“Gastric contents are just a small amount of brownish fluid,” I continued. “He didn’t eat near the time of death, not that I would have expected him to if he planned to dive.”
“Any chance fuel exhaust could have gotten to him, say if the wind blew just right?” Marino continued studying the hookah. “Couldn’t that also make him pink?”
“Certainly, we’ll test for carbon monoxide. But that doesn’t explain what I’m smelling.”
“And you’re sure?”
“I know what I’m smelling,” I said.
“You think he’s a homicide, don’t you,” Danny said to me.
“No one should be talking about this.” I pulled a cord down from an overhead reel and plugged in the Stryker saw. “Not to the Chesapeake police. Not to anyone. Not until all tests are concluded and I make an official release.
I don’t know what’s going on here. I don’t know what was going on at the scene. So we must exercise even more caution than usual.”
Marino was looking at Danny. “How long you been working in this joint?” he asked.
“Eight months.”
“You heard what the doc just said, right?”
Danny looked up, surprised by Marino’s change in tone.
“You know how to keep your mouth shut, right?” Marino went on. “That means no bragging to the boys, no trying to impress your family or your girlfriend. You got that?”
Danny held in his anger as he made an incision low around the back of the head, ear to ear.
“See, if anything leaks, me and the doc here are going to know where it came from.” Marino continued an attack that seemed completely unprovoked.
Danny reflected back the scalp. He pulled it forward over the eyes to expose the skull, and Eddings’ face collapsed, sad and slack, as if he knew what was happening and was grieving. I turned on the saw, and the room was filled with the high whine of blade cutting bone.
CHAPTER 3
THE SUN HAD DIPPED LOW BEHIND Ika veil of gray, and snow was several inches deep and hung like smoke in the air. Marino and I followed Danny’s footsteps across the parking lot, for the young man had already gone, and I felt bad for him.
“Marino,” I said, “you just can’t talk to people like that.
My staff knows about discretion. Danny did nothing to merit your treating him so rudely, and I don’t appreciate it.”
“He’s a kid,” he said. “You raise him right and he’ll take good care of you. Thing is, you got to believe in discipline.”
“It is not your job to discipline my staff. And I have never had a problem with him.”
“Yeah? And maybe this is one time when you don’t need a problem with him,” he replied.
“I really would appreciate it if you wouldn’t try to run my office.”
I was tired and out of sorts, and Lucy still was not answering the phone at Mant’s house. Marino had parked next to me, and I unlocked my driver’s door.
“So, what’s Lucy doing for the New Year?” he asked as if he knew my concerns.
“Hopefully, spending it with me. But I haven’t heard from her.” I got into the car.
“The snow started up north, so Quantico got hit first,” he said. “Maybe she got caught. You know how 95 can be.”
“She’s got a car phone. Besides, she’s driving from Charlottesville,” I said.
“How come?”
“The Academy’s decided to send her back to UVA for another graduate course.”
“In what? Advanced Rocket Science?”
“Apparently, she’s doing a special study in virtual reality.”
“So maybe she got stuck somewhere between here and Charlottesville.” He did not want me to leave.
“She could have left a message.”
He stared around the parking lot. It was empty save for the dark-blue morgue wagon, which was covered with snow. Flakes clung to his wispy hair and must have been cold on his balding head, but he did not seem to mind.
“Do you have New Year plans?” I started the engine, then the wipers to plow snow off the windshield.
“A couple of us guys are supposed to play poker and eat chili.”
“That sounds like fun.” I looked up at his big, flushed face as he continued staring off.