Chapter Five
After meeting with Rachel, Pride headed over to the lab. As he drove, he began to think of how soft her hands were; he was reluctant to let go. He could see the pain in her eyes and wanted to help her. Hell, he really wanted to see her again. He frowned at these thoughts. She was part of an investigation and he could not get involved.
He was still considering the situation when he entered the morgue.
"What's going on Dwayne?" Loretta asked. "You look deep in thought."
"Oh, just this case. It's baffling," he said, covering up the real cause.
"No kidding," she pursed her lips. "I can tell you this, a gunshot did not kill this man."
She walked over to the body on the examining table and Pride followed.
"You think he could have been drugged or suffocated?" Pride asked, staring intently at the dead man.
"No outward evidence of suffocation or strangulation," she said. "And, it will take some more time for the drug screen. But, I don't think that was the cause either."
"No?"
"I found something interesting when I examined the heart-frothy blood in the left ventricle," she said. "And when I tested further, the right ventricle floated in water."
"Which means..." Pride prodded.
"It indicates an air embolism."
"And that is…" he prodded again.
She guided him over to a computer screen model.
"Think of the blood vessels as large straw. If air gets in, it blocks the flow of the liquid and if it gets to the heart or lung-well, that's a one-way ticket to stroke or cardiac arrest," she said.
"How does air get in there?" Pride asked.
"Sometimes through bubbles in IV's, and Dubois had two. But, those are inserted in a vein, and it would take a large amount of air to kill him. But, just point five to one milliliter of air injected into the coronary artery can cause cardiac arrest in a minute or two," she said.
"So, this isn't something that happens accidentally," he said.
"Oh no, it would be deliberate. it's tricky sticking an artery-they're rubbery," she said.
"So, the person doing this would have to be a professional," he mused.
"Yes," she confirmed.
"So, did you find any puncture marks that would show this happened?" He said.
"There are a few," she said. "But, it's possible he was injected with drugs directly into the heart during the code. I've asked to see the record; that should tell me if and how many times he was stuck."
"So air embolism is the COD?" He said.
"Given the findings so far, I'd say it's a good possibility," she said.
Neither of them heard the door open.
"Well, no matter what, that security guard is totally in the clear." Both Pride and Loretta turned around to see Sebastian Lund.
"Ok," Pride said. "You have something to back that up?"
The young man motioned to Pride. "Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly," he chanted.
Pride gave Loretta a "there he goes again" look and followed Sebastian.
"So what'd you got?" Pride asked when they entered the lab next door.
"I've got Percy!" Lund said, turning his laptop around. Sonja was indeed on the screen.
"Sebastian, did you tell him about the magic bullet?" She said in an excited voice that was rare for her.
"We haven't gotten into that yet," he turned to Pride. "You know about the multiple bullet theory in the Kennedy Assassination?"
Pride stared at the young man. He liked him, but had little patience for these diversions. "Yes, and it better have something to do with this case."
"Well, sorta-stay with me," Sebastian said. "So, we know from witnesses and the guard's gun that he fired three times. Initially, we found two bullets in the wall and the one that hit him."
"Go on."
"The problem was when I compared the three bullets, the one from the victim didn't match the other two," Lund said.
"So there were two shooters?" Pride asked.
"And possibly four bullets," the young man said. "So, I asked Percy to check the scene again…"
Sonja joined in, "We scoured around the area, and found a bullet in a tree. It must have gone out of the open window."
"But, we only heard three shots," Pride said.
"Yes, but the shots could have overlapped each other, or the other shooter could have used a silencer," Sebastian said. There were a few beats as Pride considered this information.
"Very good Sebastian," Pride said.
"Hey, I found the fourth bullet," Sonja protested.
"You did good too, agent," He smiled as he backed to the door, "Scooby snacks all around."