Chapter Ten
Juliette had accumulated a great many skills in her thirty-two years of living—she could run a mile in under four minutes, she knew how to make risotto the proper Italian way, and she’d once taken an online lock picking class to impress a mystery writer Simon Says was looking to sign.
She also dabbled in Krav Maga, financial advising, an adult volleyball league, fencing, and one very boring summer of learning actual basket weaving.
None of which helped her read an autopsy report, apparently.
There were parts even she could understand, of course.
The basic demographic information—the name of the coroner’s office that conducted the autopsy, who was present for the autopsy and who signed off on it, and details about Warren’s age, weight, height, and physical appearance at the time of his death.
There were photos as well, which she could only glimpse the corners of beneath the report, though she imagined they were parts of Warren she didn’t need to become intimately familiar with.
Still, she might have understood the photographs better than she did the comments about pleura, pericardium, adrenals, and various other words she learned from a web search were probably body parts.
Juliette stood and stretched, circling her desk to look out the glass door. She spotted Kate Valentine lurking around the main conference room alone. Juliette cracked her door open.
“Kate!” she hissed.
“Oprah, protect me!” Kate cried, clutching a hand to her heart.
She turned, wild-eyed, to face Juliette across the office.
“Juliette, oh my gosh, I thought you were a ghost trying to drag me to hell. Or an overeager fan, possibly also trying to drag me to hell for ending Loretta the way that I did. I don’t read online reviews, but if I did, my feelings would be very hurt. ”
“Kate, would you just come here?” Juliette said, exasperated. “Quietly, if that’s even possible for you.” Juliette sat at her desk, waving Kate over as she zoomed in on the photo. “What do you know about reading autopsy reports?”
Kate shrugged. “I looked at a couple of examples from a medical school for Shaken, Stirred, and Stabbed, but that was like five years ago or something. Why?”
“I need to know if anything here stands out as suspicious,” Juliette said, shifting the image to show the half-covered list from the toxicology report. “Do you know any of these drugs? Could any of them mimic a heart attack?”
“Mimic a heart attack?” Kate asked, drawing back in surprise. “Wait, is this about Warren Ellingham? Is that his autopsy report? How did you get that?”
“That’s not important,” Juliette said with a wave. “I just need to know about these substances. Some of them I can’t make out, but maybe you recognize them from your research.”
“Please say you broke into the police station and took these photos with one of those old-school pop-up cameras that spies use. Did you wear a balaclava? Boots with thick soles to hide your real height? Did you change your gait?”
“Kate,” Juliette snapped. “Focus. I didn’t break in anywhere, but this is all I have.
The police think that Warren’s death was natural causes, but I’m not convinced.
Everyone around him is acting way too strange, and someone stole the manuscript that night.
I think somebody killed Warren to keep his manuscript from going public.
If I figure out who killed him, maybe I can recover the manuscript. ”
“Wait, you’re serious,” Kate said, sobering up. “You really think someone killed Warren? But who?”
“I have suspicions, but no proof,” Juliette said. “I don’t know what any of this stuff means, and the internet is less than helpful.”
“I don’t know anything about toxicology reports,” Kate said with a frown. Her expression shifted, her mouth curling up at the corner. “But I know someone who does.”
“Who?” Juliette asked. “And why does your face look like that?”
“If anybody can figure out how someone could cause a heart attack and make it look like natural causes, it’s a heart surgeon.”
“You know a heart surgeon?” Juliette groaned as Kate’s grin widened. “No. Not Doctor Dud.”
“You need someone who can read this autopsy report,” Kate reasoned gleefully. “Charlie is a heart doctor. It’s basically fate.”
“Don’t you know anybody else besides Jake’s boring brother? A paramedic, or a cop? Didn’t you talk to people as research for Loretta?”
“Yeah. I talked to Charlie. Because he’s a heart surgeon. And he’s super nice and not boring at all. And more importantly, he’s the only one who can decipher this report for you right now. How you choose to thank him will be up to you.”
She could hardly deny that Kate had a point.
If anyone could figure out how someone triggered a fake heart attack, it would be a cardiothoracic surgeon.
Even if he was possibly the most boring person on the planet and an absolute idiot for not being interested in her, very serious committed relationship or not.
“Fine,” Juliette grunted. “But I won’t be nice.”
“I’m coming with you. I’ll leave a note on Spencer’s desk to reschedule, he’ll hate that,” Kate said gleefully as she stood up. “Let’s go solve a murder!”