It took a moment for me to remember that several years ago the Henrico County Police Department had switched from nine-millimeters to Sig Sauer P220 .45 caliber pistols.
“And that’s the pistol in question?” I uneasily asked.
“Yup.” He inhaled smoke. “You see, Henrico’s got this policy. Every Sig gets entered into DRUGFIRE in the event this very thing happens.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Right. Cops lose their guns and have them stolen like anybody else. So it’s not a bad thing to track them after they’re gone, in case they’re used in the commission of crimes.”
“Then the gun that killed Danny is the one this Henrico officer lost,” I wanted to make sure.
“It would appear that way.” -It was lost in the projects about a month ago,” I went on. “And now it’s been used for murder. It was used on Danny.”
Marino turned toward me, flicking an ash. “At least it wasn’t you in the car outside the Hill Cafe.”
There was nothing I could say.
“That area of town ain’t exactly far from Whitcomb Court and other bad neighborhoods,” he said. “So we could be talking about a carjacking, after all.”
“No.” I still would not accept that. “My car wasn’t taken.”
“Something could have happened to make the squirrel change his mind,” he said.
I did not respond.
“It could have been anything. A neighbor turns a light on. A siren sounds somewhere. Someone’s burglar alarm accidentally goes off. Maybe he got spooked after shooting Danny and didn’t finish what he started.”
“He didn’t have to shoot him.” I watched traffic slowly rolling past on the street below. “He could have just stolen my Mercedes outside the cafe. Why drive him off and walk him down the hill into the woods?” My voice got harder.
“Why do all of that for a car you don’t end up taking?”
“Things happen,” he said again. “I don’t know.”
“What about the tow lot in Virginia Beach,” I said.
“Has anybody checked with them?”
“Danny picked up your ride around three-thirty, which is the time they told you it would be ready.”
“What do you mean, the time they told me’?”
“The time they told you when you called.”
I looked at him and said, “I never called.”
He flicked an ash. “They said you did.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Danny called. That was his job. He dealt with them and my office’s answering service.”
“Well, someone who claimed to be Dr. Scarpetta called.
Maybe Lucy’?”
“I seriously doubt she would say she was me. Was this person who called a woman’?”
He hesitated. “Good question. But you probably should ask Lucy, just to make sure she didn’t call.”
Firefighters were emerging from the building, and I knew that soon we would be allowed to return to our offices. We Would spend the rest of the day checking everything, speculating and complaining as we hoped that no more cases came in.
“The arm-no’s the thing that’s really eating at me,” Marino then said.
“Frost should be back in his lab within the hour,” I said, but Marino did not seem to care.
“I’ll call him. I’m not going up there in all this mess.”
I could tell he did not want to leave me and his mind was on more than this case, “Something’s troubling you,” I said.
“Yeah, Doc. Something always is.”
“What this time?”
He got out his pack of Marlboros again, and I thought of my mother, whose constant companion now was an oxygen tank, because she once had been as bad as him.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he warned as he fished for his lighter again.
“I don’t want you to kill yourself. And today you seem to be really trying.”
“We’re all going to die.”
“Attention,” blared a fire truck’s P.A. system. “This is the Richmond Fire Department. The emergency has ended.
You may reenter the building,” sounded the mechanical broadcast with its jarring repetitive beeps and monotonous tones. “Attention.. “The emergency has ended. You may reenter the building.
“Mc.” Marino went on, unmindful of the commotion, “I want to croak while I’m drinking beet-, eating nachos with chili and sour cream, sniokino, downing shots of lack Black and watching the game.”