For weeks, I have waited for the subpoena. Yesterday it arrived, and the sheriff’s deputy was his usual cheerful self when he showed up at my office, not realizing, I suppose, that the case this time involves me as a defendant and not an expert witness. I have been asked to appear in room 302 of the John Marshall Courts Building to testify before the special grand jury. The hearing is set for Tuesday, February 1, at 2 P.M.
At a few minutes past seven, I stand inside the closet, pushing through suits and blouses as I run through all I need to do this day. I already know from Jack Fielding that we have six cases and two of the doctors are in court. I also have a ten o’clock telephone conference with Governor Mitchell. I pick out a black pants suit with blue pinstripes and a blue blouse with French cuffs. I wander into the kitchen for another cup of coffee and a bowl of high-protein cereal that Lucy brought over. I have to smile as I practically break my teeth on her healthy, crunchy gift. My niece is determined that I will emerge from my smoldering life a fit phoenix. I rinse dishes and finish getting dressed and am heading out the door when my pager vibrates. Marino’s number shows up on the video display and is followed by 911.
Parked in Anna’s driveway is the latest change in my life—the rental car. It is a midnight blue Ford Explorer that smells like ancient cigarettes and will always smell like ancient cigarettes unless I do what Marino suggested and stick an air freshener on the dash. I plug my cell phone into the cigarette lighter and call him.
“Where are you?” he asks right off.
“Heading out the driveway.” I turn on the heater and Anna’s gates open to let me out. I don’t even stop to pick up the newspaper, which Marino next tells me I need to see, because clearly I haven’t read it yet or I would have called him right away.
“Too late,” I tell him. “I’m already on Cherokee.” I harden myself like a little kid flexing his stomach muscles when he dares someone to sock him in the gut. “So go on and tell me. What’s in the paper?” I am expecting that the special grand jury investigation has been leaked to the press, and I am right. I drive along Cherokee as recent winter weather continues to dissolve in drips and puddles, and slushy snow sluggishly slides off roofs.
“Chief Medical Examiner Suspected in Grisly Slaying,” Marino reads the banner headline on the front page. “It’s got a picture of you, too,” he adds. “Looks like one maybe that bitch took out in front of your house. The lady that fell on the ice, remember? It shows you climbing in my truck. Pretty good of my truck. Not so hot of you . . .”
“Just tell me what it says,” I interrupt him.
He reads the highlights as I hug the hard curves of Cherokee Road. A Richmond special grand jury is investigating me in the murder of Deputy Police Chief Diane Bray, the newspaper says. The revelation is described as shocking and bizarre and has local law enforcement reeling. Although Commonwealth’s Attorney Buford Righter refused comment, unnamed sources say Righter instigated the investigation with great heartache after witnesses came forth with statements and police produced evidence that was impossible to ignore. Additional unnamed sources claim I was in a heated clash with Bray, who believed I was incompetent and no longer fit to be chief medical examiner of Virginia. Bray was trying to have me removed from office and told people before her murder that I had confronted her on several occasions and had bullied and threatened her. Sources say there are indicators pointing to the possibility that I staged Bray’s murder to look like the brutal murder of Kim Luong and on and on and on.
By now I am on Huguenot Road in the thick of rush-hour traffic. I tell Marino to stop. I have heard quite enough.
“It goes on forever,” he says.
“I’m sure it does.”
“They must have been working on it all during the holidays ’cause it’s got all kinds of shit about you and your background.” I hear pages turning. “Even stuff about Benton and his death, and Lucy. There’s this big sidebar with all your vital statistics, where you went to school. Cornell, Georgetown, Hopkins. The pictures on the inside are good. Even one of you and me together at a crime scene. Oh shit, it’s Bray’s crime scene.”
“What about Lucy?” I ask.
But Marino is bewitched by publicity, by what must be huge photographs that include him and me working together. “I ain’t never seen anything like this.” More pages turning. “It just goes on and on, Doc. So far I’ve counted five bylines. They must’ve had the entire fucking news staff working this thing without our having a clue. Including an aerial shot of your house . . .”
