Chapter III.X

The inspector was quite surprised to hear this voice, which belonged to none other than his old friend lieutenant Nelissen.

- Nelissen, buddy, is that you? - at the sound of a familiar voice, a shiver of joy ran through Galbraith’s body.

- Galbraith? At long last it's you! - a young voice responded cheerfully. - I was beginning to worry. where've you been?

- In London as you know... - Galbraith fell silent.

- What's wrong, cat got your tongue? - Nelissen asked somewhat impudently.

- Give me the explanation, - the inspector began. - How is it that I called a London taxi driver but got on a Portland police department?

- Speak softly, - it seemed that Nelissen missed the words of his interlocutor deaf ears. - Somebody might hear us.

- I'm fine not caring about... - Galbraith said with some resentment, but the young lieutenant interrupted him.

- Do not contest me, - a young voice said rudely. - The information I will give you is not for prying eyes.

- All right, - the inspector gave in to his friend's pressure. - What do you want me to say?

- Couple of news, - the lieutenant answered with a sense of importance.

- Well, according to tradition, firstly... - Galbraith wanted to say "good, and then bad", but he was not allowed to finish.

- If you find something good in any of this news, then I can congratulate you on being such a katagelastic!

- What? - the inspector asked, who had never encountered this word, in bewilderment.

- It doesn't matter, - Nelissen again avoided answering. - May I begin then?

- Okay, let's go, - he encouraged his interlocutor.

- Good, then listen to me, - the voice answered with a sense of importance. - Do you remember Jordan Thurlow?

- How can I not remember, I personally interrogated him, - Galbraith said somewhat offended.

- Of course, all know this already, - the lieutenant said reproachfully. - As well as the fact that after the audience with him you were not at all interested in his fate.

- Oh... - sighed the inspector.

Nelissen’s words were fair - Galbraith, having received from mister Thurlow information about Delia Yonce, actually completely forgot about this person, because it seemed to him that there was nothing to even remember about some lawbreaker who would be released only after sixteen years. For the inspector, the perpetrator was something like a plant in a pot - he sits in one place, does not do anything... Only, unlike a plant, the criminal has no charisma...

- Basically, the day after you said goodbye to him, - the lieutenant interrupted Galbraith's thoughts. - A prison guard entered Jordan's prison cell and found him lying prone on the floor.

- He was dead? - the inspector guessed.

- Yes, - Nelissen answered dryly.

- I wonder why he's so fast kicked the bucket, - Galbraith expressed his thoughts out loud.

- A forensic examination determined that Jordan's death was due to oxygen deprivation of the brain, - as if reading from a piece of paper, a young voice said.

- Hmm... - his interlocutor thought.

- Lesley Watmough, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on the prisoner's body discovered something interesting, - the lieutenant returned to his familiar tone.

- And what? - Galbraith perked up.

- He discovered a malignant tumour in Jordan's larynx, - Nelissen answered, lowering his voice. - Laryngeal cancer in a few words.

Hearing this, Galbraith involuntarily remembered the phrase of the twitchy parlourmaid from "Stait of Snow Lake" that the old concierge was taken to the hospital on suspicion of cancer, but Nelissen continued to talk.

- In general, Lesley said that this is a rather rare case, because usually people get this disease by the age of fifty, and Jordan, as you remember...

- I'm aware of that, - Galbraith interrupted the lieutenant. - That's all?

- That's it with Jordan, now about Delia, - it seemed as if the invisible interlocutor smiled.

- What, her too... - the inspector was surprised.

- No, who would have thought of digging her out of the grave? - having said this, the lieutenant burst into laughter.

- All right, knock it off, - for some reason it was unpleasant for Galbraith to hear this

- Okay, - Nelissen immediately stopped. - It's like this, as you were preparing to board the plane, we continued our investigation...

- No, really? - Galbraith was involuntarily surprised. - I thought all had shelved on this case...

- Do not interrupt. We discovered that after the hysterectomy surgeons extracted something from her womb... - the lieutenant stopped as if catching his breath.

- So what did they extract? - the inspector was a little tensed by this pause.

- Caetlynn Armour called this thing as Fetus papyraceous, according to her, this is when a female twin carries a second embryo inside.

- Stupid and unscientific bullshit, - Galbraith involuntarily cursed dirtily.

- Well, what do you want from this modern medicine... - the lieutenant seemed to be thinking about something.

- All right, they found it, so what's next? - the inspector was burning with impatience.

- In short, they donated it to the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, - Nelissen replied.

- Wait, what's this for? - Galbraith was involuntarily surprised.

- As a medical exhibit, what did you think? - the young voice chuckled.

- Nothing of the kind... - the inspector stopped mid-sentence.

- There, of course, this thing was immediately placed in a glass vessel with formaldehyde, - the lieutenant began. - And when I learned about this, I did not restrain myself and immediately went to this college.

- What did you see? - Galbraith was very interested at that second

- Well... - his interlocutor began to remember. - A lots of students crowded around the vessel - do not feed bread, just let them peek at new wonderment.