In the middle of a trial, there is nothing else. There is nothing that happened before; there can be no life after. All-consuming, this trial more than any other.
Because of her. Now I didn't know which was worse, losing her or letting her down.
The world seemed to be closing in. Abe Socolow was wrapping up his case. Yesterday, a fingerprint expert had testified that Chrissy's latents were on the Beretta that was recovered at her feet. Then came the assistant medical examiner, whose testimony as to cause of death was even more important than Dr. Quintana's because she had done the autopsy.
Dr. Mai Ling wore a white lab coat, a photo ID clipped to her pocket. She was petite and short-haired, prim and fastidious, and it was hard to imagine her elbow-deep in some drunk driver's stomach contents or, even worse, examining the body of an infant tortured by a maniac stepfather. After Abe Socolow ran through Dr. Ling's degrees, fellowships, internship, residencies, and advanced training, he got down to business.
'Now, Dr. Ling, please tell the jury what services you did, vis-a-vis the body of Harry Bernhardt,' Abe instructed.
Vis- a — vis? How Continental of you, Abe.
'First, I examined the body. I noted evidence of three recent injuries, all bandaged. I removed the bandages and noted the existence of bullet wounds of a small caliber. There were still EKG patches attached to the torso. I also noted one tattoo.' She paused and consulted her notes. 'The name 'Emily,' on the decedent's shoulder. Otherwise, there were no scars or disfigurements.'
'Then what did you do?'
'I proceeded with the autopsy in the usual fashion…'
Easy for her to say.
'I made a Y-incision through the chest and abdomen, cutting under the skin and muscle to expose the chest wall. I used rib shears to cut through and remove the breastplate. I examined the chest cavity for evidence of blood or other fluids.'
'And what did you find?' Abe asked.
'There were traces of body fluids in the cavity, a yellowish liquid made up of water, proteins, and electrolytes.'
'Indicating what?'
'Evidence of heart failure. As the heart and lungs gave out, the fluids backed up into the chest cavity.'
'Then what did you do?'
'I incised the sac around the heart and took blood samples from the aorta. The blood was sent to Toxicology for routine tests.'
Which had come back normal, I knew. No arsenic and old lace, or arsenic and an old shrink.
'Then what?'
'I cut through the pulmonary venous return, the pulmonary artery, the superior and inferior venae cavae, and the aorta. Then I removed the heart and weighed it…' She consulted her notes again.
C'mon, tell us. Was Harry a bighearted guy?
'The heart weighed four hundred five grams, which is in the normal range for a man of his size. I made incisions along the coronary arteries and found evidence of stenosis, a narrowing of the lumen.'
'Indicating what?'
'Atherosclerosis. There was both a narrowing and hardening of the left anterior descending coronary artery and the right ascending artery. Probably in the vicinity of seventy to seventy-five percent obstruction in each. Actually, I had some trouble cutting through the arteries and had to replace my scalpel with scissors.'
'Why was that?'
'Mr. Bernhardt had what we call lead-pipe arteries. When you touch them, you can actually feel the calcification inside.'
'What else did you do?'
'I examined the myocardium, the heart muscle, for evidence of prior heart attacks.'
'And what did you find?'
'No evidence of any scar tissue.'
'Anything else?'
'I looked for any pale areas which might indicate the lack of oxygen over a prolonged period of time, and found none. I looked for evidence of a thrombus with a superimposed clot, but there was none.'
'Based on your examination and the autopsy as a whole, did you reach conclusions as to cause and manner of death?'
'I did.'
'What did you conclude?'
'The cause of death was cardiac arrest precipitated by multiple gunshot wounds and the resulting stress to Mr. Bernhardt, all of which aggravated his chronic atherosclerotic heart disease. The manner of death, therefore, was homicide.'
Abe Socolow nodded sagely. Then, anticipating my defense, Abe raised a straw man.
'Now, Dr. Ling,' Abe Socolow said, 'you are familiar with the fact that the gunshots did not strike a vital organ?'
'Yes, I am.'
'He did not bleed to death as a result of the shooting?'
'No, he did not.'
It sounded a little like cross-examination, but I knew just where Abe was headed.
'Then how can you state that the shooting caused Mr. Bernhardt's heart attack?'
Knocking that old scarecrow down.
'By the process of elimination, for one thing,' she responded. 'There was no evidence of any other apparent physical cause.'
'But you've just told us that Mr. Bernhardt had significant evidence of heart disease.'
Again, setting up that raggedy guy…
'Yes, but Mr. Bernhardt had no prior heart attacks. There are many methods available to treat his atherosclerosis. Medication, angioplasty, bypass surgery. He could have lived a long time.'
And knocking him down.
'Then why did he die?'
'The trauma to the system due to the injuries and the resulting surgery precipitated the incident.'
Abe smiled his sincere look, allowed as how thankful he was that Dr. Ling could scoot over from the morgue-situated comically on Bob Hope Road-and handed me his witness.
I stood up and bowed politely. 'If I understand your testimony, Dr. Ling, you believe the injuries caused the cardiac arrest because you can't find anything else that conclusively did.'
'In a sense. It is, as I said, by the process of elimination.'
'Did you eliminate the possibility that it was just time, that Harry Bernhardt would have suffered cardiac arrest that Friday night, regardless whether he was shot three times or had three shots of bourbon?'
'There was no objective evidence indicating that the heart should have simply failed.'
'So you eliminated the possibility because you couldn't find such a cause?'
Dr. Ling smiled tightly. 'I couldn't find such a cause because none was there.'
'You're not telling us that Harry Bernhardt was a healthy man, are you, Doctor?'
'Healthy, no. But, except for the shooting, Mr. Bernhardt likely would have enjoyed several more years of life.'
'And except for the shooting, Mr. Lincoln would have enjoyed the play,' I said.
'Mr. Lassiter!' The judge scowled at me.
'Sorry, Your Honor,' I said humbly, then turned back to the witness. 'How many years?'
'There is no way to determine that. However, I have seen cases where patients lived with far worse arterial deterioration.'
'And you have seen cases where persons with less evidence of coronary disease have died of heart attacks, have you not?'
'Yes.'
