“Sounds like an inside job to me.”
I thought how natural it seemed to be home with Lucy. She no longer was a guest or an irascible little girl. “We need to call your mother and Grans,“ I said.
“Do we have to tonight?”
“No. But we do need to talk about your returning to Miami.”
“Classes don’t start until the seventh, and it won’t make any difference if I miss the first few days.”
“School is very important.”
“It’s also very easy.”
“Then you should do something on your own to make it harder.”
“Missing classes will make it harder,” she said.
The next morning I called Rose at eight-thirty, when I knew a staff meeting was in progress across the hall, meaning that Ben Stevens was occupied and would not know I was on the line.
“How are things?” I asked my secretary.
“Awful. Dr. Wyatt couldn’t get here from the Roanoke office because they got snow in the mountains and the roads are bad. So yesterday Fielding had four cases with no one to help him. Plus, he was due in court and then got called to a scene. Have you talked to him?”
“We touch base when the poor man has a moment to get to the phone. This might be a good time for us to track down a few of our former fellows and see if one of them might consider coming here to help us hang on for a while. Jansen’s doing private path in Charlottesville. You want to try him and see if he wants to give me a call.”
“Certainly. That’s a fine idea.”
“Tell me about Stevens,” I said.
“He hasn’t been here very much. He signs out in such an abbreviated, vague fashion that no one is ever sure where he’s gone. I’m suspicious he’s looking for another job.”
“Remind him not to ask me for a recommendation.”
“I wish you’d give him a great one so someone else would take him off our hands.”
“I need for you to call the DNA lab and get Donna to do me a favor. She should have a lab request for the analysis of the fetal tissue from Susan’s case.”
Rose was silent. I could feel her getting upset.
“I’m sorry to bring this up,” I said gently.
She took a deep breath. “When did you request the analysis?”
“The request was actually made by Dr. Wright, since he did the post. He would have his copy of the lab request at the Norfolk office, along with the case.”
“You don’t want me to call Norfolk and have them make a copy for us?”
“No. This can’t wait, and I don’t want anyone to know that I’ve requested a copy. I want it to appear that our office inadvertently got a copy. That’s why I want you to deal directly with Donna. Ask her to pull the lab request immediately and I want you to pick it up in person.”
“Then what?”
“Then put it in the box up front where all the other copies of lab requests and reports are left for sorting.”
“You’re sure about this?”
“Absolutely,” I said.
I hung up and retrieved a telephone directory, which I was flipping through when Lucy walked into the kitchen. She was barefoot and still wearing the sweat suit she had slept in. Groggily wishing me a good morning, she began rummaging in the refrigerator as I ran my finger down a column of names. There were maybe forty listings for the name Grimes, but no Helens. Of course, when Marino had referred to the guard as Helen the Hun, he was being snide. Maybe Helen wasn’t her real name at all. I noted that there were three listings with the initial H., two for the first name and one for a middle name.
“What are you doing?” Lucy asked, setting a glass of orange juice on the table and pulling out a chair.
“I’m trying to track down someone,” I said, reaching for the phone.
I had no luck with any of the Grimeses I called.
“Maybe she’s married,” Lucy suggested.
“I don’t think so.”
I called Directory Assistance and got the listing for the new penitentiary in Greensville.