Page 37 of Inevitable Secrets

“Dr. Parker, let’s cut the bullshit,” Taylor said, standing and slapping her palms on his desk. “I want to know the truth. I want to know what you found on Cedric Preston’s body. I want to know why you wrote two autopsy reports. And I want to know right now,” she demanded, enunciating the last two words by slapping her hands on his desk.

Taylor watched as Parker slid a hand down the leg of his khakis.

Taylor leaned forward. “The panic button you are slyly reaching for has been disconnected,” she informed him.

Parker leaned back slowly and cleared his throat, “Ms. Preston—”

“Mrs. Preston-Fletcher,” she corrected.

“Yes, well I really have no idea where you got this but I assure you the report that was published is the actual one.”

“No, it isn’t. And I have the Medical Board of California on speed dial and I am sure they would loooove to hear about these,” Taylor said, pointing to the papers on his desk. “And lest you think this is the only copy in existence, you’d be dead wrong.”

“Y-You can’t do that,” Parker said, his voice several octaves higher than before, “it’s slander.”

“I have a lot of lawyers, Dr. Parker,” Taylor informed him, “and I have a lot of money. And speaking of money, you were paid a lot of money and it went into an offshore account the day after my uncle died, the day these reports were written, actually. So why don’t you start telling me the facts and I won’t ruin your entire life.”

Parker picked up the original report from his desk and began flipping through its pages, “I thought I had deleted it. I thought this was gone.”

“Dr. Parker,” Taylor chided, “as a very well-educated man you should already know that nothing is ever truly gone.”

He nodded. “This is what I found,” he said, sliding the original report back towards Taylor.

“So I assumed,” Taylor remarked dryly. “How did he die?”

Parker took several deep breaths and wiped his brow. “He really did have a critical amount of drugs within his body,” he said.

“So the trauma, it had no bearing at all?” Taylor asked calmly.

“The trauma definitely would have knocked him out,” Parker said confidently, “but it would not have killed him.”

“Do you think he could have struck his head after he took all the drugs?” Taylor questioned.

Parker shook his head, then shrugged. “I guess it is possible, but the shape of the trauma to his head seemed to me more likely caused from being struck by an object,” he explained, reaching his hand up and behind his own head to demonstrate. “The impact appeared to come down from the top instead of from him falling down onto something.” The doctor hesitated for a second. “Also, he wasn’t found on the ground or anywhere that would indicate a fall.”

“I understand he was found upright per your reports.”

“Yes,” Parker confirmed, “when I arrived at the scene he was in a seated position on a couch, a needle in his arm.”

“So is it possible he struck his head and then overdosed?”

“The amount of trauma to the head, I very much doubt that Mr. Preston was even conscious after he sustained it, therefore injecting a lethal amount of drugs into a vein in his arm would have been out of the question.”

“And you are sure that Cedric was alive when he was hit in the head?”

Parker nodded his head, “It was definitely premortem,” he said.

“But there was no blood,” Taylor said.

“I believe his body was moved from the actual scene.”

“Are you telling me that Cedric Preston was murdered?” Taylor asked bluntly.

“Let me just say that I ran tests on Cedric Preston’s hair follicles for drugs, which gives me the past three months’ drug use prior to his death. You know what I found? Nothing. He was clean. The only drugs that Cedric had taken in the months before his death were the ones in his system when he died. And as I said, based on that head injury, I seriously doubt he would have had the coordination to administer the dose.”

Taylor absorbed the information.

“All this evidence of foul play, Dr. Parker. Now tell me, why did you write a new report?”

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