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MINKA MAYET
“This is chief medical examiner Doctor Minka Mayet, assisted by Doctor Aubree Emeri, performing the autopsy of twenty-three-year-old Kiera Chase on January first. The time is three fifty-four a.m., and field-testing places Kiera’s death at approximately two a.m. A visual ID confirms our patient was a server at a local restaurant.” I pause and glance up. “Doctor Emeri, confirm we have the right patient on the table?”
“Yep.” Aubree makes her way to Kiera’s feet and checks the tag. “Kiera Maria Chase. DOB is January first, nineteen ninety-nine.” Then she makes her way along the body. “Scar on her left knee is consistent with knee surgery at seventeen.” Then further up. “Tattoo on her right wrist. Kiera’s eyes are golden brown.” She stops by Kiera’s head and lifts one eyelid. Then the other. “Brown hair with natural blonde highlights. Three piercings in each ear.” Finally, her eyes come to me. “We have the right person on the table.”
“Excellent. And you covered a little history with the knee surgery.” I go to work pulling on a fresh pair of gloves. “Anything else?”
“No regular medication.” Aubree recalls Kiera’s records like she’s known every intimate detail about the woman since conception. “Not even birth control.” She clears her throat. “Though, uh, I know from my personal interactions with her that she’s in a committed relationship.”
Pausing, I glance up to my second and frown. “Is this case going to be a problem for you, Doctor Emeri? Are you too close? Because I can reassign you if need be.”
“I’m fine.” Quickly, she shakes her head. “I was only giving you a little more background. I know who she is, Doctor Mayet. We were friendly if we crossed paths. But we didn’t socialize.” She stops and nods. “I’m clear to run the case.”
I consider her for a moment. And then Archer and Fletch. They’re all too close. They’re all feeling this one. But none are willing to step back and hand it to someone else.
Knowing how hardheaded they are, I nod and vow to watch them throughout this process. “Alright. What else is in her files?”
“Two pregnancies,” Aubree immediately throws in. “One unviable. One resulting in a live birth.”
My heart knocks. “She’s a mom?”
“To a little boy. He’s two now. Two and a few months. Parents are not married, but they’re together.”
“And now we have a family missing their mother.” Drawing a deep breath, I let it out again on a sigh.
I accused Archer of banging this woman just a matter of weeks ago. Because Iamjealous of women who know him, when what we have is so shallow and new. I know next to nothing about the man’s past, but I know his intensity draws me in. His touch is addictive.
And I know, without a shadow of doubt, he and I cannot have a future together. We’re chalk and cheese in more ways than one, and our differences are simply too dangerous to ignore. They create a chasm too wide to cross.
“What else?” I clear my throat and move on. “Has Kiera presented to a doctor or an ER in the last month or so?”
“Nothing in her records. No illnesses. No injuries. Nothing chronic, nothing so much as a post-it dropped into her file.”
“Alright. So we have a seemingly healthy twenty-three-year-old woman whose job keeps her on her feet, and a toddler at home, keeping her reasonably active. She and her friend went out to Club Opulus for a birthday celebration. She’s in a committed relationship, so theoretically, she’s not entertaining flirty discussions with other men. Around two o’clock, she stumbles out of the club, and drops, foaming at the mouth and vomiting blood.” I pause for a moment, then add, “Yes?”
Aubree nods. “Yes, Doctor. That’s about the gist of it. Hopefully, Detectives Malone and Fletcher get something with the security footage. But until then, we still need to know what took her down.”
“Right. Let’s order toxicology. Go deeper and search for barbiturates, anticonvulsants, GHB, LSD, cyanide, pesticides, and designer synthetics. Could probably even check for metal in her blood. Does she live near a factory that has a history of using lead?”
“Errr.” Aubree checks the notes for this one. “No. In fact, I’m not sure we’ve had any factories like that in Copeland since the seventies.”
“Run all the tests anyway. Kiera ingested something she shouldn’t have, and we have to figure out what it was.” Stepping to my instrument table, I take a fresh scalpel in my gloved hand and approach Kiera once more. “Order all that, take the blood, and while we wait, I’ll dissect. Maybe her organs will tell us a different story.”
“Will we make ourselves available to her family?”
I make the first cut by Kiera’s collarbone and work downwards. “Detectives can inform next of kin. But yes, when her partner is ready to see her, we’ll book it in, close her up, and wipe her down. Don’t let him remember her any way except beautiful and young.”
Nodding, Aubree moves toward the heavy glass door in her plastic gown. “I’ll get started and be back in ten. When her man calls us, we’ll figure out the rest.”
“Alright.”
I keep my eyes on my work and gently insert the separator to keep my newly cut chest cavity open. Taking another, longer bladed knife, I reach in and start collecting sheared samples for testing in the lab.
A little bit of her kidney, and a little of her heart. A little lung, and a little of her liver.
It takes an hour to extract, weigh, label, and package each specimen, but Aubree returns when she said she would, so with her working beside me in companionable silence, we get through the list of what needs to be tested.
“So, you and Archer…”
