Infection

'Have you got any results?' Ryan asked Alexx some time later when he returned. 'I contacted her fiancé, he's on his way now. He'll formally ID the body, I guess.'

'Actually,' Alexx said, 'I have got something for you. Take a look at this.' She beckoned for him to follow her over to the body.

He looked and winced. 'Couldn't you have warned me, Alexx?' he asked, swallowing.

She smiled. 'Sometimes, Ryan, you really are a wimp.'

Ryan gave her a dirty look. 'Alexx. Her chest is open. I can see her heart. What did you expect me to say?'

'What did you expect to see?' she inquired. 'This is an autopsy, not a picnic.'

He lifted his eyes to the ceiling. 'Thank you very, very much for that image, Alexx. I think I'll skip lunch today.'

'Anyway,' she said with a smirk. 'I thought you should take a look at this.'

'You found out how she died?'

'I did indeed.'

'Why couldn't you just tell me?'

'This is educational, Ryan. Be educated.' She beckoned for him to come closer. 'Look at that.'

'Right.'

She looked at him. 'Ryan, you have your eyes closed.'

'Just building up to it.'

She smacked him on the back of the head. 'Big tough guy like you,' she said disapprovingly. 'Take a look at the heart, please.'

'Yes, mummy,' he muttered and braced himself to look at the heart. Alexx carefully lifted it out of its cavity and showed it to him. He frowned and forgot all his protests. 'Hey, what's that?' He looked up. 'What is it?'

'Poor baby has a hole in the heart,' Alexx said.

'A hole in the heart?' he repeated. 'Is that what she died of?'

'Sort of. She actually died of endocarditis.'

'What?'

'I found that she's had some recent dental work.'

'What does that have to do with this?'

'The bacteria that causes endocarditis resides in places like the mouth and respiriroty tracts,' Alexx explained. 'The dental work she's had put the bacteria into her bloodstream and it lodged in the defect in her heart.'

'Aren't there precautions against that?'

Alexx nodded. 'Antibiotics are usually prescribed, but she wasn't taking them. Check her health insurance, maybe she couldn't afford them.'

'A woman with an engagement ring with a diamond that big?' Ryan said. 'Hard to believe, but I'll find out. So, she died of endocarditis.'

'Damaged her heart valves,' Alexx replied. 'My guess is that it was acute, developed very quickly and she didn't have time to see a doctor about it. She suffered from heart failure.'

'Right at the wheel of her car,' Ryan said softly. 'That's terrible.'

Alexx nodded. 'Yes, but I suppose there's worse things that could have happened. Poor baby could have been murdered.'

Ryan nodded silently. 'I guess I should go and tell her fiancé what happened.'

The door opened and Eric looked in. 'Any news?'

'Yeah, she died of heart failure,' Ryan said. 'I guess that's what you can call 'natural causes,' he added rather bitterly. 'It's likely she didn't even know she was suffering from endocarditis. Alexx says it usually developes slowly, but it can develope very quickly and kill very quickly if it isn't treated. She had an appointment with her heart specialist at the end of this week. Chances are they would have found it.'

'And she might have lived,' Eric said.

Ryan nodded. 'If only, right?' he said wearily.

'You want me to talk to her fiancé?' Eric asked.

'No, I will,' Ryan said.

'Fair enough. You did do most of the work. Thanks, by the way.'

'Why thanks?'

'Because it means it's one case that gets solved quickly. I have a murder on my hands now.' Eric looked at his watch and groaned. 'Too much to do, too little time to do it in.'

'Anything I can help with?' Ryan asked, waving at Alexx as he followed Eric.

'Not at the moment.'

Eric grinned. 'Get back to work, Ryan.'

'Thanks,' Ryan muttered and slouched his way through the lab.

Ryan had a terrible afternoon. He had to tell the man that his fiancé was dead, and what she had died of. It had been emotional. Ryan had felt so terribly sorry for the man and felt awful for being the bearer of such tragic news. He took the man down to the mortuary after informing him of exactly what had happened and had left him in Alexx's capable and sympathetic care.

Then, when the man had left, he had gone back to his desk. The pile of work on the counter was depressing. He sat down and grimaced, two twin bolts of pain slicing into his stomach and into his head. He sighed and reached for the bottle of water he had brought in, drank it down in the hope it might help get rid of the headache. He was feeling very tired and slightly sick, and his arms were hurting. He rubbed his head, feeling slightly dizzy.

'Damn this stupid cold,' he said under his breath and got up, wincing in pain. 'All right, that's another sample done,' he said to himself. 'Next one…oh, how much fun I'm having – ow!'

He doubled over, gasping at the flares of hot pain across his stomach.

'Something wrong?' Valera asked him from the door.

'Yes,' Ryan said, straightening. 'Just a pulled muscle, I think.'

She gave him an odd look. 'Alexx wants to see you, when you have a few minutes.'

'Okay,' Ryan said and frowned. 'What about? I just saw her.'

'Well, she wants to speak to you again,' she replied.

'You have no idea what about?'

'If I did, Ryan, I would tell you,' she pointed out.

'True,' he said. 'Okay, I'll go and see her, as soon as I finish what I'm doing.'