Manner of Death by Robin Cook

Author:Robin Cook [Cook, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

Friday, December 8, 6:45 am

A quarter hour before sunrise it was already a glorious early-winter morning in New York City with a pastel, peach-colored sky directly above that gradually tended toward apple red in the east, where the sun was soon to appear, and blueberry silver in the west, where night was receding. From Jack’s point of view, riding south on Central Park’s West Drive perched upright on his brand-new Trek, the scene couldn’t have been more beautiful and idyllic, except perhaps for the wintery-morning chill. But thanks to his dark-brown, wide-wale corduroy jacket, a wool scarf around his neck, gloves, and the sheer amount of physical effort he was expending, he was okay temperature-wise and could entirely enjoy the sunrise. He preferred a sunrise to a sunset because it heralded the promise of a new day rather than the ending of an old one.

Since it was exactly one year ago that Jack had last commuted on his bike, he was hardly in the same physical shape he’d been then. Still, with motor vehicle traffic now banned on West Drive, he averaged nearly twenty miles per hour, such that by the time he neared the southwestern corner of the park where he planned to exit onto Columbus Circle, he was admittedly somewhat out of breath, with aching thigh muscles. Consequently, he didn’t mind having to wait several minutes for a traffic light, which in the past always made him feel impatient. From that point on, he had to cycle considerably slower because he now had to deal with pedestrians and motor vehicles even though there was a dedicated bike lane all the rest of the way to work.

It was just a little past 7:00 when Jack pulled to a stop at the OCME’s loading dock, where bodies came and went. Lifting his bike onto his shoulder, he carried it inside, nodding hello to the security people and then the mortuary techs as he made his way to where the Hart Island coffins were stored for unclaimed bodies. There he locked his bike and helmet to the usual standpipe. For a moment he stood there admiring the bike’s design, its fire-engine red color, and its lack of the old-fashioned caliper rim brakes that gave it a particularly sleek design. It also had newer, slightly wider tires than older road bikes, giving it a smoother ride.

With a pleasant sense of contentment, Jack climbed the back stairs to the first floor and after passing by the Sudden Infant Death office, entered the ID room where the OCME day began. Here was where the on-call medical examiner, one of the newer forensic pathologists, was required to come in early to go over all the cases that had arrived overnight, make a final decision as to whether an autopsy was needed, assign cases to the various doctors, and schedule who was to be first up and who was to follow. That week, the on-call medical examiner was Dr. Nala Washington, a striking, outgoing Black woman who wore her hair in stylish cornrows.

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