“Not so,” I said. “He could ask Susan, but she didn’t witness the opening of the envelope. Fielding opened it upstairs, photocopied the contents, and sent the original out with Waddell’s other personal effects.”
“Stevens couldn’t have just pulled the case and looked at the photocopy?”
‘Not unless he broke the lock on my credenza,” I said.
“Then, in his mind, the only other alternative was the computer.”
“Unless he asked Fielding or me. He would know better than that. Neither of us would have divulged a confidential detail like that to him or Susan or anyone else.”
“Does he know enough about computers to break into your directory?”
“Not to my knowledge, but Susan had taken several courses and had UNIX books in her office.”
The telephone rang and I let Lucy answer it. When she came into the kitchen, her eyes were uneasy.
“It’s your lawyer, Aunt Kay.”
She moved the kitchen phone within reach, and ‘I picked it up without moving from my chair. Nicholas Grueman wasted no words on a greeting but went straight to his point.
“Dr. Scarpetta, on November twelfth you wrote a money market account check to the tune of ten thousand dollars cash. And I find no records in any of your bank statements that might indicate this money was deposited in any of your various accounts.”
“I didn’t deposit the money.”
“You walked out of the bank with ten thousand dollars.”
“No, I did not. I wrote the check at Signet Bank, downtown, and with it purchased a cashier’s check in British sterling.”
“To whom was the cashier’s check made out?” My former professor asked as Benton Wesley stared tensely at me.
“Mr. Grueman, the transaction was of a private nature and in no way has any bearing on my profession.”
“Come now, Dr. Scarpetta. You know that’s not good enough.”
I took a deep breath.
“Certainly, you know we’re going to be asked about this. Certainly, you must realize it doesn’t look good that “within weeks of your morgue assistant’s depositing an unexplained amount of cash, you wrote a check for a large amount of cash.”
I shut my eyes and ran my fingers through my hair as Wesley got up from the table and came around behind me.
“Kay” – I felt Wesley’s hands on my shoulders – “for God’s sake, you’ve got to tell him.”
13
Had Grueman never been a practitioner of the law, I would not have entrusted my welfare to him. But before teaching he had been a litigator of renown, and he had done civil rights work and prosecuted mobsters for the Justice Department during the Robert Kennedy era. Now he represented clients who had no money and were condemned to die. I appreciated Grueman’s seriousness and needed his cynicism.
He was not interested in trying to negotiate or protest my innocence. He refused to present the slightest shred of evidence to Marino or anyone. He told no one of the ten-thousand-dollar check, which was, he said, the worst piece of evidence against me. I was reminded of what he had taught his students on the first day of criminal law. Just say no. Just say no. Just say no. My former professor, abided by these rules to the letter, and frustrated Roy Patterson’s every effort.
Then on Thursday, January 6, Patterson called me at home and requested that I come downtown to his office to talk.
“I’m sure we can dear all this up,” he said amicably. “I just need to ask you a few questions.”
The implication was that if I cooperated, then something worse might be derailed, and I marveled that Patterson would consider, for even a moment, that such a shopworn maneuver would work with me. When the Commonwealth’s Attorney wants to chat, he’s on a fishing expedition that does not involve letting anything go. The same is true of the police. In good Gruemanian fashion, I told Patterson no, and the next morning was subpoenaed to appear before the special grand jury on January 20. This was followed by a subpoena duces tecum for my financial records. First Grueman claimed the Fifth, then filed a motion to quash the subpoena. A week later, we had no choice but to comply unless I wished to be held in contempt of court. About this same time, Governor Norring appointed Fielding acting chief medical examiner of Virginia.