Authors: John James Gregory
“Have samples been bagged for the FBI lab?”
“Yes. That portion of the examination has been completed. The two men at your house were already down here and took the samples.”
“Why do you want my brother to come down with me?”
“Just come on down here, I really don’t want to go into this over the phone.”
“Alright... I guess we can be down there right after lunch.”
“Thanks Elizabeth. I’ll see the both of you later.”
Elizabeth knew that Ed must have worked through most of the night to have all three autopsies completed. Either Ed did that, or he called in the entire staff to speed up the process. Either way, she was pleased that her department and Ed were trying to do the best job possible for her and her brother. Elizabeth walked out the door with her coffee.
***
Elizabeth came around the front and called her brother over. She could see the area was still roped off and Talbot had the chandelier hanging from a lift with a special attachment. There was a piece of test equipment tied to the lower half of the cable. The actual break point had been cut off and removed. She believed that the federal agents took that part back for further examination. The little meeting ended and Tom walked over to his sister.
“What did they find? Was the cable defective?”
“Well of course, Talbot doesn’t think so. I am sure he is concerned about the potential of a law suit.”
“What does he think?”
“First let me say that the entire support system up in the roof area was in perfect condition and not in any way connected to the failure of the chandelier’s building support system. It was definitely a cable break.”
“That would seem to leave Talbot out and the manufacturer of the fixture and the installation kit to be at fault.”
“They tested a section of the cable and it broke at eleven hundred pounds. Either there was one small weak area in that cable where it tore apart or something real heavy had to land on the chandelier to create enough strain to bring the entire unit down on our dad. The chandelier was just over four hundred pounds and the weight of it, the bulbs, and the electrical would still make it less than five hundred pounds. It had to be a defective cable. In that case, you are right. Talbot is off the hook and it is the supplier of the unit and its cable that will catch the legal heat. It was installed exactly to the factory’s specifications and at least for now, the FBI is agreeing with the contractor.”
“So something weighing several hundred pounds would have had to jump all the way up and weaken the unit for our father to be unfortunate enough to be standing under it later?”
“Not really.”
“What do you mean?”
“It would take a two hundred pound plus man jumping from the roof above and actually swinging on it to create enough friction and stress to bring the unit down. Remember it would be the weight of the individual and his added velocity landing on it to cause enough strain.”
“I think they could rule that possibility out.”
“There is one other thing they found interesting.”
“What was that?”
“They found animal fur and what might be blood on one of the higher tiers of the unit. The lab boys have bagged samples for both their lab and Junior to examine.”
Elizabeth blew that off as not being possible that an animal could have swung around on a chandelier with enough weight to bring the entire unit down on their father. It would have had to be something like an escaped gorilla to accomplish such a feat. Her mind returned to the strange phone call from Ed.
“Oh Ed called and wants to see us after lunch. He seemed to have found something strange as well. You think you can make your way through that?”
“For our father… hell yes.”
***
Tom ate a light lunch in the hope it would not be coming back up. He never viewed or been present at an autopsy. He didn’t know how he would react to actually watching one or viewing a body afterwards. Elizabeth and her brother went into her office. Tom could see several people still working on the remains of the trio. Elizabeth paged Ed and after a few moments, had his gloves off and came into the office.
“You and the others made good time.”
“We had help. The state CSI lab boys were here getting what they wanted and also preparing two other sets of evidence bags.”
“Two sets?”
“Yes we made a third set up for Junior and his father to examine. Some of the samples still appeared to be that of an animal rather than a human. Junior’s dad might shed some light on a set of samples. His father once worked at the federal level examining animal remains. Junior hated to put the dogs down. He was sure that they had nothing to do with any kind of a scenario involving an animal attack.”
“My brother and I were caught at a weak moment. We signed off on the detective’s request. Neither of us wanted to see the animals tested to the extent that they would be destroyed.”
“I’ll try to make this fast. Each of the three examining tables have video cameras mounted up above to record the entire procedure. You are also aware that we all wear microphones so that all conversations during the procedures performed are recorded.”
Tom nodded. He knew Ed had just said that statement for his benefit and his sister knew all the procedures.
“I want to show you the video from the groundskeeper autopsy.”
He turned on the video system in her office and stopped it at the beginning. Henry Barton’s headless body lay on the cold silver metal lab table. His severed head lay above the body. Ed pointed to the man’s chest.
