Captured in Death, page 21
“Well,” she tried to keep a logical, positive tone in her response. “It’s good that we could spend the time with my parents. And you just need a little recovery time. That’s not the end of the world.”
“No,” Zachary agreed. “I’m used to it. Just need a little time.”
Kenzie was still anxious about his mental state the rest of the night, but she tried to keep it to herself and to give him the space he needed to recover. He didn’t need her hanging over him, nagging him to tell her how he was feeling and if he needed to take anything or arrange an additional visit with Dr. Boyle.
And even though she wanted him to take something that would help, she was still concerned when she saw him taking a sleep aid before bed, which he usually resisted. She couldn’t help but be concerned that things were really bad if he was taking extra meds to get through the night.
But she forced herself to paste a smile on her face and keep her mood light and pleasant as she got ready for bed. The sleep aid would ensure he had a good night’s sleep, so important to maintaining his mental health, and he would feel better in the morning.
45
Kenzie called Sergeant Campbell as soon as she got into the office the next day, hoping to catch him before he got involved in meetings. But there was no answer. She considered whether to go upstairs to find him, but it would probably just be a waste of time. He wasn’t likely sitting at his desk declining her call. If he didn’t answer, he was already engaged with something else. She left him a brief message to get back to her ASAP.
She was eager to share the information she had gleaned from the meeting with Emily Cross. Maybe eager was not quite the right word, since she dreaded having to tell him that a dirty cop was involved in the killing and whatever other crimes he had committed in his interactions with the gang over the past few months. But he needed to know, and the case could not be solved until he had all the details.
There would still have to be an investigation. They wouldn’t just take Emily at her word. She could be lying. Accusing a cop because they wanted him off the street. Because she wanted to cover for whoever had really killed Mercer. Because she had done it herself. She couldn’t assume that everything Emily had said had been true. She had lied or hidden other things. She had her own agenda.
But Kenzie believed the story Emily had told. It rang true. The emotions were genuine, or else Emily was a very good actor.
After leaving a message for Campbell, she hung up the phone and got on with her other work. It wasn’t like she didn’t have anything else to do. She would leave the police case to the police and take care of her work at the medical examiner’s office. The work she had been hired to do.
She had been working for a couple of hours, trying to sort out a slew of reports that had all come back from the lab at the same time. There had been a backlog of weeks on tox results, and everything had suddenly come through simultaneously. A piece of equipment that hadn’t been working must have just been brought back online. Or a lab tech who had been on vacation had returned and had started to run the backlog of waiting tests.
The desk phone rang, and Kenzie picked it up without looking at it. “Medical Examiner’s Office, Kenzie speaking.”
“Ah, Kenzie,” it was a familiar voice. “You sound like you’re very busy today.”
Kenzie looked away from her computer screen. “Dr. Wiltshire. How are you?”
“Well, I wish I could say I was one hundred percent and coming back in next week, but I’m afraid it will still take more time to get rehabilitated.”
“It is never as quick as you want it to be, is it?” Kenzie sympathized. “I hope it will heal quickly, but you shouldn’t push it too much. Make sure that you’re really ready and that you’re not going to set your healing back by trying to do too much too soon.”
“I know. I will take care of myself and will listen to the doctors and physiotherapist.”
“Good.”
“I wonder if you would be free for lunch today. I know you work through lunch a lot of days, but could I convince you to take a break and eat at a table today?”
“Uh, yeah, of course. Did you want to come here?”
“I’ll come to you, and then we can walk together from there.”
Kenzie wondered if he suggested walking her because of what had happened the last time she had ventured out from the medical examiner’s office for lunch and had been pushed into traffic. She had, luckily, not been badly injured. It could have been much worse. But that wouldn’t happen again if someone were with her.
It seemed like no time had passed before Dr. Wiltshire approached her desk. She looked at the clock and saw that it was nearly noon. And she was still trying to get all the toxicology reports printed and filed.
“Oh, doctor! Good to see you.” Kenzie looked for a way to take care of all the printouts quickly so she could go with him.
“You look snowed under! Are you not getting the assistance you need while I’m away?”
“No, it’s just the lab. They were backed up. And now… I guess they aren’t. They sent everything we’ve been waiting for through last night.”
“Well, that’s good news. Glad to hear it.”
Kenzie nodded. “I’ll get it cleared up today. It’s just a lot of paper to deal with all at once.”
He waited patiently while she cleared her desk and locked her drawers. It was a pain to do in the middle of the day, but she couldn’t just leave work out on her desk.
“All right, that’s it.” Kenzie grabbed her jacket and they headed up to street level, discussing what restaurant to go to.
She had no idea why he wanted to have lunch with her. Was there a purpose behind it or was he just restless? When he had been working, they had rarely eaten together. Unless he brought donuts.
Maybe he was lonely and wanted to be brought in on any interesting cases she’d had recently. But she didn’t think so. He must have other people that he saw socially.
