08 - Public Be Damned

Public Be Damned

Chapter 01

         The members of the night shift gathered around Randall’s desk, waiting silently for him to hand out that night’s assignment. The last week had been relatively slow, and they were all hoping tonight would remain that way.

          “Mary, you’ve got a 419 behind Kezar Stadium in the park.” Randall handed her the paper containing pertinent information already gathered about the dead body. “Take Simon with you and get back to me when you find out more.” Body dumps in Golden Gate Park always brought out the press, and Randall wanted to be prepared before that happened.

         When Mary and Simon left the office, Randall turned to the others still there. “Jake, I just got a call from Captain Steele. He’d like you to join him in his office.”

         Jake frowned when asking, “Why? Is it about the Gottlieb case? I already gave his officers all the information about the evidence we found at the murder site.” Two nights ago, police found the estranged wife of Hans Gottlieb, a local loan shark, strangled and left for dead in her Nob Hill home. Jake was the forensic agent assigned to the case and spent a double shift searching the spacious apartment looking for evidence.

         Randall gave the young man a stern look. “You know there are always more questions, so go. I’ll have your assignment ready for you when you get back.” When Jake slowly and reluctantly left the office, this left only Angela and Anthony. Randall stood and stretched to unkink the knots in his back. He’d spent hours before the shift started catching up on the pile of paperwork that never seemed to end for him.

          “What about us, boss?” Impatient to start working, Anthony gently pressured his supervisor to give them assignments. However, just as he spoke, a look of panic came over Randall’s face, and he slowly slumped to the floor.

         Before either Anthony or Angela could move, Randall started convulsing in what appeared to be a grand mal seizure.

Chapter 02

         Angela raced to kneel at Randall’s side and cupped her hands under his head to keep it from slamming against the floor. “Anthony, find something soft, a cushion or something else to put under his head before he cracks it open.”

         Grabbing Randall’s jacket hanging on the back of a chair, Anthony threw it toward Angela before reaching for the phone on the desk. After calling 9-1-1 and giving the address of the lab for the paramedics, Anthony hung up the phone. A sudden memory crossed his mind, and he opened the top drawer of the desk. There once again he found a bottle of pills that he’d noticed after the earthquakes weeks earlier. At the time, he hadn’t read what was on the label, but now he did.

          “Angela, have you heard of medication called Keppra?” Anthony walked over to where she was still trying to keep Randall’s head on the folded jacket. The supervisor’s eyes had rolled up until only the whites were showing.

         Angela thought for a second or two then replied, “Yeah, it’s been around for years and is for epilepsy. Why?” When Anthony knelt beside her to show her the pill bottle, she asked, almost hesitantly, “Randall has epilepsy? Why haven’t we noticed anything before now?”

          “Well,” answered Anthony, opening the bottle. “This looks full, so maybe he got the diagnosis only recently.” He checked the date on the label. “In fact, this isn’t even the same bottle I saw after the earthquake. It’s dated only a week ago.”

         Rather than speculate further, the two of them wordlessly sat on the floor beside their supervisor. Randall’s convulsions slowly lessened until, after one final spasm, they stopped. He slowly opened his eyes with a dazed expression in them. Before they could question him, they saw paramedics coming through the open office door pushing a gurney in front of them.

          “I’m going to the ER with him,” said Angela, without waiting to see what Anthony would do. “I’ll call you later.” The orderlies lifted a seemingly boneless Randall up onto the gurney and left the office, followed by Angela. Anthony shook the filled pill bottle, a frown of concentration on his face. If Randall is on epilepsy medication, he thought, why did he have a seizure? Something is wrong here.

         With that, he also left Randall’s office to consult with Dr. Burke. A feeling of dread came over him as one possibility for Randall’s convulsions came to him. He hoped he was wrong.

Chapter 03

         When Anthony entered the autopsy room, he noticed Dr. Burke standing next to one of the three metal tables on which was a man’s body. The doctor looked annoyed but erased the expression when he saw Anthony coming toward him.

          “Evening, Anthony. What do you need?” Dr. Burke motioned for his assistant to take the body and return it to the open morgue drawer. While the young woman was doing this, the doctor went to his coffee machine and poured a large mug of steaming coffee for himself and another one for Anthony. At Anthony’s inquiring look, he said in a tired voice, “I need a break. That’s the third body brought in this evening, and I can’t find a damn thing wrong with any of them.” He led Anthony to a small table with a couple comfortable chairs at one end of the room.

