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Dietz looked up from his paper "Which re with the autopsy results She wanted you to call her whenever you got up"

"That was fast"

"That’s what I thought She says she likes to get in at five when she’s got a post"

I dialed the nuy I’d dealt with Laura Palchak maybe twice before She’s short, plain, heavyset, coh, and very sists under contract to the county, handling postmortem examinations for the coroner’s office "Palchak," she said when she came on the line "Hi, Laura Kinsey Millhone Thanks for responding to nes Grey?"

There was a brief pause "The coroner’s office will be contacting Mrs Gersh a little later thisso this is just between us, okay?"

"Absolutely"

"The autopsy was negative We won’t have the toxi results back for weeks, but the gross came up blank"

"So what’s the cause of death?"

"Essentially, it was cardiac arrest, but hell… everybody dies of cardiac or respiratory arrest if you want to get right down to it The point is there was no des that contributed to death Technically, we have to list the cause of death as undetermined"

"What’s that mean, ’technically’? I don’t like the way you said that"

She laughed "Good question You’re right I have a hunch about this one, but I need to do some research I’ve talked to the hospital librarian about tracking down an article I read a few years back I don’t knohata little bell"

"Like what? Can you fillmy assistant set up some tissue slides that I can probably take a look at by this afternoon I have sixteen cases lined up before this one, but I’ froestion if you’re open to this I’ the hours she washelp if you can find out where she was all that time"