“What about Lucy?” I ask with more force. “What does it say about Lucy?”
“Well, I’ll be damned, there’s even a photo of you and Bray out in the parking lot at Luong’s scene, at the convenience store. Both of you look like you hate each other’s guts. . . .”
“Marino!” I raise my voice. It is all I can do to concentrate on my driving. “Okay, enough!”
A pause, then, “I’m sorry, Doc. Jesus, I know it’s awful, but I didn’t get a chance to look at much beyond the front page before I got hold of you. I had no idea. I’m sorry. I just never seen nothing like this unless somebody really famous suddenly dies.”
Tears smart. I don’t point out the irony of what he just said. I feel as if I have died.
“Let me look at this Lucy stuff,” Marino is saying. “Pretty much what you’d expect. She’s your niece but you’ve always been more like her mother, uh, graduated all-that-laude-shit from UVA, her DUI car wreck, fact she’s gay, flies a helicopter, FBI, ATF, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that she almost shot Chandonne in your front yard. I guess that’s the fucking point.” Marino returns to his irritated self. As much as he picks on Lucy, he doesn’t like it one bit if anybody else does. “Don’t say she’s on admin leave or that you’re hiding out at Anna’s house. Least there’s something those assholes haven’t dug up.”
I inch closer to West Cary Street. “Where are you?” I ask him.
“HQ. About to head your way,” he replies. “Because you’re gonna have quite a welcome party.” He means the press. “Thought you might like a little company. Plus, I got some stuff to go over with you. Also thought we might try a little trick, Doc. I’ll get to your office first and ditch my car. You pull in front on Jackson Street instead of going around to the back lot off Fourth, hop out and go in and I’ll park your car. Word from the troops—there’s about thirty reporters, photographers, TV guys camping out at your parking place, waiting for you to show up.”
I start to agree with him and then have second thoughts. No, I say. I am not about to start the charade of hiding, ducking and holding up files or my coat to hide my face from cameras as if I am a crime boss. Absolutely not. I tell Marino I will see him at my office, but I will park as usual and deal with the media. For one thing, my stubbornness has kicked in. For another, I don’t see what I have to lose by going about my business as usual and simply telling the truth, and the damn truth is I didn’t kill Diane Bray. I never even thought about it, although I certainly disliked her more than anyone else I have ever met in my life.
On 9th Street I stop at a red light and put on my suit jacket. I check myself in the rearview mirror to make sure I look reasonably glued together. I put on a dab of lipstick and comb my fingers through my hair. I turn on the radio, bracing myself for the first news spot. I anticipate that local stations will interrupt their programs frequently to remind everybody that I am the first scandal of the new millennium.
“. . . So, I gotta say this, Jim. I mean, talk about someone who could get away with the perfect murder. . . .”
“No kidding. You know, I interviewed her once. . . .”
I switch to a different station and then another one as I am mocked and degraded or simply reported on because someone has leaked to the media what is supposed to be the most secret and sacred of all legal proceedings. I wonder who violated his code of silence, and what is even sadder, several names come to mind. I don’t trust Righter. I don’t trust anyone he has contacted for telephone or
bank records. But I have another suspect in mind—Jay Talley—and I am betting that he has been subpoenaed, too. I compose myself as I pull into my parking lot and see the television and radio vans lining 4th Street and the dozens of people waiting for me with cameras, microphones and notepads.
NOT ONE OF the reporters notices my dark blue Explorer because they aren’t expecting it, and this is when I realize I have made a serious tactical error. I have been driving a rental car for days and it didn’t occur to me until this moment that I might be asked why. I turn into my reserved space by the front door and am sighted. The pack moves toward me like hunters after big game, and I will myself to go into my role. I am the chief. I am reserved, poised and unafraid. I have done nothing wrong. I climb out and take my time gathering my briefcase and a stack of folders out of the backseat. My elbow aches beneath layers of elasticized wrappings, and cameras click and microphones point at me like guns cocking and finding their mark.
