. They would also be far ahead of most students in the nation. At the same time, she struggled with the guilt of breaking the rules mandated by the State Medical Board and the fear it could lead to the end of her teaching career.
The thought of someone at the morgue pocketing an extra hundred dollars for providing these cadavers also weighed heavily on her mind. Now that she had participated in the illegal acts, how could she stop? Were there really other medical professionals breaking the rules like herself, or was that just a teaser to make her take the bait?
The family had planned a ten-day trek to climb Mount Rainier. Roughing it in the wild had never appealed to Blanche, but knowing how much Jeff and Max enjoyed it, she agreed to go with them each year. Taking this time off always put additional pressure on her the week preceding the trip, and this year was no exception.
On Thursday of that week, Dr. Henry Wildermuth came to her class to discuss a medical issue. As he made his way across the laboratory to speak with Blanche, he noticed two students dissecting a cadaver on the way. Pausing at the table, he stood in awe at the general condition of the male specimen who was about forty years old. Taking note of the clipboard hanging on the gurney and reading the data on the toe tag, he stood with a wrinkled brow and an incredulous expression, correlating the dates with the condition and appearance of the corpse.
Taking note of his scrutiny, Blanche excused herself from her discussion with the students and meandered over to her fellow professor.
“Hello, Henry. To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?”
He paused for a moment, and then, turning to face her, remarked, “I must say none of my cadavers look anything close to as good as this fellow. I’d say his time of death could be measured in days rather than weeks. Where did you find such a fresh specimen?” Wildermuth waited for her to respond with marked anticipation.
“The cadaver came to me the same way yours come to you. Is there a problem?”
“I’ve heard some of the professors are getting special treatment by greasing someone’s palm in the morgue now and then, but certainly you’re not one of these misguided felons. Your reputation for integrity precedes you.” Wildermuth’s right eyebrow lifted, and he looked for a reaction to his comment in her eyes.
“Henry, you know me better than that. I just take what they give me.” Blanche picked up the clipboard and made a mental calculation. “The dates on this chart are definitely incorrect. Someone must have written in the wrong date. It happens sometimes.”
“I came over to ask you if you want to join me for lunch. I have a few “what ifs” to run by you.”
“I’d love to, Henry, but I have to leave early today, I’m going on a ten-day vacation with the family to climb Mt. Rainier.
“That sounds exciting, but you don’t strike me as a mountain climber,” Wildermuth said, shaking his head. “ I’ve never heard you mention it before. Do you expect to come back with your fingers and toes intact? A surgeon may get along without toes, but fingers are pretty much a necessity.”
Blanche smiled and reminisced the affair they’d had when they first met, “I’m really a lot more athletic than you might think. When Jeff and I were dating, we climbed a number of the tall mountains in the US. It’s more his thing than mine, but I can hold my own, and Max loves it. I’d rather be on a beach in Hawaii than hanging off a cliff, freezing to death, but it’s a chance for us to do something together as a family.
“Well, be careful. We can have lunch when you return,” Wildermuth replied, and moving closer, he whispered, “By the way, I heard through the grapevine the Dean has authorized an audit of the costs for the department. It’s scheduled to start next week.”
The words chilled her to the bone, but she tried to remain calm, “That’s good to know, Henry. I hadn’t heard about it. I appreciate the head’s up.”
Blanche watched Wildermuth eyeballing the cadaver on the metal table as he exited the lab. She wondered if he knew she was involved in the illegal trafficking he spoke of. Because they had become close way back when, she knew he wished her no harm. He could even be watching her back.
Back in her office, she picked up the phone and called the doctor who had initiated her involvement with the person in the morgue. “George, I hear the Dean has ordered an audit of the department’s expenses. Do you know anything about it?”
“Not a thing. Why are you calling me?”
“You know why. You’re the one who put me on to the guy in the morgue,” Blanche retorted sharply.
“I have no idea what you are talking about. I’m in the middle of something. I can’t help you.” Click.
“The lying son of a bitch,” she thought, and slammed down the phone.
She dialed her home and Jeff answered, “When will you be home? I want to leave before the rush hour. You know what happened last year.”
“I'm sorry, darling, I won't be able to go with you after all. I just found out about a surprise audit, and I need to review my files and speak with some people before the auditors come next week.”
