Doctored Death

by P. D. Workman

  The very early morning made it a much longer day than Kenzie had anticipated. She was definitely lagging by the afternoon. Returning from a meeting in another part of the building, Dr. Wiltshire saw Kenzie yawning as he walked past. She smothered the yawn the best she could.

  “About time for another coffee,” she confessed.

  “Or about time to go home. Get Julie to cover the desk for the rest of the afternoon. We can afford for you to go home. Have a nap and then enjoy the evening instead of turning into a zombie. I’m sure Zachary will be much happier if you aren’t spending your entire evening trying not to fall asleep.”

  “I have things I should be working on.”

  “One of the benefits of working in the morgue is that you don’t have to worry about your patients taking a turn for the worse when you are gone. You’re better off catching up tomorrow when you are fresh than making mistakes because you are too tired today. You’ve put in your hours. So go home.”

  Kenzie tried not to yawn again. Just thinking about being tired was making her exhausted. And she still needed to drive home. It wasn’t a long way, but she didn’t want to be falling asleep at the wheel.

  She sighed. “All right,” she agreed. “When you’re right, you’re right.”

  She and Zachary had a more normal evening together, after Kenzie had taken a couple of hours to catch up on her sleep. She thought about Zachary doing night surveillance and how he often functioned on only a couple of hours of sleep on a regular basis. She didn’t know how he did it. Kenzie had always needed her sleep to function properly. Even in medical school, she hadn’t been able to pull all-nighters to study. And residency had been brutal.

  Once up and bright-eyed once more, Kenzie was happy to find that she and Zachary were able to talk casually without the same level of tension that had underlaid their conversations since she had missed the couples session. There was still emotion there. She could feel it and she thought a couple of times that Zachary was close to bringing it up, but then he would look away from her again and not say anything, pretending all was normal.

  They went to bed in good time even though Kenzie wasn’t sure she would be able to get to sleep after her afternoon nap. She was yawning again, and if she didn’t want to get thrown off her usual sleep schedule, it was important to stick to her usual bedtime and rising times.

  And as it turned out, falling asleep again did not end up being a problem.

  Morning was a different story. Kenzie awoke early and tossed and turned restlessly, trying to get back to sleep, unwilling to get up again so early. But her body had decided that she’d had enough sleep. Or maybe it had decided it liked getting up early the day before. She wasn’t able to sleep as late as usual.

  Lisa would have been shocked to see her out of bed so early in the morning. Zachary seemed slightly surprised and she saw his eyes slide to the clock to verify that she was up early, rather than his having lost track of time.

  “You ready to be up already?” he asked. “Or are you sick?”

  “No, I’m fine. Just couldn’t sleep any more. I’ll hit the shower and then we can have an early breakfast?” Kenzie’s stomach was already growling. It didn’t realize that she was still supposed to be asleep.

  “Uh... sure.” Zachary wasn’t excited about breakfast, but he never was. They both enjoyed the morning ritual, seeing each other and spending a little time together before Kenzie left for the Medical Examiner’s Office. But morning and food didn’t go together in Zachary’s world.

  “You don’t have to eat yet—though you probably should so that you don’t forget—but I’m already hungry.”

  “Sure. Of course. I’ll get everything ready.”

  When Kenzie was out of the shower and dressed, and walked into the kitchen, she saw that it was one of Zachary’s distracted days. That was probably her own fault, throwing him off their usual schedule.

  The coffee machine had been run. Luckily, he had remembered to put a mug under the spout, but it still sat on the counter when normally Zachary put it on the table. There was toast sitting in the toaster instead of buttered and on the table. Nothing else was ready. Kenzie busied herself with buttering her toast and putting everything on the table. Then she went back to Zachary’s computer station in the living room.

  “Ready to take a break?”

  “Uh, yeah...” Zachary looked up from what he was reading. At least she didn’t have to shake him to physically pull him from his focused state. Zachary sat back and rubbed his fingers over his eyes. “There’s a story in here. I think it’s to do with your case yesterday.”

  Kenzie looked at his computer screen. It was a news site, and the story he indicated included a large picture of Lola, with the headline “Comforting the Dying” and a caption below the picture with something about a hero dog.

  Kenzie swore. “I can’t believe it! Who called the media? It must have been someone at Champlain House. Can I see?”

  She could have searched it up on her own phone or computer, of course, but with it being right there on Zachary’s screen, she didn’t even consider that. Zachary scrolled down and moved to the side so that she could read it and take over the trackpad. Kenzie read quickly through the article. It was mostly fluff, of course, but it had clearly been one of the nurses who had called the news outlet. A nurse Camille Jackson was quoted extensively, though there were brief comments from other staff as well.

  “I can’t believe she called the news,” Kenzie muttered again. She pulled out her phone and dialed Dr. Wiltshire. She waited impatiently, and he answered after three rings.

  “Kenzie. How are you doing this morning?” His voice was cautious, probably wondering if she were calling in sick or saying that she couldn’t be there for some other reason related to her early morning the day before.

  “I’m fine. I’ll be in today,” she told him to immediately assuage any concerns he had about her not being available. “I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to see it yet, but there is a news story on the Sexton death.”