         Anthony took a sip of coffee, only to make a disgusted face. “What do you have in that machine, Doc, motor oil sludge?”

          “Too strong for you?” was the reply, followed by a devilish grin. “Jeff usually comes by this time of evening, and he and I both like it thick enough to hold up a spoon.”

         Anthony put the still full mug of coffee on the table and pushed it away from him. “Speaking of Randall, the paramedics just took him to the ER. That’s why I’m here, to ask you about him.”

         All humor gone in an instant, Dr. Burke leaned forward. “What happened?”

          “He had some type of convulsion, and I found these pills in his desk.” Anthony handed the bottle to the doctor, who opened it to examine the tablets inside. “You’ve been friends of his for years. Do you know anything about these?”

         Dr. Burke placed the bottle back on the table before answering. “Sure, he told me he started having tonic-clonic seizures as a young child, but his epilepsy has been under control since he was a teenager.” He frowned. “Why would he have a recurrence now?”

          “That’s what I hoped you could tell me.” Anthony reached for the coffee mug, thought better of it, and waited silently for Dr. Burke to continue.

          “Well, I know he’s recently had Keppra added to his regimen.” The doctor looked once more at the blue tablets in the bottle. “You might send these to trace to see if they really are that medication.” At the sight of another assistant wheeling a gurney containing a woman’s body into the room, he muttered, “Damn, not another one.”

         Leaving the rest of his coffee untouched, Dr. Burke stood and started walking toward the gurney. Before reaching it, he turned to Anthony who had also stood and was heading for the door. “Please let me know what trace finds out and how Jeff is doing, okay?”

          “Okay.” With that promise, Anthony left the autopsy room and headed for the trace lab. Maybe he’d find some answers there.

Chapter 04

         It took a while, but the trace lab tech called Anthony back from where he had been attempting to put his supervisor’s stack of paperwork in some semblance of order.

          “Are you sure?” asked Anthony, frustrated with hearing that the tablets were Keppra after all.

          “Yup, 100 percent.” The lab tech handed the bottle back to Anthony. “However, Randall didn’t take any pills from this bottle. The physical count matched the label count. Sorry!”

         Anthony shook his head. “Well, you ruled out one thing, but maybe Dr. Burke has another idea. Thanks anyway.” With that, he left the trace lab and once again headed for the autopsy room.

         On entering that room, he saw Dr. Burke was just finishing the examination of the woman brought in earlier. If anything, the look of annoyance had deepened when he impatiently motioned his assistant over to remove the body. “That’s four,” he muttered, spotting Anthony standing silently nearby. “Four deaths, and I have no idea what caused them.”

         As Dr. Burke walked away from the slab, now empty of the woman’s body, he finally saw the trace report the lab tech had also given Anthony. “They were okay?” When Anthony nodded, he said, “It was a long shot. Did I tell you Jeff had just changed where he got his medication?”

          “No, you didn’t. Why did he do that?”

         The doctor thought for a moment. “I think the Bristol Pharmacy he always went to was in that big shopping mall off Geary. You know, where that big fire was last month?”

         Anthony grimaced. “I remember that fire. We were lucky the fire happened around three in the morning, so no deaths. We still spent a double shift looking for evidence of arson.”

          “Most of the stores at the east end were demolished, including the pharmacy.” Dr. Burke continued before Anthony could ask. “I gave Jeff the name of a pharmacy nearer to his home, and that’s probably the name on the bottle.”

         Just then, the men heard Anthony’s cell phone ringing. He took it out of his jacket pocket, turned it on, and listened to Angela’s voice before speaking. “Randall’s okay,” he whispered as an aside to Dr. Burke while still listening to Angela.

         Dr. Burke’s delighted expression changed when he heard Anthony’s next comment to Angela. “His tox report came back showing what?”

Chapter 05

         In Captain Steele’s office, Jake was angrily pacing back and forth. The captain sat silently in his chair behind the big wooden desk waiting for the younger man to calm down. “Now, Jake, you have to admit they have a valid point.”

          “Bull,” Jake said, slamming his fist against the desk for emphasis. “Just because my father once had a fling with Gottlieb’s wife doesn’t mean I have a conflict of interest, and you know it.” He sat down heavily in a chair by the desk. “Besides, it happened years before my folks got married.”

          “I know.” Captain Steele lowered his voice and spoke slowly, hoping to bring Jake’s temper down to a mild boil. “However, you know how defense lawyers are. Any chance of your dad influencing you on the death of a woman he once slept with, and your testimony about the evidence is prejudicial. Even the evidence itself might come into question.”

