Olivia had woken up on the proverbial
wrong side of the Egyptian cotton shrouded, king-sized bed. A cool
shower joined forces with a triple shot of espresso in an attempt to
rescue her from her drowsy state. She’d spent an exorbitant amount
of time last night uselessly debating with her conscience –
pacing in the kitchen with a new glass of wine in hand; in bed
staring at the ceiling, trying to will sleep to come. Little sleep
coupled with even less mental clarity was often a potential recipe
for disaster.
Forty minutes later she was staring at her disposable coffee cup nestled in the front console of Natalia’s car, watching as the liquid attempted to slosh through the hole in the lid. They’d left early enough to avoid being pestered by the press and paparazzi. The radio was tuned into a classical music station, not solely for the soothing sounds it provided, but because it was the channel less likely to be interrupted by any ‘breaking news’ coverage about Antonio Rivera’s death and the subsequent suspicion of his own daughter’s involvement in his demise.
Conversation had been kept to an unusual minimum, and although Olivia’s irascible mood would have loved to facilitate a good sparring session about any trite theme, she recognized that perhaps now was not the time or place. Natalia was on a personal mission and was therefore most likely preoccupied with thoughts of worry, anger, frustration, confusion, etc. The older woman remained non-vocal and put her own similar emotions in the backseat next to her intent to broach the subject of the futility – and damned near cruelty – of random kisses.
“We’re here,” Natalia’s voice brought her back to reality as the car stopped in a visitor’s parking spot in front of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner.
Olivia was thankful that they were parked under several large shade trees but still had to squint against the morning sun to read the large scrolling message sign a few yards in front of the car. “They have a souvenir shop?” she asked, her expression showing both surprise and slight disgust.
“Apparently,” Natalia shrugged and turned off the ignition enough to shut off the engine but keep the air conditioner running full blast. She unbuckled her seatbelt and reached for her own coffee. “So, how are we going to play this? Good Cop/Bad Cop?”
“What does a Coroner’s office sell in a souvenir shop? Postcards of the place with a caption that says ‘Wish you were here’ ?”
“Spencer, focus.”
Olivia shook her head in disbelief before letting it go. She picked up her coffee and turned to the other women. “Yeah, Good Cop/Bad Cop... sounds great.” She took a sip. “Or in this case it would be the overly distraught cop who is desperately seeking answers and the cop who is willing to make grown men cry to obtain them.”
“We have to wait for my lawyer; he’s meeting us here.”
Olivia slouched further into her seat and grumbled, “Well now there’s one too many cops… ruins the whole damned thing.”
Natalia rolled her eyes and glanced out of the driver’s side window. “Drink your coffee, Sheriff,” she said dismissively.
“Maybe I should see if they sell t-shirts at the gift shop. Chalked outlines of bodies on a comfy cotton V-neck. A gal’s wardrobe wouldn’t be complete without one.”
“The lawyer is here, let’s go.” Natalia shut the ignition off completely and opened her door to exit the vehicle.
The wave of hot air hit Olivia as she opened her own door. “Souvenirs,” she muttered. “Honestly.”
--------------------------------------
Natalia spent ten minutes arguing with her lawyer, a short and stout, middle-aged man who was awkwardly clutching a dark tan briefcase and clearly melting within his light grey suit. The man was using phrases such as “Possible but highly improbable” and “Negotiable though unlikely” as he nervously ran chubby fingers through his severely receding hairline. Olivia chuckled to herself from the top of the steps to the Coroner’s office. It amused her how accommodating the lawyer was trying to be regarding Natalia’s current mood – essentially pronouncing the mission as being impossible without actually saying it. When one has been given a ridiculously large retainer for a billion dollar corporation, one makes even the most impossible request seem executable. When it turns out it is not, he is the one who is will absorb the blame.
“There are certain ‘hoops’, shall we say, that we haven’t jumped through,” the man stated cautiously. “My concern is that we may be wasting valuable time, and putting you through even more stress than you’re already under.”
Natalia straightened and began to walk up the steps to join Olivia near the front door, admonishing the man as she walked. “I’ve been publicly implicated in my father’s death. It doesn’t get much more stressful than that, Mr. Weinstein. And I am Natalia Rivera… I don’t do ‘hoops’.”
Olivia opened the door for the other woman and spared a glance at the hesitant man behind her. She waved him through the door with a rueful smirk. “What she said,” she grinned and followed them both down a corridor to the clerk’s desk.
--------------------------------------
“Lady, I understand that this is an inconvenience for you but I can’t simply release information to you that hasn’t been cleared by the Medical Examiner.”
