Chapter 28 Section 27

Jackman had sent word that all of them should be in his office by eight o'clock the next morning.The district attorney general finally got his wish, and his goals have been achieved.Right now, the atmosphere in his office was one of deathly silence.Bracco and Fisk stood by the open door.Wes Ferrell and Hardy sat at the end of the sofa drinking coffee, and Grisky was with his wife in the outer office.Just after eight o'clock, Jackman arrived with Marlene Ash and John Strout.After greeting everyone warmly, the District Attorney came to his desk and sat down, signaling to Treya to start the meeting.She ushers Griski in and closes the door behind him.

Jackman wasted no time on the prologue. "Dizzy," he said straight to the point, "I hear you've got a dozen or so names on that magic list of yours. I think you'll give it to Abramovich." "Yes, sir, I've done that. I also gave a copy to Strout Medical Examiner. And last night I spoke to another person who might testify, a nurse from Portola. .She intends to talk to her colleagues about testifying. Dr. Kenson only started building his list about six months ago. My nurse witness may have more names on hand." "And that includes the patients who escaped it," Marlene Ash interjected. "I have a feeling that everyone who dies in Portola is considered suspect. There must be a ghost."

Jackman nodded in agreement, having thought about it. "So I'm here to ask Medical Examiner Strout to have one of his assistants repaid to examine the bodies of those who died. I expect there will be a flood of requests for exhumations, autopsies. Before we go any further, at least This way we can verify whether the idea that a patient dies abnormally early is true." "With luck like that," Farrell said, "you're talking about letting these guys overturn the autopsy done in their own hospital. You're not going to get much cooperation from the doctors who work there." , and to get support and cooperation from management, it can only get worse."

"If we order it, they can't do it if they don't want to." “Of course,” Farrell said, “but we also can’t have doctors and nurses say deaths they have questions about, or we don’t have bodies at all if they don’t want to.” Jackman doesn't worry about that. "Don't get me wrong, I don't want a bunch of requests." "But we want to get the corpses. If we can't get them from the hospital, we can find a way from their families." Yash turned his head and scanned the house, "We have to be prepared." "Okay." Jackman intends to continue, "John, why don't you give us a detailed report of the results you got yesterday? Although everyone may know the general situation."

The forensic doctor gave them a detailed introduction to the situation.Mrs Rowling died from an overdose of Pavlon and succinylcholine chloride.Both of these drugs are muscle relaxants, and their use, especially when a person has fallen asleep, may create the illusion of a natural death. "It can't be that simple," Farrell interrupted Strout. "No one thought of it until Deeds told me her name and told me to hurry up and find out why." I am even tempted to sue the hospital for neglect of care and there is no doubt that she was murdered." Strout continued with his briefing.These drugs are extremely potent and have traditionally been given intravenously.In addition, Mrs. Rowling has been bedridden in the intensive care unit, there is no possibility of her swallowing the pill to end her life, she has no access to these things.The conclusion is that Strout calls this kind of killing "death at the hands of others."In other words, a sort of murder.

"Is there a reason for the lack of potassium?" Griski wanted to figure it out. "Not at all, no." The room fell into silence for a while, and everyone fell silent, and it was Jackman who broke the silence. "In my opinion, the key here is not the class of drugs that may have been used on the two deceased. And I don't want to speculate on what we may find out in the future. But apart from the differences in drugs, the two A common feature of the homicides is that someone seems to know, or believe, that Portola routinely approves autopsy reports when they have never been autopsied at all, especially for those whose causes of death appear to be more obvious cases."

"I did a rough investigation," Strout offered to provide what he learned, "it seems that the expenditures they rely on have been cut, and the funds left for their medical department are quite small. This is their The reality that has to be accepted all the time. The autopsy work of the hospital itself is usually not completed in accordance with the express regulations. These guys, they are just putting on a show and going through the motions, even a professional in forensic science No. Instead, they did some basic autopsy work in the lab." "That's when they thought they had to," Farrell said.

