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CHAPTER 35

Cedar Creek, Nevada Wednesday, July 31, 2024

SLOAN SET DR. CUTTY UP ON A VIDEO CONFERENCE CALL AND SET THE phone at the head of the oak table so that she and Eric were in the frame. Introductions were made and Sloan and Eric explained why they needed Dr. Cutty’s expertise on the two autopsy files Sloan had sent her.

“I see,” Dr. Cutty said. “So it’s likely the coroner who performed these autopsies was politically compromised, or at least motivated to come up with exam findings that fit a specific narrative?”

“That’s entirely possible in this town, yes,” Eric said.

Dr. Cutty nodded. “Then that, and the fact that he is a coroner and not a trained pathologist, could explain the discrepancies.”

“What did you find?” Sloan asked.

“Let’s start with Baker Jauncey. It’s clear from the documented exam findings that this man was not killed by a motor vehicle, but rather from a blow to the head that caused a brain bleed.”

“But the official cause of death was listed as a brain bleed from trauma suffered during the hit-and-run incident,” Eric said.

“Yes. The official cause and manner of death were listed along with a brief summary of the exam findings. To a layperson, the truth would be difficult to find. It was only after I dug through the actual postmortem notes and reviewed the exam photos that I determined the cause of death was incorrect.”

“Couldn’t the head wound Baker Jauncey suffered have been caused by the car that hit him?” Eric asked.

“A head wound? Sure. This particular head wound? Not a chance. There are many factors that disprove the theory that a vehicle caused the head injury, but the biggest is that the wounds the vehicle produced to this man’s body were caused postmortem.”

Eric leaned his elbows onto the oak slab to get closer to Sloan’s phone. “He was dead before the car hit him?”

“That’s what the autopsy findings indicate, yes. Besides the wound to the head, all other injuries were caused after he was dead. And the head injury is inconsistent with a motor vehicle accident. From what I could see on the photos and in the coroner’s notes, it was impossible for a car to have caused the head wound.”

Dr. Cutty spent several minutes on the intricacies of person to vehicle encounters and the autopsy findings that are yielded in such circumstances.

“If Baker Jauncey wasn’t killed by the car that ran him over, how did he die?” Sloan asked.

“I closely examined the photos of the skull fracture, along with the measurements that were taken, and my best guess would be that a rounded, wooden object was used to strike Baker Jauncey in the back of the head. The blow caused a brain bleed that killed him.”

Sloan and Eric looked at each other. They didn’t need to speak what they both were thinking: Somehow, Sandy Stamos had learned that Annabelle Margolis was not responsible for Baker Jauncey’s death, which explained why Sandy had never arrested her. And if Sandy knew that someone had killed Baker by striking him in the head and then staging the hit-and-run, that knowledge had likely gotten him killed. Had the same person who killed Baker Jauncey also killed Annabelle Margolis?

“Thanks, Dr. Cutty,” Sloan said, forcing her mind back to the present. “Did you look at the other report?”

“I did,” Dr. Cutty said. “This was your father, Sheriff?”

“It was, yes.”

“And the official line was that your dad drowned when his car went into a body of water?”

“The official report stated that my father was under the influence of heroin, lost control of his car, drove into Cedar Creek, and drowned.”

“Your father didn’t drown, Sheriff. That much is certain.” Sloan saw Eric squint his eyes and swallow hard at the revelation. She reached over and put her hand on his forearm.

“How do you know that?” Eric finally asked.

“Because there was no water in his lungs. If his body was found submerged in water, and he was still breathing at the time, there would be water in his lungs. The sad reality of drowning deaths is that victims hold their breaths for as long as possible. Eventually, however, they inhale. And when they do, water is ingested into their lungs. The lack of water in your father’s lungs means he never inhaled after he was under the water.”

“There was a theory,” Eric said, “that he had been breathing from an air pocket that was trapped in the car. Isn’t that possible?”

“I’m afraid not,” Dr. Cutty said. “If he had been trapped in a vehicle that was submerged under water and breathing from an air pocket, there would have been evidence of carbon dioxide intoxication and subsequent suffocation. It’s called confined space hypoxic syndrome. Sloan will know all about that.”

Sloan looked at Eric and spoke.

“If your dad had taken his last breaths while trapped in his submerged squad car and breathing from an air pocket, eventually the air pocket would have filled with the carbon dioxide he exhaled. Once all the oxygen in the air pocket was depleted, he would have suffocated. And when this happens, there are clear signs of it on autopsy, including hypercapnia and respiratory acidosis. Basically, his bloodstream would have been saturated with carbon dioxide, and his lungs would have filled with frothy blood that’s classic in carbon dioxide poisoning.”

Sloan looked back to Dr. Cutty. “I’m assuming the lungs were clean?”

“Correct,” Dr. Cutty said. “And there was no exaggerated amount of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream.”

Sloan saw that Eric was struggling with the information and she kept her hand on his forearm.

“So what does it mean?” he finally asked.

“It means the last breath your father took was a regular one, from air filled with a normal mixture of oxygen. It means your father was already dead when his car went into the water. At least, he had died before the water submerged him.”

“What killed him? How did he die?”

“A massive amount of heroin,” Dr. Cutty said. “So massive, in fact, that it’s impossible he injected it himself.”

Dr. Cutty shuffled a few papers as she looked through her notes.

“Based on the metabolized heroin in his system, it appears the drug was administered in two doses. The problem is that the first dose was so large it would have rendered your father comatose. Unconscious, at least. The second dose killed him. So my question, Sheriff, is this: If the first dose rendered your father unconscious, how did the second dose get into his bloodstream? Because he certainly didn’t inject it himself.”