CHAPTER 52
Manhattan, NY Monday, July 5, 2021
WALT DROVE THROUGH THE QUEENS-MIDTOWN TUNNEL AND ACROSS the East River. Forest Hills was a small community in Queens where he had tracked down the man he was looking for. Walt was not only surprised that Dr. Jarrod Lockard—the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Cameron Young—remembered him, but that the doctor was eager to meet. Twenty years before, Jarrod Lockard was known as the Wizard for his ability to take apart a corpse and magically find the clues it left behind. Walt imagined the doctor now, two decades later, as a stooped-over elderly man who lived alone, never able to marry because so many of his days had been spent so close to death that meaningful connections to the living were impossible. The pit of Walt’s gut buzzed with nervous butterflies at the prospect of seeing the Wizard after so many years, but he could think of no one else who could better answer the question he had formed while reviewing the lost Cameron Young files.
He drove along Austin Street and through the center of town, passing Tudor-styled buildings that lined the quaint shopping area. He turned down a quiet side street and found Dr. Lockard’s home—a two-story, half-timbered structure that looked well maintained. He parked in the driveway and walked to the front door, where he rang the bell and wiped his sweaty palms on the sides of his khakis. When the door opened, Walt felt like he was in a time machine. Jarrod Lockard had not changed from Walt’s memory of him. The man still sported a head of wild white hair that looked impossible to tame even for the most experienced hairdresser. If this feature embarrassed the doctor, it didn’t show. Somewhere in his seventies now, the man’s face carried the same cavernous folds that curved like parentheses around his lips and accentuated jowls that drooped like melted frosting.
“Dr. Lockard. Walt Jenkins.”
Dr. Lockard’s lips twisted subtly, the closest he ever came to smiling. Walt remembered how none of the detectives at the BCI had ever been able to read Jarrod Lockard’s mood. His facial expression never veered far from stoic and carried a perpetual look of attending his mother’s funeral.
“Detective. It’s been a while.”
Dr. Lockard offered his hand. Walt took it nervously, remembering that shaking hands with Jarrod Lockard was like squeezing a wet sponge.
“Twenty years,” Walt said.
“They look to have treated you well.”
“You too.” Walt released his grip. “You honestly look the exact same.”
“So when we worked together two decades ago, I looked like a seventy-year-old man?”
“No,” Walt said, coughing and choking on an errant bolus of saliva. “I meant . . . you look . . .”
Dr. Lockard stared at him without speaking.
“Good. That’s all,” Walt said, looking for a way out of the awkward reunion. “You look good.”
“Was there something on your mind, Detective?”
“Yes. An old case we worked on together.”
The doctor nodded. “Come in.”
Walt followed him into the house.
“Have a seat,” Dr. Lockard said when they entered the kitchen.
The house felt quiet and empty and eerie.
“Can I get you something to drink? I’ve got coffee still warm.”
“That would be perfect,” Walt said.
Jarrod Lockard poured two cups of coffee and sat with Walt at the kitchen island.
“What is it that you need my help with?”
Walt took a sip of coffee and felt Dr. Lockard’s stare on him. He tried hard to control the irrational nervousness that came from sitting in the man’s kitchen.
“Do you remember the Cameron Young case?”
Dr. Lockard shrugged. “Cameron Young. My favorite dead author. I remember some of it. But that was a long time ago, and I’ve been retired for a decade now. I have trouble remembering where I left my slippers.”
About to refresh the doctor’s memory, Walt startled when a black Burmese cat hopped onto the kitchen island, appearing suddenly as if it had been conjured from thin air. It slunk along the far edge of the counter, its back arched and its tail straight up like a snake about to strike. Jade-green eyes glowed from the depths of the cat’s jet-black face, with vertical slits for pupils staring at Walt as if he was trespassing.
“Walt,” Dr. Lockard said, reaching for the cat. “Where are your manners?”
Walt looked, slack jawed, from the cat to Dr. Lockard. “You have a cat named Walt?”
Dr. Lockard ran his hand over the cat’s back as it purred softly. “Purely coincidence, Detective. I’ve never married, so in lieu of companionship I have a house full of cats. There are only so many names.”
Walt shifted his gaze around the kitchen, imagining other feline eyes staring at him from the shadows.
Dr. Lockard looked blankly at Walt as he continued to pet the cat. The edges of his lips eventually curled again into the subtlest of smiles. “I’m fucking with you, Detective.”