Strout nodded slightly. "I agree with what you said about the situation, maybe basic checks are not often done." "So, what does a standard autopsy look like, John?" Hardy asked. "There are many kinds," Strout said, "but basically we distinguish between different levels of cost and complexity. For example, if you have an A-level autopsy, the regulations at this level The inspection items are just the alcohol content in your body and some common drugs you take, such as aspirin, cocaine, etc. Generally speaking, you have been found out at a certain level for a certain cause of death, or for some possible the cause of death, it can be said that the level of cocaine and ethylene in your body has reached a level that can cause poisoning death in the A-level autopsy, which is caused by the combined action of cocaine and alcohol. Then you There is no need for a higher level of autopsy. But if you ask to continue, the level B autopsy program stipulates testing for many other classes of drugs. In short, the cost of autopsy for each level is different. The higher the level , the more expensive it is. So if the cause of death is obvious and doesn't require any level of autopsy, those guys will probably stop there and not perform an autopsy."

"Do you think this is the case for Mrs. Rowling?" Jackman asked. Strout nodded kindly. "It's the best guess we can make. No one is going to take it seriously to check. They just do it lightly, and they're covered." "Once you find a cause of death, will you stop there, John?" Marlene asked him, "Maybe you will do further tests?" "Yes, ma'am, I'm sure I did. She took herself chemicals and some morphine for pain relief. I got her medical records when I asked for an autopsy, and I know what drugs she was taking herself while in the hospital." Morphine was added to it, but not in fatal doses."

"But if she's dosing herself," Farrell asked, "that means she's pretty well aware of the consequences of what she's doing, isn't it?" "Suffice it to say," Strout agreed, "that she knows when she's in pain, and when it's bad, she'll ring the pager for a dose of morphine." "The doses are measured in advance, am I right, John?" Ash asked, "and the time for the effects to wear off is also controlled." "That's right, if it's the situation you said, she can't overdose." "Then she hasn't been in a coma of any kind?" Hardy had imagined she was in a coma for some inexplicable reason.For some reason, he felt that if her consciousness was always awake, then her death would be a big deal.The truth is more serious than people think. "Are you telling us that someone went in and killed her while she was conscious?"

