read today is the first I’d heard of why Marino really left Charleston. I’ll reiterate what matters right now, Lucy. You have to handle it.”
“That’s easy. I don’t intend to have anything to do with him.”
“It’s not your choice to make,” Berger said. “If you want to work for me, you’ll have to handle it. He takes priority over you because—”
“Glad to know your definition of justice,” Lucy interrupted. “Since I’m not the one who feloniously assaulted someone and then took a job under false pretenses.”
“That’s not legally or literally true, and I don’t want to argue about it. The fact is, he’s completely involved in this investigation and I can’t remove him without repercussions. The fact is, I don’t want him off the case for a number of reasons, not the least of which is he already has a history with it since he took a complaint from the victim’s boyfriend a month ago. I’m not going to get rid of Marino because of you. There are other forensic computer experts. Just so we’re clear.”
“There’s no one else who can do what I can. Just so we’re clear. But I’d rather end this before it starts. If that’s what you want.”
“It’s not what I want.”
“Does he know my aunt’s here?”
“To use your aviation language, it seems I’m an air traffic controller at the moment,” Berger said. “Doing my best to keep things moving without people crashing into each other. My goal is strategic, gentle landings.”
“What you’re saying is he knows she’s here.”
“I’m not saying that. I haven’t talked to him about it, but that doesn’t mean others haven’t. Especially since he’s suddenly headline news. At least on the Internet. He may have known for a long time that Kay’s in and out of New York, but in light of their sullied past, it doesn’t surprise me he’s never mentioned anything about her to me.”
“And you’ve never said anything about her to him?” Lucy’s eyes were shadowed by anger. “Like, how’s Kay? How’s she like working for CNN? How’s married life treating her? Gee, I really should try to have coffee with her some time when she’s in the city.”
“Marino and I don’t chat. It’s never been my desire to be his new Scarpetta. I’m not Batman, and I don’t need a Robin. No insult toward Kay intended.”
“Lucky for you, now that you know what Robin did to Batman.”
“I’m not entirely sure what happened,” Berger said as her phone rang. “I believe your car’s here.”
Scarpetta peeled off the hardened silicone and placed it in plastic evidence bags. She opened a cabinet and found antiseptic wipes and antibacterial ointment, then untied Oscar’s gown in back and lowered it around his waist again.
“You’re sure it was a flex-cuff?” she asked.
“You see them on TV,” Oscar said. “The police, the military, use them to tie people up like bags of garbage.”
“This shouldn’t hurt.”
Oscar didn’t move as she began cleaning his wounds again and gently applying ointment.
“They had no right to touch her,” he said. “I was already holding her, so what difference did it make if it had been me who picked her up and put her on the stretcher? Instead of those assholes putting their hands all over her. They took the towel off her. I saw them. When they were making me leave the bathroom. They took the towel off her. Why? You know why. Because they wanted to see her.”
“They were looking for evidence. For injuries.”
She carefully pulled up his gown and tied it in back.
“They didn’t need to take the towel off,” he said. “I told them there wasn’t any blood except the scratches on her legs. It’s like he hit her with something. Maybe a board. I don’t know where he got a board. Or where they got one. I didn’t see anything that might have made those scratches on her legs. Her face was dark red. There was a line around her neck. As if he strangled her with a rope or something. Whatever it was, it wasn’t around her neck anymore. The police didn’t need to take the towel off to see that, to take her pulse, to look at her wrists. You could look at her and see she was dead. I’m cold. Is there a blanket in here?”
Unable to find one, Scarpetta took off her lab coat and draped it over his shoulders. He was shivering. His teeth were chattering.
“I sat on the floor next to her, petting her hair, her face, talking to her,” he said. “I called nine-one-one. I remember feet. Black ankle boots and dark pants moving in the doorway. I had the towel over her and was holding her.”
He stared at the wall.
“I heard voices telling me to get away from her. They grabbed me. I started screaming I wasn’t going to leave her. But they made me. They wouldn’t let me see her even one more time. I never saw her again. Her family lives in Arizona, and that’s where she’ll go, and I’ll never see her again.”
“You said your online college is based in Arizona.”
“Her father’s the dean,” he said to the wall. “That’s why she ended up going there. They call it Gotham College as if it’s here in New York, but it’s really nowhere except there’s a building in Scottsdale, probably because it’s a nice place to live, much cheaper to live there. Her parents have a big house near Camelback Mountain. We never went to Scottsdale together because the next meeting isn’t until March. She’s not on the faculty, but she would have gone. . . . Well, she was supposed to fly there early this morning, to be in Scottsdale for a few days.”
“When you were in her apartment last night, did you see her luggage? Was she packed?”
“Terri doesn’t leave things out unless she’s about to use them. And she knows it upsets me to see her suitcase if I’m not going with her. It would have ruined our night.”
“Were you invited to go to Scottsdale with her?”
“She wanted a chance to tell them about me first.”
“After three months, they didn’t know she was seeing you?”
“They’re very protective of her. Stiflingly controlling.” He continued to face the wall, as if he was talking to it. “She didn’t want to tell them unless she was sure. I told her it was no wonder she was obsessive-compulsive. It’s because of them.”
“What did she feel she needed to be sure of?”
“Of me. That we’re serious. I fell harder for her than she did for me.”
He continued mixing up tenses, the way people often do when someone they love has just died.
“I knew right away what I wanted. But her parents . . . Well, if it didn’t work out, she didn’t want to explain. She’s always been afraid of them, afraid of their disapproval. It says a lot about her that she finally had the courage to move out. They have two other children who aren’t little people, and they went to universities and do what they want. But not Terri. She’s the smartest one in the family. One of the smartest people I know. But not her. They kept her at home until she was twenty-five, until she couldn’t take it anymore because she wanted to amount to something. She got into a fight with them, and she left.”
“How could she afford New York?”
“It was before I knew her. But she said she had money in savings, and they continued to help her some, not much, but some. Then she made amends with them, and I think they came to see her once and didn’t like where she lived. They increased whatever it is they give her, and she moved into the apartment where she is now. That’s what she told me. To give them credit, they’ve supported her, at least financially.”
His face turned very red with anger, and his short gold hair seemed as bright as metal.
“With people like that, there are always strings attached,” he then said. “I suspect they started controlling her long distance. I watched her obsessive-compulsiveness get worse. I began to notice an increasingly anxious tone to her e-mails. Even before we’d met. And over the past few months it’s just gotten worse and worse. I don’t know why. She can’t help it. I have to see her. Please let me see her. I have to say good-bye! I hate the police. Fuck them.”
He wiped his eyes with his cuffed hands.
“Why did they have to be so cold? Shouting and shoving. And on their radios. I couldn’t make sense of what was happening. I hate that detective. . . .”
“The same one you invited to go through your apartment?” Scarpetta said.
