Sally Li

Sally Li is a physician whose brief consultation with Scott Duncan and Grace Lawson produces a consequential finding in the investigation of Geri’s murder: Geri was pregnant at the time of her death. Li’s medical conclusion adds a hidden dimension to the case and sharply affects Duncan, Geri’s brother.

Identity and Professional Role

Li is identified as Sally Li, MD, in the directory of a medical office building. Her conversation with Duncan centers on pathology and the results of an examination, establishing her as a physician able to report findings from Geri’s exhumed body. The text does not provide further details about her background or her relationship with Duncan beyond their familiarity: they greet each other by first name.

Consultation with Duncan and Grace

Duncan brings Grace to Li after explaining that Geri’s body has been exhumed and a full autopsy is being conducted in the hope of finding physical evidence. At the office, Li recognizes Duncan and asks who Grace is. When Duncan seeks a direct answer rather than a broader account of advances in pathology, Li tells him that Geri was pregnant when she died.

Li cannot determine the exact duration of the pregnancy, but estimates that it was no more than four or five months. The limit of what she can establish is part of the finding: she supplies a significant fact while distinguishing it from what the examination cannot specify.

Significance in the Investigation

The revelation is unexpected and has an immediate effect on Duncan, whose body convulses at the news; Grace remains still. Li’s role in the narrative is concentrated in this disclosure. Her examination turns the exhumation from a search for unspecified physical evidence into a source of new information about Geri’s life and death, while leaving the pregnancy’s further circumstances unresolved.