Invasion by Robin Cook

asked.
    “Nope,” Curtis said. “Looks like it’s going to be just another one of those mysteries.”
    “Don’t tell me that,” Jesse said petulantly. “I’m counting on you to tell me if this was a homicide or accident.”
    “Calm down, Lieutenant,” Curtis said with a laugh. “I’m just pulling your leg. You should know by now that the dissection part of the autopsy is just the beginning. In this case I expect the microscopic is going to be more important. I mean on gross, I don’t know what to make of the hole in the hand. Look at it!”
    Curtis held up Charlie Arnold’s hand. “The damn hole is a perfect circle.”
    “Could it be a bullet wound?” Jesse asked.
    “You can answer your own question,” Curtis said. “With all the bullet wounds you’ve seen.”
    “True, it doesn’t look like a bullet wound,” Jesse said.
    “It sure as hell doesn’t,” Curtis said. “It would havehad to be a bullet going the speed of light and hotter than the interior of the sun. Look at how everything got cauterized at the margins. And what happened to the missing tissue and bone? You said there was no blood or tissue at the scene.”
    “Nothing,” Jesse said. “I mean no gore. There was melted glass and melted furniture, but no blood and no tissue.”
    “What do you mean, melted furniture?” Curtis asked. He wiped his hands on his apron after removing the liver from the scale.
    Jesse described the room, to Curtis’s utter fascination. “I’ll be damned,” Curtis said.
    “Do you have any ideas?” Jesse asked.
    “Sorta,” Curtis admitted. “But you’re not going to like it. I don’t like it either. It’s crazy.”
    “Try me,” Jesse said.
    “First let me show you something,” Curtis said. He went to a side table and brought back a pair of retractors. Putting them inside the deceased’s upper and lower lips, he exposed the teeth. The dead man assumed a horrid, grimacing expression.
    “Oh, gross,” Vinnie said. “You’re going to give me nightmares.”
    “Okay, Doc,” Jesse said. “What am I supposed to be looking at other than lousy dental work? Looks like the guy never brushed his teeth.”
    “Look at the enamel of the front teeth,” Curtis said.
    “I’m looking,” Jesse said. “Looks a little messed up.”
    “That’s it,” Curtis said. He withdrew the retractors and returned them to the nearby table.
    “Enough of this pussyfootin’ around,” Jesse said. “What’s on your mind?”
    “The only thing I can think of that can do that to tooth enamel is acute radiation poisoning,” Curtis said.
    Jesse’s face fell.
    “I told you you weren’t going to like it,” Curtis said.
    “Jesse’s very close to retirement,” Vince said. “It’s not nice to tease him like this.”
    “I’m serious,” Curtis said. “It’s the only thing that relates all the findings, like the hole in the hand and the changes in the enamel. Even the cataracts that weren’t seen on his last yearly physical.”
    “So what happened to this poor slob?” Jesse asked.
    “I know it’s going to sound crazy,” Curtis warned. “But the only way I can relate all the findings so far is to hypothesize that someone dropped a red-hot pellet of plutonium in his hand that burned through and gave him an enormous dose of radiation in the process. I mean a whopping dose.”
    “That’s absurd,” Jesse said.
    “I told you you weren’t going to like it,” Curtis admitted.
    “There was no plutonium at the scene,” Jesse said. “Did you check if the body were radioactive?”
    “I did, actually,” Curtis said. “For personal safety concerns.”
    “And?”
    “It’s not,” Curtis said. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be up to my elbows into it.”
    Jesse shook his head. “This is getting worse instead of better,” he said. “Plutonium, shit! That would besome kind of national emergency. Guess I’d better get someone over to that hospital and make sure there’s no hot spots. Can I use a phone?”
    “Be