“Your first mistake was calling her ‘Lady’ and the second was downgrading this all as being a simple inconvenience,” Olivia chastised the young man – boy, almost – probably not yet into his second decade. She scanned him thoroughly, assessing how easily she could unnerve the poor clerk who was unconsciously gripping and fidgeting with his mock ‘toe-tag’ keychain. Undoubtedly acquired from the damn souvenir shop, she sighed, her ire rising.
“You have to understand, there is a certain process we have to follow here regarding any inquiries about autopsies.” The clerk’s discomfort rose when Olivia took a step closer, pinning him with an icy stare.
The lawyer then tried to intervene. “Ms. Rivera, I will gladly fill out the necessary paperwork for you back at my – ”
“Boy Wonder here says the Medical Examiner doesn’t even have the paperwork ready,” Natalia cut in, her hands on her hips.
“At – At this point I’m not sure, I’d have to speak with him,” the young man answered tentatively, almost as if he knew what Natalia would say next.
“I can wait.”
“Ma’am.” He heard Olivia clearing her throat. “Ms. Rivera, I don’t have the authority to make demands from the examiners.”
“Who does?” Olivia asked before Natalia could.
“The Director of Operations.”
Natalia folded her arms. “I’ll wait.”
“There is a process that – ”
“Listen up, kid,” Olivia interjected roughly but took a deep breath to control her voice as she leaned both forearms onto the wooden partition that barely separated her from the clerk. “How much do you make an hour here? Minimum wage? Just above?” she asked in a smooth tone.
The frightened clerk looked at the others in the room in confusion, none of the faces offering any rescue from the woman who was now very close to infringing upon his personal space. He nodded his head slowly.
“Tell me…” the intimidating blonde waved a hand at his person, indicating he should supply her with a name.
“Chuck?” The young man responded, too rattled to even be secure in the announcement of his own name.
“Chuck,” Olivia repeated, narrowing her eyes slightly. “Is minimum wage an adequate amount of money to afford proper medical benefits?”
Chuck swallowed. “Benefits come with the job,” he answered hurriedly, seemingly oblivious to the veiled threat.
At that point the lawyer felt obliged to step up beside Olivia. “Ms. Spencer, I have to advise against making any threats of violence against this man,” he whispered, backing away when her unchanging look of annoyance fell upon him.
“Have I?” she asked innocently. Finding no answer forthcoming she turned back to the clerk.
“Let’s pretend I wanted to see the Director of Operations, without having to go through any of your goddamned ‘processes’,” she threw the air-quotes in for dramatic effect. “What options do I have?”
“There aren’t an – ”
“Bull!” Olivia shook her head adamantly. “Everyone comes running when someone yells ‘Fire!’”
The lawyer coughed in warning. A warning Olivia ignored.
“Ma’am, please… there’s no need to start a commotion,” Chuck pleaded.
“Oh, contraire. There is most definitely a need. And you have no idea how grand a commotion I am capable of starting.”
Natalia had been standing back, silently watching with slight amusement as Olivia reduced the young man to a nervous wreck. She secretly wished it could go on further, guiltily enjoying that someone else was feeling as distraught as herself, but logically she knew it was about time to ‘rescue’ the poor clerk from Olivia’s jaws. She stepped forward and placed a gentle hand on Olivia’s shoulder, urging her to step aside.
“Chuck… Charles, is it?” she asked softly, taking the young man by surprise. When he nodded silently, she continued. “Charles, I’m not interested in causing any ‘commotions’,” she started, quickly raising an eyebrow in thought. “Though it would be mildly cathartic to watch this woman tear you apart. No.” She shook her head. “All I want is a few answers – a couple maybe… Hell, just one answer would do at this point.”
“I’m sorry, Ms. – ”
“Where is the Director’s office?” she asked detachedly as if she had no expectation of not getting the answer she wanted. She watched the clerk’s eyes as they darted to a corridor to the right of her and then flashed back immediately.
“I can’t tell you that, Ma’am,” Chuck stated as he tried to straighten his shoulders in an experimental show of bravery.
Natalia pushed herself away from the barrier between them. “You just did,” she crooned smugly and turned to move past the others, heading confidently towards the corridor. Before she could reach the frosted-paned double doors, they swung open from the other side unexpectedly, causing Natalia to freeze in her tracks.
“Ms. Rivera,” a steady hand was extended towards her. “Dr. Angela Mason, Director of Operations. I’ve been expecting you.”
------------------------------------------
Dr. Mason’s office was rather small – a space made even more claustrophobic thanks to a massive red oak desk and various potted trees and plants. As Natalia and Olivia made their ways to a set of chairs on the other side of the desk, the lawyer decided to try and camouflage himself as best he could in the corner amongst the greenery. The Director, instead of sitting directly down to begin a formal conversation, turned her back to the group, picked up a tiny pruning tools from a cabinet ledge and began tending to a small bonsai tree.
