CHAPTER 30

THE POST OFFICE WAS UNDER strict instructions to immediately forward any suspicious letters addressed to the Gazette to the police. The Hinson letter came the day after Bobby Battle had been murdered. It was simply worded.

One lawyer less, who cares? I trust you know who I'm not this time. See you soon.

Meanwhile, Sylvia Diaz had risen from her sickbed and finally performed the autopsy on Robert Battle.

At the moment she was sitting with King and Michelle in her office. Chief Williams and Chip Bailey had both attended the Battle autopsy, she told them.

"I think Todd is now thoroughly comfortable with postmortems, unfortunately simply from sheer numbers," commented Sylvia.

"So what killed Bobby?" asked King.

"I won't know for certain until the toxicology screens come back in a week or so, but it looks like someone shot a large quantity of potassium chloride into his nutrition IV bag. In less than ten minutes it would work its way through the TPN solution, into the tubing and then into his body. As soon as that happened, his heart would go into ventricular fibrillation. In his already weakened condition the end would have been quick at least and painless."

"All that suggests some medical knowledge," said King.

Sylvia considered this for a moment. "It's true that potassium chloride isn't often used to kill someone. However, if the person did have medical expertise, he was a little sloppy."

"What do you mean?"

"Battle had the standard array of IV lines: the blood thinner heparin, a saline sugar solution, a TPN or nutrition solution bag, an antibiotic to combat the pulmonary infection he caught from being on the ventilator for so long and the drug dopamine to control his blood pressure."

"Okay, so what does that tell us?" asked King.

"Well, if the person had shot the potassium chloride directly into the tubing instead of into the TPN bag, the same fatal result would have occurred, but it would have been undetectable. You have to understand that the TPN solution already has potassium chloride in it, and thus so did Battle's system. I was able to determine that someone had placed additional potassium chloride into the bag only by comparing the levels present there to a normal TPN bag mixture. There was over triple the standard amount, easily enough to kill him."

"So you're saying if the potassium chloride had gone into the tubing directly and not the bag, you never would have noticed it?"

"Yes. The residue in the tubing would be insufficient to raise suspicion. In fact, it would have only been suspicious if there hadn't been residue of potassium chloride. And as I said, Battle already had potassium chloride in his body. It's naturally absorbed, which is why an autopsy alone wouldn't have resulted in an overdose confirmation."

"So it was like the person had some medical knowledge but wasn't an expert?" said King.

"Or else," said Michelle, "he wanted it to be discovered that Battle had been murdered. As if the watch and the feather weren't enough."

"It almost wasn't enough," King reminded her. "The feather had fallen to the floor, and the watch was covered under the IV lines and hospital tags."

"That doesn't make sense, though," said Sylvia. "I mean, isn't the first rule in murdering someone to try and make it like the perfect murder? And if so, how more perfect can you get than by making it look like no murder was even committed?"

Michelle and King both shook their heads, unable to come up with a theory that would account for the killer's behavior.

Sylvia sighed. "Not that it matters, but Battle showed evidence of arteriosclerosis. There was also some unusual wrinkling on the surface of the aorta. He also had a small tumor on his right lung, perhaps the beginnings of lung cancer. Not surprising for a smoker of his age."

"What about Diane Hinson's cause of death?" asked King. He quickly added, "Although it seemed pretty obvious."

"She died from massive internal bleeding from the multiple stab wounds. They severed her aorta and punctured her heart chamber and left lung. It would have been over in minutes for her too." She added, "Though not nearly as painless as Battle 's death."

"Was she raped or sexually assaulted?" asked King.

"No evidence of that at autopsy, but lab results are still pending. I heard about the Florence Nightinghell connection, by the way. I'll guess we'll get a letter to that effect."

"The Hinson letter indicated we'd see him soon, and we did," said Michelle. "At least he's a man of his word."

King added, "First an exotic dancer, then high school kids, then a lawyer and now Bobby Battle."

"It's as though the killer is taking a greater risk with each one," commented Sylvia.

"To go from an exotic dancer he might have picked up in a bar and then shot and left in the woods to poisoning an immensely rich businessman lying in a coma in a hospital bed doesn't make a whole lot of sense," said King. "Not to sound callous, but how's the guy picking his victims: one-night stands or the social register?"

"Like I said before, this guy's operating outside the box," said Sylvia, rubbing at her bloodshot eyes.

King looked at her closely. "You look like hell," he said with a disarming smile. "You should be in bed."

"Thanks for noticing. I'll try to get to that any week now."

"Where's Kyle?" asked Michelle. "Can't he pick up the slack?"

"He's not a pathologist; he can't do the posts. And to answer your question, he called in sick. I wish that had been an option for me. I was hugging the toilet most of last night, and I have a full load of patients waiting. Thank God for antibiotics."

"What do you make of the killer's choosing to emulate Mary Martin Speck?" asked Michelle.

"Meaning a woman instead of a man?" Michelle nodded. "Well, I'm not sure what to make of it," Sylvia said. "A woman could have killed Battle. It obviously takes no physical strength to shoot a solution from a syringe into an IV bag. However, I'd stake my reputation on the murders of Rhonda Tyler and Diane Hinson being committed by a man. A woman couldn't have carried Tyler all that distance through the woods, and the knife wounds on Hinson were very deep. It was either a man or a woman so strong I'd hate to run into her in a dark alley."

"So," Michelle began slowly, "it's possible we have two killers here, a man and a woman."

"Not necessarily," argued King. "The only evidence to that effect is the reference Bailey made to Speck and the bird's feather. Until we get the letter, we won't know if the killer was mimicking Speck at all. The feather may symbolize something else, something unique to the killer."

"That's true," conceded Michelle. Sylvia nodded in agreement.

King looked at the two women. "Want to hear a really off-the-wall suggestion?"

"I'll bite," said Michelle quickly.

"Bobby Battle was a very wealthy man. I wonder who benefits under his will."

There was a long silence and then Sylvia said, "Are you suggesting a family member killed him for money and tried to make it look like one of the serial murders?"

"It couldn't have been Eddie. He was with us at the Sage Gentleman until after eleven o'clock," said Michelle.

"That's right," said King. "But Dorothea and Savannah were at the hospital earlier. They couldn't have put the poison in then, because he would have been dead long before Remmy showed up. But suppose one of them stashed the potassium chloride in the room during their earlier visit that day, then snuck back in when she saw Remmy leave, did the deed and ran like hell."

"Eddie said Dorothea was at some function," Michelle reminded him.

"We'll need to verify that."

"Well, many a murder has financial gain as the motive," said Sylvia. "You might be on to something, Sean."