Scars of the Heart
By Judith Freudenthal
In the shadows between street lights, a man walked up to another man and shot him in the temple as he walked by. The victim was caught totally off guard, and didn't see the gun until it was too late. The single shot dropped him in his tracks. The killer quickly made sure no one was watching and doubled back. He put the gun in the victim's hand and had him pull the trigger to get gunshot residue on his hand. He had a string tied to the trigger, which when pulled triggered the shot, thus his fingers weren't in the way. The shot sank into the grass. The killer removed this bullet and dropped it into a clear plastic bag, which he shoved into his pocket. Once he was sure that the setting would hold up to scrutiny, he left.About fifteen minutes later a passerby out walking his dog saw a dark figure on the street and as he approached the body, he realized the shadow next to his head was actually blood. He called the police.
A squad car responded almost immediately and one of the officers took his statement.
Dr. Natalie Lambert arrived with the rest of the forensic team. They each set about their duties. Natalie walked over to the officer in charge.
"Miller, what can you tell me?"
"Not much. Mr. Greene stumbled across the body as he walked his dog. That was about half an hour ago.
Natalie walked over to the body and began her examination of the area, noticing that the gun was held in the hand on the same side as the gunshot wound was. There were no apparent signs of a struggle. She squatted down for a closer look at the victim. She jotted down notes on her clipboard as she did her preliminary examination.
Detectives Nick Knight and Don Schanke arrived on the scene and talked with Officer Miller. She filled them in one what little she had. Nick and Schanke then headed over to Natalie.
"Hi, Nat," Nick said.
"Hi, guys," Natalie said. "It appears to be a suicide, but I won't know for sure until I get him back to the lab. TOD appears to be approximately an hour, maybe two ago. Cause of death appears to be a gunshot wound to the temple. I believe he died instantly."
"Isn't this an odd place to commit suicide?" Schanke asked.
"Maybe he didn't want to do it at home," Nick said. "Maybe he wanted where he died to be as bleak as whatever drove him to it."
Later that night, Natalie had some reports to drop off at the precinct. While she was there, Cohen asked her if two recent cases could possibly be connected. Natalie told Cohen, Nick and Schanke that she didn't know, but would look into it. She didn't think there would be anything to find, but would still check into it. She knew she'd been surprised before.
"Natalie, what do you have on tonight's suicide?" Schanke asked.
"It's all in the preliminary report." She saw that Schanke wanted her to summarize it for him. "I'm pretty sure it was a suicide. The shot was at the right angle and the .38 was held close enough to the temple. There was gunshot residue on the victim's hand, and the weapon was held correctly for it to be a suicide."
"No witnesses have been found," Nick said. "They canvassed the whole neighborhood."
Before the end of her shift, Natalie found something in one of the reports that caused her to take a second look at the body.
Nick and Schanke entered as she was finishing up.
"I thought you finished his autopsy," Schanke commented.
"I thought so too. Some test results made me go back and take a second look. This was definitely a homicide staged to convincingly look like a suicide. If it wasn't for the test results, it would've been marked down as a suicide. The killer had almost everything right. From the angle of the gunshot the killer approached from the front, and was almost right next to the victim when he fired. Which is part of how it looked so much like a suicide."
"How do you explain the residue on the victim's hand if he didn't fire the weapon?" Schanke asked.
"The victim did fire it. Two shells were missing, providing he filled it all the way. The victim just had some help firing it. And the killer must've taken the second slug with him as the techs didn't find it and they did a thorough search."
The next night, Natalie was in her office busy doing an autopsy. She stopped, stripped off her gloves and went to check out a file. When she found what she thought she might, she regloved and continued with her autopsy, recording her findings and general notes into the tape recorder.
Natalie finished the autopsy and made a few notes. As she worked on the file, questions about two other cases came to mind. When she finished the report she was working on she pulled out those files and reread them. She found a few things and jotted them down in a separate file, and pulled out one other file and did the same thing. She didn't know if they were related, or if they were, what the link was. She knew she'd keep on looking for any connection, if there was one to be found as she couldn't leave a puzzle unsolved. She knew she couldn't tell anyone about it until she had more than a few notes that had no obvious connection.
Natalie needed a break so she stripped off her gown and slipped on her coat, grabbed her purse and headed for the coffee shop down the block.
The next day she had a tough case. A man in his mid thirties had gone out a tenth floor window. The guy had lived after hitting the pavement, but not for long. Natalie, Schanke and Nick found the body to be a mass of broken bones, many of which were very evident. They all thought something looked a little odd about the scene but couldn't quite put their finger on it.
