The Murderers (Badge of Honor 6)

“I am a licensed physician, Mr. Potter,” Amy said. “The decedent was my patient, and she died in her home in not-unexpected circumstances. Under those circumstances, I am authorized to pronounce, and to conduct, if in my judgment it is necessary, any postmortem examination.”

“Amy, honey,” Chief Coughlin said gently.

“Yes?” She turned to him.

“I know where you’re coming from, Amy. But let me tell you how it is. You may be right. You probably are. But while you’re fighting the M.E. taking Penny’s body, think what’s going to happen: It’s going to take time, maybe a couple of days, before even your father can get an injunction. Until he gets a judge to issue an order to release it to you, the M.E.’ll hold the body. Let’s get it over with, as quickly and painlessly as possible. I already talked to the M.E. He’s going to do the autopsy himself, as soon as the body gets there. It can be in the hands of the funeral home in two, three hours.”

She didn’t respond.

“Grace Detweiler’s going to need you,” Coughlin went on. “And Matt. That’s what’s important.”

Amy looked at Bernie.

“There’s no need for a postmortem,” she said. “Everybody in this room knows how this girl killed herself.”

“It’s the law, Doctor,” Bernie said sympathetically.

Amy turned to Dennis Coughlin.

“What about Matt? Does he know?”

“Peter Wohl’s waiting for him on North Broad Street. He’ll tell him. Unless…”

“No,” Amy said. “I think Peter’s the best one. They have a sibling relationship. And Peter obviously has more experience than my father. You think Matt will come here?”

“I would suppose so.”

She turned to Bernie Potter.

“OK, Mr. Potter,” she said. “She is pronounced at nine twenty-five A.M.” She turned back to Chief Coughlin. “Thank you, Uncle Denny.”

She walked out of the dining room.

Chief Coughlin turned to the EMT.

“The wagon’s on the way. Wait in here until it gets here.”

The EMT nodded.

“I’m going to have to see the bedroom, Chief,” Bernie Potter said.

“I’ll show you where it is,” Chief Coughlin said. “You through here?”

“I haven’t seen the body,” Potter said.

He squatted beside the stretcher and pulled the blanket off. He looked closely at the eyes and then closed them. He examined the nostrils.

“Yeah,” he said, as if to himself. Then, “Give me a hand rolling her over.”

The EMT helped him turn the body on its stomach. Bernie Potter tugged and pulled at Penelope Alice Detweiler’s nightdress until it was up around her neck.

There was evidence of livor. The lower back and buttocks and the back of her legs were a dark purple color. Gravity drains blood in a corpse to the body’s lowest point.

“OK,” he said. “No signs of trauma on the back. Now let’s turn her the other way.”

There was more evidence of livor when the body was again on its back. The abdominal area and groin were a deep purple color.

“No trauma here, either,” Bernie Potter said. He picked up the left arm.