she finally had a name. The doctor who was in charge of handing off the bodies of the unclaimed John and Jane Does was Dr. Ralph Jessop. Funny that Clancy had never mentioned him by name, although he had grumbled several times about “the pompous ass” he’d had to deal with at P.M. Still, being a pompous ass didn’t immediately mean that a person was capable of breaking the law.
She’d seen Jessop around, even exchanged a few words with him once at one of the fund-raisers the hospital periodically held, but she really knew very little about the man. What she knew hadn’t been flattering. Rumor had it that Jessop was a player, a wealthy man, thanks to his family, who wanted to be wealthier.
Did that automatically mean that he was willing to cut into bodies in order to excise organs that would find their way to the black market?
She didn’t know. She needed to talk to Jessop, to feel him out, before she came to any sort of conclusions.
Natalya hadn’t a clue what she was going to say to the doctor when he answered his phone. His field was radiology. Maybe she could tell him that she needed his professional opinion about one of her patient’s X-rays. But she had nothing outstanding to offer.
And then she remembered that Sasha once had a patient who’d required an emergency appendectomy only to discover that the pain was being caused by a cyst pressing on the organ. A very particular kind of cyst, with hair and nails all wrapped up inside it. In effect, the patient discovered that she was supposed to be conjoined twins, except that the second twin hadn’t developed. That might whet Jessop’s appetite—if things medical still moved him.
She knew Sasha kept the X-ray in an old box of archived files. Her sister wouldn’t mind her stealing the X-ray for a good cause. Sasha’s nurse, Lisa, would undoubtedly know where to locate the file…
All plans of intercepting Dr. Jessop with the unusual X-ray came to an abrupt halt for the moment. The receptionist in radiology informed her that Dr. Jessop was out for the day. The physician had taken a personal day to pay a visit to his tax accountant about setting up another SEP account.
Natalya could tell by the woman’s tone what the receptionist thought about that. There was obviously no love lost between the two. Natalya had a suspicion that perhaps the good doctor rubbed more than one person the wrong way.
Still didn’t make him a grave robber, so to speak. Well, she wasn’t about to find out one way or another today, Natalya thought, replacing the receiver.
So near and yet so far.
She took a breath, trying to calm herself. But it was all so damn frustrating.
For a moment, Natalya thought about putting in a call to Mike to see if he’d made any progress with either the names or the court order. She had both his cell phone and his number at the precinct. She debated satisfying her curiosity at the risk of being thought of as pushy or just hanging tight.
But she was pushy, she thought. No reason to hide it.
But she never got to make the call. Vicki was knocking on her door. The next moment, the nurse peeked into the room. “Mrs. Russell is on the phone, frantic. Ryan pushed navy beans up his nose.”
“Enterprising little guy,” Natalya quipped. Obviously, quiet time was over. “Tell her to calm down and bring him in. And to count herself lucky that it’s not pussy willow season.”
Vicki laughed as she withdrew.
He needed names. The judge that Sommerville had called had granted the court order that would allow them to exhume the bodies of the people in the photographs, and only those.
The problem was, they didn’t have any names. They did, however, thanks to Natalya’s OCD friend, have times and dates. That narrowed down the time frame considerably. They could locate the names via Ellis Brothers’ files.
That meant that he, and Louis, had to go back to Tolliver a third time. They needed the man to hand over the names of the people who had come through his doors during the time in question.
Mike knew that they were going to get an argument from the mortuary director and that, most likely, a warrant would have to be issued. But being around Natalya had its effects. It had made him into an optimist, or at least partially so. He decided to give Tolliver the benefit of the doubt