Page 79 of Her Only Hero

“Yes, of course.” I backed away. I removed my personal protective equipment, washed my hands, and left the morgue area. Instead of returning to the lab, I made a beeline to theend of the hallway. I slammed the door open and burst outside. I leaned against the rough brick wall and gulped a lungful of fresh air. I hadn’t killed David Moreno. I hadn’t even injured him. In silent prayer, I closed my eyes and listened to wind gusts and rustling leaves. The crisp temperature invigorated me like a dunk in a glacial lake. The burden of guilt broke free from my soul.

David Moreno, I don’t know what happened to you, but I’m going to do my best to find out.

I returned to work with a renewed purpose to find answers. I kept checking the time and shifted restlessly in my chair. I couldn’t wait another second and went to Aram’s office. When I arrived, his office was empty. I should have been more patient. I turned to retreat and saw him walking toward me. He smiled disarmingly, catching me off guard.

“Looking for me?” he said.

Busted. “Yes, I’m a bit early.”

“Come in.” We entered his office. He closed the door, pulled out a chair for me, and sat behind his desk. “How are you doing? Have you recovered from this morning?”

“I am enormously better now, knowing I wasn’t responsible for David’s death. Aram, I’ve been so self-absorbed through all of this. Thank you for always being so kind and for putting my mind at ease.”

“You’ve never been self-absorbed. I’m glad to have helped.”

I needed to keep this conversation focused on business. “So, what did you find during the autopsy? And please leave nothing out.”

He leaned into his chair and crinkled his brow before he spoke. “Upon examination, it appeared David had a lot of internal bleeding. A distended abdomen, hemorrhagic areas around the organs, skin bruises.”

“He was beat up?”

“He was likely assaulted, which wouldn’t have caused the serious injuries he sustained if he didn’t have a bleeding disorder. Any blunt force injury could be made one-hundred times worse.”

“Von Willebrand’s disease,” I said.

“Yes, Von Willebrand’s. It’s more common than hemophilia, but less known about.”

“Poor guy,” I said. “And then he gets shot. Did he die from extreme blood loss?”

“June, that is the main reason I wanted to speak with you. Because of his condition, and lack of medical care, David Moreno did indeed suffer severe blood loss. Yes, he was anemic, but the cause of death wasn’t blood loss. It was a brain hemorrhage.”

“Oh my God.”

“I’ve taken representative samples from the brain, other organs, veins, arteries. Also, all fluids—urine, blood, eye. And I submitted a request for a toxicology screen as well.”

“Is excessive bleeding the reason people with Von Willebrand’s die? And so young?”

“It’s possible, but cases like this aren’t well documented.”

“Aram, I appreciate how you always make time to help.”

“Of course,” he said.

I stood.

“Did you ever figure out who those people are on that flash drive?”

All this time, I’d been obsessing about who the drive belonged to. The only logical answer was David Moreno. He had hid it in my basement, and it appeared people were after him. But the next question was, what was its significance?

“No. I’m more curious than ever as to who those people are.”

“I don’t have time at this moment, but do you want me to have another look? I can search each number in the hospital database to see if they are actually patient ID numbers?”

“I’d be really interested to know that.”

“Would you like to come to my place one evening and check it out together?”

“Your place?”

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