42
DR. MAX MORTON SAT IN A wheelchair and scowled at Manny Flores in a way that made it clear he thought the pharmacist was doing everything wrong. Flores ignored the dirty looks. He was used to them, having worked at the hospital for years.
They were in the small morgue in a remote wing of the hospital, rooms kept cold by noisy old construction-site generators, which were among the few machines that still worked in New Alamo. A stainless-steel autopsy table was positioned under lights that also ran on the generator.
Gutsy, Alethea, and Spider stood in a cluster with Benny and Chong in one corner of the morgue. Sam stood silent as a tree against a wall, arms folded, face without expression. Karen and the Chess Players were seated on the only chairs in the room.
Flores stood over the corpse on the table. The body had been stripped down to boxer shorts and lay pale on the cold steel.
“Here’s what we know,” said Flores. “This man was a soldier at the base. His uniform was damaged but otherwise new and in good shape, and he still wore dog tags. As you can see, he was badly burned, but there’s no evidence that the explosion and fire Gutsy saw at the base is what killed him. Mr. Imura’s bullet clearly ended him for good.”
“So… what did kill him?” asked Mr. Urrea. “Smoke inhalation from the burning base?”
“An autopsy will verify that,” explained Flores, “but I’m not so sure. With smoke inhalation there are typically burns in the nose, including singed nostril hairs and similar blisters around and inside the mouth. There isn’t much evidence of that here, though. The burns he has are more consistent with flash burns. I’ve taken a large number of samples and will process them when we’re done here.”
Karen asked, “Dr. Morton, do you recognize this man?”
Morton took a long time before he answered, and Gutsy thought he was probably weighing his options, deciding how much to admit. She saw him give a small shrug, and immediately wince at the pain from the bites on his neck and shoulder.
“I may have seen him around,” the doctor said evasively.
“Do you have any theory on what killed him?”
“None,” Morton said flatly.
“No theories at all?”
“I just said no, didn’t I?”
Sam swiveled his head toward the doctor and gave him three seconds of an ice-cold stare. “Answer the lady’s question.” There was no actual threat in the sniper’s words, and even his tone was soft and calm, but Morton flinched as if struck.
“Okay, okay,” said the doctor, “I may have some ideas, but I want to see the test results first.”
Before he could say more, the door opened and Captain Ledger came in. He was pale and haggard, and he leaned on a cane. Gutsy could see the bulge of thick bandages beneath his left pant leg.
“You kids started the party without me,” he said.
Karen stood quickly. “Joe, you shouldn’t be out of bed. Come over here; take my chair.” She took his arm and helped him sit.
Ledger stretched his injured leg out straight and leaned back, laying the shaft of the cane over one broad shoulder. “Just came from Doc Cantu’s office.”
Raoul Cantu was the town’s veterinarian.
“He ran tests on Grimm and Sombra,” said Ledger. “And me.”
The room became very still, and Gutsy thought her heart was going to burst. Spider and Alethea took her hands and held on tight.
“There’s good news, weird news, and bad news,” the captain said. Everyone was staring at him. He glanced at Gutsy. “The good news is that Sombra isn’t infected.”
Gutsy sighed with huge relief. Spider leaned over and kissed her.
“What about his saliva?” asked Benny. “Gutsy said he bit some of those things.”
“He did,” said Ledger, “but there’s no trace of active parasites in his saliva or blood. To be on the safe side, Doc managed to give the pooch a pretty healthy dose of antiseptic mouthwash. Not sure how he managed it, but neither he nor the dog was happy about the process. Oh, and, Gutsy, you’d better go make nice with him, because Cantu has three stitches.”
“Oh,” Gutsy said. “I’m sorry.”
“Tell him that. Anyway, he’s keeping Sombra overnight for observation. Grimm’s been cleared, too, though they’re both in quarantine for now. Just in case.”