         Jake scowled but listened as the captain continued. “They requested another CSI go over the collected evidence for signs of tampering by you. Hey,” he said quickly, when Jake seemed ready to start yelling again, “I’m only repeating what’s in their brief.”

          “Okay, get with Randall and have someone else assigned to the case. No skin off my nose.” Jake stood when practically snarling these words and left the office, slamming the door behind him. Captain Steele gave a big sigh and picked up his phone to call Randall’s cell phone. He understood Jake’s anger and frustration, but knew the case was too important to risk a mistrial. After listening to the phone ringing with no one answering, he hung it up and decided talking with Randall in person might be a better option.

         When he arrived at Randall’s office a few minutes later, he noticed Anthony sitting behind the desk, going through the drawers. “Does Randall know what you’re doing?” he asked with a laugh, knowing there must be a good reason for Anthony to invade Randall’s private area like this.

         Startled, Anthony looked up to see the stocky captain standing mere feet from him. He hadn’t heard him enter the office. “I’m looking for an old bottle.”

          “Okay, I’ll bite. Any particular reason you want one?” Still unaware of Randall’s recent health crisis, Captain Steele pulled up a chair and waited for the other man to give him his full attention.

          “Yes,” said Anthony, returning to searching the desk drawers. “His new bottle was okay, so I’m looking for his old one.” He missed the confused look on the other man’s face.

          “Why?” When asking this question, the captain stood up to peer into a wastebasket next to the desk. “Is it a small plastic pill bottle?” He reached down and pulled the described bottle from underneath the pile of crumpled paper and other debris in the wastebasket. “Is this what you’re looking for? Don’t you CSIs usually check out wastebaskets, too?”

          “I was getting to it,” Anthony answered, taking the bottle from the captain’s outstretched hand. “That’s what I was looking for. Thanks.” He shook the bottle. “Empty.”

          “Do you mind telling me what’s going on?” Captain Steele returned to his chair to wait for Anthony’s explanation. Just then, Angela walked into the office, a smile on her face.

          “He’s okay, but they’re keeping him overnight to get his medications to therapeutic levels.” She sat down in a chair next to the captain. “Well, hello. I haven’t seen you in ages. You need some help?”

         The sight of the beautiful blonde woman always improved Captain Steele’s mood, but he was still confused about what Anthony was doing behind Randall’s desk. For the moment, therefore, he decided to hold off on the defense lawyer’s request for a new CSI on the Gottlieb murder case.

Chapter 06

         While Captain Steele was in Randall’s office waiting for an explanation about the missing supervisor, Mary and Simon finished processing the scene behind Kezar Stadium. They had released the body of a middle-age man found beaten to death, and it was at the morgue ready for Dr. Burke to examine it.

         So far, the scene had revealed very little about the dead man or the person who murdered him. There was no identification on the naked body, and the two forensic agents found no clothes anywhere nearby. Mary concluded it had been a body dump with the murder occurring some place else. Simon agreed after noting the lack of blood at the scene. Someone had attempted to cover the body with leaves and brush, but the strong wind that raced around the stadium most nights had blown it away from the body.

         A lone hiker, recklessly walking in the park after dark, had stumbled over the body and used a pay phone to call the police. By the time the police arrived, the hiker had disappeared into the night. They in turn notified the forensic lab and immediately taped off the area. This is how Mary and Simon had found it when they got there; yellow police tape, scattered leaves, and one dead male body. There was nothing else to help them piece together the crime.

         Mary sighed in frustration, kneeling to take one last photograph of the scene. “We might as well get back to the lab.” She stood and packed her camera back into her black metal kit. “Maybe Dr. Burke can find something on the body to help us.”

          “He’d better or at least get a 10 card on the man.” Simon knew that fingerprints or dental records often were the only way to identify some bodies. In the case of this body, dental records wouldn’t help since the man, face beaten beyond recognition, had every tooth smashed.

         Half an hour later, the two agents walked into the morgue. They found the man already laid out on one of the tables, but there was no sign of Dr. Burke. His assistant looked up as they entered the room.

          “If you’re looking for the doctor, he went over to see your boss about an hour ago.” The woman shrugged at Mary’s questioning look. “I don’t know why, but he got a call to get over there. He didn’t tell me much, only that your buddy Anthony wanted to talk to him about something.” She glanced over at the nude body on the table. “When you see him, would you tell him about this new case?”

