Danny gingerly sat the plastic bag down on the autopsy table, looking around the room for Sid. The body of a car wreck victim lay on the steel table next to him,
and the sound of exhaust fans hummed overhead.
"Sid?" Danny said, and the door at the back of the room opened.
The ME, carrying a bone saw, greeted Danny with a harried expression.
"I don't suppose you've got a salami on rye in that bag do you?" he asked, setting the saw on the tray beside the car wreck victim.
Danny grinned, pushed his glass up on his nose, and shook his head.
"You should'a told me you wanted one, I could've got it on my way back," He said, and Sid laughed.
"I'll remember that. What do you have in the bag?" He came over to stand beside Danny.
"The cat Lindsay saw at the apartment," he explained, opening the top of the brown paper bag.
Pulling on a fresh pair of gloves, Sid reached into the sack and drew out the still, cold body of the small kitten that had miaowed so plaintively at Lindsay the day before. Laying it on the table, Sid put his glasses on.
"I've called in Dr. Paul Faulkner, he's a Veterinarian at Cornell University; he'll do the necessary tests for Feline Spongiform Encephalitis. I'm pretty sure our kitty or his roomates, are indirectly responsible for Robert Medford's death," he said, and Danny frowned.
"But how? Isn't VCD contracted by eating affected beef?" Danny asked, and Sid smiled.
"What did you find in the animal feeding dishes at the apartment?" he asked and Danny shrugged.
"I pegged it as lamb in the lab." He said, and Sid held up a finger.
"My initial reaction was VCD, then I thought about the fact that there is a strain in sheep too. We've got a case of cross-contamination, here, Danny," he said, and explained.
"The cats had lamb on a regular basis. I'm thinking the Medfords had a fondness for lamb, too." he pointed to the cat on the table.
Danny's eyebrows shot up.
"They ate the same stuff as the cats?" he asked, alarmed, and Sid shrugged.
"Looks that way. Judging from the lesions on Medford's brain tissue, he's been slowly succumbing to VCD for over 20 years. The meal in question could've happened long before the animal feed industry was required to stop using animal products in livestock feed," He said.
"So this is a natural death," Danny asked, and Sid shrugged.
"Not so fast," he said, and explained further.
"I also found signs of rat poison in the contents of his stomach. Unless it was an accidental ingestion, you're looking at murder." He said, and Danny nodded, thanked the ME, and left the room.
He had to go find Lindsay, and in turn, they had to find Robert Medford's daughter.