“No, because it would have made his decision more difficult,” Arun said. “This way he has no responsibility. He can claim he didn’t know, which is true. The more important thing is just to get it done without delay.”

“Okay, let’s do it,” Laurie said. She and Jack had donned appropriate suits and gloves. Arun and Neil had just put on gowns. Knowing Maria’s history, no one chose to wear isolation hoods.

“You or I?” Jack said, as he gestured toward Maria’s naked corpse laid out on the only autopsy table.

“I’ll do it,” Laurie said. She took the scalpel and began making the traditional Y-shaped autopsy incision.

“Alright. Let’s go over this again,” Arun said. “I’m really interested. You said you were considering poisoning.”

“We are,” Jack admitted. “Because of time constraints we are approaching this case differently than usual. We are starting with a hypothesis and trying to prove if it is right or wrong. Normally, when we do an autopsy we try to keep an open mind so as not to miss anything. Here we are going to see if there is anything specifically confirming poisoning while we confirm or rule out the provisional diagnosis of a heart attack.”

“We even have an idea about the specific agent,” Laurie said, straightening up from having made the initial incision. She then exchanged the scalpel for the hefty bone clippers.

“Really!” both Arun and Neil voiced simultaneously.

“We do,” Jack agreed, as Laurie clipped through the ribs. “First of all, we suspect a healthcare person to be the perpetrator. Having the deaths occur at more than one hospital, we expect it to be a doctor. Since we suspect a doctor, we have to think about drugs since doctors have access to drugs and all three patients had keep-open IVs running. Considering the history of cyanosis, particularly cyanosis that rapidly cleared on the third case during resuscitation, we have to think of curare-like substances used in anesthesia for muscle paralysis.”

Laurie finished with the bone clippers and removed the sternum with Jack’s help.

“Let’s go right for the heart,” Laurie said. “If there’s evidence of a major heart attack, we might have to completely revise our thoughts.”

“I agree,” Jack said.

“There’s quite a number of drugs that cause respiratory paralysis,” Neil said. “Do you favor some over others?”

Laurie and Jack worked rapidly, each anticipating the other’s movements. Jack reached for a pan on a side table, and the en bloc dissection of the heart and lungs sloshed into it.