Natalie went back to her lab to do the autopsy. As she closely examined the body she found that it was amazing he had an unbroken bone in his body. Some bones were crushed, there was bleeding all throughout the body, some from the broken bones, some from the crushed ones, some from the internal injuries. She noticed that some of the internal injuries were from the broken bones, and some was from the sudden stop as the body hit the ground. She found a few things that didn't add up and put them into her notes, as well as the official report. She also added them to her separate set of notes. A while later Nick and Schanke entered for the preliminary report.
"He went out the window and splatted on the pavement. If you want the longer version, he broke or crushed just about every bone. Massive internal injuries and bleeding from the bones or the impact trauma. He probably lived no more than half an hour, an hour at the maximum. He might've been conscious for most of it."
"OUCH," Schanke said.
"You got that right," Natalie said. "I'll have some more info for you when the test results come back.
"Are those his x-rays?" Schanke asked seeing several x-ray films hung on the light board.
"Yeah. Quite interesting to look at. That's his right foot and ankle."
"Yikes. There's nothing left of it."
"That's not all that odd with injuries like his. The force of such an impact does nasty things to the human bodies. As MacGyver once said, it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop."
After Nick and Schanke left, Natalie pulled out the new file she'd been jotting stuff down in and reread it, but still couldn't find a connection.
A week later, she was called to the scene of a crime. She arrived and was NOT pleased when she saw the victim. It was a burn victim. One that had been severely burned.
"What's the preliminary report?" Schanke asked.
Natalie glared at him, with a 'what do you think killed him' look, as she said. "He was torched. And from the expression and body language he was conscious most of the time." Natalie shuddered.
"You okay?" Nick asked, a little concerned.
"I'll be okay. You know how much these cases bother me."
"Yeah, I know. Want to come to the loft later for movies and dinner?"
"Sounds great. I'll see you at the end of the shift."
Schanke's expression suggested that something else would happen.
"We're just friends," Natalie told Schanke as she gave him a playful slap on the arm.
Back at the morgue, Natalie was starting her autopsy when Grace walked in.
"I thought you'd like the help. I know how much these bother you."
"Thanks. I appreciate it."
Natalie conducted the autopsy, finding some really odd things. For one thing there was a bullet lodged in his left shoulder, his right leg had the type of fracture that being hit with a crowbar, two by four, or something like that would cause. As she got inside the body, she found two definite stab wounds.
"Whoever did this to him wanted him to suffer, and I think the torching was an afterthought. It's almost as if the killer wasn't satisfied with his work, or maybe the guy didn't seem to be suffering enough so he decided to up the pain level, kill him and make it hard to identify him, or his non burn injuries," Natalie said. "The killer probably figured we'd write it off to the burns and not look further." Natalie wondered if they were trying to conceal the identity, and if so, why. And if it was connected to any of her other cases.
After she finished the autopsy and had done as much of the paperwork as she could, she jotted down her latest notes in her other file. She reread it, knowing there was probably a connection somewhere, she just had to find it. The only thing she knew for certain was that the crimes were getting nastier.
While Natalie was out getting coffee and a snack, someone rifled through her files along with her desk, being careful not to disturb anything. The intruder wished he had the time to carefully search her computer, but only had time for a quick check. After making sure he'd left no trace of his visit, he left.
Natalie returned, paper bag in hand and stopped by Grace's desk. She pulled one of the two coffee containers out of the bag and set it on her friend's desk along with a chocolate chip muffin.
"Thanks, Nat," Grace said.
"You're welcome."
A few days later, Natalie was out at a crime scene and Grace was checking up on some test results. An intruder entered Natalie's office and set an object down next to her computer. The optical drive was hooked up to Natalie's computer and the entire hard drive was downloaded onto the optical drive's own hard disk. While that was happening he quickly went through her files, starting with the ones for the last couple of months, working his way towards the most recent. When the downloading was finished, he quickly unhooked his drive, stuck it in his pocket, looked over the last file, which happened to be Nat's notes about all the oddities she'd found, and left, leaving no trace that he had ever been there.
The next evening, Natalie went over her notes trying to find any connection between the recent additions to the file and the notes already there. She knew there was a connection, and probably one that was staring her in the face, but she couldn't see it. She figured that she might be trying too hard, and maybe she should put it away for a while and then maybe it will come to her.
After a while of getting nowhere she needed a break and headed to the coffee shop, stopping by Grace's desk on her way out to see if her friend wanted anything.
Inside the coffee shop, she walked up to the counter where Peter was. He'd waited on her nearly every time she'd come in. He knew what she wanted without her having to order.
"Natalie, I won't be seeing you anymore. I got a better job at a big hotel in Montreal. I'm going to be an apprentice chef."