          “Sure will,” said Mary, as she headed back out of the morgue. “The man’s our body dump, and we’d like to know more about him.”

         With Simon following her, Mary quickly walked to Randall’s office, mentally framing questions she wanted to ask her supervisor about why he had pulled the doctor away from the busy morgue. Her observant eyes hadn’t missed the sheet of paper by the door listing all the bodies to arrive so far that day.

         She stopped at the open door to Randall’s office, surprised not to see him but Anthony sitting behind the desk. Both Captain Steele and Dr. Burke were sitting in the chairs in front of the desk, quietly listening while Anthony talked on the phone. He hung up the phone just as Mary and Simon came into the office.

         Both were startled to hear the normally even-tempered man say angrily, “Damn it! They’ve lost him.”

Chapter 07

         Everyone in Randall’s office snapped to attention at hearing Anthony’s words. Angela, coming into the office carrying a tray with coffee from the break room, asked what everyone was thinking. “Who? Lost who?”

         Ignoring her questions, Anthony stood up and started pacing back and forth behind the desk. As if he were alone in the office, he muttered to himself, “What the hell was he thinking? Why can’t they keep track of one man?”

         Mary silently walked over to where Dr. Burke was sitting. “What’s he talking about?” she whispered. “What’s going on?”

          “Shhh!” the doctor whispered back, putting his finger to his mouth for emphasis. “Anthony will tell us when he calms down.” He raised his voice at that point, “Anthony, won’t you?”

          “Won’t I what?” Anthony looked at the doctor, then around the room at the others. “Oh, sorry!” He went back behind the desk and sat down, trying to reign in his anger. “It seems the hospital lost Randall.”

          “What?” This surprised comment came from Angela, now standing next to Captain Steele and still holding the forgotten tray. “How did they do that? By lost, I hope you don’t mean permanently lost, meaning he’s dead.” Her voice shook at putting this thought into words.

          “No, he’s alive, very much so, enough to simply leave his hospital room and disappear.” Anthony shook his head, not sure whether to remain angry at his supervisor or amused at the stubborn man’s determination not to stay in the hospital. He decided to fill in the others on Randall’s escape. “It seems when the nurse went into his room to routinely take his blood pressure, the bed was empty. His clothes were also gone except for his shirt. That they had to throw away because he’d vomited on it during his convulsion.

          “And I can tell you it’s damn cold walking around without a shirt in this weather.” At the sound of the baritone voice from the doorway, everyone turned toward it. Standing there was Randall, swaying and holding on to the door frame for balance. Everyone started talking at once, but only Dr. Burke had the presence of mind to get out of his chair. He went to the door and put his arm around Randall’s waist, guiding the much taller man to the just vacated chair. Randall sat down with a sigh of relief and glared at the doctor, who was silently taking his pulse.

          “I’m okay, stop fussing!” he said, pulling his arm away from Dr.Burke’s grasp. “What’s everyone doing in my office?” He looked over at his two youngest CSIs. “Don’t you have work to do?” Mary and Simon started backing out of the office, and then stopped when Anthony motioned for them to stay where they were.

          “What are you doing here is more to the point, Randall,” Anthony said softly, trying to mask his annoyance with his boss. “You have the hospital staff up in arms with your little disappearing act.”

          “Sorry about that,” Randall’s tone of voice didn’t sound at all apologetic. “However, I couldn’t stay cooped up in the hospital when there is a …” At that point, he caught sight of the two pill bottles Anthony had place on the desk. “Ah, I see you’ve found it.”

         He stood to pick up the empty bottle, ignoring the full one beside it. Even though he was still shaky from his recent grand mal seizure, and risking pneumonia from being in the chilly office naked from the waist up, Randall started grinning. His friends and co-workers recognized this as a sign of his excitement at having a mystery to solve.

         What that mystery was, no one but Randall knew. Soon, however, it would turn from a simple mystery to that of solving not one but multiple murders.

Chapter 08

          “Well,” stated Dr. Burke, heading for the corridor outside the office, “I have bodies decomposing more by the moment.” He stopped when Mary caught up with him and grabbed his arm. “Yes? Did you want something?”

         Mary nodded and waited for Simon to catch up with them. “There’s another body waiting for you. We found him behind Kezar Stadium and need you to run a 10 card on him.”

         Dr. Burke kept walking, but asked, “He didn’t have any identification on him?”

         Simon grinned, answering before Mary had a chance to say a word, “He didn’t have anything on him. Butt naked as the day he was born, just a few bugs and leaves.” Their voices trailed off into the distance.

