“She was in shock, Marino. People who are in shock do not react appropriately to anything.”
“You thinking she committed suicide?”
“Certainly that’s possible,” I replied. “You find any drugs at the scene?”
“Some over-the-counter meds, none of them lethal,” I said.
“No injuries?”
“None I could see.”
“So, you know what the hell killed her?” he asked, looking over at me, his face hard.
“No,” I answered. “At the moment I have absolutely no idea.”
“I assume you’re heading back to Cutler Grove,” I said to Marino as he parked behind the OCME.
“Real thrilled about it, too,” he grumbled. “Go home and get some decent sleep.”
“Don’t forget Gary Harper’s typewriter.”
Marino dug in a pocket for his lighter.
“The make and model, and any used ribbons,” I reminded him.
He lit a cigarette.
“And any stationery or typing paper in the house. I suggest you collect the ashes in the fireplace yourself. It’s going to be extremely difficult to preserve them–”
“No offense, Doc, but you’re beginning to sound like my mother or something.”
“Marino,” I snapped, “I’m serious.”
“Yeah, you’re serious, all right–seriously in need of a good night’s sleep,” he said.
Marino was as frustrated as I and probably needed sleep, too.
The bay was locked and empty, the cement floor mottled with oil stains. Inside the morgue I was aware of the tedious humming of electricity and generators I hardly noticed during business hours.
The rush of foul-smelling air seemed unusually loud as I entered the refrigerator.
Their bodies were on gurneys parked together against the left wall. Maybe it was because I was so tired. But when I pulled the sheet back from Sterling Harper, I went weak in the knees and dropped my medical bag to the floor. I recalled the keen beauty of her face, the terror in her eyes when the mansion’s back door opened and she looked out as I attended to her dead brother, my gloved hands bright red with his blood. Brother and sister were present and accounted for. That was all I needed to know. I covered her gently, shrouding a face now as empty as a rubber mask. All around were tagged and protruding naked feet.
I had vaguely noticed the yellow film box beneath Sterling Harper’s gurney when I had first walked into the refrigerator. But it wasn’t until I reached down to pick up my medical bag that I took a good look and realized the significance. Kodak thirty-five millimeter, twenty-four exposure. The film on state contract for my office was Fuji, and we always ordered the thirty-six exposure. The paramedics who had transported Miss Harper’s body would have been in and out many hours ago, and they wouldn’t have taken any photographs.
I went back out into the hallway. The light over the elevator caught my attention, and I realized it was stopped on the second floor. Someone else was in the building! It was probably just the security guard making his rounds. Then, as my scalp began to prickle, I thought of the empty film box again. Gripping the strap of my medical bag tightly, I decided to take the stairs. On the second-floor landing I slowly opened the door and listened before stepping inside. The offices in the east wing were empty, the lights out. I turned right into the main hallway, passing the empty classroom, the library, and Fielding’s office. I didn’t hear or see anyone. Just to be sure, I decided as I turned into my office to call security.
When I saw him, I stopped breathing. For a terrible moment my mind wouldn’t work. He was deftly and silently riffling through an open filing cabinet. The collar of a navy jacket was up around his ears, eyes masked by dark aviator glasses, hands sheathed in surgical gloves. Over a powerful shoulder was a leather strap attached to a camera. He looked as solid and hard as marble, and it wasn’t possible for me to step out of sight fast enough. The gloved hands suddenly stilled.
When he lunged, it was a reflex, my medical bag looping back like an Olympic hammer.
Momentum propelled it with such force between his legs the impact jarred the sunglasses from his face. He fell forward, doubling over in agony and knocked sufficiently off balance for me to send him sprawling with a kick to the ankles. He must not have felt any better when the hard metal lens of his camera was the only cushion between his ribs and the floor.