T.S. would be damned if he'd let the little worm at Lilah for one second. In fact, he'd not even mention his silly name and would forbid Auntie Lil to do the same. So the good doctor's wife had died, had she? And just who had done the autopsy on her?
"Well, enough of the living," the little doctor decided, rubbing his tiny hands together with great relish. "Let's get back to the dead." He turned to his silent pupil, who was quite nonplussed at her boss's behavior. "You're just in time for the cranial exploration," he called over his shoulder cheerfully. "It's Cheryl's favorite part."
"You mean the skull?" Auntie Lil looked back at T.S. in alarm. "Perhaps we'd better take our photos first."
"Good idea," T.S. said. "Then we can leave." Without waiting for permission, he gingerly took one corner of the plastic sheet and peeled it down to Emily's shoulders. Poor woman. Her already frail body had caved in upon death and the skin lay over her facial bones like useless, dried out parchment.
"I've found that 400 film on 60 speed is quite sufficient in this bright light," Dr. Millerton told T.S. helpfully.
T.S. ignored him, but surreptitiously adjusted the speed setting. Old bugger. How would he know? What kind of pictures was he snapping around here, anyway?
The next few minutes were for T.S. perhaps the most annoying of his life. Dr. Millerton issued instructions from his left side while Auntie Lil hovered on the right, ordering him to take a shot of this part of Emily's face, and then the other. Rodriquez and the assistant pathologist retreated to one corner, far from the fray, when Auntie Lil began demanding close-ups of the dead woman's teeth.
"What on earth for?" T.S. asked in irritation, but got no reply. Auntie Lil was too busy peeking under the plastic sheet that now covered Emily's body.
"What are you doing?" T.S. lowered his camera and stared at his aunt.
"Looking for distinguishing marks," she explained primly. "Haven't you any imagination?"
"Yes. Far too much to be poking around in here much longer."
"No distinguishing marks," the doctor assured her. "The only distinguishing thing Cheryl says she found was a small amount of a brown, muddy substance in her stomach that gave off a very sharp odor. Possibly toxic. It had a caustic effect on the stomach lining. I've recommended she have it analyzed in the lab."
"No need," T.S. said with great satisfaction. "That was Auntie Lil's chili."
"That's nothing to joke about, Theodore," she complained hotly. "My chili was perfectly good and it did not give off a sharp odor. It's probably not even chili."
"One way to find out," the doctor said, holding up a hand as if to ward off an argument between them. There was a distinctly ghoulish twinkle in his myopic eyes. "Cheryl—the specimen jar please." He bowed and held out a hand grandly as if he had just demanded the envelope furnishing the winner's name of a particularly coveted Academy Award.
Cheryl obediently fetched the jar from a small table against the wall and handed it to Dr. Millerton. "Approximately one-third of a cup was present in the stomach proper," she explained in a Yonkers accent that clashed severely with her Flower Drum Song exterior. "I removed one-third of that amount for analysis."
"Very good," he assured his pupil. "Now let's see what we have here." He held the jar up to the light and twisted it slowly until he'd examined each angle. He was drawing out the process and clearly enjoying this teasing of Auntie Lil and T.S.. "It does look like chili to me," he finally announced, winking at T.S. "Although it seems a particularly virulent color." He hee-heed loudly and unscrewed the top. "Let's see if it smells like chili."
He made an elaborate show of bending over the jar, still chuckling. Suddenly, he froze. His laughter stopped and he whipped his gnomelike head upright, locking eyes with his assistant.
"What is it, Dr. Millerton?" Cheryl asked anxiously. "Have I erred?" She reached for the jar but the doctor motioned her back, then sniffed deeply in the sudden silence.
"Is there some mistake?" Cheryl asked again, more timidly.
Before the doctor could answer, Auntie Lil's mouth opened in a gasp.
Rodriquez and T.S. turned to her, baffled, while Cheryl stared at Dr. Millerton with a puzzled expression.
When he saw that the others did not understand, the doctor turned to Auntie Lil for confirmation. They stared at one another in astonished enlightenment. Dr. Millerton held out a hand