Twenty-three

The chief medical examiner, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, was in her office when Andy knocked on her open door.

"Doctor Scarpetta? Hi, " he said politely and a bit nervously. "If this isn't a bad time, I'd like to talk to you about the unidentified man who burned up on Canal Street last night. "

"Come in. " Dr. Scarpetta looked up from a stack of death certificates she was reviewing. "Have we met?"

"No, ma'am. But I've worked with Dr. Sawamatsu before. "

Andy introduced himself, and then explained that Regina was an intern with the state police, although he did not refer to her by name.

"And your name is?" Scarpetta inquired of her.

Regina stared at her, wide-eyed and tongue-tied. Regina had never met such a powerful woman before, and she was completely taken aback. Dr. Scarpetta was a very handsome blonde, maybe in her mid-forties, and was dressed in a sharp pinstriped suit. Why would someone who has everything going for her want to work with dead patients for a living? What should Regina say to explain herself, without giving away her identity and causing a stink?

"Reggie, " Regina blurted out.

"Officer Reggie, " Dr. Scarpetta said with a nod from her judge's chair behind her big desk. "And you'll vouch for her?" she said as a bit of a warning to Andy. "I don't routinely have police interns down here. "

"I'll take full responsibility, " Andy said, giving Regina a sharp glance.

"Oh, don't worry, " Regina eagerly spoke for herself. "I won't talk about anything I see or hear and won't touch or move anything in any way. "

"A very good idea, " Dr. Scarpetta replied, and she directed her attention to Andy. "The man has been identified by fingerprints. His name is Caesar Fender, a forty-one-year-old black male from Richmond. And we have a full house this morning, I'm sorry to say. Have you ever seen an autopsy?" she asked Regina.

"No, but not because I didn't want to. " Regina was desperate to impress this legendary woman doctor.

"I see!"

"When I took high school biology, I was the only one in my group who didn't mind dissecting a frog, " Regina boasted. "Guts have never bothered me at all. I don't think it would even bother me watching somebody die, like a death row inmate, maybe. "

"Well, I didn't like dissecting things in high school, " Dr. Scarpetta replied, much to Regina's surprise. "I felt very sorry for the frog. "

"I did, too, " Andy replied. "Mine was alive and I didn't think it was right to kill it. It still bothers me. "

"And I certainly am bothered when I've watched people die, inmates or otherwise. I guess you've never spent any time at scenes or in the E. R., " Dr. Scarpetta said, and she thought Andy's name seemed familiar as she shuffled through the papers on her desk and pulled out a report.

Sure enough, the name of the officer who had submitted the poisoned chocolates to the labs was Trooper Andy Brazil.

"I have something to discuss with you, " she said to him. "I think we need a moment of privacy. "

It was her way of politely ordering Regina out of the office.

"Please step out for a minute, " Andy said to her. "We'll be right with you. "

"How can I be an intern if you're always making me leave?" Regina said, a hint of her generally obnoxious personality creeping into her voice.

"I'm not always making you leave, " Andy replied, showing her to the door and pretty much pushing her out. "Stay, " he said, as if she were Frisky.

He shut the door and returned to Dr. Scarpetta's desk, pulling out a chair and seating himself.

"I just got the lab report for the chocolates, " the chief began. "This is serious enough that Doctor Pond wanted it brought to my attention immediately because I'm quite familiar with poisonings by laxatives. I had a case several years ago of a woman whose kids laced her hot chocolate with Ex-Lax-supposedly as a joke. The woman developed multiple organ failure, pulmonary edema, and went into a coma and died. "

She handed Andy the report as she went on to explain it.

"Tests were conducted with High Performance Liquid Chromatography, and the chocolates in question are, in fact, positive for phenolphthalein, or Pt, in various concentrations. Normal straight Ex-Lax, if taken in the proper doses, contains approximately ninety milligrams of Pt. But just one of the chocolates in the box you submitted contains in excess of two hundred milligrams, which at the very least would, if ingested, cause fluid and electrolyte loss, which is very dangerous, especially if the victim is older and not enjoying good health. "

"Well, that sums up the governor, " Andy said with growing concern. "What about fingerprints? Did the labs find anything on the paper the box was wrapped in? And was the handwritten note really written by the governor?"

Dr. Scarpetta sorted through several other reports.

"They did recover a latent by using the Luma-Lite and fluorescing dyes, and the print was run through AFIS, " she informed him. "They got a hit, and here is the identification number, which you can check yourself with the state police computer. " She wrote it down for him. "As for a documents examination, an exemplar of the governor's handwriting was inconsistent with the note that accompanied the chocolates. "

"So the note is a forgery. " Andy wasn't surprised.

"That's inconclusive because we need to get an official exemplar. The one we used preliminarily was from a letter the governor allegedly sent to Dr. Sawamatsu. "

"Right. And we shouldn't assume that the letter is genuine, " Andy agreed with her. "Or that the governor actually signed it himself. "

"Legally, we can't assume that. "

"Which reminds me, " Andy said. "And I hope this isn't out of line, Doctor Scarpetta. But it concerns me that Doctor Sawamatsu collects souvenirs, very inappropriate ones, or at least he brags as much to a lot of us. Do you ever go to his house?"

"No, " she replied, her expression turning hard.

One thing she absolutely would not tolerate was disrespect toward the dead. Nor was any member of her staff allowed to even think about collecting mementos, money, personal effects, weapons, drugs, or alcohol from a body or a crime scene.

"Maybe you should drop by unannounced to see him sometime, " Andy suggested. "At his house. "

"Don't worry, " she answered. "I will. "

"I'll get on the poisoned chocolates case right away, " Andy promised. "And I suppose the documents examiner needs an exemplar of the suspect's handwriting, too. "

"I wasn't aware you had a suspect, " she said. "But yes. Absolutely. If you can get his or her handwriting, that would be a very good thing. And I suggest you get an exemplar from the intended victim, as well. "

"From Superintendent Hammer?" Andy puzzled. "Why?"

"To rule out Munchausen's syndrome, " Dr. Scarpetta matter-of-factly stated. "Poisoning with Ex-Lax most often occurs when an individual chronically ingests it to get attention-for example, to gain sympathy from a parent or spouse. "

"You're saying it's possible Superintendent Hammer wanted us to think the governor'or someone pretending to be the governor sent her poisoned chocolates because she wants attention? I can't believe that for a minute! You don't know her, " Andy said politely but defensively.

"No, I don't know her at all, " Dr. Scarpetta replied. "But she's new in a very demanding position, and if her experience has been anything like mine, the governor never returns her phone calls or invites her to parties at the mansion. So she may have set up a situation to make it appear the governor was trying to poison her. If he suddenly found himself a suspect in an attempted murder, that would certainly get his attention, I should think. "

"Might I quickly ask you about Trish Thrash?" Andy jumped to that subject. "I know it's not my case, but I care about it a lot and as you may know, the killer left evidence on my doorstep for reasons unknown. "