“Dr. Scarpetta? Can you comment about . . . ?”
“Dr. Scarpetta . . . ?”
“When did you find out a special grand jury is investigating you?”
“Isn’t it true you and Diane Bray were at odds . . . ?”
“Where’s your car?”
“Can you confirm that you’ve basically been run out of your home and don’t even have your own car right now?”
“Will you resign?”
I face them on the sidewalk. I am silent but steady as I wait for them to get quiet. When they realize I intend to address their questions I catch surprised looks and their aggression quickly settles down. I recognize many faces but can’t remember names. I am not sure I have ever known the names of the media’s real troops who gather the news behind the scenes. I remind myself they are simply doing their jobs and there is no reason for me to take any of this personally. That’s right, nothing personal. Rude, inhumane, inappropriate, insensitive and largely inaccurate, but not personal. “I’ve no prepared statement,” I start to say.
“Where were you the night Diane Bray was murdered . . . ?”
“Please,” I interrupt them. “Like you, I’ve recently learned there is a special grand jury investigation into her murder, and I ask you to honor the very necessary confidentiality of such a proceeding. Please understand why I’m not at liberty to discuss it with you.”
“But did you . . . ?”
“Isn’t it true you aren’t driving your own car because the police have it?”
Questions and accusations rip the morning air like shrapnel as I walk toward my building. I have nothing more to say. I am the chief. I am poised and calm and unafraid. I did nothing wrong. There is one reporter whom I do remember, because how could I forget a tall, white-haired, chisel-featured African American whose name is Washington George? He wears a long leather trench coat and presses behind me as I struggle to open the glass door leading inside the building.
“Can I just ask you one thing?” he says. “You remember me? That’s not my question.” A smile. “I’m Washington George. I work for the AP.”
“I remember you.”
“Here, let me help you with that.” He holds the door and we go inside the lobby, where the security guard looks at me, and I know that look now. My notoriety is reflected in people’s eyes. My heart sinks. “Good morning, Jeff,” I say as I walk past the console.
A nod.
I pass my plastic ID over the electronic eye and the door leading into my side of the building unlocks. Washington George is still with me, and he is saying something about information he has that he thinks I need to know, but I am not listening. A woman sits in my reception area. She huddles in a chair and seems sad and small amid polished granite and glass blocks. This is not a good place to be. I always ache for anyone who finds himself in my reception area. “Is someone helping you?” I ask her.
She is dressed in a black skirt and nurses’ shoes, a dark raincoat pulled tightly around her. She hugs her pocketbook as if someone might steal it. “I’m just waiting,” she says in a hushed voice.
“Who are you here to see?”
“Well, I don’t rightly know,” she stammers, her eyes swimming in tears. Sobs well up inside her and her nose begins to run. “It’s about my boy. Do you think I might see him? I don’t understand what y’all are doing to him in there.” Her chin trembles and she wipes her nose on the back of her hand. “I just need to see him.”
Fielding left me a message about today’s cases, and I know that one of them is a teenage boy who supposedly hanged himself. What was the name? White? I ask her and she nods. Benny, she gives me his first name. I presume she is Mrs. White and she nods again and explains that she and her son changed their last name to White after she got remarried a few years back. I tell her to come on with me—and now she is crying hard—and we will find out what is going on with Benny. Whatever Washington George has to tell me will have to wait.
“I don’t think you’re going to want it to wait,” he replies.
“All right, all right. Come on in with me and I’ll get to you as soon as I can.” I am saying this as I let us into my office with another pass of my ID key. Cleta is entering cases into our computer, and she instantly blushes when she sees me.
