“Er, well, er, I wasn’t involved in either one, and I haven’t heard much scuttlebutt around the office other than one of them was the famous Nobel-winning researcher. All I heard was that he died of an extremely aggressive infection. But let me check what we have.”

McGovern keenly wanted to be helpful. He looked at Pia, and she half smiled back at him. Using the computer on his desk, McGovern looked up the names to get the OCME accession numbers and then brought up the individual cases.

“Here we are. Yes, it says the autopsies were performed the afternoon of the twenty-fourth, so that was, er, yesterday. The day they died.” McGovern scrolled through one file, then the other.

“They certainly were both serious infectious cases with severe erosion of the gut, both small intestine and large. Wow! Anyway they’re considered OSHA cases, which was the main reason they were autopsied.”

“OSHA cases?” Pia questioned. She’d heard the acronym but couldn’t remember what it was for.

McGovern looked up. “The Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It’s a government agency that gets involved when there are deaths in the workplace involving public safety issues. The autopsy results will be reported to OSHA as the OCME is required to do by law.”

McGovern looked back at his screen.

“Okay. Both cases were done by Dr. Jack Stapleton. He’s our super-doc who does more cases than anyone else. He’s never satisfied, always pushing for more, works hard like he doesn’t have a life.

“Let’s see. The cause of death for both cases is listed as infectious disease—typhoid fever—and the manner of death is accidental. Let me ask you, do you know why the manner of death is considered accidental?”

Pia said that she didn’t, not adding that she might be challenging that official verdict.

“If the two researchers had come down with typhoid after eating at a restaurant, like the hospital cafeteria, then their deaths would have been labeled natural, since typhoid is a food-borne pathogen. But since they contracted the disease in a laboratory, or in a workplace setting, then it’s accidental because it certainly couldn’t be considered a natural process.”

McGovern was trying his best to sound authoritative.

“And if for some reason the researchers infected themselves on purpose, then the manner of death would be suicide. And last but not least, if someone purposely infected them, then it would be homicide.”

McGovern laughed and held his hands out wide as if to say, “See what a good teacher I am.”

Pia didn’t laugh with him or even smile. For her he was acting stereotypically transparent. He’s talking to me like I’m a college coed, she thought.