“He said there was no sign of domestic violence,” Jack said. “Now he’s not the world’s greatest medical examiner in my opinion, but recognizing domestic violence isn’t that hard even though it can be subtle.”

“Why did you ask about toxicology?” Warren questioned.

“Poisons, things like that are picked up in toxicology,” Jack said. “That kind of stuff goes on.”

Warren looked at Flash.

“Do you want me to continue looking into this?” Jack asked.

Flash nodded. “I’m sure he killed her.”

“After what you just heard, why do you still feel that way?”

“Because she didn’t have no strong history of asthma and allergies.”

“Are you sure?” Jack asked with astonishment.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Flash said. “I’m her brother, ain’t I? Hey, she had a little when she was young. But I’m talking about when she was ten. Over the last couple of years I’ve been talking to her at least once a week. She didn’t have no allergies and no asthma.”

“My word,” Jack said. “That puts a new spin on all this.”

“What else can you do?” Warren asked.

“I can call the attending doctor, for one thing,” Jack said. “The doctor that took care of her at the Coney Island Hospital.”

Since Jack had the Yellow Pages open to the hospital section, it was easy for him to get the number. He called and asked for Dr. Michael Cooper to be paged. When he got the man on the line, he went through his usual ME routine of explaining who he was and why he was calling. In contrast to Randolph, Michael was cooperative and not at all defensive.

“I do remember Connie Davydov,” Michael said. “Tough case! She came in essentially moribund. The EMTs described her as very cyanotic when they arrived at her home and barely breathing if at all. She’d collapsed in the bathroom where her husband found her. They gave her oxygen immediately and ventilated her. When she got here to the ER she was acidotic with a CO2 off the chart and low arterial oxygen saturation. The numbers improved with adequate ventilation but her clinical state didn’t. She had no peripheral reflexes, dilated and fixed pupils, and an essentially flat EEG. There wasn’t much we could do.”

“How did her chest sound?” Jack asked.

“By the time she got here, it sounded clear,” Michael said. “But that didn’t surprise us with the low oxygen saturation and the degree of acidosis she had. All her muscles, including her smooth muscles, were essentially paralyzed. Considering her size, she was like a beached whale.”

“Any suggestion of a heart attack?”

“Nope,” Michael said. “The EKG was essentially normal, although the rate was very slow, and there were some changes consistent with her low arterial oxygen.”

“What about stroke?”