“I’m Aria Nichols,” the woman said. “I’m surprised. I thought you’d be a hell of a lot older, and frumpy. You don’t look like a forensic pathologist to me. You look too normal.”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” Laurie said as she began to slip out of her dress. She had made a point from the first day she’d worked at the OCME to wear reasonably stylish clothes. Now that she was the first female NYC OCME chief, she felt it was even more appropriate. If nothing else, she wanted to contravene stereotypes like Aria was implying.
“I’m just being honest,” Aria said neutrally. She went to get scrub pants and a top. Laurie watched her go, amazed at how nonchalant the woman was about her near nakedness. Laurie had gone to a high school where the girls had separate cubicles to change for gym. It was also true that she had never quite gotten used to a thong.
“I heard from Dr. Chet McGovern that you are not particularly fond of your rotation here at the OCME,” Laurie said.
“That’s the understatement of the year,” Aria said. “To be honest, I think it’s a waste of my time.”
“You don’t think what we medical examiners do is significantly beneficial to society and our community?” Once again Laurie was taken aback by the striking disrespect this woman was willing to project, and it grated on her.
“Hey, I didn’t say that,” Aria corrected. “I just said it was a waste of my time, not yours. Sure, I know you guys do a lot, especially for law enforcement and such, but it doesn’t interest me.”
“We do a lot more than help law enforcement,” Laurie said. “Medical examiners have also been responsible for a number of safety innovations. As an example, significant electronic equipment design changes to minimize electrocutions have come from medical examiner work. Even low-voltage swimming pool lights are another example. I can’t imagine how many lives such innovations have saved.”
Aria returned to her locker and began pulling on the scrub pants. “Yeah, that might be true, but as I said, it’s not something that interests me. The idea of this rotation is to give me a sense of what forensic pathology is like. I got the message. I like autopsies but only anatomical autopsies that teach us about disease processes. From my perspective, forensic autopsies are disgusting, what with the smell and all.”
“They can be distasteful on occasion,” Laurie admitted. “But from my perspective they are inordinately challenging. It’s an opportunity to listen to the dead tell their stories in order to help the living. It is a medical specialty that offers the chance to learn something every day.”
“Please,” Aria said. “Give me a break. That’s just a bunch of self-justifying bullshit. But fine, you like forensic pathology. Good for you.”
“I find your disrespect disturbing,” Laurie said, trying to maintain her composure. With everything else that had happened over the past few hours, dealing with this unpleasant woman was a severe test of her patience.
“What am I disrespecting?” Aria said, making an exaggerated expression of confusion. “I’m giving credit where credit is due.”
“I heard you were remarkably disrespectful to our director of education, Dr. McGovern.”
“Oh, really?” Aria drawled. “Let me tell you something. Old Doc McGovern got what he deserved.”
“What do you mean by that? Are you implying he’d been disrespectful to you?”
“Obviously,” Aria said.
“What did he say that was disrespectful?”
“It was the way he looked at me and his syntax. The man is a hopeless womanizer. It’s written all over his face. Of course, it didn’t help that after he’d been talking with me for five minutes, he suggested we should have a drink sometime. I’m not all that fond of men, particularly the Dr. McGovern type. I’ve had to deal with them all my life.”
Once again Laurie found herself staring at Aria, who impudently stared back. As the head of an organization with a thousand employees in an era of heightened workplace sensitivity to issues of sexual harassment, Laurie wondered if beneath this woman’s brassiness, she might be communicating something important. The question arose in her mind whether sexual harassment could be nonverbal and merely implied. Thanks to Jack, she’d known for years that Chet McGovern was a philanderer on his own time, but could that reality affect his behavior in-house? Laurie didn’t know but stored the thought to examine later. Currently she had to deal with the woman in front of her, who was enough of a conundrum.
“Dr. McGovern followed me all the way over to the Tisch Hospital,” Aria said. “As far as I was concerned, that raised a red flag. I didn’t want him following me back to my condo some night.”
“He followed you because you had failed to make an appearance at an assigned autopsy,” Laurie said.
“Big deal,” Aria said. “That’s easy for you to say, but who’s to know. Besides, I’d already stood around and watched one forensic autopsy for the day, and as far as I was concerned, that was enough.”
“That’s not for you to decide,” Laurie said, struggling to control herself.
“Yeah, whatever,” Aria said. “I’m learning enough about forensics to satisfy myself, which is the point of this rotation. I’m sure as hell not going to become a forensic pathologist.”
“What attracted you to medicine?” Laurie asked, to change the subject. Aria’s lack of respect and basic empathy was difficult to weather.
“Whoa...” Aria voiced. “This is getting personal.”
“Do you mind?” Laurie said. “As I’m sure you are aware, or would be if you thought about it, it’s our responsibility to certify that you spent your rotation here at the OCME appropriately. So far your behavior of skipping assigned cases makes us question that.”
“Okay, that’s not unreasonable,” Aria said. “I went into medicine to get away from the family business. Also, in college everybody seemed to be premed, so I was, too. I really didn’t think much about what it would be like being a doctor. I was caught up in the competition, which I enjoyed.”
“What was the family business?” Laurie asked.
“My father, the asshole alcoholic, was a very successful NYC venture capital, hedge-fund guy who knocked me around a lot when I was a tween.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Laurie said, meaning it. “Was your father at least pleased you chose to become a doctor?”
Aria laughed derisively. “He never knew, the selfish bastard. He committed suicide when I was just barely in my teens.”
“My goodness,” Laurie managed. She was appalled. “It certainly sounds like you didn’t have the best childhood.”
“You could say that,” Aria added. “Especially considering the stepdad my screwy mother ended up marrying. He was worse than my real dad in just about every category. But I managed to blackmail him into putting a lot of my mother’s money in my name.”
“How did you end up in Pathology?” Laurie asked. She wanted to get away from Aria’s lurid and depressing family history. Laurie had sometimes felt sorry for herself growing up because her father had been emotionally distant. She couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to be physically abused.
“That’s a good question,” Aria said. “It was by elimination. Maybe I should have given more thought to becoming a doctor, because during medical school I was quick to learn that I hated seeing patients. I mean, it’s pretty pathetic when you think about it. But what can I say? It was what it was. Anyway, pathology is the only real choice if you hate patients. It’s also intellectually stimulating.”