"Whether that's the case, I don't know, Deeds. Maybe she was asleep. But was she awake, on the other hand? That's pretty much all I can say." Everyone was lost in thought.The District Attorney turned his head up and down thoughtfully.Finally, he stopped. "Mr. Farrell, I called you early in the morning, and you came here. I would like to thank you for this. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future. Thank you for your cooperation." Farrell's mind turned for a while before he realized what Jackman meant by saying this, telling him that he could go.Knowing the meaning, he accepted it cheerfully, thanked the district attorney graciously for the invitation, and then thanked Strout and Hardy again for their efforts. Strout followed suit and said bluntly: "If you don't have anything to do with me here, Clarence, I think I have something to do today, and I'd better go back and get on with what I'm doing. " After the two left, Jackman got up and walked to his desk, lifted his buttocks and sat on the table. "Deeds, we share information with you on the Markham case, and you are the one who brought Mrs. Rowling into our sights. We applaud the work you do. We still look forward to seeing you His client was able to testify unreservedly before the grand jury. Especially with the list he provided us, it is the key to unraveling difficult issues that have been hidden in the past." He looked at Ash, Grisky, and the two agents standing against the back wall, "If anyone wants Hardy to go out and avoid it, I believe he will understand this approach." But no one said a word.Jackman waited for a while before saying to Grisky: "Well, Abu, we all know that this situation will bring some progress to the detection of the Markham case. Regarding how we proceed next Do an investigation, do you have any suggestions?" When Hardy entered, David Freeman was hard at work writing an absolutely brilliant complaint in his yellow official pad.Seeing Hardy come in, he raised his head. "Oh, Mr. Hardy, it's you," he said cheerfully. "Come in, come in." He still had a half-extinguished cigar in his mouth, his shirt was unbuttoned at the collar, and his tie was loose. Hanging it around your neck is like not wearing it.Hardy thought this was the same tie he had worn yesterday, and the shirt hadn't been changed.The shutters were still half hung over the windows and not drawn.Although it has been a while since he went to work, did Freeman spend the night in the office?It wasn't the first time this happened, but he decided it was better not to ask too much.He didn't want to figure it out anyway. "Do you want to see me? If it's about the rent, I'm not going to pay more, and that's my decision. In fact, I've paid enough." When Freeman heard this, he became angry and complained, "You did what happened to the Portola woman, didn't you?" "may be." "It's going to make you the luckiest bastard on the planet, or the biggest fool. I'd love to know what went through your head when you asked Strout to dig up the poor woman's body." .” "How do you know I did it? And it wasn't. Farrell did it, but I'll admit I did it too." "Perhaps you were too excited to have forgotten your foolishly false position at lunch yesterday. John Strout named Mr. Farrell and Mrs. Rowling, and I happened to be in I saw their names in the newspaper. If I remember correctly, it was still on the front page." "The author of the article is still Jeff Elliott, and now that I think about it, I have to give him a call and ask him to buy me lunch or something." Freeman leaned back in his chair, motioning for Hardy to sit down too. "You didn't take it seriously." Hardy pulled a chair with a seat cover, placed it within Freeman's line of sight, and sat down. "Yes, I didn't take it seriously. Out of respect for your gray hair, I don't think it was bad luck or stupid. I checked and confirmed that Mrs. Rowling My client had long since left the scene at the time of her death. He could not have killed her." "No, maybe it wasn't her, but maybe she had nothing to do with Markham being killed." "Technically that's true, but it's not unrelated. She's inextricably linked to him." "What's the matter, please tell me. As far as I understand, and even Mr. Elliott's article made it clear, your Mrs. Rowling died of a kind of death compared with Mr. Markham's." Totally different overdose. That in itself says they're not the same thing. Don't you see that?" Hardy was displeased with Freeman's teachings, though he wholeheartedly admired someone who could mix English, Latin, and French so fluently, and do so without first thinking.Language like this is not something you hear every day.So in answer to Freeman, he grinned slightly. "Of course, David, I understand. I just don't know what the problem is." Freeman leaned forward, elbows resting on the desk.He took the cigar from his mouth. "The problem is, in the case of Mr. Markham, that you pretend to have something to do with something that neither proves nor disproves your client. The fact In fact, what you did then put more pressure on Mr. Jackman to bring at least one charge against someone in Portola, and the most suitable person at this time, it turns out, may be Dr. Kenson." Hardy shook his head disapprovingly. "Even if it turned out like this, I would support Clarence, and he hasn't even thought about it yet." "He will. Give him time. Just wait and see." "I don't think so. He's going to find out who killed Mrs. Rowling, and probably killed several patients. And then he'll deduce that it was that guy who killed Markham, too." "Then why would he do that?" "My God, David, because it makes sense. Aren't you amplifying your trust that there are two unrelated killers lurking in the building in Portola?" Freeman looked up and sighed. "Didn't that long-running OJ Simpson case magnify trust? Doesn't the unwashed stain found on Monica's blue dress magnify trust? Or the one in Florida against two hundred polling places Some candidates had more than 60 million votes in the recount. Believe me, Deeds, people these days are used to wild, elastic levels of trust. And what I see is, you Can't help but think you've won, you've cleared Kenson. I'm telling you, that's not the case. All you've done is put everyone in Portola under a magnifying glass, including Kenson. You can't ignore that, and from