Scarpetta by Patricia Daniels Cornwell

Author:Patricia Daniels Cornwell [Cornwell, Patricia Daniels]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: bestseller
ISBN: 9780425230169
Publisher: Berkley Books
Published: 2009-08-25T06:12:49+00:00

Chapter 18

Inside Dr. Lester's office, everywhere she could fit them, were framed degrees, certificates, commendations, and photographs of herself wearing a hard hat and a white protective suit, excavating The Hole, as those who worked there referred to what was left of the World Trade Center.

She was proud to have been part of Nine-Eleven, and seemed to be personally unfazed by it. Scarpetta hadn't fared quite as well after spending almost six months at the Water Street recovery site, hand-scanning thousands of buckets of dirt like an archaeologist, screening for personal effects, body parts, teeth, and bone. She had no framed photographs. She had no PowerPoint presentations. She didn't like to talk about it, having felt physically poisoned by it in a way that was unlike anything she had ever felt before. It was as if the terror those victims had experienced at their moment of certain death had been suspended and fixed in a miasma that enveloped wherever they had been, and later, where remnants of them were recovered and bagged and numbered. She couldn't quite explain it, but it was nothing to flaunt or brag about.

Dr. Lester retrieved a thick envelope from her desk and gave it to Benton.

"Autopsy photos, my preliminary report, the DNA analysis," she said. "I don't know how much of it Mike gave to you. Sometimes he gets distracted."

She mentioned Mike Morales as if they were close friends.

"The police are calling it a homicide," Benton said.

He didn't open the envelope but gave it to Scarpetta, making a point.

"They aren't the ones who make the determination," Dr. Lester answered him. "I'm sure Mike isn't calling it that. Or even if he is, he knows where I stand."

"And what does Berger say?" Benton asked.

"She doesn't make the determination, either. People have such a hard time waiting their turn in line. I always say the doomed ones who end up down here aren't in a hurry, so why should the rest of us be? I'm pending the manner of death for now, especially in light of the DNA. If I was unsure of this case before, well, now I'm completely in limbo."

"So you don't foresee determining a manner of death in the near future," Benton said.

"There's nothing more I can do. I'm waiting on everybody else," she said.

It was exactly what Scarpetta didn't want to hear. Not only was there no evidence that warranted Oscar's arrest, legally there was no crime. She might be bound to secrecy with him for a very long time.

They left her office, and Dr. Lester said, "For example, she had some sort of lubricant in her vagina. That's unusual for a homicide."

"This is the first anyone's mentioned a lubricant," Scarpetta said. "It's not in any of the preliminary reports I've seen."

Dr. Lester replied, "You realize, of course, these DNA profiles in CODIS are nothing but numbers. And I've always said, all you need is an error in the numbers, which would result in a totally different chromosomal position. One thing off in a marker or maybe more than one marker, and you've got a serious problem.

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