"That's great! Good luck. I'll miss talking with you," Natalie said, knowing how much he wanted to become a chef.
"Thank you. I'll miss talking with you too."
He fixed her usual order for both her and Grace.
The next night, Natalie stopped by the coffee shop for her nightly coffee and muffin for both her and Grace. It was how they started off each shift. Natalie suddenly realized she wasn't used to placing an order. She placed her order. She liked Buckstar's chocolate coffee, while Grace preferred Hazelnut. She paid for the order and headed back to the lab.
A week later Natalie was at another crime scene. She was doing her usual thorough examination, jotting down her notes on her clipboard as she examined the latest victim.
Nick and Schanke approached. She stood and gave them her report.
"TOD approximately 4-6 hours ago. I think it's pretty obvious how he died. I should know the caliber after I get him back to the lab."
"Thanks," Schanke said. "You okay?"
"Yeah. I'm just a little tired. I'm hoping it's not the start of the latest bug."
"It's sweeping the precinct," Schanke said.
"Several of the lab techs are out because of it."
Over the next week Natalie continued to feel a little run down. She wished either she'd get sick or feel better. She knew she was going to spend a major chunk of her day off trying to catch up on her sleep in hopes of making herself feel better.
When she had a few minutes she did a little more research to gather evidence to back up her hunch. To turn it into a theory, then a provable case. She knew that it would take a lot of research, a good amount of luck and some skill to be able to prove her hunch is anything more than just a hunch.
She had to do a lot of thinking to figure out where to look next. Since she was the head coroner on the night shift she had access to almost every file she might need, but she knew she had to be careful in case someone in the office wasn't who she thought they were. She hated to think about that but had seen too many cases of it elsewhere, and even in this coroner's office a year or so after she'd started here.
When another week went by and she was still feeling rundown she ran a couple of tests on herself, ruling out a couple of illnesses like mono, strep throat, anemia, and urinary tract infection. She knew the only test she didn't have to run was a pregnancy one. She pulled her stethoscope out of her black bag and listened to her heartbeat, pleased it was fine, ruling out heart problems, at least for now. She even checked her blood glucose level and it was normal. She checked her blood pressure and it was fine. She was relieved to have ruled those out.
With the next body, Natalie got her first clue. She saw that two of the bodies, the new one and the jumper worked at the same place, but different branches.
A few days later, Grace saw Natalie was looking a little worse.
"You okay?" Grace asked concerned. She knew Nat had probably tested herself for the most common illnesses and wouldn't go to a doctor unless she had to.
"Just tired."
"Want some coffee?" Grace asked.
"That sounds good."
"Same flavor?"
"Yeah. Thanks," Natalie said.
Grace headed to their favorite coffee shop and placed her order. The guy behind the counter fixed the coffee and passed the two cups up to the cashier. Grace added a couple of apple cinnamon muffins then paid for it.
When she got back she gave Natalie her coffee and muffin.
"Thanks."
Grace leaves and a few moments later she reenters Nat's office.
"Something wrong?" Nat asked as she was about to take a sip.
"That smells really good. Would you mind switching?"
"Not at all. I haven't touched it yet."
"Thanks. Neither have I."
They switch cups and Grace heads back to her desk. Both ladies continue on with their work, sipping at their coffee once it's cool enough to drink.
A while later Natalie's walking by Grace and sees her yawning.
"I thought I was the tired one," Nat teased.
"I don't know what happened. I'm tired."
"Maybe it's the lack of clients?" Natalie asked.
"Maybe," Grace said. "You up for lunch soon?"
"Sure. Where should we go?" Nat asked.
"Panda Pavilion? The diner?"
"How about the diner? It's quicker and I'm not really in the mood for Chinese, or Japanese," Nat said grinning at the shocked look on Grace's face, knowing her friend was teasing her. "Very funny."
"About an hour?"
"Sounds good. How about a candy bar? I think we could both use the sugar."
"Okay."
Nat grabbed them both a chocolate bar from the break room vending machine. She gave Grace hers on her way back into her office.
They both worked on their paperwork until lunchtime. Natalie made sure she had her wallet and cell phone stuffed into her pocket as they headed out. She double-checked to make sure her phone was on.
Over the next few days, Grace noticed that Natalie wasn't quite herself, yet couldn't figure out exactly what it was. She knew that if she asked Nat, she'd get the same "I'm fine" or "I'm tired" for an answer.
Nick and Schanke noticed it as well and also knew they'd get nothing useful from Natalie if they asked her. They knew she probably checked herself out, at least for the things she could, knowing how much she hated going to the doctor.