The Coroner, page 5
“Oh my gosh. It’s your birthday. Happy birthday, Em,” Jo said, giving her a side hug. “Of course, September nineteenth. You know I always think of you every year, even though I never get around to wishing you a happy birthday.”
“I haven’t exactly done a great job at staying in touch either,” Emily said.
“Don’t worry. Life gets busy. And I’m sorry I had to leave that info about your dad in a voicemail. I know it’s a really shocking way to learn about such sensitive stuff. It’s been a bit hectic around here today.”
“Yeah, Nick was telling me about Julie Dobson,” Emily said.
“A horrible, horrible tragedy. We’re all kind of in shock. She was supposed to take part next week in the state competition. And she was favored to win it and get a full ride scholarship. It’s devastating.”
“Seems really awful. Did you know her?” asked Emily.
“I did. My two oldest ride at Premiere, so we knew her from the stable. She was always kind to them and giving them riding tips.”
“You have two kids?” Emily asked.
“Three, actually. I got married after nursing school, and then my three little ones started to pop out pretty soon after. Jeremiah is eight. Jessica, six. And Jaden just turned three. I work part-time at the hospital. And part-time as activities coordinator and chauffeur,” Jo said with a jolly smile.
“I’m glad. You sound happy, and you don’t look like you’ve gained an ounce,” Emily said. She had no trouble imagining Jo organizing a bustling household of three, plus husband and career.
Jo stopped by the nurse’s station to pick up a chart.
“Can you give me a rundown on my dad’s condition before I see him?” asked Emily.
“Already a step ahead of you. I grabbed his chart to see what the night shift has updated,” she said. “They’re short-staffed up here, so I said I’d fill in.”
“Oh, you don’t work this floor?”
“No, I’m on the second floor. In the baby ward,” she said with a satisfied smile, handing Emily the chart.
“So, looks like his blood pressure is still pretty high. He’s on a good dose of meds to control it. Overall, seems like he’s pretty stable,” said Emily.
“And we’re working to keep it that way. His doctor ordered and ran all the tests for later this morning. He’ll be in around noon to give treatment recommendations,” said Jo.
“Anything preliminary they can report?” Emily asked.
“Massive heart attack. Substantial blockage. That’s the rough picture,” said Jo, delivering the hard news. “I’m so sorry, Em. When was the last time you saw him?”
Emily hesitated for a second as she thought about it. “College graduation. He came down to Chicago for the ceremony and dinner and then drove back to Freeport.”
Jo briskly led them from the nurse’s station through a set of double doors that opened into the intensive care unit, a new wing of the hospital. Again, gone was the fluorescent lighting, in exchange for soft bulbs inset along the walls. The same sea foam green led down the corridor as soft classical music from invisible speakers filled the space. There was nothing clinical about it at all. It had a soothing effect that started to calm Emily’s frayed nerves.
“So, you’re finally a doctor,” Jo said. “I always knew it would suit you.”
“Yeah. Well, I’m in a surgical residency,” Emily explained.
“Big city surgeon. We’re all so proud of you,” said Jo. “Of course, a part of me always hoped you and Nick might tie the knot and settle down in Freeport. Teenage fantasy. I just always pictured the two of us being here, raising our kids together. Having lunch together at the hospital cafeteria.”
“I see you still have an active imagination,” Emily said with a smile. She was glad to see that she and Jo could pick up right where they’d left off.
“We should go out while you’re here. If you have time. You have my number on your caller list. Give me a shout when you come up for air.”
“Let me see how things unfold,” said Emily.
“Of course. But I have a feeling your dad’s gonna be up and at ’em in no time.”
Jo stopped them in front of the last door on the right. Emily read her father’s name on the white board hanging on the wall outside the door.
“Do you need to check in on him first?” Emily asked. Now that she was here, she felt a twinge of anxiety sweep over her.
“I can wait, or I can go in and break the ice,” Jo said. Emily she knew was reading the concern on her face.
“He doesn’t know I’m here,” Emily admitted.
“Well, actually, Cathy told him you were coming,” Jo said hesitantly.
“Oh. Okay.” Emily readjusted. “Actually, maybe that’s better. Surprises can be bad on the heart.”
“He’s anxious to see you.”
“Did he say that?” Emily asked.
“Listen, if it makes you feel better, just put on your doctor hat and tell him you’re here to ensure his medical welfare,” said Jo, flashing a smile.
“He’s going to tell me it wasn’t necessary to come all this way,” Emily replied.
“It’ll be okay, Em. You’re his daughter. He loves you.” Jo gave Emily’s arm a squeeze and headed back down the hall.
Loves me? Somewhere deep down, Emily sensed it was true. She had felt it in her childhood. And in those teenage years before her mom died, when she and her dad were teaming up on cases. But she hadn’t heard those words from him after that day in the emergency room. Emily’s last visual memory of her father was as a robust, but overworked, graying man hunched over his microscope in their home office, unable to verbalize his grief or connect with her anymore.
Emily took a deep breath and stepped through the door.