"Many people wonder why I would want to have so many plants inside this small little office." She pushed a few stray grey hairs behind her right ear and reached for a pair of glasses that hung around her neck by a silver chain and positioned them delicately on her face. “All of the living things in the room… these robust but delicate plants… a reminder to believe in something beautiful when surrounded by, well, this profession.”
Both hoteliers sat silently, slightly transfixed – if not a little confused – by the wise woman’s words. They watched as the Doctor pulled her chair in behind her and sat down with a huff.
“You said that you’d been expecting me,” Natalia blurted out, no longer content to be formal.
The woman in front of her made a show of organizing a few papers that had been left on her desk. “Well, of course, Ms. Rivera. I can’t even imagine how difficult the last few days have been for you.”
“How did you know we were here?” Olivia piped up, her previous temperament being temporarily tamed by a discerning look from over thick bifocals.
Dr. Mason turned in her chair to the right and opened up a cabinet door to reveal a small monitoring screen which currently showcased the front lobby and clerk’s station. “I am the Director of Operations here, Ms. …”
“Spencer. Olivia Spencer.”
“I have an eye on everything at all times.” She lowered her glasses and held them briefly as she pinned Olivia with an even sterner look. “Congratulations, by the way,” she offered with false sincerity. “You can successfully intimidate an 18 year old boy.” The edge of sarcasm in her voice was hardly unnoticeable.
Olivia lowered her gaze and shifted uneasily in her chair.
“A feat made even less impressive by the fact that I have three teenaged sons at home. I do the same thing every damned day to try and keep them on the straight and narrow.” The Doctor returned her glasses to her face and rifled through the papers she had been working on before their arrival.
“I apologize for barging in here – well, trying to for that matter,” Natalia began. “But if you say that you’ve been expecting me, than you know how unsettled I’ve been at the fact that you’ve all but implicated me in my father’s death without giving me any information as to why on earth you would come to that conclusion?”
Dr. Mason eyed the lawyer, who seemed pretty useless hiding in the corner, and the blonde woman to Natalia’s right and then directly at Natalia for a few moments before answering.
“Ms. Rivera, I am two years shy of my retirement. Before becoming the Director here I was the one preforming the autopsies. I’ve worked on politicians, A-list actors and actresses, and billionaires far richer than your father. And one thing I’ve never ever done is succumb to hearsay and rumours. I deal in facts, as do all of my Medical Examiners in this building. I stand by their decision to keep your father’s remains for further investigation based on a call we received from the head nurse that ran the initial tests on your father.”
“May I now be enlightened as to what it was they found in those tests? Or am I about to get the run around from you too?”
“There wasn’t anything suspicious about the results.”
The immediate straight forward answer startled her almost as much as information contained within it.
Seeing Natalia completely blindsided caused Olivia to move forward to speak on her behalf.
“What on earth do you mean? The whole reason that Natalia’s father’s funeral has to be delayed is because you won’t release his body because of a criminal investigation.” Olivia was finished feeling like a chastised child and was on the edge of her seat about to stand up over the older woman. “She has even been questioned by the F.B.I. Her name is all over the tabloids! All because of a ‘suspicion of foul play’ and now you’re saying there wasn’t anything suspicious ?”
Dr. Mason avoided answering Olivia, but instead turned back to Natalia who was still dumbfounded. “As I have stated, I stand behind my team’s decision to investigate further when they received a call from the hospital. I don’t believe they could have possibly known that the claim of suspicious test results was, in fact, false.”
“This is not happening,” was all Natalia could say.
“Upon an extensive review of your father’s body we couldn’t find anything that would implicate anything other than a natural cause of death. We called the hospital to compare our results with theirs, and the head nurse in charge of the collection and reviewing of your father’s blood tests was confused as to why we were asking about them.”
“How is that possible?” Olivia asked.
“The head nurse never made that original call to our office. She had signed off on all the tests and declared her opinion of the cause of death to be exactly as we discovered here. She never suspected otherwise.”
“So who made that call?” Natalia was now more confused than she’d ever been.
Dr. Mason sat back in her chair and removed her glasses once again. “That is the only thing I do not know for sure. I wish I could tell you, not only to ease some of the suffering you’ve experienced as a result of all of this, but also because this extra investigation has naturally put us fairly behind in our own schedule. I even brought in experts from other counties to help with the case.”
“And the leaking of the falsified information to the press?” The lawyer finally chimed in from the corner of the room, his sudden interest most likely piqued by the possibility of a defamation lawsuit.
“I can assure you I’m discussing it with every person on my staff, but honestly, the only people who knew about the information were the ones who examined Mr. Rivera – all of whom I have worked beside for years and can’t possibly imagine doing such a thing. I mean really, what on earth could they possibly gain by doing that?”
