Sour Grapes

medical examiner’s vocabulary,” Savannah said.
    “Sure it is. I get grossed out as quickly as anybody.” She set the case she was carrying on the floor and walked closer to the bed. “ Then how do you do what you do?”
    The M.E. produced a flashlight and leaned over the stain, studying it closely. “Easy,” she said. “My curiosity is greater than my yuck-factor.”
    Savannah allowed her a couple of minutes to think and scrutinize the area, until her own curiosity got the best of her. “Well, what do you think? Any ideas about what that fleshy stuff is there in the middle?”
    Dr. Liu opened her case and removed several items: a large cotton swab, a glass vial, and a small bottle of fluid.
    “I have an idea what it is,” she said. “Or at least what it isn’t. Hang on a minute and let me check.”
    With one of the swabs she collected some of the blood that lay, congealing, near the unidentified tissue, and stuck it into the glass vial. She unscrewed the lid of the bottle and poured a small amount of the fluid into the vial. After swirling it around for a moment, she held it up to the light and nodded. “Yes, that’s what I thought.”
    “What? What did you thought... er... think. What the hell is it?”
    Dr. Liu sealed the vial with a stopper and began to write on its identification label. “It’s blood, but it isn’t human. And neither are those.” She pointed to the glob in the center.
    “Not human?” Savannah released a sigh of relief. “Well, what kind is it?”
    Dr. Liu laughed. “You detectives don’t expect much of us medical examiners, do you? I can’t tell. These field tests aren’t that sophisticated. Although once I get back in the lab, I’ll be able to identify the source.”
    She placed the vial in a small, padded pouch and zipped it closed. Then she removed a Polaroid camera from her case and took a couple of photos of the bed, the wall and its writing, the window and surrounding area. “ Those organs are too small to be human,” she said. “I don’t even think they’re mammal. If I’m not mistaken, I think that mass on the right is a gizzard. Probably from a chicken.”
    Savannah looked closely at the area she was indicating. “It does look that way, doesn’t it? I remember Granny Reid used to fry up a batch of those when we couldn’t afford wings and drumsticks.”
    Dr. Liu gave her a funny look, and she quickly added, “Hey, they weren’t so bad. Anything’s good if you slap enough gravy on it.”
    “Ah-h huh. Whatever you say.”
    “I say, ‘Thank God, this isn’t a homicide scene.’ It must be somebody’s idea of a sick joke. But when I think of how scared my baby sister was, I want to shove these chicken guts up their nose sideways.”
    “I understand completely. I’ll take these back to the lab and identify them for sure. And then if you find your culprit, you can have them back and do just that.” Dr. Liu finished scraping the entrails into another evidence container. Then she knelt on the floor, packed everything away, and snapped her case closed. Standing, she brushed off the knees of her leather pants. “So, you don’t mind if I go back to my hot date? I left him in a Tahitian bar, sipping daiquiris from a pineapple. If I’m lucky, he’ll still be there when I get back.” Savannah grinned and slapped her on the back. “Don’t worry, Doc. He’ll be there. As good as you look tonight... believe me... he’ll be there.”
    “He’d better be,” she said as she opened the door. “If he isn’t, you owe me a ten-pound box of Godiva.”
    “You’ve got it. Have a good time.”
    Savannah saw that Catherine Villa was still there, standing in the hall outside the doorway with that distraught look on her face.
    “Mrs. Villa, good news,” Savannah said, motioning her to come closer. Then she added under her breath, “If you consider having chicken blood and guts on your bedspread good news.” She patted the woman’s shoulder comfortingly and said, “Now I’m not nearly so worried about Barbie Matthews, and you shouldn’t be either. She’s probably ju-u-ust fine.”

Chapter

11
    A s Savannah stood in the shower and allowed the hot water to flow over her weary body, she wished that she could just melt and slide down the drain along with the shampoo suds.
    She was sine that she had been this exhausted and discouraged at some point in her life, but at the moment she couldn’t remember when.
    The night hours spent looking for Barbie