Читать книгу Just Try to Stop Me - Gregg Olsen - Страница 21

CHAPTER TWELVE

Birdy Waterman loathed the idea of looking over another medical examiner’s report to ferret out some mistake in the autopsy. While protocol for all such examinations was clear and incontrovertible, examiners brought variables of their own to each forensic examination they’d conduct. Some were better record keepers. Some were more adept at seeing what was right in front of them. Some allowed the distractions of their busy, overworked days to get the better of them.

Birdy sat at her pristine new desk and fanned out the pages printed from the brand-new scanner/printer. There was no doubt what had happened to Joe and Kara Nevins. Kara had been suffocated before the fire and Joe had been drugged with a lethal combination of pills and booze. He’d been alive when the blast occurred. None of that was in dispute. Neither was the reason for the father’s and baby’s deaths.

Birdy looked up and surveyed her new office. It felt empty. Devoid of any personal touches. Bright white walls and gleaming ribbons of stainless-steel counters outside her interior window. Almost soulless.

Like Brenda Nevins, she thought. Empty just like her.

She dialed Kendall’s number.

“Your day going any better than mine?” she asked.

“Depends on how bad your day is, Birdy.”

“About a six,” she said.

“Not good,” Kendall said. “How come?”

“I don’t know, Kendall. I was looking through the autopsy reports on Joe and Kara Nevins. I can’t for the life of me see anything that will help us understand Brenda any better.”

“Nothing?”

“No,” Birdy said. “How about you?”

“Beyond the fact that she was a conniver who used sex to get what she wanted, no.”

“Sounds like my sister,” Birdy said.

Kendall laughed. “You don’t mean that.”

Birdy hesitated, pretending to weigh what Kendall had said. “No. Not really. I guess I didn’t mean that.”

“How are things with her?” Kendall asked. “With your mom?”

“Not good. Not good with either one of them. I’m going to have to go up there again any day now. It won’t be long.”

“I’m sorry, Birdy,” Kendall said. “I know it doesn’t help to have someone tell you that they know what you’re going through, but I do. I really do.”

“I know. Thank you. I’ll get through it. Everyone does,” Birdy said, before she changed the subject to something less painful. “Have you caught up with Brenda’s mother yet?”

“I’ve driven by a half dozen times. No sign of her. I’m going to make one more attempt, then I’m heading home.”

“That sounds good.”

“Hey, Birdy,” Kendall said, before ending the call, “how do you like your new office?”

“Hate it,” Birdy said. “Really don’t like it. At all.”

“But it’s state of the art. You’ve always told me that the county had the crappiest lab equipment that you’ve ever seen.”

“I did, and it does,” Birdy said with an audible sigh. “I just feel out of sorts here. It’ll pass. I know it will.”