DR. KENT FREDRICK PARKER, chief pathologist for the Delphi hospital, rushed into his office, his white lab coat unbuttoned and open, his top pocket crammed with pens. He swept a long, gray hair out of his face and then brushed his fingers over the coffee stain on his shirt.
Then he reached out a hand to greet Harry Putnam and Harriet Bender, who were already seated in his office.
Putnam led off by reminding him they were there to discuss the Mary Sue Fellows case. The last time they had met was at the beginning of the case, to quickly retain an affidavit, verifying his lab results on the blood sample taken from Joshua Fellows. As Parker situated himself behind his desk, he quickly acknowledged that, indeed, he did remember the case very well.
“Doctor, I sent you a copy of the affidavit that you signed for us previously. Did you get it?”
Parker nodded and retrieved it from a file that lay on the desk.
“We just want to go over your findings with you to make sure we’ve got it all nailed down. Your testimony at trial will basically follow the information we obtained from you on the affidavit,” Putnam said.
“And when is this trial coming up?”
“I believe the trial date was mentioned in Mr. Putnam’s cover letter to you,” Harriet Bender chimed in. “Check your file, Doctor—I’m sure it’s in the letter.”
Parker glanced again at his file, retrieved the letter, and nodded in agreement.
“With the trial date only ten days away, we wanted to go through the questions that we will be asking then,” Putnam continued. “So, the basics we want from you in your testimony are the identification that the blood sample came from Joshua during a hospitalization, the results of your lab test on the blood sample, the fact that the blood was determined to contain ethylene glycol, and the fact that ethylene glycol is one of the main ingredients in hydraulic brake fluid,” Putnam concluded.
“On that last point about hydraulic brake fluid…” Parker said with some hesitation in his voice.
“We’ve got that covered,” Harriet Bender said. She handed a stapled packet of papers to him.
“These are some technical papers from manufacturers of hydraulic brake fluid. They give its chemical breakdown, which includes the ingredients of ethylene glycol.”
The doctor thumbed quickly through the packet of papers.
“Can I expect to be interviewed by anyone else before trial, other than you two?” Parker asked.
“I’m not sure. Possibly defense counsel for Ms. Fellows,” Putnam said.
Then Bender tittered and added, “Although we’re not sure about that—Mr. Chambers is cooling his heels in the county jail on a contempt-of-court order right now.”
“Yeah, I think I heard something about that,” Parker remarked.
Harry Putnam’s gut instinct as a trial lawyer was to probe into Parker’s last comment a little, but he resisted the temptation and decided to approach it from a broader perspective.
“Before we get into the particulars, Dr. Parker, is there anything you think you should share with us at this point that might be problematic concerning your evaluation of Joshua Fellows’ blood sample?”
“Problematic in what way?” Parker asked.
Harry Putnam was jiggling his ballpoint pen in his fingers rapidly.
“Problematic in the sense that you believe it might undermine the validity of your conclusion that Joshua Fellows’ blood contained ethylene glycol,” Putnam explained, studying Parker carefully. “Or that might impact your credibility as a witness.”
Dr. Parker removed his glasses and wiped the sweat from his nose, then calmly cleaned the lenses with the fabric of his lab coat.
Putting his glasses back on, he answered.
“I see nothing problematic, Mr. Putnam. Nothing at all.”