He wanted a sit-down restaurant, not just a fast-food joint. They picked out an Indian restaurant with a buffet so they could serve themselves immediately, and both sat down with plates heaped with curry, fragrant rice, chutneys, and naan bread. They tasted and exclaimed over the various dishes.
“So, I’m sure you’re wondering why I wanted to meet,” Dr. Wiltshire said eventually.
Kenzie nodded. She hoped it was not to announce that his hand was not going to recover fully and he had to retire. If he left, would Dr. Cook take over? Or would he only stay for the interim, and there would be yet another doctor to get used to? Another boss who would have different procedures and expectations?
“No need to look so concerned,” Dr. Wiltshire quickly reassured her.
Maybe he had decided to tell her the real story behind how he had hurt his hand. There had been a lot of rumors about it. She didn’t want to believe that he had been involved in anything shady or fooling around on his wife. He’d hinted that it was a golfing accident, and she was willing to believe that, as unlikely as it seemed. People could break bones in all kinds of improbable ways. He might have slammed it in a car door, or tripped over a cat, or punched a wall when he was angry. Though she didn’t think it was that. From what she had seen of his bruised hand and the bits that were pinned in place by the external fixator, he hadn’t sustained boxer’s fractures. It looked more like a crush injury.
Dr. Wiltshire caught her eyes on his hand and the space-age-looking fixator cage around it. He raised his brows and shook his head. “It’s looking better, don’t you think? Now that the bruising has faded?”
“Much better,” Kenzie agreed. “Is there still a lot of pain?”
“Not much, as long as it doesn’t get jarred. Sleeping is getting easier. The first little while there… unless I was heavily medicated, I wasn’t getting any rest at all.”
She remembered how scattered, foggy, and irritable he had been whenever he had come in to review and sign documents. Between the pain, the painkillers, and no sleep, it was no wonder he’d been in such bad shape.
“But this isn’t about me,” Wiltshire went on. He leaned back in his chair and dabbled a piece of naan bread in his curry. “I wanted to talk to you about your position in the office.”
“Oh.” Kenzie’s stomach plummeted. She wished she hadn’t eaten so much curry already, as it threatened to make a reappearance. She gripped the table, took a deep, calming breath, and did her best to keep her voice steady. “What about it?”
46
I told you,” Dr. Wiltshire touched her arm lightly. “There’s no need to look so grim. Everything is fine, Kenzie.”
“But you need to talk to me about my position.”
He stared at her. His concerned expression changed to a twinkle. “You’re not getting fired,” he said with a laugh.
Kenzie took another deep breath and held it. “Suspended?” she suggested. “Flayed?”
“None of the above. Your work has been exemplary, Kenzie, especially how you have stepped up while I have been gone. I know it hasn’t been easy. You’ve had to deal with a couple of very big, very public cases, as well as taking on new responsibilities and coping with a bigger workload. I know you have Dr. Cook now, and he is able to take up some of the slack, but that has still left you in charge of making sure that everything runs smoothly.”
Kenzie nodded. She didn’t demur and say that it had been nothing. It had been difficult. It was great to get the additional experience to put on her curriculum vitae, but she’d had a few sleepless nights herself and still had to be able to function during the day and to get the work done, despite any additional challenges. Dr. Cook was a professional and was willing to do whatever work Kenzie pointed him at, which was a big help once he had signed on. But there were things that she didn’t want to turn over to him, and he approached his work differently from Dr. Wiltshire, causing a number of friction points.
“I have been talking to my superiors, and they are aware of… your handling of the Wade case and the exposure of what was going on at Persons, and agree that you are a professional and deserve to be recognized for your work. The work that you are doing, since it isn’t going away anywhere.”
“Okay. Well, that sounds good.”
“It is. I told you. This isn’t anything negative. You can relax.”
He waited, while Kenzie demonstrated her level of relaxation by taking a deep breath and leaning back in her seat. He smiled.
“Up until now, you have been my administrative assistant, taking on an increasing role in the medical practice, learning more about performing postmortem procedures, getting as much practical experience as I could give you. You have been an assistant in the medical examiner’s office, but you have not carried the title of Assistant Medical Examiner.”
Kenzie held her breath. She had hoped that this would come sooner or later. Still, advancement opportunities were few and far between in a small town, and when they would come was unpredictable. They didn’t follow the more regular models in the bigger cities, where one could expect a particular title or recognition after a certain length of time, provided they didn’t screw things up too much.
“The Health Commissioner will announce your appointment as an Assistant Medical Examiner tomorrow.” Dr. Wiltshire beamed at her.
Kenzie couldn’t suppress the grin that nearly split her face in half. “That’s great! Thank you. I had no idea that you were thinking of making any changes.”
“Well, I know better than to promise anything the bureaucracy hasn’t yet approved. It’s a surefire way to get yourself in hot water when people don’t get what they have been promised.”
