Detective March

I received a call to go over to Sacred Heart Hospital. Since it is located in my precinct; it is my responsibility to find out who committed the crime. When a call comes into 911, the regular cops are the first to respond. Their job is to secure the crime scene till the forensic squad comes to gather evidence. After that I'm called.

After fifteen years on the force, I've seen my fare share of murders, robberies, and assaults. Over time I've become jaded like all the other cops, and like all other cases this was no different than the hundreds I've worked on before.

When a crime is committed the first twenty four hours are critical for the investigation. It is during that time that one has to gather evidence, speak to witnesses, and contemplate hypotheses. So at 7:30 in the morning I walked into Sacred Heart. Luckily, I've only been in the hospital a handful times, the most recent was a few years back when a fellow officer was hurt in a high-speed chase.

I met my lieutenant who briefed me as we quickly made our way up to the fourth floor bathroom. The officers did a good a job on the scene; they gathered evidence, took pictures, dusted for fingerprints, and compiled a list of witnesses for me to interview. The first person I spoke to the Chief of Medicine, Bob Kelso. I asked him the usual questions: When did he find out? Who told him? Who found Dr Cox? How long have they been working together? How would he describe their relationship? Do any recent deaths stick out in his mind? Etc. When I asked if Doctor Cox has any enemies he gave a most unusual response.

"Perry has many enemies," he started, "the man is an egocentric, big-mouthed idiot; but whoever did this, didn't do it because of the type of person Perry is, because trust me many would like to see him suffer, but this was done as revenge for what he's done as a doctor. You can say what you want about him, but he's a good doctor, and one who I greatly respect."

Dr. Kelso agreed to let me access the hospital's documents, and together we walked to the nurses' station.

"Nurse Espinosa, this is Detective March. He's investigating what happened earlier. You are to help him find whatever he needs" he left and I turned my attention to the nurse in front of me, and I said

"I'll be investigating the assault on Perry Cox, and I'll need your help"

"Sure what ever you need" she eagerly replied.

She started handing me files, starting with his most recent patients. While she rummaged through various filing cabinets we chatted.

"What type of person is Dr. Cox?" I asked her.

"He's okay, sometimes he can act a bit over the top, but other than that he's a really good person"

"Are you friends?"

"Yes, we've know each other for a very long time" She replied. "Do you want his SMMS record?"

"What is a SMMS record?"

"Surgical and Medical Mortality Statistics, it's a record of how many patients a doctor has seen and how many of them have died. It's a big deal in the surgical field but in internal medicine the numbers are pretty obsolete."

"Why?"

"Most internists are seeing the oldest and sickest patients, so no matter how good of a doctor they are the numbers will always be high." "Dr. Cox has pretty good SMMS record" she added.

"Can you remember any cases where patients recently died? Anything that sticks out in your mind at all?"

Her face darkened, as she contemplated whether to tell me something or not. After a few minutes she finally said: "There is one case, but it happened over a year ago. The transplant patients."

She went on to tell me the story. Dr Cox was in charge of three patients in dire need of organs. One needed a liver; one needed a heart valve, and the other a kidney. Meanwhile a former patient of his had passed away from an apparent drug overdose. The patient was depressed, and had tried to commit suicide in the past, thus no one questioned the cause of her death. It turns out she died of rabies. In his defense, Dr Cox didn't test for rabies before harvesting the organs, because it is such a rare disease. Soon after receiving the infected organs each patient died.

"Did he get into trouble?" I asked

"No. No hospital tests for it; it wasn't his fault, and the AMA let it go."

"Was he sued?"

"I don't know for sure, but I doubt it."

"Can I get their records?"

"Sure, let me fish it out for you." She replied.

Nurse Espinosa handed me the files and it was something I would look at when I got home. For now I wanted to interview as many people as possible. The next person I tracked down was the Janitor who found Dr. Cox in the bathroom. I found him by the admissions desk, sitting down, and reading a paper. He struck me as an odd sort of fellow, one where I'm not sure what he says is true or not. I'm not saying that the conversation was boring, because he was quite amusing, it's just I'm not sure how anything he told me was relevant towards solving this case.