“What does an audit have to do
with you, Blanche? This sounds like an excuse, if you ask me. I know climbing mountains is not on your list of favorite things to do, but you promised both of us you’d go no matter what.”
“I know, darling. Until five minutes ago, I had every intention of going, but this audit came out of nowhere. To be frank, I made a bad decision about the sixty day waiting period, and I need to cover my ass.”
“You what?”
“I authorized an extra hundred for each fresh cadaver. I did it for my students, but now, my career might be on the line.”
“I can’t believe what you’re telling me, and the part that really hurts is you didn’t discuss such a critical decision for all of us before you blundered ahead. I understand why you did it, but is your obsession for excellence worth losing everything we’ve worked for?”
“I made a bad decision,” Blanche confessed, starting to cry. “I really can’t explain what came over me. I’m truly sorry for my lapse in judgment. I hope you can forgive me. I’m really out on a limb, and all I can do now is get as many ducks in a row as I can before my career comes crashing down around my ears.”
“Well, what can I say? Let’s hope you can find a way to get through this. Would it help to go to the Dean and beg for him to forgive your indiscretion?”
“Frankly, Jeff, part of the reason I agreed to participate in this insanity was my main source told me most of the other professors were already involved. I should have verified this then, but I never got around to it. Now, it's critical I find out how many of us are really in this program to decide my course of action. That’s why, I can’t go with you to climb Rainer.”
Jeff voice cracked with emotion, “What ever happens…for better or worse, I love you, and I always will, even if we do have to go to the poor house. Your career is certainly more important than climbing a mountain. After all, it’s no Everest. Max and I can postpone the trip. We’ll stay and give you moral support and go on our vacation some other time.”
“That’s ridiculous. I’ll be at the lab all weekend and probably the best part of next week. There’s absolutely nothing you can do to help. Go without me and have a wonderful time. Tell Max, I’m sorry.”
“I can’t let you to face this alone,” Jeff countered.
“You may be back before the audit even starts. Go.”
After several more back and forth interchanges, they agreed Jeff and Max would take the trip to Rainer without her.
Blanche went to the accounting department and asked to see the paid bill files and the purchase orders for certain vendors, which put a look of concern on the payable clerk’s face.
“Look,” Blanche explained, “I’m trying to find the address of several vendors I used over the last several years. It’s important I contact them about the information they provided, and I didn’t keep a list.”
The clerk gave Blanche a sour look and pointed to the bank of file cabinets for the current year lining the wall to the right. The woman also showed her the location of the files for the two previous years. Blanche pulled the cadaver folders for all three years, took a seat at an empty desk, and started plowing through them. She found the requisitions for the extra $100 started more than three years before, and appeared on almost half of the invoices.
She was relieved to discover every professor, except Wildermuth, had authorized the bogus charge periodically, even before she’d joined the program. During her review, she found two $500 charges marked as “special delivery” in the current batch of invoices, which worried her. What was this “special” charge all about?
After a time, she realized she had misjudged the number of invoices related to cadavers and so; the audit of the files would not take long at all. Blanche was sorry she had not joined Jeff and Max on the vacation, but she still wanted to speak with some of the other professors to see if they were concerned about the unexpected audit.
The controller entered the room and advised Blanche the accounting department would be closing in a half an hour and would be locked for the entirety of the three-day holiday weekend. The policy of the university was that the files could not be taken from the accounting department. She would have to come back Tuesday to resume her review of the paid invoices.
Blanche took a big pile of the purchase orders and invoices into an adjacent room filled with office machines and started making copies with the time remaining.
Over the weekend, she reviewed the copies and tabulated the number of special charges for each doctor. Her analysis confirmed that every doctor other than Wildermuth had participated in the illegal program just as George had said. She still couldn’t wait to give him a piece of her mind for hanging up on her.
On Tuesday morning, Blanche stormed into George’s office without knocking, and took a chair across from him. George immediately threw up his hands as a sign of a truce, got up, and closed the door. “Before you go into a rant, realize, I couldn’t speak with you before. The Dean was in my office. Now, what do you want?”
“I want the name of the person who is providing the fresh cadavers from the morgue?”
“If you must know, I’m the brains behind the operation. I have a lackey working with me who does the heavy lifting. What’s your problem?”
