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An Affair of the Heart

By Chuck Semenuk

Harper Rains was walking past the dispatcher’s desk when the call came in.

“Dispatch, this is Sloan County Sheriff’s K9 unit S3, over.”

“S3, this is dispatch, over.”

“Dispatch, I am located on county road 12, about two and a half miles off state highway 7. I need a CSI team at this location, over.”

The dispatcher looked up at Harper. “Harp, do you want to take this?”

Harper sat down at the desk and pulled the microphone toward him.

“Deputy, this is Lieutenant Rains of the CSI unit. What’s going on? Over.”

“Hi, Harp. This is Jerry Faber. I found an abandoned car off the side of the road on county 12. During my investigation, my K9 picked up a scent. He led me to a body, white male, about sixty years of age, approximately 100 yards into the brush. No identification, no obvious injuries, over.”

“Sit tight, Jerry. We’re on our way, over.”

######

Harper Rains and his team arrived at the site within a half hour and began processing the scene. Deputy Faber detailed his activity from the moment he arrived.

“While on patrol, I noticed this car; it had been pulled fairly far off the road. The doors were locked and I did not see any keys inside or on the ground in the immediate area.”

“I let my K9 have a go at it and he led me to the body, about 100 yards in.”

Medical Examiner Carl Tweed had begun his preliminary examination of the body as Harper made his way through the brush.

He squatted down and looked at the body. “What can you tell me so far, Carl?”

“I’d say that our deceased friend has been dead for about two days. I see no obvious wounds. Certainly, I see nothing to indicate the cause of his demise at this point. We’ll know more when we get him to the lab.”

Harper took particular notice of the way the man was dressed.

“Sweat pants and sneakers, with a dress shirt. That’s kind of a strange outfit for an older gent.”

Carl touched the collar of the man’s shirt. “Harp, the buttons on his shirt are skewed, one button off. Do you think someone else may have put his shirt on post mortem?”

Harper scratched his head. “That’s interesting. Let’s get him to the lab, Carl.”

Harper walked back to the abandoned car where two of his investigators were processing it.

“Tell me you have some good news, Will.”

Will Dagget turned toward him. “Harp, this car is as clean as a whistle. Someone took extra care in wiping it down. There isn’t a smudge anywhere. They locked it up when they left and took the keys with them. I did find a couple of grey hairs in the trunk. The car appears to be a rental. We’re still trying to find out who may have been driving. Hopefully, we’ll find out more at the lab.”

“I hope so. Okay, load it up.”




######
Harper was hard at work reading Missing Persons reports from various state agencies, looking for a man who fit the description of the body found on county road 12 when his phone rang.

“Harp, this is Carl. Please come to the autopsy room. I’ve got plenty to tell you.”
Harper entered the medical lab where an excited Carl met him at the door. “Well, have you figured out what happened to our friend on the table?”

“Our poor John Doe’s last minutes alive were unbelievable. Once I removed his clothes, I found this little item stuck to his side.” He handed Harper a small plastic bag.
“Is this what I think it is?”

“Yes, it is. It’s one of those stick-on electrodes that they use to connect EKG equipment to your body. After finding it, I closely examined other areas of the body where electrodes would likely have been attached. I found very slight marks where they had been ripped from his skin and some adhesive residue normally not visible to the naked eye.”

Harper smiled. “Given the way he was dressed, it looks like our John Doe had been having a cardio stress test before he died.”

“More likely, at the time he died,” said Carl.

“Are you saying he died of a heart attack?”

“Actually no, although he had been worked very rigorously. I can’t believe that his cardiologist pushed him so hard. I analyzed his blood and found that his pH was dangerously low. The amount of carbon dioxide in his blood was extremely high. Our friend was suffering from acute acidosis. His lungs weren’t able to remove the carbon dioxide fast enough. Such a condition could be fatal without intervention. Given time to rest and replace the oxygen in his blood, he would probably have recovered but he died before that could happen.”

Harper shook his head. “Now, I’m just as confused as I was before.”

“Here’s where it gets really interesting,” smiled Carl. “I’ve found that our John Doe has a broken neck. There is a substantial bruise on the back of his head and a slight skull fracture. I theorize that he may have fallen backwards into some immoveable object, jamming his head forward with considerable force, breaking his neck and severing the spinal cord. I estimate time of death to be late Saturday afternoon.”

