Back to the Morgue

Dr Bob was delighted to see Andrea again.

She was surprised that he was still here past midnight. Apparently there had been some sort of accident that day with multiple fatalities, and autopsies were required to rule out foul play. Bob had just been finishing up with his final report when she arrived.

"I'm always happy to assist someone with a talent for forensics," he said with a smile. "What can I help you with, Andrea?"

"I've just spent the last several hours going over the Davenport case, trying to think of something that might give us a lead…"

Bob seemed bemused. "If I might say so without being unkind, Andrea, it shows! You look dead on your feet, and I know what I'm talking about in that department!"

Andrea waved off his concern. Yes, her eyes were red, her head was aching, she was sure she looked quite a mess, but none of that was important right now.

"I was thinking about what you said, about how Beatrix had defensive wounds, how she had been fighting back. And I started wondering if she managed to scratch her attacker. It got me thinking, did you find any traces of skin tissue or anything underneath Beatrix Davenport's nails?"

Bob shook his head. "Very good thinking, but no, we checked under the fingernails, and didn't find anything. Only to be expected given how she was tied up, you see."

"Right—but no—sorry, I meant her toenails…" clarified Andrea. "Because she was fighting back with her legs, right? And the crime scene photos showed her feet were bare. So, did you find anything there?"

Bob looked thoughtful for a moment. "Was there anything in the report?" he asked.

Andrea shook her head, glad that she had double checked.

"If I had checked, then I would have included it in the report. It's not part of the standard examination, you see. You don't normally find much on the feet." Bob looked slightly chagrined. "Now you point it out, that was quite the oversight," he said. "You really do have good insight for this work! Let's take a look."

He was already wearing his lab coat, but quickly donned his surgical gown. Andrea went to grab one herself, but he waved her off.

"No need to worry about that. Now the autopsy is complete, the exploratory incisions have been sewn up. And besides, we're only going to be looking at the toes." He led Andrea back to the refrigerated storage area and pulled Beatrix's drawer open.

"You're lucky in a way that we've been instructed to maintain secrecy regarding this case for the time being, otherwise we would have turned the body over to the family for burial by now. We don't normally keep them for long after the autopsy has been completed..."

He pulled on a pair of head-mounted magnifying glasses, and uncovered the corpse's feet.

"Now, I should warn you, even if we do find something, DNA testing has to be sent out to the lab and takes days to get back. So I wouldn't hold your breath for answers tonight."

Andrea hated to think about waiting in limbo for days to get an answer, but at least it would be something to wait for.

"Unless…" said Bob, reaching for a swab. He carefully swept under one of the toenails and came back with a smudge of red. "…Unless we find blood. Damn… I find it rather embarrassing I didn't discover this the first time around. Although I'd probably have spotted it sooner if our victim wasn't wearing dark-red nail polish on her toes," he said slightly defensively.

"So we can get the results from this sooner..?" Andrea asked hopefully.

"Sooner, yes, but it will still take time. This isn't like when you go to the doctor for a blood test. We only have a tiny sample here, so we can't afford to make any mistakes. And we need to preserve some for DNA testing, so that makes our sample even smaller."

"When will we know?" she asked.

Bob shrugged. "A couple of hours, at least. As I said, I need to take my time and ensure there are no mistakes." He gave Andrea a kindly smile. "You really do look tired, maybe you should head home and get the results in the morning."

Her excitement had held off the fatigue, but knowing there was nothing to do now but wait, the tiredness came seeping back. It hadn't been the longest day she'd ever had, but it had been an emotionally exhausting one.

"Do you mind if I just wait here…? I want to know the results as soon as possible," she said.

"Well, the chair in my office is quite comfortable. I won't deny that I've caught a nap there myself a few times when I've been on a long shift. I'll let you know when I've found something."

Andrea didn't think there was any chance that she would sleep somewhere as creepy as the morgue.

It turned out that Bob's office was warm and not nearly as sterile feeling as the rest of his workspace. And he was right about how comfortable the chair was. She thought she might just close her eyes for a minute, but within moments of sitting down, her body's demand for rest was too great, and she slipped off to sleep.

* * *

Andrea was awoken by a knock on the office door. Dr Bob peered around the doorway.

"It looks like the initial results are in," he said.

"Initial?" Andrea said, fighting back a yawn as she rubbed her eyes. She hoped it would be something conclusive either way.

"We've tested for blood type, and it's not from our victim, which can often be the case. She was Type O-…" he said.

That was big news. If the blood wasn't from Beatrix, that meant the result of this test could exonerate Kyle… or condemn him even further.

Bob continued. "The blood we found under the nails turns out to be Type A. Now this isn't conclusive, there are other ways that this blood might have been picked up. But in my professional opinion, the most likely explanation is that the person that Miss Davenport struggled with before she was murdered had Type-A blood."

Kyle was Type O+.

That was it! That was the news Andrea needed. It put someone else at the scene, someone else who was most likely the murderer!

Andrea felt her fatigue fall away. This justified all the time pouring over the paperwork. This was vindication! It couldn't wait, she had to tell Kyle.

Thanking Bob, Andrea rushed back upstairs to make arrangements to meet with Kyle so she could tell him the news.

'And apologize,' she thought. 'I owe him an apology...'

She noticed sunlight coming in through the windows as she made her way into the main levels of the precinct.

The duty officer at the holding cells wasn't the one she had spoken to earlier, but she thought she had met him on one of her previous visits.

"I'd like to have Kyle Wynn transferred to an interview room for a meeting please," she said, pulling out her credentials to show the guard like she had done so many times before.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, we tried to get a message to you, but we didn't know you were still here in the precinct. We called your office, but they didn't know where you were."

"A message?" she asked. "Saying what?"

"Saying that Mr Wynn isn't here anymore, ma'am. He was transferred to the county jail first thing this morning."

Andrea's heart dropped. She was too late…

Kyle was gone.