“There’s going to be an audit next week, and I’m concerned my indiscretion may come to light and my career will be history.
“Who said there’s an audit?”
“Wildermuth.”
“He’s just trying to scare you. He’s the only doctor who is not participating, He’s always had the hots for you and is probably trying to protect you from the slings and arrows of possible misfortune.”
“There’s no audit?”
“No, and there never will be. The Dean himself participated in the program when he taught anatomy. Stop worrying.”
Blanche exhaled and sat back in her chair, “Are you sure your heavy lifter in the morgue is following the thirty-day protocol? Some of the corpses we’ve seen lately seem too fresh.”
“I can’t believe you’re complaining the stiffs are too fresh. I thought you wanted your students to be on the cutting edge with a scalpel. Excuse the pun.”
“I keep seeing Boris Karloff, the sinister cabman, digging up corpses from the cemetery to deliver to Dr. MacFarlane in The Body Snatcher.”
“Stop worrying. Do you think I would risk doing something that could bring all of us down? Jose knows I’d cut his balls off and feed ‘em to the coyotes.”
“What about this special charge for $500 that started appearing lately instead of $100?” Blanched asked, eying him suspiciously.
“Five hundred dollars?” George barked. “I don’t know anything about any $500 charge. Where did you see it?”
“It’s on the invoices I looked at in the accounting department to prepare for the audit that’s not happening. There were two this month.”
“Damn that greedy little weasel! The only explanation I can think of is he must have come up with a new way to make money on the black market, and inadvertently charged the wrong amount on two of our invoices.” George’s face reddened with rage as he rose from his chair fuming.
“I’m sorry, Blanche, but this could be the end of the program, at least, until I can find a replacement for the slimy little creep.”
With nothing more to say, Blanche trudged back to her office. She couldn’t wait to tell Jeff what she’d learned from George. They would return on the following Monday afternoon. She spent most of the rest of the week trying to reach Jeff and Max, but was not surprised to find both their phones out of service due to the severe weather at Mt. Rainier that week.
On Monday morning, Blanche sipped a latte from Starbucks and made a list of her class plans for the day. At 9 a.m., she went to the lab where her students waited for class to begin. They quieted when they saw her approach, and watched two gurneys burst through the double doors into the lab. The students separated into two groups beside the two cadavers covered with an opaque, plastic covering.
Pulling
back the sheet on the first specimen, Blanche saw a lopsided head wrapped in a gauze bandage. She assumed the young male had died from massive injuries in an automobile accident.
The students surrounding the table stood in awe at the atypical condition of the body. The cadaver appeared to be a young teen, probably thirteen or fourteen years old. Except for the head trauma, the skin looked almost like that of the students standing around it. Once again, Blanche immediately thought of Boris Karloff, the grave robber, in The Body Snatcher, and a chill ran down the back of her neck. Something was very wrong about this cadaver. Wrong to the point of embarrassment. There was no visible trace of discoloration from rigor mortis.
Blanche reviewed the clipboard, which indicated the body had been on ice for sixty days. She didn’t know how to explain the condition of the corpse to her class, and decided not to try. Jose’s continued disregard for protocol and his blatant falsification of the data by such a long period of time caused her to wonder what other atrocities he might be capable. She shuddered at the thought.
Putting down the clipboard, she shifted her focus to the dissection.
An uncanny sense of déjà vu engulfed Blanche as she surveyed the upper portion of the torso and the jagged sutured incisions of the autopsy. She gasped when her eyes fell upon the distinctive birthmark shaped like a butterfly below the boy’s right nipple. There was no doubt; this was Max, her only child that she adored with every fiber of her being. The shock of what she was seeing took her breath away, and her face turned as white as a sheet. Several members of the class, particularly Roberta, who Blanche had embarrassed on the first day of med school, snickered mercilessly and cleared the way as they watched her stagger backward into the adjoining table.
Trying to steady herself against the metal leg, she saw a second male cadaver with a bandage covering his face that the second group had already started dissecting. Her hand shot to her mouth as she teetered drunkenly over the partially nude body. Pulling the rest of the sheet away, her eyes filled with horror when she recognized her husband’s cobra tattoo just above the pubic hair surrounding his substantial penis.