“What in the world happened to this poor guy?”

“Someone apparently put his shirt back on after he was dead, with the buttons askew. It looks as if we may have a cardiologist out there who might be guilty of causing this man’s death or at least, covering it up.”

 ######
Harper entered the crime lab garage where his team was finishing up processing the car.

“Where are we with this car, guys?”

Will Dagget looked at his notes. “I ran the VIN number through the DMV. The car is registered to a local car lot that uses it for rental. They reported it stolen Monday morning. We checked the area where the car had been parked but didn’t find anything. The lot owner said that his rental manager didn’t show up for work Monday.”

“Get a name, address and description of this rental manager and check him out. Were you able to find anything else in the car?”

“I found this plastic bottle cap under the driver’s seat. It still had a slight odor of alcohol. It looks as if someone had given the car a good wipe down of all the door handles, steering wheel, and any other areas that the victim or his killer may have touched.”

Arriving back at his office Harper conferred with his lead investigator, Danny Monterra.
After bringing him up to speed with the latest details of the case, he asked Danny for his thoughts.

“It looks as if the only connection to our victim is a mystery cardiologist. What if we check out heart specialists within a fifteen mile radius of the car lot?”

Danny ran a computer search of cardiologists within a fifteen mile radius and came up with a list of six names. He handed it to Harper.

“Okay Danny. I guess we’d better start checking them out. Pick up a photo of John Doe from Carl. I’ll meet you at the car.”

######

Harper and Danny were on their way to the third cardiologist on the list when Harper’s cell phone rang.

“Harp, this is Will. I’ve got a name for our John Doe. The owner of the car lot recognized his photo. It turns out that he’s the missing rental manager. His name is Harry Weisman. The lot owner told me that Mr. Weisman had heart problems. He didn’t know the name of Weisman’s heart doctor.”

“Good work, Will. That should make things a bit easier.”

Harper pulled into the parking lot of the Sloan East Physician Services. Once inside, they entered the offices of Doctor Warren Parker.

The young woman at the desk smiled up at them. Her name tag read Julie. “Good morning. May I help you?”

Harper showed her his identification. “I certainly hope so, Julie. My name is Lieutenant Harper Rains, Sloan County CSI. This is my partner Danny Monterra. Do you think we might be able to speak with Doctor Parker?”

“I’m afraid that Doctor Parker isn’t here. He’s taken a few days off.”

“Can you tell me if the good doctor has a patient by the name of Harry Weisman?”

“I guess it’s alright to tell you that he is one of our patients.”

“We’re trying to find Mr. Weisman. Can you tell me if he’s been here recently?”

“Actually, he hasn’t. He did have an appointment for a stress test last Saturday but Doctor Parker told me that he had cancelled. Since he was the only one that had been scheduled, we all got the day off.”

Danny smiled broadly at Julie. “You know, I’ve always been fascinated by the way a doctor can evaluate a patient’s heart by exercising him on a treadmill. You have an awesome job. I’m kind of a technology junky. Would it be possible to look at the equipment?”

She smiled back. “Well, we have no one scheduled. I suppose it would be alright to show you.”

She led them to an examining room. “Here is our infamous treadmill. This computer controls the treadmill sequencing; the heart’s performance is shown on that screen. All the combined data is stored on the hard drive under the patient’s unique ID.”

“I notice that the wall is only about four feet from the end of the treadmill,” said Harper.

“Boy, that would be bad news if you couldn’t keep up with the speed of the treadmill,” laughed Danny. “I can picture me slamming into the wall.”

“We wouldn’t let that happen,” grinned Julie. She motioned to a chair in the corner. “If a patient is really winded, we slip that chair under him as soon as the test sequence is completed. That gives him a chance to get his breath back before we help him to the examining table.”

While Julie explained some of the finer points of the computer to Danny, Harper quietly slipped on a rubber glove and examined the wall at the end of the treadmill. His fingers traced a shallow indentation in the wall surface approximately two feet above the floor. As he turned to stand up, he noticed a plastic covered card between the treadmill and the adjacent wall. He reached down and picked up the driver’s license of Harry Weisman.
Slipping the license into a plastic bag and secluding it in his pocket, he said “Danny, we have a lot of work to do. We’d better get going.”

