“What’s the file’s name?” I asked as paranoia towered like storm clouds.
“E-mail,” she replied, knowing how I was going to feel about that. “Dr. Scarpetta, I’ve got thousands of files filled with programming codes and updates, patches, bugs, new things coming out, you name it. If I don’t label them fairly precisely, I can never find anything.”
“I understand,” I said. “I have the same problem:’
“I can change your password first thing in the morning.”
“That’s a good idea. And Ruth, let’s not put it anywhere that anyone can find it this time. Not in that file, okay?”
“I hope I’m not in trouble,” she uneasily said as her baby continued to scream.
“You aren’t, but someone is,” I told her. “And maybe you can help me figure out who that is.”
It didn’t take much intuition on my part to immediately think of Ruffin. He was clever. It was obvious he didn’t like me. Ruth routinely kept her door shut so she could concentrate. I didn’t suppose it would have been hard for Ruffin to slip inside her office and shut the door while she was in the break room.
“This conversation is absolutely confidential,” I said to Ruth. “You can’t even tell friends or family.”
“You have my word on that.”
“What’s Chuck’s password?”
“R-O-O-S-T R. I remember because it irritated me when he wanted it assigned to him. As if he’s the rooster in the henhouse,” she said. “His address, as you probably know, is C-H-U-K-O-C-M-E, as in Chuck, Office of the-Chief Medical Examiner.”
“And what if I were signed on and someone else tried at the same time?” I then asked.
“The person trying would be kicked off and told someone was already signed on. There would be an error message and an alert. Now the reverse isn’t true. If, let’s say, the bad guy’s already signed on and you try, although you get the error message, he isn’t alerted at all.”
“So someone could try to do it while I’m already logged on, and I’m not going to know it.”
“Exactly.” .
“Does Chuck have a home computer?”
“He asked me one time what to get that was affordable, and I told him to try a consignment shop. I gave him the name of one.”
“The name?”
“Disk Thrift. It’s owned by a friend of mine.”
“Any way you could call this person at home and find out if Chuck bought anything from them?”
“I can try.”
“I’ll be at the office for a while;” I said.
I brought up the menu on my computer and looked at the icon for AOL. I logged on without a problem, meaning no one else had done so first. I was tempted to sign on as Ruffin to see who he might be corresponding with and if it ,might tell me more about what he was up to, but I was afraid. I was chilled by the thought of breaking into someone’s mailbox.
I paged Marino, and when I got him on the phone, I explained the situation to him and asked his opinion about what I should do.
“Hell,” he said without pause. “I’d do it. I always told you I didn’t trust that little shit. And you know what else, Doc? How do you know he hadn’t gone into your mail and deleted things, or even sent things to people other than Rose?”
“You’re right,” I said, infuriated by the idea. “I’ll let you know what I find.”
Ruth called back minutes later and sounded excited.
“He bought a computer and printer last month,” she reported. “For about six hundred dollars. And the computer came with a modem.”
“And we have AOL software here.”
“Tons of it. If he didn’t buy his own, he certainly could have gotten his hands on it:”
“We may have a very serious situation on our hands. It’s vital you don’t say a word,” I reminded her again.
“I’ve never liked Chuck.”
“And you can’t say that to people either,” I said.
I hung up and put my coat on and felt bad about Rose. I was certain she was upset. It wouldn’t have surprised me if she had cried all the way home. She was stoical and rarely conveyed how she felt, and I knew if she thought she had hurt me, she would be undone. I went out to my car. I wanted to make her feel better and I needed her help. Chuck’s e-mail would have to wait. ,„