“Good morning,” she tries to be her usual cheerful self. But she has that look in her eye, the look I’ve grown to hate and fear. I can only imagine what my staff has been saying among themselves this morning, and it doesn’t escape my attention that the newspaper is folded on top of Cleta’s desk and she has tried to cover it with her sweater. Cleta has put on weight over the holidays and has dark circles under her eyes. I am making everybody miserable.
“Who’s taking care of Benny White?” I ask her.
“I think Dr. Fielding is.” She looks at Mrs. White and gets up from her workstation. “Can I take your coat? What about some coffee?”
I tell Cleta to take Mrs. White to my conference room and Washington George can wait in the medical library. I find my secretary, Rose. I am so relieved to see her that I forget about my troubles, nor does she reflect them to me by giving me a look—that secretive, curious, embarrassed look. Rose is just Rose. If anything, disaster irons more starch in her than usual. She meets my eyes and shakes her head. “I’m so disgusted I could spit nails,” she says when I show up in her doorway. “The most ridiculous hogwash I’ve ever heard of my entire life.” She picks up her copy of the paper and shakes it at me as if I am a bad dog. “Don’t you let this bother you, Dr. Scarpetta.” As if it is that simple. “More chicken crap than Kentucky Fried, that damn Buford Righter. He can’t come out and just tell you to your face, can he? So you have to find out this way?” Shaking the paper again.
“Rose, is Jack in the morgue?” I ask.
“Oh God, working on that poor kid.” Rose gets off the subject of me, and her indignation turns to pity. “Lord, Lord. Have you seen him?”
“I just got here . . .”
“Looks like a little choir boy. Just the most beautiful blue-eyed blond. Lord, Lord. If that was my child . . .”
I interrupt Rose by putting a finger to my lips as I hear Cleta coming up the hallway with the boy’s poor mother. I mouth his mother to Rose and she gets quiet. Her eyes linger on mine. She is fidgety and high-strung this morning, and dressed severely in black, her hair pulled back and pinned up, reminding me of Grant Wood’s American Gothic. “I’m okay,” I tell her quietly.
“Well, I don’t believe that.” Her eyes get dewy and she nervously busies herself with paperwork.
Jean-Baptiste Chandonne has decimated my entire staff. Everyone who knows and depends on me is dismayed, bewildered. They don’t completely trust me anymore and secretly anguish over what will happen to their lives and jobs. I am reminded of my worst moment in school when I was twelve—like Lucy, precocious, the youngest in my class. My father died that school year on December 23, and the only thing good I can find in his waiting until two days before Christmas is at least the neighbors were winding down from work, most
of them home and cooking and baking. In the good Italian-Catholic tradition, my father’s life was celebrated with abundance. For several days, our house was filled with laughter, tears, food, drink and song.
When I returned to school after the New Year, I became even more relentless in my cerebral conquests and explorations. Making perfect scores on tests was no longer enough. I was desperate for attention, desperate to please, and begged the nuns for special projects, any project, I didn’t care what. Eventually, I was hanging around the parochial school all afternoon, beating chalkboard erasers on the school steps, helping the teachers grade tests, putting together bulletin boards. I got very good with scissors and staplers. When there was a need to cut out letters of the alphabet or numbers and exactly assemble them into words, sentences, calendars, the nuns came looking for me.
Martha was a girl in my math class who sat in front of me and never spoke. She glanced back at me a lot, cold but curious, always trying to catch a peek at the grades circled in red on top of my folded homework and tests, hopeful she had scored better than I had. One day, after an especially difficult algebra test, I noticed that Sister Teresa’s demeanor toward me decidedly chilled. She waited until I was cleaning erasers again, squatting outside on stucco steps, pounding, creating clouds of chalk dust in the winter tropical sun, and I looked up. There she was in her habit, towering over me like a giant, frowning Antarctic bird wearing a crucifix. Someone had accused me of cheating on my algebra test, and although Sister Teresa did not identify the source of this lie, I had no doubt of the culprit: Martha. The only way I could prove my innocence was to take the test again and make another perfect score.
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