Life Support by Tess Gerritsen

Author:Tess Gerritsen [Gerritsen, Tess]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Published: 2012-09-18T12:00:07+00:00

"Go ahead," said Dvorak, not looking up from the table, his gaze still contemplating the corpse. It was a young man's, the torso hollowed out from neck to pubis. Inside we are all the same, he thought as he looked at the empty cavity. We're just identical sets of organs, packaged in various shades of skin. He picked up a needle and suture and began to sew the cavity shut, taking deep bites of flesh with his needle. There was no need to be elegant, this was merely a cleanup task, to prepare the body for transfer to the mortuary. A job Lisa normally performed.

Alpren, oblivious to the gruesome needlework, stepped up to the table.

"The test came back," he said. "That�what do you call it? RHPLC?"

"Rapid high-performance liquid chromatography."

iiRight. Anyway, the hospital lab just called me. The test is positive.

" Dvorak momentarily froze. He forced himself to keep stitching, to close the skin over the empty cavity. Had Alpren noticed? he wondered.

"So what does that mean?"

Dvorak kept his gaze tightly focused on the task. "The RHPLC is a screening test for the presence of 7-hydroxywarfarin."

"Which is?"

"A metabolite of warfarin."

"Which is?"

Dvorak tied a knot and reached for another length of suture. "A drug that affects normal clotting. It can lead to excessive bruising.

Bleeding."

"Into the brain? Like Mrs. Harper?"

Dvorak paused. "Yes. It may explain the bruises on her legs as well."

"So that's why you suggested the test."

"Dr. Steinglass told me about the abnormal prothrombin time. Warfarin poisoning is on the differential diagnosis."

Alpren was busy scribbling notes as he asked the next question. "And how do you get this drug, warfarin?"

"It can be found in certain rat poisons."

"Makes them bleed to death?"

"It takes some time to be effective. But eventually they hemorrhage internally."

"Pleasant image. Where else can you get warfarin?"

Again Dvorak paused. He didn't want to be having this conversation, didn't want to be considering the possibilities. "It can be given as a prescription medication called Coumadin. For use as a blood thinner."

"Only by prescription?"

"Yes."

"So you'd need a doctor to order it, and a pharmacy to fill it."

"That's right."

The pen was scribbling faster. "That gives me something to work on."

"What?"

"Area pharmacies. Who's had Coumadin prescribed for them and which doctors ordered it."

"It's not that unusual a prescription. You'd find a number of doctors ordering it."

"I'm screening for one particular name. Dr. Harper's."

Dvorak set down the needle holder and looked at Alpren. "Why focus solely on her? What about the mother's caregiver?"

"Jane Nolan has a spotless record. We've checked with her last three employers. And remember, s/ve was the one who called us and raised the question of abuse."

"To cover her own ass, maybe?"

"Look at it from Dr. Harper's point of view. She's a nice-looking woman, but no husband, no family of her own. Probably never even dates.

She's trapped with a senile old mother who refuses to die. Then she starts screwing up at work and the stress builds."

"Leading to attempted murder?" Dvorak shook his head.

"Number one rule, look at the family first."

Dvorak tied the final knot on the corpse and snipped the suture.

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