Nothing here, Lucas. Are you sure of the name?
Last name Im sure of; the first name, I dont know, there may be an alternative spelling.
After a few more seconds, the investigator said, Lots of Lambs, but nothing like an Amelia.
Can you get into the state death certificates from your computer?
Id have to call, I could get back to you.
Could you do that? This is kind of important. The MEs investigator was back five minutes later. You want Dakota County, and specifically, you want Mercy-South. You want that phone number?
Give it to me. Lucas got the number, the date of Lambs death, and the attending physician, and scribbled it all in his notebook. He called the hospital, spent five minutes working his way through the bureaucracy, and was finally told by an assistant director that he could see the records if he brought a subpoena with him.
Even if the womans dead?
Its our policy, she said.
Its a pain, Lucas said. But Ill get one for you. Whats the name of your director out there?
She gave him the name and he said, Ask him to stick around the house tonight, we dont want to have to have acop run him down. We can probably get the subpoena out there before midnight.
Really? I think he and his wife are going to the chamber orchestra.
Wellhe should be home before we get the subpoena. If we do get it earlier, well just ask the orchestra people to page him during the concert.
Hang on.
Andshewas back in five minutes: The director tells me that I was misinformed. Since Mrs. Lamb is dead, and youre a police officer conducting an official investigation, we can show you the records. She sounded faintly amused.
Gee. Thanks. Thats really nice. Will somebody be in your records department, about seven oclock?
Theres always somebody there. Around the clock.
Tell them Im coming…
CONNIE BELL STARTED CRYING WHEN SHE SAW LUCAS. She had a small bag with her, and the foster mother patted her on the shoulder, and Connie said, Did you do this?
No.
Then who did?
I dont know, Lucas said, leading the way to the car. But it was pretty mean.
My mom is really upset, I thought she was going to fight those people last night, Ive never seen her like that.
Why dont you call her? Lucas said. Theres a phone in the car.
Connie called, told Helen that she was on the way home, and that Lucas was bringing her. She handed Lucas the phone and said, Thank you, thank, thank you…
And when they arrived at Helens home, Helen ran out and wrapped up her daughter, and they both started crying again, and after a moment, Lucas said, Could you send Connie inside to get cleaned up? Id like to talk to you for a minute.
Connie went, Helen watching her running up the steps.
Do you have any feeling who might have done this? Lucas asked.
There was a literature teacher she had last year, who hated Connieand several other kids too. If this was last year, Id say her. But I cant believe that shed wait a whole year. Ive been racking my brain…
This is not the way they do things in the school system, Lucas said. Theyve got a whole bureaucratic procedure they follow, and its all very routine. This was strange, right from the start. I dont think it was a teacher at all. Could you think, really hard, about who it might be?
Okay, okay… but youre scaring me. Why?
Because it might be related to something else. Anyway, think about it. If you come up with anything, youve got my number.
Okay. She stepped close and gave him a hug. Thanks.
TRAFFIC WAS BEGINNING TO EASE AS HE HEADEDsouth, down to Dakota County, finally to MercySouth. He went in through the emergency entrance, was directed by a nurse to Records, and found a dark-haired young woman sitting in a pool of light from a desk lamp, in an otherwise dark room full of file cabinets and computers. Her feet up next to a computer, she was engrossed in a Carl Hiaasen novel. A stack of what looked like thick textbooks sat on the floor.
Good book? he asked in the silence.
She jumped, turned, saw him, looked down at the book, and said, Yes, as a matter of fact. She looked at the photo on the back cover. And this Hiaasen is a yummy little piece of crumb cake, if I do say so myself… Youd be Officer Davenport, and you need some records.
Thats right.
Im supposed to Xerox your credential, she said. She went for the double entendre: Youll hardly feel a thing.
Young women these days, Lucas clucked. He gave her his ID, she xeroxed it, and said, Theres not much in the computer filemostly just the bare bones. If you want to look at her actual file, we dont have the paper anymore, but its on fiche.
Id like that, if I could.
Sure. She found the right fiche, set him up with a reader, and went back to the novel.
THE FILE WAS SHORT, AND ECHOED THE OXFORD doctors report of symptoms on George Lamb. Amelia Lamb suffered from flulike symptomsgastric discomfort, sporadic vomiting. She saw the doctor twice, the visits two weeks apart. The discomfort had increased in the two weeks, and he ordered a number of tests. He noted that her blood pressure was high and that she had been asked to come in for a series of blood pressure tests, but there was no indication that any blood pressure medication had been prescribed. Four days after the second visit, she was brought to the hospital by ambulance, and was reported dead on arrival. The record noted that the daughter reported that shed been suffering chest pains but had refused to come to the hospital because of cost, and shed called only after her mother had collapsed.
Relative reported that final collapse was accompanied by severe chest pains and rapid loss of consciousness. Myocardial infarction indicated. There was no mention of a rash.
Lucas looked at the woman with the book: Is there a doctor around that I could talk to? Whod have a little time?
Im a fourth-year med student, the woman said. Whats the question?
Look at this blood pressure, Lucas said. Should she have been on medication?
The woman bent over the screen, read the report, and said, She would now. Thats definitely way high. But back then, the drugs werent so good. Youd have to talkto somebody older, whod remember. But back then, she might not have been.
All right: then look at this. On her second visit, they do some tests. But the tests never show up in the records.
The woman bent over the screen again, skimming through the records: You know what? she said finally. It looks like she died before the tests could get back. So when they got back, they probably just tossed them.
Huh. And the body was sent directly out to a funeral home.
Yup.
Why wouldnt they do an autopsy?
Again, they didnt do them so often back then. Not for hospital deaths. And, uh, youd have to keep this under your hat… or at least not say I told you. Ive noticed this in other records…
Sure.
You see this funeral home? She tapped the screen. The predecessor organization to this hospital, which was called Dakota Mothers of Mercy, had a deal with the funeral home. If the relatives didnt express a preference, theyd send the bodies out to this place, and the hospital would get a… consideration.
A kickback.
An emolument. If they sent them into Hennepin, for an autopsy, the body was up for grabs.
So there would be a bias against autopsies, Lucas said.
