Free Fatal Care by Leonard Goldberg

minute,” Lori said. “He lives close by.”
    Murdock gazed down at the opened chest of Oliver Rhodes. One man’s death was another man’s gain, he thought. That’s the way it always was. Oliver’s death would give Memorial a new heart institute—if his death was cardiac related. And it was, according to Joanna Blalock. Murdock wondered how a heart tumor caused someone to die suddenly. Mortimer Rhodes would want to know that, too. “Joanna, how does a tumor like this induce sudden death?”
    “By inducing an arrhythmia,” Joanna told him. “This tumor has invaded deeply into the interventricular septum where the heart’s conduction system is located. All electrical impulses travel from the atria to the ventricles via the septum. If the septum is diseased, such as by an infiltrating tumor, the conduction system goes haywire and you end up with severe cardiac arrhythmias.”
    Murdock gave the explanation thought as he peeled off his gloves. “Can that be proved here?”
    “No,” Joanna said. “But it’s the most likely sequence of events.”
    “So there’s no doubt in your mind that Oliver’s death was cardiac in nature?”
    “No doubt at all.”
    The ventilation system clicked on, and Murdock felt the air stir in the special autopsy room where contaminated cases were done. He leaned against the wall and organized his thoughts. Once the frozen sections confirmed the diagnosis, he would call Mortimer Rhodes. After that, Oliver’s body would be meticulously sewn together and sent to the funeral home in the early morning hours. Then a carefully worded statement would be released to the press. There would be no need for Murdock to mention the new institute to Mortimer Rhodes. The old man would bring up the subject himself.
    The door opened, and a portly, balding middle-aged man entered. He was wearing a long white laboratory coat over a green scrub suit. His name tag read DENNIS GREEN, M.D. — ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PATHOLOGY.
    “Thanks for coming in, Dennis,” Joanna said.
    “No problem.” Green nodded to Joanna and then to Murdock, who didn’t bother to nod back. “What have you got?”
    “We’re doing an autopsy on Oliver Rhodes,” Joanna replied. Then she sneezed and reached for a tissue.
    Green glanced over at the body, thinking that Oliver Rhodes looked a lot larger in life than in death. He turned his attention back to Joanna. “And?”
    “And,” Joanna continued, wiping her nose, “he has a pulmonary lesion and a heart lesion that appear to be malignant. We want that confirmed on a frozen section.”
    Green looked at Joanna strangely. “You called me in to do a frozen section on a dead man who has carcinoma of the lung that metastasized to the heart?”
    “It’s not so straightforward,” Joanna explained. “I think he’s got a primary malignancy of the heart.”
    “Well, well,” Green said, becoming interested. “Do you think it’s a rhabdomyosarcoma?”
    “That would be my guess,” Joanna said. “And it may be metastatic to the lung.”
    “Or the lung may just be a run-of-the-mill carcinoma,” Green thought aloud. “He may have two separate cancers.”
    “Exactly.”
    Joanna picked up two small bottles containing small fragments of tissue. One was labeled A, the other B. “
A
is the lung;
B
is the heart.”
    Green took the specimens from her. “I’ll be back in a flash.”
    Murdock waited for Green to leave and then asked Joanna, “Is he as good at this as people say he is?”
    “He’s the best,” Joanna assured him. “The oncology surgeons always ask for him to do their cases.”
    Murdock stretched his neck, trying to relieve some of the tightness. “Was there a reason you found it necessary to mention the name of Oliver Rhodes to Dr. Green?”
    “I wanted him to know why I was dragging him out in the middle of the night to do frozen sections on a corpse.”
    The cell phone inside Murdock’s coat chirped. With a weary sigh, he reached for it. Mortimer Rhodes