  “What? What does it say?”

  “It’s a story about the dog. How she senses who is going to die and spends extra time with them to comfort them.”

  Wiltshire swore. “Why didn’t anyone say anything like that yesterday when we were there?”

  “I don’t know. I asked when I was there about Cartwright. Apparently, she was with Cartwright when they found him. I asked Nurse Ellie if Lola had spent more time with other residents who were sick or dying. She said no. Which is completely contradicted by this article. It makes a big thing of her knowing who needs her and spending time with them.”

  “We’re going to need to go back to the possibility that the dog has something to do with their deaths. You checked for parasites?”

  “I ran through some slides myself and sent others to the lab. Haven’t heard anything back yet, but I couldn’t see anything of concern. What about something else... what if she laid on them and hampered their breathing? Or smothered them somehow?”

  “It sounds from Nurse Jason’s story that Sexton was in trouble before the dog went in there. They said that he’d been showing signs of dementia or behavioral changes for a couple of weeks. He was angry, paranoid, and delusional the evening before his death. When Jason checked in on him, he was already in some kind of seizure or altered state. I don’t think the dog laid on them or blocked their breathing.”

  “Can we get in there and get swabs from the dog? Do you think they would let us? Or get a vet to get what we need, including blood and stool samples?”

  “They may object. I’ll give the boys upstairs a call and see if they can get a subpoena. I think that with an article saying that the dog has been with multiple patients who have died, we would look negligent if we didn’t.”

  “Yeah. And we’re going to need to re-interview Nurse Ellie. And Jason. And whoever else over there will confirm or refute these allegations.”

  “Leave that to the police. They are the ones trained in interro
gation. It’s our job to point them in the right direction, not to do the questioning ourselves. And I think we need to know this dog’s history. Where she came from, what her background is. I doubt if she’s been there since she was a puppy or they would have said so. Probably some rescue!”

  Kenzie could practically hear Dr. Wiltshire rolling his eyes. “Yes. Knowing something about where she came from might help us to track down any pathogens.”

  She and Dr. Wiltshire exchanged a few more remarks, and then Kenzie hung up. They could—and would—continue the conversation later when she arrived at the office.

  “Not good news, I guess,” Zachary commented.

  “No. Well, even though I say that, it could still be helpful. Having the information that was ‘leaked’ in this article might just help us to figure out cause of death in a couple of cases.”

  He watched her eat, not yet tackling his own breakfast. “Are you going into work today?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  “It’s Saturday. Didn’t know whether you were on or not.”

  “Oh, yeah.” The day of the week had completely gotten away from Kenzie. She wasn’t scheduled to be on, but she had just finished telling Dr. Wiltshire that she would be in, and she didn’t feel like calling him back to say she’d gotten her days mixed up. So it looked like she was going in. “Just for a while. Maybe not the whole day.”

  36

  Kenzie didn’t look at the ringing phone before picking it up. She was intent on what she was reading on the screen and, while she would stop reading once she was actually on the phone, she wouldn’t break her focus until she absolutely had to.

  “Medical Examiner’s Office. Kenzie speaking,” she rattled off, reading the next couple of lines on the screen.

  “Mackenzie. You sound a million miles away.”

  Kenzie’s attention snapped to the call immediately. Even though she knew the voice, she still looked at the LCD screen to confirm the number that was calling her. Walter Kirsch.

  “Hi, Dad. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you. Everything okay?”

  “Of course. Right as rain. How are you doing?”

  “Pretty good.” Kenzie leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes, and thought about what to tell him. it had been a few weeks since they had talked. He was always interested in little tidbits of her life, but his attention didn’t last long. And he almost always wanted something from her when he called her instead of waiting for her to call him. “Job is good. Zachary and I are...” she faltered, then recovered. He didn’t actually want to know the details. It didn’t matter whether she told him the whole truth or not. “Zachary and I are good. I heard from Mother the other day.”

  “Oh, did you? Glad you’re keeping in touch.” There was a pause as he considered his approach to her. “I can’t believe it’s already so late in the year. Seems like just a couple of weeks ago, we were heading into spring. Now it’s long gone.”

  “Yes. Fall now and getting colder.” Weather? They were going to discuss the weather? “Before you know it, it will be Christmas.” Her heart gave an extra little thump. She wanted it to be Christmas already, to know that Zachary was past his worst days, but she dreaded the fact that she had to get through all of the days before Christmas as Zachary sank deeper and deeper into himself.

  “Christmas was always one of my favorite times of the year,” Walter boomed cheerfully. “You remember what the house would look like? All of the decorating Lisa did? It would look so good... I was afraid to touch anything. Like just stepping into the house might break some fairy spell. It was so stunning.”

  “Was?” Kenzie was surprised to hear him use the past tense. “Doesn’t she still decorate?”

  “Not like that, no. Maybe a wreath and a tree, but... just sedate and understated. Nothing like what she did when you girls were young.”

