I CAN’T HELP THINKING FOR once that it’s a good thing my parents are out of this. My mother. She would have fought with editors and written letters in rebuttal, fiercely protecting me, her only surviving child. But she’s now locked in a memory unit in Indianapolis and no longer knows what a fork is used for, much less that she has a daughter. My father, on a good day, would have gathered me to his chest and wept with me. His tears a potent balm. On a bad day, he would have slapped my face and told me to get a grip. Still, I would have had to restrain him from tracking down those reporters and crippling them. Toward the end of his life, heavily medicated, he wept less. On the rare occasion when he felt the urge to break a piece of furniture, or hurt another living being, he simply took a special pill and went to bed for the rest of the day. He’d rise the next morning changed from Mr. Hyde back to Dr. Jekyll. We know now that Stevenson’s antihero could have done with a prescription for lithium or valproate. How much of our great literature has modern psychiatry rendered quaint and obsolete? Someday they’ll have a diagnosis and a pill for someone like John, something to render him less charming and beguiling, less of a risk to the women of the world. And there will be a pill for me, too. Something to keep my guard up. The world will be a healthier place. But even so, despite all that’s happened, I think it will be a far less interesting one.
16
San Francisco Chronicle
Coroner Returns Verdict of Murder in Much-Married Doctor’s Death
June 1, 2013
PALO ALTO, CA—The death of the Stanford doctor who had three concurrent wives was classified as a wrongful death by person or persons unknown by the Santa Clara County Coroner yesterday. Reasons given for the suspicions of foul play in the death of Dr. John Taylor were bruises on the body as well as a needle puncture in the back. Sources say that the police suspect Dr. Taylor was injected with potassium, which then brought about a heart attack. The police have questioned numerous witnesses, including the three women he had married, two of them illegally. Other persons of interest are also being brought in for questioning, sources say. A large funeral took place at Stanford Memorial Church, complete with closed coffin, but the body was never present, due to the suspicious circumstances of the death. “It was all for show,” said one funeral attendee, who asked for anonymity.
17
Samantha
SO. THE VERDICT OF THE inquest was what Jake had predicted. Wrongful death by person or persons unknown.
The next step is establishing the time of death. Always done so effortlessly on television, but in actuality extraordinarily difficult to do with any degree of accuracy—as I’m learning. According to the pathologist at the inquest, John Taylor could have died anytime between 2 PM and 10 PM on that Friday.
However, we know he checked in to the room at 2:30 PM, and was alive and well. There was the fact that he ordered room service at 6:35: a steak, medium rare, roast potatoes, and a glass of white wine. Chocolate fondue for dessert. The young woman who had taken the order remembers it well because of their discussion about the chocolate fondue. “I told him it would take at least fifty minutes, and asked if he wanted his meal first, and for us to bring up the fondue when it was ready,” she said. “He was very clear that he wanted everything at the same time.” It wasn’t until 7:50 that the room service waiter knocked on the door. No answer. He knocked again, and again. No one came to the door. “It happens,” the girl said. At least that bookends the time we know he was alive (6:35 PM), and a time he was likely not alive any longer (7:50 PM).
I tell Peter at dinner. Mussels, so he must have paid another visit to Cook’s Seafood and decided to buy the makings for a meal while he was there. Don’t get me wrong, I love his cooking, but he should be working on his dissertation. I tell him that Taylor’s bruised upper arm and neck coupled with the needle puncture and high levels of potassium were sufficient for the coroner to demand an investigation.