8
On an early spring day six months after her mother’s death, fifteen-year-old Emily found her father sitting on the back porch, staring into the woods. It was a place she often found him after her mother’s death. He could sit there half a day without moving, eating, drinking, or answering the phone. Sometimes she would call out for him three, four times, and he wouldn’t answer. Wouldn’t even glance her direction.
She approached her father, tentatively holding a dirty, blue slipper by her side.
“Dad? Do you have a minute?”
Her father didn’t turn to greet her, his sallow eyes never diverting from something in the woods. Emily required his attention now and wasn’t about to leave until she got it.
“Dad? Can you talk to me, please?”
A moment passed between them. Emily took another step toward him, positioning herself at his side.
“Don’t move,” he said in a hushed tone that startled her. “Look. There.” He pointed listlessly toward the woods. Emily saw a family of deer wandering through the Hartford family’s densely wooded back acres, bobbing their heads to the ground in search of foliage to nibble.
“What really caused Mom’s accident?”
“We don’t know.”
“But how could she just drive off the road? Was she distracted? Maybe she looked down at her phone?”
“Police think maybe she was swerving to miss an animal in the road,” Robert answered in a voice that revealed some torment within himself. Emily didn’t like this quiver in his voice.
“Okay, but let’s say someone ran her off the road. Hit and run.”
“Police found no evidence to suggest malicious intent,” was her father’s clinical response.
“But what do you think?”
“Not every death is foul play.” She could barely hear him.
“So, you believe the police report?”
Her father remained silent.
“Don’t you ever have doubts? Do you ever wish you had investigated?” Emily prompted.
“I trust the investigators.” This time his voice was emotionless.
“Did you ever visit the site?”
“Of course I did.”
Glancing up, Emily noticed that the deer family had wandered closer to the house. They were only twenty feet away now and had reached the perimeter of the Hartford’s yard where the greening grass of spring was yet uncut and growing wildly. The mother deer kept craning her neck left and right with each step, as if to make sure it was safe for her two fawns to proceed. Neither Robert nor Emily moved as the small herd feasted on the lush green banquet.
“I went to the site today. Now that the snow’s melted,” Emily said quietly. “I found this.”
Robert’s eyes darted to his daughter inquisitively as she held the blue slipper close to her chest.
“Mom’s slipper,” Emily said.
“I don’t think so. The police scoured that area.”
“No, it’s hers. It’s the pair I gave her last Christmas,” Emily insisted.
“It must belong to someone else,” Robert replied without looking at it.
“No, it’s the one with the pink and yellow embroidered flowers. I know it’s hers.”
“Those are department store slippers. Anyone around her could have that pair.” Her father’s face creased with ire.
“It’s a size eight. Her size.”
Robert eyed the slipper.
“It was hidden in a clump of bushes near the crash site. It would have been easy for the police to miss,” Emily explained softly. “Why would Mom have been wearing slippers in the car?”
Robert’s expression changed as some grueling emotion that simmered inside his soul took over. Emily took a step back, fearing he might act on it, but he did not. Almost simultaneously, his pupils glazed over and settled into a faraway look of dull misery.
“I know it’s hard, Emily, but we have to accept it.”
A noise outside startled the deer family, and they bounded from the yard back into the woods.
“The slipper doesn’t make sense. Can you look into it?”
“You’re going to drive yourself crazy trying to guess.”
“You don’t know that until you try. Why won’t you at least try? Why don’t you care?”
“Nothing we do now will bring Mom back to us. It won’t make us a family again.” His voice cracked. He stopped speaking, rose, and left the room.
We’re still a family! She had wanted to scream at him, to shake him out of his grief. I’m still here. I still matter!
Emily’s gaze crossed the yard to the back acres. It was empty now. The deer family had disappeared. She looked down at her mother’s blue slipper and noticed the impression of her mother’s foot worn into the terry cotton padding. Tears brimmed her eyes. Her mother had never worn her slippers out of the house. And her dad never left any stones unturned. In that moment, Emily became convinced that her mother’s death was not a random, undetermined accident. Her father was hiding something from her.
9
Emily finally entered the room to find her father resting peacefully in his bed. He was thinner and grayer and more sallow than she remembered. She took a few quiet steps toward his bed as he slept, and stood there for a second, not knowing if she should wake him or let him sleep. Maybe she should get Jo back in here to wake him and check his status? Maybe she should come back later? She started to turn back to the door, when her father’s eyes fluttered open.
“Emily?” he rasped.
“Yes, it’s me.”
“I thought I heard someone enter,” he said. “You drive here?”
“Yes. I drove up from Chicago as soon as I heard.”
“Oh, you shouldn’t have done that. I had a little spell, but I’ll be out of here and good as new tomorrow morning. Sorry you had to waste your time,” he said, sitting up and adjusting his bed sheets.
“I think it was more than that, Dad. You had a heart attack. You know that, right?” Emily was concerned by his lackadaisical attitude.
“My heart’s fine. Maybe you can even get me discharged tonight.”
“Don’t get your hopes up.”
The ice broken between them, Emily relaxed a little. She recognized that stubbornness and was glad to see his gumption intact.
“Do you remember much about when it happened?” she asked him.
“I was chopping wood in the back. I put one on the block, raised my axe, and that’s the last thing I remember.”
