Good book? he asked in the silence.
She jumped, turned, saw him, looked down at the book, and said, Yes, as a matter of fact. She looked at the photo on the back cover. And this Hiaasen is a yummy little piece of crumb cake, if I do say so myself… Youd be Officer Davenport, and you need some records.
Thats right.
Im supposed to Xerox your credential, she said. She went for the double entendre: Youll hardly feel a thing.
Young women these days, Lucas clucked. He gave her his ID, she xeroxed it, and said, Theres not much in the computer filemostly just the bare bones. If you want to look at her actual file, we dont have the paper anymore, but its on fiche.
Id like that, if I could.
Sure. She found the right fiche, set him up with a reader, and went back to the novel.
THE FILE WAS SHORT, AND ECHOED THE OXFORD doctors report of symptoms on George Lamb. Amelia Lamb suffered from flulike symptomsgastric discomfort, sporadic vomiting. She saw the doctor twice, the visits two weeks apart. The discomfort had increased in the two weeks, and he ordered a number of tests. He noted that her blood pressure was high and that she had been asked to come in for a series of blood pressure tests, but there was no indication that any blood pressure medication had been prescribed. Four days after the second visit, she was brought to the hospital by ambulance, and was reported dead on arrival. The record noted that the daughter reported that shed been suffering chest pains but had refused to come to the hospital because of cost, and shed called only after her mother had collapsed.
Relative reported that final collapse was accompanied by severe chest pains and rapid loss of consciousness. Myocardial infarction indicated. There was no mention of a rash.
Lucas looked at the woman with the book: Is there a doctor around that I could talk to? Whod have a little time?
Im a fourth-year med student, the woman said. Whats the question?
Look at this blood pressure, Lucas said. Should she have been on medication?
The woman bent over the screen, read the report, and said, She would now. Thats definitely way high. But back then, the drugs werent so good. Youd have to talkto somebody older, whod remember. But back then, she might not have been.
All right: then look at this. On her second visit, they do some tests. But the tests never show up in the records.
The woman bent over the screen again, skimming through the records: You know what? she said finally. It looks like she died before the tests could get back. So when they got back, they probably just tossed them.
Huh. And the body was sent directly out to a funeral home.
Yup.
Why wouldnt they do an autopsy?
Again, they didnt do them so often back then. Not for hospital deaths. And, uh, youd have to keep this under your hat… or at least not say I told you. Ive noticed this in other records…
Sure.
You see this funeral home? She tapped the screen. The predecessor organization to this hospital, which was called Dakota Mothers of Mercy, had a deal with the funeral home. If the relatives didnt express a preference, theyd send the bodies out to this place, and the hospital would get a… consideration.
A kickback.
An emolument. If they sent them into Hennepin, for an autopsy, the body was up for grabs.
So there would be a bias against autopsies, Lucas said.
Unnecessary autopsies.
You shoulda been a lawyer, Lucas said.
Not enough money in it. The woman tapped the screen: Heres something else for you. The insurance company called about it. Thats the code for Prudential.
They called?
Yup. Thats what that isthe files were sent out in response to a request from Prudential.
They send them out to Prudential, but theyre gonna make me get a subpoena?
This was a long time ago, the woman said. Things were really different.
The woman went back to the novel while Lucas made notes. When he was finished, he shut down the screen and gave her the fiche. Thank you very much, he said.
She looked up from the desk. Do you think if I, like, xeroxed my breasts and sent a copy to Hiaasen with my phone number, hed call me up?
Certainly worth a try, Lucas said. In fact, Id recommend that you do it. How else will you know? If you dont, you could be like two ships passing in the dark.
Cops are weird, she said. But as Lucas left, she was looking at the copying machine.
LUCAS DROVE TOWARDHOME, THINKING IT ALL OVER: he'd call Prudential in the morning, hoping that theyd still have a record of the call. In any case, they must have paid somebody some money, if they bothered to make the call. Hed bet that Audrey was the recipient.
As he crossed the Mendota Bridge, he noticed, for the second or third time, that there was no noise in the background of his brain: no chattering. Hed caught himself whistling again. In the last twenty-four hours, hed gotten thoroughly laid, hugged by Helen Bell, and double entendred by a nice-looking medical student.
Glaciers breaking up, he said aloud. Ice is going out.
He wasnt sure what it meant, but it felt right.
TWENTY-EIGHT
SHERRILL SAW HIM WALKING IN, CAME DOWN TO meet him, took his hand. Can I take you to dinner tomorrow night?
Sure. But things are starting to cook with Audrey McDonald. Shouldnt mess us up, but if something comes up… He was fumbling with his keys, opened the office door. She stepped in behind him.
Tell me about it, she said. About Audrey. He told her, and she said, Goddamnit. If we werent sleeping together, you could just come down and tell Frank that you need me to work on this, and Id get another neat case to work on. Now, wed sorta have to jump through our asses.
Nothing happening yet, anyway, he said.
Well, if youre going out to shoot somebody, call me, she said, as she went out the door.
Do that.
THREE CALLS: TO PRUDENTIAL, TO THE DOCTOR WHO signed the death certificate, and to the funeral home that handled Amelia Lambs body.
Prudential was cooperative, but the right guy would have to get back.
The doctor was cooperative, but had no memory of theevent at all. I was doing a surgical residency and working part-time as an emergency room doc, he said. I worked emergency rooms for seven years and mustve signed five hundred of those things. Maybe a thousand. Im sorry, but I just dont remember.
The funeral home was confused, but a woman with a quavery, elderly voice finally found the record: Amelia Lamb had been cremated.
Shit, Lucas said aloud.
I beg your pardon?
THE PRUDENTIAL GUY CALLED BACK A HALF HOUR later, as Lucas was pulling together records on the murders proposed by Helen Bell, as well as the two proposed by Annette Ingall.
We paid sixty-four hundred dollars on George Lamb, which was not an inconsiderable sum at the time; and then four and a half years later, we paid fifteen thousand on Amelia Lamb. That insurance policy had been in effect only three years, which was probably why we called the hospital on it, the Prudential man said.
Who was beneficiary on the Amelia Lamb policy?
Uh, lets see… this is an older form… Um, an Audrey Lamb. Apparently her daughter.
Not Audrey and Helen?
No, just an Audrey.
How about on George Lamb?
That was… Amelia.
Huh. Did Amelia Lamb have to take a physical?
Um… yup. Passed okay.
Anything about high blood pressure?
Nope. But this form isnt specificyoud have to see the original doctors report, and that was so long ago…
Do you have the docs name?
Yup.
But the doctor was dead. His son, a dentist, said his fathers records had been transferred to other doctors whenhe gave up his practice, and records not transferred had been stored for ten years, then destroyed.
Shit.