what I've heard, you're planning to." Hardy stared straight at the old man, with a sullen expression on his face. "Then do you have any suggestions?" Freeman is happy to give his advice. "It's gotten to the point where things are now, Deeds, they're going after the situation and they're going to find a reason to get someone in cuffs as soon as possible, or there's going to be a peasant uprising. In fact, among the remaining suspects, Kenson is the perfect candidate. It's just that they can't prove it." His eyes flashed under the wire eyebrows. Defending Kenson, but it now looks very likely that he will have a case." In fact, Hardy had concluded that Kenson's troubles were over.Guessing that there was another reason for Mrs. Rowling's death, and then Griski's reversal, all gave him a sense of triumph.Now, though, he concedes that he may have been too optimistic about the possible impact of the autopsy's results, too soon.Freeman was reminding him that his client was still exposed to police attention and vulnerable, perhaps even more than ever.Until all the facts come out, it's best for Hardy to stay on his toes. "Let me ask," said the old man, "what if another case of potassium poisoning is found in a new batch of autopsies? Do you think this will help your client?" "David, he wasn't there when Mrs. Rowling died. Understand? If he didn't kill her, he didn't kill any of them." "That's not true, it's all wishful thinking on your part. So you're going to be angry now, and it's normal for you to be angry when you see that your logic doesn't hold water. But don't take it out on yourself. I'll send it." He picked up his cigar, licked it thoughtfully in his mouth, "Listen, I don't want to pour cold water on you, I really don't want to do it. I admit that you opened up here A breach that has the potential to get you where you need to be, I hope so. I hope a serial killer will come forward and admit he did it all before sunset. "But think about it. Who provided the names of those who died? Kenson. If he was suspicious of so many deaths, why didn't he bring up the names sooner? Why did he wait until he became Markham Wouldn't it be better to say earlier? And wouldn't it be possible that he conspired with someone in Portola—perhaps one of the nurses—so that he Is there no need to be present at the first death in person? You are laughing at my idea, but none of these questions are jokes. Have you considered the possibility? It is Kenson and one or more It's been an open secret that nurses have been secretly rewarding Portola for clearing out terminally ill, long-occupied patients without adequate health insurance? Those institutions with tight liquidity." He slowed down his speaking pace, took a break, leaned back on the chair, and tapped his fingers on the table, "I'm not saying this is not impossible, Deeds. But I'm worried about it. You should be too." Hardy squirmed uncomfortably in his chair.For many years, Freeman has been his unnamed mentor. Although he is a bit arrogant sometimes, he is definitely not a muddleheaded person. It is good to listen to his words. There was one more thing he needed to add, which was evident from the nervousness he displayed, and perhaps that was the most he needed to figure out. "As far as I know, Deeds, your client has a list of a dozen names of the deceased, all of whom were bedridden for a long time, but have not yet entered the advanced stage of death. Is this the actual situation? ?” Hardy nodded. "That's why Kenson started paying attention to them. They died much sooner than expected." "And if it turns out to be true, is there any further conclusion that pops into your head, especially with regard to the Markham matter?" Hardy knew right away what the problem was. "He doesn't fit that profile, he's not a terminally ill patient who is bedridden for a long time." "Exactly." It seemed that Freeman was finally satisfied. "Now if it turns out that the dozen or so patients died of this muscle relaxant instead of potassium, compared with them, Markham is not only different and also died from different drugs. To me, that might not be conclusive stuff, but it does raise questions of its own, don't you think so?" "Like who killed Markham, and why? Let's get to that." He rose to his feet. "Let me see, just fifteen minutes ago, I was feeling fine, like Some progress has been made.” "It'll feel better when you're actually making progress. Just watch, Deeds." "I think so, David, I believe so." He turned to leave, but Freeman stopped him again. "I have an idea, maybe you can use it to help Dr. Kenson, since I thought of it, let me tell you." "I'm listening, tell me." "If, as you think, you may have gotten Clarence and Abu excited about what you've found in Mrs. Doubt, if you do this, some people will be unable to hold back, jump out and speak, and good things may fall out of their mouths." That's exactly what Hardy felt this morning in Jackman's office, as if for the first time, the feeling came to him that they believed maybe Kenson hadn't killed anyone.But maybe Freeman is right, and that feeling won't last long.If Hardy wants to take advantage of that, he'll have to hurry up. Griski wasn't going to send novices to join him on this interview.He knew that his senior detective, Marcel Lanier, had already taken the examination for promotion to captain in January, passed the exam with high scores and was on the list of administrative affairs recruiters, and now urgently needs a chance to show own competence in administrative management.He would soon be reassigned to a precinct of his own, outside of the Homicide Squad, which was a good job.This promotion is an opportunity for his development. So while Bracco and Fisk set out to fill out a warrant for a search of hospital records, Griski drove to Portola, leaving Lanier at work downtown.When he got there, he walked around a large pile of TV news vans in the parking lot, ignored the pestering reporters in the hospital lobby, and walked straight into the building without saying a word. Outside the office of the managing director, the secretary began telling Griski that Mr. Andreotti would not be meeting alone with reporters and that he would hold a press conference in about half an hour.Upon hearing this, the captain flashed his badge and said he wondered if the management chief