“I need to get out of here.” Natalia stood quickly and headed for the door, followed directly by Olivia who placed a steady hand on the unstable woman. Before exiting the office, Natalia turned to the Director. Her face was ashen and her voice childlike when she asked, “Now that you know for sure… What was the real cause of my father’s death?”
The Director’s face took on a look of motherly concern and deep sympathy. “You father died from the complications of an arterial embolism in his brain,” she answered. And when Natalia failed to even blink at her response,she decided to simplify it for her. “He had a severe stroke.”
Natalia pondered the answer for a moment and then looked up at the doctor with pleading eyes. “Did he have a stroke as a result of stress?”
Olivia, who was standing behind Natalia, quickly shook her head at the doctor as if trying to govern her answer. The doctor took notice of it but didn’t need to change her response.
“Ms. Rivera, we examined your father’s brain rather thoroughly in these past couple of days. What we found were a few tiny lesions that had been caused by what is called a Silent Stroke, that is, a stroke that carries with it only slight symptoms if any at all. Many sufferers of such a event are not even aware that one has occurred. Damage was done however and it put your father at an even greater risk of a major stroke. That coupled with his overall age and state of health is, in my expert opinion, what caused his embolism. No amount of stress just prior to the event could have exacerbated what was already taking place in your father’s body.”
Olivia’s shoulders eased at the relief that Natalia had finally been told, however indirectly, that she had not caused her own father’s death. Natalia on the other hand simply nodded and thanked the Director for her time, then headed down the corridor. The lawyer stayed behind to take care of the details of the release of Mr. Rivera’s body to the church for the following day.
The warm air surrounding Natalia as she exited the building did nothing to ease her near-hyperventilating state. Olivia guided her to her car and ordered her to hand over the keys, which Natalia surprisingly gave up without argument. She opened the driver’s side and started the ignition to blast the air conditioning before ushering the brunette over to the passenger side and into the car. When she herself was settled in the driver’s seat, she turned to Natalia and placed a hand on her forearm.
“I just don’t understand,” Natalia said quietly, starting blankly out of the windshield. “I came here for answers and now all I have is more questions.”
“Okay, listen.” Olivia gripped the woman’s hand to get her attention. “Right now you need to focus on what we know, alright? We now know that there is supporting documentation that you had nothing to do with your father’s death. We got what we came for in that regard. I will go to the press myself and declare that as a fact if I have to.”
“And what if the damage has already been done?”
"If your shareholders believe a 30 second unsubstantiated rumour over cold hard proof there must be something seriously wrong with their logic.”
“You’re so naïve sometimes,” was Natalia’s retort, which Olivia took a slight but silent offense to. “You don’t know how things work in this end of the country, do you? Reputation is far more valuable than money, credentials… even truth. If you ask anyone on the street right now if they have ever heard of Natalia Rivera, the Heiress of the Empire fortune, they are going to look at you and say ‘Isn’t she the woman who just mercilessly killed her father?”
“Aren’t scandals a dime a dozen in this town? Who cares what a couple reporters have said when you have the proof that they are wrong?”
“I’ve worked so hard for all these years to redeem myself in the public eye.” Natalia’s eyes began to well up with tears and she quickly turned towards her window before they fell. “So very hard to be the daughter he needed me to be. The Executive the company needed me to be.” She wiped her tears with her hand. “And now it’s all slipping away. It was all for nothing.”
“I honestly think you’re overreacting now.” Olivia tried to console the crying woman. “You have no idea the kinds of truthful scandals I’ve survived and still managed to come out on top of.”
Natalia shook off the well-meant comment. “I just don’t get why a stranger that I’ve never met would want to hurt me with that lie. And who at the morgue, or the hospital, or the police station would want to leak such a thing to the public without confirmation?”
“These are all questions that we can try and find answers to another day, Natalia. What you should be focusing on right now is getting through the funeral and being able to properly grieve for your father.” Olivia turned the key to start the engine and programmed the address to the South Beach Empire into the GPS box on the console before she backed out of the parking spot. She didn’t trust Natalia to give instant and proper directions at that point.
“I want you to drive me to the hospital,” Natalia commanded, her voice suddenly clear and her eyes alert.
“And I want to get you home so you can try and calm down.” Olivia ignored the request.
Natalia reached for the GPS tracker and ripped it from its cradle, tossing it into the backseat.
“Childish much?” Olivia huffed.
“Determined much,” Natalia responded. “I need answers!”
“You need another sedative, in my opinion,” the blonde pulled over into a restaurant parking lot and idled the car as she turned to face the other woman.
“I will go by myself as soon as you leave my suite,” Natalia declared confidently.
“I have no doubt that you won’t.” Olivia closed her eyes and let out a defeated sigh. “Fine. You win. Which way to the hospital?”
