Nate sat on the proffered chair. “Dr. Kim, I’m here as a part of an active investigation. I need to follow up on someone who’d have been processed through this office a little over a week ago. I hope you can help answer some questions.”

The medical examiner held a neutral expression as he stated, “Well, if it’s not already in the records, I’m not sure how much help I can be. After all, Agent Carrington, we process thousands of cases through the coroner’s office. I’ll do what I can. What’s the name of the deceased?”

“Jonathan LaForce. All I was given was a summary incident report from the Las Vegas PD. Evidently he was burned and had some injuries to his neck.”

“Oh, yes! I remember that case. I did the autopsy. Let me pull up my report.” He began typing at his computer. “What did you need to know?”

“I’d like to get a full copy of your findings. When I called earlier, I seemed to run into some issues getting those copies.”

“LaForce, you say?” The medical examiner typed the name and frowned. “L-a-f-o-r-c-e?”

Nate pulled out his notepad to check his notes. “Yes, that’s right. Is there a problem?”

“One second.” The medical examiner picked up one of the folders on his desk, flipped it open, and began typing. A moment later he shook his head. “His record is not coming up in the database.” He typed a bit more, then shrugged. “Maybe a computer issue. But I remember the case well, it’s not often we get a partially desiccated body, attacked by what I believe was some kind of dog, and covered from head to toe in soot.” He tapped his chin. “I hate to be too specific without my notes, but I can recall the basics. Cause of death was a laceration of the carotid artery. There were bite marks on the man’s wrist—I’d say a wolf bite, but we don’t have wolves in this area, hence my guess it was a large dog with a powerful biting force. The lungs were perfectly clean—no soot, no smoke inhalation. The toxicology screen… I’m sorry, I can’t recall. A lot of cases come through here and they do become somewhat of a blur. I wouldn’t want to misspeak.”

Nate jotted all this down. “Thanks for the summary. I’m still going to need a copy of the full report, any other notes or transcription records of the autopsy, and any and all photos. Since the computer’s giving you trouble, perhaps I could Xerox a hard copy?”