During lunch I flipped through some charts and started reading about the transplant patients. Something in the back of my mind stirred, the story seemed familiar, and being that I am a current events junky it was very likely that I came across this story on the news. I decided to drop the chart for now and I would look at it again at home. Fifteen years of experience told to explore all my options, however my instincts told me that what happened last spring and what happened today are connected in some way.

Immediately after lunch I spoke to two more physicians, Dr Elliot Reid-an internist, and Dr. Christopher Turk-a surgeon. Like everyone else they answered my questions and helped me paint a better picture of the type of doctor and man Perry Cox is. Since both treated the patients who died of the infected organs I dropped a line about the transplant patients and both had the same reaction that Nurse Espinosa had.

By six o'clock I had one more doctor left to speak to, Dr John Dorian. Dr Dorian is a thirty-one year old man, but today he looked older than his years. Asking a round, I found out that Dr Dorian is a normally happy-go-lucky kind of guy, who is always ready to pull a practical joke. But as he came closer to my table, I couldn't help but notice that his boyish face was etched with worry and fatigue.

"Tough day huh?" I asked.

"Yep" he replied.

"I'm Detective March" I introduced my self. I'll be working on the case involving today's assault on Doctor Perry Cox" he slightly winced when I said this. "Can I ask some questions?"

"Sure"

"Now you were one of the first responders to the incident, is that correct?"

"Yes"

"Now I heard at first you didn't want to follow the Janitor into the bathroom, why is that?"

He smiled a little and said "the Janitor always tries to mess with me. I figured it was just another one of his jokes"

"What did you think when you first saw him?"

"I didn't think, my instincts took over and I began to treat him"

"Can you tell me what made you decide to take him to the ICU and not the ER?"

"Obligation" he responded. "I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I owe him a lot and I felt I was the best doctor to treat him, and he is my mentor" he added.

Interesting I thought, so I threw out this question "Are you friends?"

"We're not quite friends, we're not quite colleges, and he's technically not my boss, so I'm not sure what we are."

"Doctor Dorian, given the circumstances we're looking for someone who recently lost a family member and that Doctor Cox was the attending physician. Do any recent deaths stick in your mind?

"No"

"Can you tell me about the transplant patients?"

His face darkened, Bingo! I knew that there is more to this story than meets the eye.

He answered my questions and then went on to vehemently defended Dr. Cox's actions. Say what you want about the kid, but he is loyal.

I decided to ask him the one question that had been playing in my head over and over again.

"How did he react to their deaths?"

"It wasn't his fau-"

"I know, but how did he react?"

"He's a doctor, people always die"

I was tired and becoming a little impatient, and I just wanted him to answer the darn question "You know what I'm asking, answer the question!" I said a little too harshly.

"Not well" he finally admitted.

We got up from the table and began to walk to the elevators. I thought of what leads I should follow. While assaults are not prioritized like murders I wanted to solve this case quickly. Tonight I will continue reading through some more charts. While the transplant story interests me, it would be unwise to focus on it, and ignore other possible leads. But my instincts tell me that this was a big deal. It seems that it as truly a black mark on the good doctor's career.

The elevator came and there was one more question I asked Doctor Dorian. "When can I see him?"

"Not yet, he's very weak and heavily sedated" he answered. "Also don't tell him about what was written on him, you know the whole murderer thing." He added.

"Of course I'm telling him"

"He doesn't have to know! At least not yet." He looked me with a very serious face and said. "Listen, he needs to recover and that's all that matters; and I'm telling you, that having this thing hanging over his head is not only going to prevent him from getting better, but it will ruin him. So as his doctor I forbid you from telling him about it."

While I respected his determination, I wasn't going to have some kid tell me how to run my investigation so simply told him

"I'll worry about my job, you worry about your job, and we'll all be fine".

With those words I turned and left. Tomorrow I will speak to the doctor.


Please reveiw

Sorry I took so long to update. Perry's perspective next!