  It hurt Kenzie to think that her mother, who was always so excited about Christmas, had left that tradition behind. Kenzie remembered those magical fairyland decorations. It was like stepping into a dream or a scene in a movie. Otherworldly. But the little girls were gone. Amanda had passed away years ago, and Kenzie wasn’t sure when the last time was that she had gone home for Christmas. It never appealed to her. With her parents divorced and Amanda gone, it didn’t feel like she had a family anymore. It was just a house. Lisa always invited her, but Kenzie still found a reason not to go. She didn’t even realize that Lisa had given up on decorating without them both there.

  “That’s too bad. I didn’t know that. Is she... okay? Does she get sad at Christmas?”

  “Of course. She’s a mother. She can’t get through Christmas without thinking about her family and the way things used to be. It’s not your fault, Mackenzie. You’re a grown woman with your own life and starting your own family. We fully expected you to. That’s the way things work. Maybe one day you’ll have children, and you can visit Grandma for Christmas, and she’ll make the house just like she used to for you girls.”

  “I don’t know.” Kenzie didn’t really see herself as the motherly type, even though she had loved and doted on and helped to raise Amanda, who had been several years younger than Kenzie. And maybe that was it. Perhaps she was afraid of getting that attached to another person and then having them die. Having them disappear from her life forever, with no hope of reunion.

  She knew Zachary would like children. He confessed that he had always been more baby hungry than Bridget, who was now pregnant and expecting twins. He loved his younger siblings. Being one of the older children, he had helped to raise them. He had more parenting experience than Kenzie, and she knew he would love to have a big family of his own. But she had a career, one she didn’t want to give up to have babies.

  “I should probably get off the phone,” she told Walter. “Things are pretty busy here today and I have a lot to do if I’m going to get home in good time tonight.”

  “What’s got you so busy?”

  “People are dying to see us,” Kenzie quipped.

  Walter chuckled, even though it was a line she had probably used on him a dozen times. Had they actually talked a dozen times since she had started there?

  “I guess they are,” Walter agreed. “Don’t tell me you’ve had a crime spree there. Some serial killer? I understand that boyfriend of yours might be helpful there.”

  Kenzie had never talked to him about the serial killer case that Zachary had solved. Or about the effect it had had on his life. While it had been essential to get the man off the street and protect the community he had been preying on, the negative impact on Zachary had been significant. A year later, it was still affecting him and the relationship between him and Kenzie. The way that Walter talked about it, in a laughing, teasing manner, didn’t match up with the way it had impacted Zachary’s and Kenzie’s lives.

  “Yeah. That was a really bad thing, Dad. Not something we joke about.”

  He didn’t say anything for a moment, taken aback by her serious tone.

  “Oh. Of course it was. I didn’t mean to offend you. So what’s going on? Do you have more going on than usual right now? Stacking them like cordwood in the refrigerator?”

  Kenzie nearly hung up on him. She didn’t need the images his words brought back to mind. Even years later, she was still affected by what she had seen in the pictures taken during Amanda’s overseas surgery. Images she could never wipe from her mind. She didn’t usually think about them or connect them with the work they did in the morgue. They were two different worlds.

  “We have had a few new bodies in. More than usual.” She hoped that her clipped tone would dissuade him from asking any further details. “We have a couple of... very puzzling deaths to deal with.”

  “I haven’t heard anything in the news. Nothing... violent, I hope?”

  “No. Just strange. We need some more data before we can make a call. And speaking of which, it looks like I just got some samples back,” Kenzie lied. “I have to go now. Take care, Dad. And say hi to Mother if you see her befor
e I do.”

  She kept talking right over his protests and pressed down the hang-up switch, holding it there for a few minutes to ensure that the call was dropped before releasing it and putting the phone receiver down.

  37

  “Just got a call from the police,” Dr. Wiltshire announced as he walked toward Kenzie’s desk at a quick clip. “We’ve got another body I need to check out. Violent death, from the sounds of it. You’ve got quite a bit on the go here...?” He looked over the piles of papers and files on her desk.

  Kenzie looked around at them, sighing. “Yeah. I’d like to say that this can all wait and come along with you, but I think I’d better keep trudging away here. Do you need me?”

  “I’ll be fine with Carlos to help transport the body. I’ll send you pictures,” he said in a teasing voice.

  “Oh, will you? Please?” Kenzie laughed. “What happened? Do you know?”

  “I don’t. Not yet. Dead body in a motel room, but it doesn’t sound like it was just a heart attack. Police wouldn’t want to light a fire under me for that. It would be ‘whenever you can’ for a routine death like that. Not ‘grab your bag, Doc, and get your butt over here. You’d better see this.’”

  Kenzie nodded. “Sounds serious. I hope it isn’t too bad.”

  “Well, that’s the thing about our patients... they aren’t going to complain about how we treat them. They’re past caring about how they look. There isn’t much that would shock me anymore.”

  “I guess not. Well, good luck.”

  At least if it was a violent death, it wouldn’t be so hard to figure out the cause.

  Dr. Wiltshire gave a nod and headed out.

  There was no one from the public around, so after he had left, Kenzie pulled out her mobile radio unit and turned it on to listen to the chatter back and forth between the police and the medical examiner and anyone else being dispatched to the crime scene. Although they didn’t say much over the radios, it sounded like Dr. Wiltshire was right and it was a violent death.