         Those remaining in the office turned their attention to the mystery of Randall’s empty pill bottle. Angela remembered the tray she had brought in from the break room and handed one mug to Randall. He gratefully swallowed the tepid coffee, and then shrugged into the lab jacket she next handed him. “That’s much better, Angie. Thanks!”

          “Okay, Jeff, what’s this all about?” asked Captain Steele, snagging his own cup of coffee from the tray. Years of working stakeout on long cold nights had taught him that even cold coffee was better than none at all. Anthony picked up the third mug, but only held it, waiting for Randall to answer the Captain’s question. Angela tasted from the last mug, made a disgusted face at the weak flavor of the generic coffee, and quickly put the mug back on the tray.

         Before answering the Captain’s question, Randall looked around at all his friends with his slow gaze stopping finally at Anthony. “You figured it out yet?” He again reached for the coffee mug, but discovering he had already drained it dry, Randall remarked to no one in particular, “Remind me to requisition a coffee maker for my office.”

          “Come on, Jeff,” a note of impatience coloring Angela’s voice, “answer Bob’s question!”

         Randall ignored her to once again quietly speak to Anthony, “Well, you solved it yet?”

         The younger CSI grinned at his supervisor, familiar with Randall’s way of teaching his crew. Never one to simply hand over the answers to a mystery, Randall made them experiment or research until the facts of a case became clear. “Partly, boss, but not everything.” He took the empty bottle from Randall’s outstretched hand and placed it back on the desk beside the full bottle.

         Everyone jumped in shock from the unexpected sound of Randall’s pager suddenly beeping. When Randall looked at the screen, he nodded once then said, “We’re needed down at the autopsy room.” Not waiting to see if anyone followed him, he slowly and holding on to the walls for balance headed out of his office and down the corridor to where Dr. Burke was waiting.

          “The thot plickens!” Captain Steele joked, and he joined the rest of the CSI crew following their supervisor, like children behind the Pied Piper of Hamlin. He found out that the thot had indeed plickened when they all reached the autopsy room.

Chapter 09

         Dr. Burke looked up from the body of a naked man on the autopsy table when he heard footsteps outside in the corridor. The door to the morgue slammed open, and the CSIs plus Captain Steele burst in. “Welcome to Bedlam!” he said with a grimace. Standing on one side of the room, trying to stay out of the doctor’s way, were Mary and Simon. Angela and Captain Steele joined them, willing to wait for the doctor’s explanation for why he wanted to see them. Randall was not so patient.

          “Okay, why the 911 page?” Randall moved to stand beside Dr. Burke, leaning heavily against the waist-high table. Anthony found a chair, brought it to the table, and pushed Randall down into it. Randall smiled up at him, but quickly returned his attention to the doctor. “Is this the guy Mary and Simon found behind Kezar?”

         ”Yes, but that’s not why I called you. Well, not entirely.” Leaving the corpse for the moment, Dr. Burke went to his desk and returned with a sheaf of blue papers. All in the room recognized them as identification forms for next of kin to fill out. “Relatives of the people I autopsied today have been coming in to identify the bodies.” He handed the papers to Randall and then continued with his explanation. “Every single one of them states their relative had some type of illness requiring medication.”

         “And?” asked Randall, already guessing what was coming next. He shared a glance with Anthony who had also figured it out.

         “None of the toxicology reports on them show signs of the medications. None!” Doctor Burke went silent and waited for the reactions of the others in the room. The shocked expressions and silence from them did not surprise him. They all realized Jeff could as easily have been just another body for me to cut open, he thought, except for Anthony being there when he collapsed. He looked at the two men, one sitting and the other standing beside him, and said a silent prayer of thanksgiving.

         Just then, a lab technician came into the morgue. She was holding a computer printout and stopped short when she saw almost the entire night shift of CSIs gathered in one place. A delighted look came over the young woman’s face at the sight of Randall, a man she secretly had a crush on. Angela tried not to grin, used to this reaction Randall caused in most of the female lab techs. He, though, was oblivious to the effect he had on impressionable females, a trait that endeared him to Angela even more.

         The tech walked toward the table, never taking her eyes off Randall, and handed the report to Dr. Burke. “I got a hit on those fingerprints you gave me. They came back Timothy Alderman. He’s listed as a pharmacist and had his prints taken when he applied for that position.” Having given this information to the room at large, she reluctantly left the morgue to return to her lonely laboratory.