“Do you remember who found you? Or how you got here?”
Dr. Hartford thought for a second. “Nick. Nick Larson. That football player you used to date.”
“Yes, I remember, Dad.” Did he have to bring that up?
“He was stopping by to pick up some paperwork from a farm fatality last week.”
Emily was immediately grateful and a little ruffled to learn Nick was the Good Samaritan. What if he hadn’t come by? Would her father also be in the morgue right now?
“You’re fortunate he was there.” Emily was determined not to be unnerved in front of her father.
“I am. I am.” Robert agreed. “What’s going on with that Dobson girl?”
“She’s in the morgue downstairs.”
“I guess I’ll see if I can take care of that tomorrow,” said Robert.
“Don’t worry about it right now. Is there anything you want me to take care of at home? Or bring you?”
“Oh no, no. I’ll be back there tomorrow. No need to make a fuss.”
“I don’t think so, Dad. I have a feeling recovery’s going to be really slow.”
“Says who?” Robert asked.
“The entire medical profession.”
“Okay, hot shot Chicago doctor. What would you prescribe?”
“Well, I haven’t seen your charts or scans. But to start I would say, no heavy lifting or strenuous activity. Get used to being on heart meds the rest of your days. And change to a vegetarian diet,” she said.
“I have a freezer full of red meat that disagrees with you.”
Emily decided not to argue with that. She let her father take a moment to rest, and handed him his water bottle.
“You should drink this. Stay hydrated,” she said as she stood awkwardly at the side of his bed, wondering what to do next. Robert downed a few gulps, when Emily saw Nick out of the corner of her eye, poking his head around the door.
“Knock-knock, Doc. Can I come in?”
Nick didn’t wait for an answer. He bounded in past her and greeted her father with a warm handshake.
“Hey. Doc. I don’t plan to stay long. I just wanted to say hello. See how you were doing.”
“Sluggish. But grateful. Thanks for stopping by when you did.”
“Good to hear. Glad it worked out that way,” said Nick.
“Emily tells me you stopped by about a case?”
“Yes, Farmer Gibbons found Senator Dobson’s daughter face down in a creek on Premiere’s property.”
“That’s what Emily was saying.” Dr. Hartford’s interest was piqued. “Now, which one was it? Julie or the younger one, Sarah?”
“Nick. Dad needs his rest. Can you do this later?” said Emily, gesturing toward the door.
“The older one. Julie.”
“Oh, you’re kidding! My, my. Awful. Really awful news,” Robert said, turning to Emily. “She was sort of a Freeport celebrity.”
“So I’ve been gathering.” Emily nodded, impatiently glancing over at Nick again.
“You didn’t call in another ME already, did you?” Robert asked.
“Well, that’s actually why I stopped by. I hate to bother you about this, but I was wondering if you have any referrals?” asked Nick.
“Seriously? You’re serious right now? Your bad timing hasn’t changed one bit,” said Emily.
“Referrals? No. Keep her in the cooler, and I should be able to make it down there in a couple of days,” Robert said.
“Absolutely not,” said Emily. “You’re not going to be up doing autopsies in a few days, Dad.”
“I kinda have to agree with her. I really need to move on this one, Doc. Got the press hounding me. And the Dobson family is pretty much inconsolable,” said Nick.
“Okay. I can see your point about the Dobsons. They want answers. I just don’t know who I would trust to handle this delicate matter,” Robert said, thinking about it for a moment. “What has your investigation yielded so far?”
“Unfortunately, not much. Gibbons moved her body before we got there. I took some pictures from the area where she was lying, and did a visual search, but no evidence turned up that would lead us to believe her death was a homicide,” Nick explained.
“Well, we could send her down to Rock River, but those pathologists are gonna charge us three times what I charge. And then we have the extra transport costs. Good luck getting Commissioner Beavon to approve that.”
“He’s not going to have a choice,” Nick offered.
“Maybe not, but he’ll complain something awful and find a way to cut something out of your budget at the next city meeting.”
Emily was incredulous as she watched the two of them banter. Her father was only six hours fresh off his heart attack. And Nick–no boundaries! Emily checked her father’s monitors and IV, which were running low, and pressed the nurse’s button. She needed Jo’s intervention.
“The truth is, Doc, I hate having to take Julie’s body out of Freeport. Being a high-profile case and all,” said Nick.
“I understand. We could send for a private pathologist, but again, those guys charge big time. And it’ll take at least a week to get on their docket.”
“Again the problem with Commissioner Beavon and budget,” Nick said.
Robert agreed but added, “This is special case with extenuating circumstances, however, and the senator may be able to call up a favor from the state for additional funds.”
Emily felt for her dad’s pulse and realized it was higher than she liked to see.
“Dad, I’ve called for the nurse. Your pulse is rising and you need a fresh IV. Nick, don’t stress him out anymore. We’ve got to keep his blood pressure low.”
At this, Nick respected her request. “You’re right. I’m sorry to bother you with this, Doc. I’ll figure it out. It’s my problem now. You just rest so you can get on the next case.”
Nick was started on his way out when Robert got an idea. “Emily can do it.”