“Note the time. This was at eight this morning. Notice the thin covering of thick hair over the chest area.”
Ed advanced the video to eight-thirty. They could see the doctors and visitors working on the body. The part Ed found unique is that now almost all the hair was now gone.
“Have you ever experienced anything like this?”
“No, I can’t say I have ever seen anything like that. Somehow the hair has retreated or fell off.”
“It didn’t fall off, trust me on that. You think that is something, watch this.”
Ed advanced the video another ten minutes. All the hair was gone and a light scar of a pentagram could be seen on the chest.
“No one even touched his chest. Now one more let me go another ten minutes.”
Ed advanced the recording and now that too, was gone.
“With that exception, everything else was done according to the book. I am not sure anyone caught the fact that the hair was gone or that for a brief moment, a pentagram was visible on Barton’s chest.”
“Did you show this to anyone else?”
“Show them what?... Invisible hair or a missing pentagram? All I am going to do is give them all the DVDs. Let one of them try to explain it. I’ve got nothing. I seriously doubt if the state boys, the FBI or Junior’s dad will make any notations on what you have just witnessed. I’m not going to put it in my report that is for sure. If it doesn’t exist then it was never there. A good defense attorney could have all the work thrown out if someone were to start talking about missing hair and a vanishing pentagram.”
“I guess you are right. Our father and the others would land up be exhumed and the autopsies redone a year from now and neither the chest hair or the pentagram would be found.”
“I would like to see my father’s body if everyone is done.”
“Your father was the first one done and his body is in the locker.
Elizabeth turned to her brother.
“You don’t have to come with me. I’ll only be a minute.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Due to the fact that the other two autopsies were still being worked on, Tom and his sister scrubbed down, put on gowns and entered the operatory. At the far end was an array of storage lockers. Ed pulled their father out and pulled the sheet down to the waist.
“Nothing out of the ordinary on his procedure?”
“Only one thing. On this puncture wound, dark fur like hair was found. That’s only a guess until all the lab reports come back in. But other than that the cause of death should for all practical purposes be this wound in the center of his chest cavity which pierced his heart.”
Elizabeth nodded and her brother said nothing. He was too concerned about keeping his light lunch down. Ed caught on and covered their father and slid him back into the cooler. He led them back to the office. On the way, Tom’s left arm bumped into a bloody cranial saw on a tray and he cut his forearm. His sister immediately took him back into the scrub room and washed and cleaned the injury with and applied antiseptic. She looked at her brother who had turned pale.
“How could you bump into a tray holding the cranial saw used on Mr. Barton?”
“I was feeling light headed from all the blood and body parts. I’m sorry.”
“I wouldn’t worry big brother, the blade barely broke the skin and we cleaned it up right away. You should be fine.”
Elizabeth bandaged the cut and smiled at her brother.
“If I was a regular doctor, I’d give you a lollipop.”
“You are never going to let me off the hook on this one are you?”
“Nope... I plan to tell your children about the day that their father almost blacked out over the sight of blood.”
“Cut me a little slack. Remember I am not accustom to seeing body parts laying all around covered in blood.”
“I am sure.”
“Do I have to worry about AIDS?”
“I don’t think so… I scrubbed the hell out of it. In a day or so we will have the blood work up on Mr. Barton but I think you have nothing to worry about. His medical records indicated he had a blood work up just a week ago and that showed normal readings. I shouldn’t have let you back there.”
“Hey, I wanted to see him one more time. I insisted remember?”
Neither Ed nor Elizabeth was concerned. All the medical records from all doctors were already in the coroner’s office possession and checked prior to Tom entering the area.
***
It was later that evening when they would both be summoned to Junior’s veterinarian’s clinic.
Elizabeth and Tom arrived at the veterinarian clinic. Junior responded to the buzzer and let them in and back to his father’s laboratory.
“So your father is still involved in doing testing of animal attacks for the state?”
“Yes.”
“Does he ever plan on retiring?”
“I doubt it. He is eighty-five and still going strong. His mind is as sharp now as it ever was.”
Elizabeth smiled.
“God bless him. I hope I am that lucky at that age.”
The trio walked back into a very sophisticated dimly lit lab. It was well equipped with computer equipment and the latest state of the art DNA equipment.