         Dr. Burke looked more closely at the report then over to Anthony and Randall. “Do you want to make a guess as to the name of that pharmacy?”

         Both men said, almost in unison, “Bristol Pharmacy!”

         ”Okay, I guess you two don’t need me to tell you how he died, do you?” Dr. Burke waited a couple seconds, but got no response from them.

         “Come on, Doc!” pleaded Anthony, knowing Randall would never ask. “What killed him?”

         ”Letting a couple more seconds pass before taking pity on Anthony, Dr. Burke said, “Have any of you ever heard of methyl parathion? No? It wasn’t all that familiar to me either, so I Googled on it after tox found it in his blood stream.”

         For the first time since entering the morgue, Captain Steele spoke up. “Where can you find this…what did you call it?”

         “Methyl parathion, Captain.” Dr. Burke motioned him over to the table so he wouldn’t have to raise his voice. “It’s used on farms, but not around those that grow certain food. Highly toxic, and it can be deadly.”

         “So, which farms around here can use it?” Captain Brass kept pushing for more information until Dr. Burke handed him a printout of certain Googled web sites. “Thanks.” Turning and heading toward the door, he spoke over his shoulder, “All of you have done your job. Now it’s my turn. Talk with you later,” and he was gone.

Chapter 10

         Days passed before Captain Steele returned to the morgue. Cause of death for all four bodies brought in recently with mysterious deaths did, in fact, turn out to be from lack of life-saving medication.

         Fully recovered from his own illness, in the early hours of the third day, Randall walked into Dr. Burke’s autopsy room where he found both Captain Steele and the doctor deep in conversation. “What’s up, Doc?” he asked, unable to resist injecting a small bit of humor into an otherwise deadly morning. His CSI night shift crew had worked long tedious hours collecting evidence from multiple gang shootings by the SF Brothers.

         Everyone, including Dr. Burke, was exhausted. He managed a weary smile at Randall’s old and very small Bugs Bunny witticism. “What’s up, Jeff, is Captain Brass has just told me the person who killed the pharmacist, Timothy Alderman, was caught and arrested this morning.” He turned to the equally tired Captain to give him the honor of telling the story.

         Captain Brass started with, “After checking the places where methyl parathion was commonly used, and cross checking those farms with the names of the people Alderman killed with watered down medications, I came up with one name…Alphonse Winthrop. He owns an almond orchard down in the valley, and his wife Berta died from lack of insulin needed for her type one diabetes.”

         Randall seemed confused when he interrupted, “That makes sense, but how did Mr. Winthrop figure out what killed his wife and why it happened?”

          “I’m getting to that, Jeff. My God, you sure lack patience.” Captain Steele continued before Randall could say anything else, “He and Berta were married for 40 years, so he was very familiar with his wife’s disease. After seeing her health failing over the past few days, he begged her to see their doctor, but she was a very stubborn woman and refused. When he came in from the orchard late one evening to find her lying comatose on the kitchen floor, he immediately called an ambulance. The paramedics tried to revive her on the way to the hospital, but she died en route.”

          “Okay, she died, but how did her husband trace her death to Alderman?” This question from Randall had also bothered Dr. Burke when he first heard Captain Steele tell it.

          “Well, our Alphonse is a pretty sharp cookie. He guessed something might be wrong with his wife’s bottle of insulin and had it analyzed at a private lab in nearby Tracy.” The Captain paused for emphasis before finishing his story. “When he discovered the bottle contained only a small percentage of insulin, he put two and two together and figured out what the pharmacist had done, diluting medication to make a profit on them.”

         Captain Steele tried to keep his admiration for the elderly man’s resourcefulness and determination out of his voice, but failed “He managed to track down Alderman at his home and forced a confession out of the guy. After that, it was simple to inject the terrified man with a lethal dose of the methyl parathion he used in his almond orchards. When it was dark enough, Winthrop carried the dead body to behind Kezar Stadium, stripped off his clothes, and smashed his face repeatedly with a rock for one last anger-filled bit of revenge.”

         Randall yawned and stretched to get the kicks out of his tired body. “Let’s hope there are no more of Alderman’s customers out there living on borrowed time.” Right after he spoke those words, a morgue orderly wheeled in another body and quickly left the room.

         Dr. Burke slowly walked over and lifted the sheet from the corpse’s face. He smiled in relief at the two waiting men. “Thank goodness, he’s just an ordinary everyday gunshot victim.”

         With that, Randall and Captain Steele left the morgue. They were satisfied to have these murders solved, but knew they would see more dead bodies in the future.