could spare him a few minutes now. Andreotti got up from behind his desk and walked over, forced a smile, and shook Abu's hand in great panic.His eyes were tired, gloomy and dazed, and with his gray suit and matching iron-blue tie, he seemed to have spent the day today in a state of fear and exhaustion.Griski had no intention of blaming him.In the week since the Markham murders came to light, troubles at the hospital have grown exponentially.The number of these troubles was culminated this morning when the startling news broke in the newspapers.It wasn't just Portola's autopsy that was faulty, routinely sloppy at best, criminal at worst, with as many as eleven -- or at least one -- patients in the hospital's intensive care unit. was killed in his hospital bed. It is not yet ten o'clock in the morning, and Andreotti has already received calls from various media such as "San Francisco Daily", "Newsweek", "USA Today" and "New York Times". interview call.He has also met with representatives from the nurse group, the Parnassus physician team, and the Parnassus Medical Group.At the same time, the mayor will meet with him at two o'clock in the afternoon. He sat Grits down, then walked around the desk and returned to his chair. "Anything we can do to help you with your investigation," he began, "just tell me and we'll do our best to cooperate. I've given everyone here the The same thing has been said. We have nothing to hide." "I'm glad to hear that from your Excellency. My staff will come to check your massive purchase list in the near future, including the check of the staff files of the intensive care unit as stipulated in the search warrant, including the time of Mrs. Rowling's admission to the hospital. verification, etc.” "Yes, of course." "Also, as you may know, there are rumors that there are some patients here who may have been killed. We have a list in our hands, and we are starting to get from—" "Yes, we heard, it was Kenson's list, right?" "Yes, sir, that's the one." "Okay, I think you know what you're doing, but here's the line... which is, I heard, he's on your department's list for the Markham murder?" The words came out in the form of a question, "Anyway," said Andreotti at last, "I think I would have doubted any list given by a murder suspect." Griski crossed his legs and nodded thoughtfully. "Generally speaking, I agree with you in principle. But in this matter, the name is indeed worth considering. Mrs. Rowling was killed here." Andreotti said to himself: "My God, I didn't know this happened." "But back a minute ago, you said that you heard that Dr. Kenson was our prime suspect in Mr. Markham's murder. Is that the general opinion of him here?" "Oh, no, I mean..." Andreotti glanced at the door before going on to Griski, "I'm not trying to charge any murder. Dr. Kenson is very popular with the medical staff here. favorite." "Medical staff?" "Oh, the other doctors and nurses. He's a very nice doctor, but a little curmudgeon. I think many of his colleagues appreciate his integrity and honesty, even though he's not a good guy. He's not a gregarious guy." people." "Then he can't get along with the hospital?" "Yes, that's what he is. He's had a tough time with Mr. Markham, too. It's no secret, you know." "Yes, we've heard about the situation. So he killed Mr. Markham? Is that what you think?" "Even if it is, there is a big quarrel between him and this person, and he is in that room..." Andreotti spread his hands as if begging Griski to agree with him, " I think I thought so, even though I'm loath to accept it as fact." "You can be forgiven for thinking that," Grisky replied, "but I'm not here today on Mr. Markham's business. I want to speak directly to some of the staff. I am providing some records of the medical staff who may have been on duty at the time of Mrs Rowling's death, particularly those in the intensive care unit." "I'm sure I can find out. Can you give me a few minutes?" It was past ten o'clock, but when Grisky saw the name Layan Badan, he remembered that it had appeared in Bracco's and Fisk's interview notes.He asked Andreotti if Bataan still worked at the hospital, and if so, where he could be found. Rayan was a bit surprised that the police had summoned him again for a conversation.They've been here a lot in the last week and talked to everyone.What did he say when talking to him?When Mr. Markham's monitor started screaming alarms, he was with Dr. Kenson busy with Mr. Lackert's condition.Since then, except that the medical staff have been twice as busy as usual, the situation is the same as when the green alarm signal appeared in the intensive care unit in the past.He couldn't tell who had been in that room and who had been out, and he was on the orders of Dr. Kenson to be fully involved in the rescue, and everything was going on so quickly that he couldn't really remember anything.Of course, even though he was there. Once in the break room, he glanced over and saw that the man who had come this time looked older and more ruthless than the other police officers who had been here before.His complexion was as dark as Rayon's, but he had blue, languid eyes.There was a scar running just below the edge of his chin up his lips, ending just below his right nostril.Seeing this man, there was something invisible that frightened him, and Layan felt his heart begin to beat uncomfortably.His palms became wet all of a sudden, and he wiped his uniform on his hands bewilderedly.The man watched him from the door all the way to the table where he was sitting, without taking his eyes off him for a moment. Rayon stopped in front of him, trying to force a smile on his face.He wiped his hands again on his clothes and held out his right hand. "Hello! Do you want to see me?" "Sit down. I want to ask you a few questions about Marjorie Rowling. Do you remember her?" Marjorie Rowling?Yes, he thought, of course he remembered her.He tried his best to remember the information of every patient he had handled. Although many years had passed, many things had disappeared in the dust and mist of his memory, but Marjorie, Luo Lin's incident had just passed.He still had fresh memories of her.He could even remember her face.Like his wife Chatterjee, she may become another slow death patient suffering from long-term illness. But death took her away early.