Page 46 of Disturbing the Dead
“Sadly, no. Even his corpse is a rather dull conversationalist.” He makes a face. “And that was petty and rude. Sir Alastair could be very engaging. I admired his passion for his work, and I always had the feeling we would have gotten on well, if he could have gotten past…”
“The color of your skin?”
“To be honest, that was never an issue. In medical school, I developed a rather finely honed sense for determining who claimed to have no concern with a brown-skinned doctor but obviously did. But that was not a problem with Sir Alastair. At that point, he had already worked for years with Egyptians, experts and professionals as well as laborers. The problem was, well…” A quick glance my way. “The affair with his sister. Although, again, I do not believe his reaction had anything to do with my skin color. He would have been as outraged if Hugh were the man involved.”
“As a widow, his sister was his responsibility. So was her virtue.”
“I am not certain it was that so much as a fear that she would be hurt. She was the one who, well…” He clears his throat. “She initiated the relationship. I think he presumed I had taken advantage of her. A misunderstanding, but not one that would reflect as poorly on him as considering his sister to be his property. His wife—his first wife at least—was very forward thinking, as is his sister, and he did not ever seem to mind that.”
“Yet he did have a problem with women joining the medical school?”
His lips purse. “I thought that was odd. Perhaps his respect for women’s intelligence had limits? I can only imagine that if his first wife had been alive, she would have roundly thumped him for speaking out against female students.”
“His current wife doesn’t seem like a shrinking violet either. Just maybe not as confident in her voice yet.”
“Yes, perhaps they had not been married long enough for her to feel comfortable objecting. Also, I believe Lady Christie was in Cairo when Sir Alastair argued against the young women’s admission. She stayed with the children and helped her brother supervise the dig.” He shakes his head. “But enough of that. You are here to discuss the autopsy.”
“Dare I hope it went well?”
“That depends on whether you—”
A tap at the door, almost inaudible.
I call a hello, and Lorna enters with the tea tray.
“Where would you like this, sir?” she asks.
Gray waves distractedly at a table right beside the dissection table. To her credit, Lorna doesn’t hesitate. She sets the tray down two feet from a naked corpse with a bit of cloth over his groin for privacy. Then she begins pouring the tea.
“You need not do that,” Gray says.
She smiles. “I am fine, sir. It is not often I get to serve tea beside a dead body.”
“You’re doing very well,” I say.
“Thank you, miss.”
We wait until she’s done pouring tea and leaves.
When the door closes behind Lorna, I say, “About the autopsy? You said whether it went well depends on…?”
“On whether you are in the mood to be amused by Addington, rather than wanting to smack your head against the nearest wall.”
“That good, huh?”
“He allowed me to attend the autopsy, mostly because he wanted to be done before Lord Muir returned. He asked what I thought, and I made the mistake of saying it seemed to be strangulation. He then declared, without even looking at the body, that Sir Alastair died because he had been wrapped in the mummy’s bandages and could not breathe.”
“Did you explain the difference between strangulation and suffocation?”
“Oh, that is only the first of many issues with that scenario. He then proceeded to wax poetic on what a gruesome and terrifying death that would be, waking to discover one is entombed in a mummy’s wrappings. He seemed very taken with the image. I will admit to being somewhat concerned.”
“‘Somewhat’? I’m the macabre one here, and I don’t even want to think what it would be like to die that way. However, I know I sure as hell wouldn’t just lie there and let myself suffocate… when I could struggle a bit and get out of the damn wrappings.”
“Tosh, Mallory. What a ridiculous thought. Fight your way out? Why not simply lie there and revel in the horror of your inevitable demise?”
I shake my head. “Please tell me he changed his cause of death after seeing the very obvious ligature marks around Sir Alastair’s neck.”
“He did, thankfully. And while he failed to note the bruising on the back or the angle of the ligatures, he did notice the abdominal bruises. He also performed the autopsy correctly and concluded that it was indeed suffocation brought on by strangulation. I would concur.”
