Connie called, told Helen that she was on the way home, and that Lucas was bringing her. She handed Lucas the phone and said, Thank you, thank, thank you…
And when they arrived at Helens home, Helen ran out and wrapped up her daughter, and they both started crying again, and after a moment, Lucas said, Could you send Connie inside to get cleaned up? Id like to talk to you for a minute.
Connie went, Helen watching her running up the steps.
Do you have any feeling who might have done this? Lucas asked.
There was a literature teacher she had last year, who hated Connieand several other kids too. If this was last year, Id say her. But I cant believe that shed wait a whole year. Ive been racking my brain…
This is not the way they do things in the school system, Lucas said. Theyve got a whole bureaucratic procedure they follow, and its all very routine. This was strange, right from the start. I dont think it was a teacher at all. Could you think, really hard, about who it might be?
Okay, okay… but youre scaring me. Why?
Because it might be related to something else. Anyway, think about it. If you come up with anything, youve got my number.
Okay. She stepped close and gave him a hug. Thanks.
TRAFFIC WAS BEGINNING TO EASE AS HE HEADEDsouth, down to Dakota County, finally to MercySouth. He went in through the emergency entrance, was directed by a nurse to Records, and found a dark-haired young woman sitting in a pool of light from a desk lamp, in an otherwise dark room full of file cabinets and computers. Her feet up next to a computer, she was engrossed in a Carl Hiaasen novel. A stack of what looked like thick textbooks sat on the floor.
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.