Walt stayed still for a moment, confused. “Your cat’s not named after me?”
“No. This is Mortimer. He’s the only cat in the house and I can’t stand the goddamn thing.” Dr. Lockard lifted the cat off his lap and dropped it onto the ground where it hissed before scurrying off. “My wife and I are watching it for our daughter, who’s away for the Fourth of July holiday. But she’s picking the furry thing up this morning. Any minute, in fact. So stop sitting there like a prom queen who shit her dress, and spit out what it is you need, Detective, before my grandchildren swarm this house. Because I won’t be able to talk about dead authors from twenty years ago after they arrive.”
Walt finally smiled.
“I’m not as scary as you think, Detective. But my wife hates when I talk about old cases, so let’s get this show on the road.”
“Got it,” Walt said, reaching into the breast pocket of his sport coat and pulling out a piece of paper.
“I’m reviewing the Cameron Young case.”
“Why?”
“It’s a long story. American Events, the television show, is planning to produce a documentary about the case. I’m consulting on the project and came across something I need your opinion on.” Walt laid the piece of paper on the counter and pointed at it. “I found this forensics report . . . well, not hidden, exactly, but not made available at the time of the investigation.”
The doctor squinted his eyes as he looked at Walt. “Who was the prosecutor?”
“Maggie Greenwald.”
“Oh, say no more. Square Peg Maggie. She had a knack for making evidence disappear.”
“Unfortunately. And this case, because of the unusual circumstances, was not one that came under the scrutiny of the Southern District during their investigation of Maggie Greenwald. But I managed to get my hands on it and I can’t figure out a few things I came across.”
Dr. Lockard pulled the page close to him and lifted his chin to see through his bifocals.
“Victoria Ford’s urine and blood were discovered at the crime scene. The urine was found in the unflushed toilet; the blood was on the carpeting. DNA analysis confirmed that both the urine and the blood belonged to her. But the forensic report has me confused.”
“How so?” Dr. Lockard asked.
“The report shows that the urine contained a high level of ammonia, and that the blood had a series of chemicals in it.”
“Chemicals?”
Dr. Lockard began to read the report.
“Yeah,” Walt said. “Listed in trace amounts in the blood were styrene, chloroform, glyphosate, and triclosan. What are they, and are they usually found in blood samples?”
Dr. Lockard shook his head as he continued to read. “No. Those things are not naturally found in blood.”
“How about the ammonia in the urine? Is that normal?”
“No.”
“So where did it come from? And what are the chemicals in the blood?”
Dr. Lockard ran his tongue over the corners of his lips. The Wizard, Walt thought, had been conjured.
Dr. Lockard blinked a few times. “The ammonia is easy. Urea breaks down into ammonia after twenty-four hours. So the urine collected from the toilet was more than twenty-four hours old.”
Walt considered the timeline. Cameron Young’s body was in the early stages of rigor mortis, and had been hanging for much less than twenty-four hours.
“What about the chemicals in the blood?” Walt asked.
“Let’s see. Styrene is a chemical used to make rubber and plastic products. Chloroform is a solvent and general anesthetic. Glyphosate is, I believe, a pesticide. And triclosan is an antibacterial and antifungal agent.”
“If the blood at the crime scene belonged to Victoria Ford,” Walt said, “and we can forensically prove it did, why would she have all those chemicals in her system?”
“She didn’t,” Dr. Lockard said.
He stood up and walked to the kitchen nook to grab his laptop. He returned to the island, opened the computer, and began tapping on the keyboard. Walt looked at the monitor just as Dr. Lockard finished typing into the search engine. Walt saw the query:
Chemicals found in tampons
Dr. Lockard nodded, pointing at the monitor. “The styrene came from the plastic applicator of a tampon. The chloroform is an anesthetic because, you know, women push babies out of their bodies but corporations don’t believe they’re tough enough to handle a tampon. Glyphosate is a pesticide used in cotton crops that, sadly, finds its way into cotton tampons. And finally, the triclosan is used as a preservative to prevent contamination.”
Walt hesitated as he, too, stared at the monitor, trying to make sense of it.
Dr. Lockard turned from the screen and looked at Walt. “If I were involved with this case, more than simply performing the postmortem exam on the victim, the chemicals found in the crime scene blood, as well as the ammonia in the urine, would raise some serious red flags.”
“Red flags for what?”
“That the urine was badly preserved before being placed in the toilet, and that the blood had been harvested from a tampon and planted at the scene.”