“I guess so,” Kenzie agreed. She had learned more about bureaucracy and red tape in the years that she had been working at the medical examiner’s office than in all the years listening to her father talking about politics and everything involved in getting a bill passed. When Walter talked about it, it was just her dad complaining about problems at the office. It was different when it was her own office that was affected.
Kenzie’s phone buzzed. She glanced down at it briefly and saw that it was Sergeant Campbell. She wanted to talk to him, but their conversation would be more than a three-second exchange. She would need time and attention to cover everything with him. She sent the call to voicemail and slid the phone away again.
“Is that Zachary?” Dr. Wiltshire asked. “You’ll want to tell him right away.”
“I will. That was just something else. A call that is going to take quite a while, and I don’t want to interrupt our conversation with it. If I’m on my lunch break, then I should enforce those boundaries, right?”
“See? You’re already sounding more like an entitled professional.”
They both laughed.
“Thank you for doing this, doctor. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for your confidence and for pushing that through.”
“Everybody but me will be glad that I broke my hand. Good things will come of this! I appreciate all the help you have given me since you took on this position. You have always been willing to jump in and do what needed to be done, even if it was something beneath you, like making coffee, straightening out someone else’s mess, or staying late to ensure that a postmortem got done so the family could claim the body. You’ve been willing to take on more and more responsibility, and you have learned and progressed a lot in the time you have been with me.”
Kenzie’s face burned with Dr. Wiltshire’s praise, but she lapped it up. She really needed to hear everything he had to say. She had been diligent, a hard worker, always pushing to be everything that Dr. Wiltshire expected her to be. And it was paying off.
“Does the change in title come with… improved compensation?” she asked tentatively.
Not that she needed the money. Even if her salary had not been enough to support her modest lifestyle, she still had a trust fund she could draw on as well. Usually, she only drew from the trust to divert money to worthy causes, not herself, but she didn’t have to. She could have lived on it quite well.
“Yes,” Dr. Wiltshire confirmed. “There will be an appropriate increase in compensation to go with the title. You are doing the work of two or three people, including that of the medical examiner. We can pay you the appropriate salary and still make out like bandits.”
“Awesome.” Kenzie was glad that not only did she get the salary she deserved for the job, but that the Department of Health did not resent the promotion and think that she should still be paid little more than a receptionist for the medical work she was doing. “That’s great.”
“Zachary will be proud.”
“Yes, he will,” she agreed. “And my parents. Though they still aren’t sure what to think of me working at the medical examiner’s office.”
He chuckled. “Most people find it quite morbid. They don’t see it like you and I do. All of our good work, the people we help, and the interesting mysteries we are involved in unraveling. What more could you want from a job?”
“Live patients, maybe. Not me; don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I want live patients. Especially not on the autopsy table. I’m saying other people think it’s not really medical work if it isn’t done on live patients. And that I would be happier with live patients than with dead ones.”
He shook his head slowly. “Do you know how aggravating live patients are? You think it’s difficult working with the next of kin around here. Just imagine what it would be like if you had to listen to the patients’ complaints too. This is the quietest medical facility you will ever work at.”
“I’ve always found our patients to be fairly easy to get along with,” Kenzie agreed with a chuckle.
“We’ve got the best job in the world, I’m telling you.”
Kenzie nodded. She decided she could afford to eat a few more bites of her curry. Her stomach was much happier now that she had heard Dr. Wiltshire’s news. She was very pleased not to be fired and have to look for a new job. Especially since she would be lucky to find another medical examiner job in the state, let alone in Roxboro. The opportunities were few and far between.
47
Kenzie returned to the office feeling light and buoyant rather than weighed down by her heavy meal. She and Dr. Wiltshire said their goodbyes outside the building and then she headed back down to the morgue to pick up where she left off on her filing.
She saw Dr. Cook hanging around her desk as she returned, and quickly looked at her phone to see how late she was getting back. She hadn’t really been thinking about the time while she was with Dr. Wiltshire, her actual boss, and he was controlling the schedule. She could afford to take a nice leisurely lunch with her boss, who had just given her a plum promotion.
“Sorry,” she said. “You were looking for me?”
Dr. Cook smiled. With his movie star good looks, he looked like an ad for dental work. “Oh, that’s all right,” he told her. “Did you… get any good news?”
“Oh, you knew about this, did you?” Kenzie asked with a laugh. “I thought you were going to be upset I took so long to get back.”
“No, no. Honestly, you can take a long lunch whenever you want. It’s your office, and I know you put in the hours, whether you take a lunch break or not. You’re here late, on weekends, answering call-outs in the middle of the night. You don’t need to punch the clock.”
That was the way that Kenzie felt about it. Still, she hadn’t been sure whether Dr. Cook would see her as lazy or trying to take advantage of Dr. Wiltshire’s good graces when she took a long lunch, an afternoon off for couple’s therapy, or came in late in the morning after working a call out in the middle of the night.
“Okay. Well, I’m back if you need anything.” She looked at him expectantly.