After thanking Julie for her time, the two men began their drive to Doctor Parker’s house. “We need to get a warrant to check that hard drive; hopefully our Doctor Parker didn’t erase the data that will show how hard he worked poor Harry Weisman.”

######

Warren Parker sat in his den, pouring himself another stiff drink. He hadn’t been able to get the events of last Saturday out of his head. His wife Jane had been acting a little strange lately. He found that she had not always been where she said she was. He began following her. That was when he saw her meeting with that old coot Harry Weisman. What did she see in an old man with a bad heart?

Warren put together a heinous plan. Harry’s heart was weak. It wouldn’t take much physical stress. He got Harry to agree to come in on a Saturday for a stress test. There would not be anyone else in the office.

When Harry arrived, Warren locked the door so they would not be interrupted. After Harry removed his shirt, Warren applied the electrodes to his body and connected the wires to monitor his heart.

With his patient on the treadmill, Warren started it moving. He slowly increased the speed. Faster and faster. Soon it was obvious that Harry was struggling. His heart was reaching its limits.

Harry gasped, “Doctor Parker, I don’t think I can go any more.”

Warren smiled. “Try to go a little longer, Harry.”

Warren looked at the computer display. Harry’s heart was starting to fibrillate. Harry started to stumble.

“Okay, I’m slowing it down. Hang in there. I’ll slip a chair behind you as soon as the treadmill stops.”

Warren put the chair behind Harry. “Damn,” he thought. “I really didn’t think he could hang on so long.”

Finally, Warren’s anger got the best of him. “What are you doing with my wife, you old leach!”

Harry was startled, but was so out of breath he couldn’t speak.

“Answer me dammit! Why are you messing around with my wife?”

Harry struggled to speak. “No. No. You don’t understand.”

Blinded by visions of Harry with his beautiful wife, Warren turned to the control screen. A few key strokes and the treadmill suddenly took off at full speed. Warren watched the look on Harry’s face as he was propelled backwards. As the rear legs of the chair dropped off the end of the treadmill, Harry was catapulted head first into the wall, his chin jammed into his chest.

Warren turned off the machine. Harry was not breathing. Pulling the limp body out of the tight space, he pulled the test leads off. With a little difficulty, he put Harry’s shirt back on the body.

Warren took the car keys from his pants pocket, went out into the parking lot and moved Harry’s car to the back door of the office suite. Warren was a fairly large man and in good physical condition so he had little problem dragging the body out to the car and placing it in the trunk. Luckily, it was late in the day and starting to get dark. The rear of the building was enclosed and not readily visible to passers-by.

Taking a large box of wipes and a bottle of alcohol from the stock room, he locked the office and drove Harry’s car out of town.

Eventually, Warren found himself on a lonely stretch of county road off of state highway 7. Satisfied that he wouldn’t be seen, he dragged Harry’s lifeless body far off into the heavy vegetation. Returning to the car, he wiped down every place inside and out that he or Harry might have touched and locked it up.

Warren carried the box with all of the wipes, the alcohol bottle and car keys with him as he started walking down the road. After about a half mile, he pitched everything as far as he could into the brush.
Reaching the main highway, Warren hitched a ride back into town with a trucker.

 ######

Warren put his empty glass on the end table as Jane entered the room with the two CSI agents.

Harper spoke first. “Hello, Doctor Parker. We’d like to talk to you about Harry Weisman.”

Warren grinned wryly. “I really didn’t think you’d find him so fast.”

“What is he talking about, Warren? What happened to Harry?” asked Jane. “Warren, what did you do?”

“I did what any man would do if he finds out someone is messing around with his wife,” he said angrily.

“Warren, why didn’t you talk to me? There was nothing going on between us.”

“Don’t lie. I saw you together a number of times.”

“Harry was helping me. You know how much you always wanted a Shelby Cobra. It’s always been your dream car. Harry was helping me locate one. I thought we could buy it for your birthday.”

Warren stared at her. “I didn’t know.”

“Why didn’t you talk to me? Oh, Warren. What did you do?”



Scheduled to be published in the January, 2012 issue of Conceit Magazine.The End