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“Er…” She hurriedly fiddles with the screen. “In… a… sec— Yup! Recording. Go.”
“This is chief medical examiner Doctor Minka Mayet inside the elevator on the ninth floor of the George Stanley Building. Transport driver, Ethan O’Dey, has presented me with possible new evidence linked to one of five bodies that came in-house in the last thirty-six hours.”
I glance up when his expression changes. “Thirty-six gives us a slightly larger window of time. Of the five new bodies the matchbook may be linked to, their names include Kiera Chase, Kylie Bastion, Donna Reed…” I look to Aubree, “Who else came in?”
“Donna belongs to Kernicke,” she fills in. “There was also Donovan Ray; multi-vehicle pile-up, he belongs to Doctor Catlin. And Jasper Gleeson, also of the MV pile-up, also assigned to Doctor Catlin.”
“How did one transport van get two bodies from the same scene?” I look to Ethan first, then to Aubree. She wasn’t there, but still, she knows everything that goes on around our building.
“Donovan came in first,” she answers. “Mangled body, traumatically severed arm.”
“Okay…?”
“Jasper came in three hours later, after the jaws of life opened his car and retrieved his decapitated head.”
“Unfortunate.” Blowing out a deep breath, I bring my gaze to Ethan. “Any hunches who the matchbook might belong to?” Then I look to Aubree. “And if it’s one of ours, why didn’t we find it while at the scene?”
“I think it was one of the murdered girls,” Ethan answers. “The other side of the matchbook,” he reaches out to touch, but my instincts bring my hand back with dizzying speed that startles him.
“Sorry.” He drops his hand again. “Um, the other side. It says Club Opulus, so…”
“Shit.” Carefully, I set the matchbook in the plastic bag and slowly seal the top. “Okay. So, you found this when?”
“Last night.”
“And you held onto it all night… why?”
“Because I…” His eyes swing between me and Aubree as color leeches into his cheeks. “You’d already gone home, Doctor Mayet.”
“This is evidence in an ongoing homicide investigation, Mr. O’Dey. You don’t need me to be in my office to accept it. You needed to take your ass down to the police station and ask for the investigating officers.” Turning, I exit the elevator and head toward Autopsy Room One instead of my original destination.
“You contaminated evidence,” I call back as he scrambles to follow. “That’s an offense in any state.”
“I didn’t…” he stammers and continues to chase me. “I didn’t mean to. I wasn’t even sure if it… I didn’t…” He catches the door when I blow through. “I didn’t know what it was right away, Doctor Mayet. And even after I realized it was a matchbook, I didn’t entirely know it was evidence. Only two of my five rides yesterday were homicide. How was I supposed to know it was important?”
“Literallyyour job.”
I set the plastic baggie on the steel slab in the middle of the room. Then I remove my gloves and coat. I toss the first in the trash, then I set the second on the counter lining the city-view window as Aubree follows me into the room and sets down Tim’s coffee mug beside my coat.
“Head down to the police station immediately.” I step to the sink on the far wall and begin washing my hands. “Give your statement to any detective there who wants to take it. Let them know Doctor Mayet at the George Stanley has the matchbook and that I’ll be running it immediately for path traces left behind.”
I look to Aubree and nod my approval when she tosses her coat and pushes her sleeves up.
“I expect to have results in the next couple hours if the detectives wish to peruse them.” Cutting the water and moving next to wipe my hands dry, I glance across to Ethan and lift a single brow. “That’s a pretty big screwup, O’Dey. You’ve contaminated evidence, you’ve added an easy twelve hours from discovery to report, and you didn’t observe protocol when handling evidence, which means when I collect trace samples from the matchbook, I’m gonna findyouall over it.”
“Doctor Mayet,” his mouth opens and closes, like a fish in water. “I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s done. Go make your statement. I’ll call Detectives Malone and Fletcher and let them know to expect you.”
“Yes ma’a— Yes, Doctor.” He takes a step back. Then another.
Just minutes ago, he was a puppy awaiting praise. Now, he’s a dog I kicked in the gut.
Turning and releasing the door, the guy heads straight back to the elevator and hits the down button, while Aubree finishes washing her hands and moves to dry them.
Instead of coming to where I stand and pulling on a pair of gloves, she moves to my coat and takes out my phone. “I’ll call Archer?”
“Yes please. Set him on speaker for me.”
