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 Three
The sun had dipped low behind a 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.
“Doc. I went through Eddings’ apartment back in Richmond and didn’t want to get into it in front of Danny. I think you’re going to want to go through it, too.”
Marino wanted to talk. He did not want to be with the guys or alone. He wanted to be with me, but he would never admit that. In all the years I had known him, his feelings for me were a confession he could not make, no matter how obvious they might be.
“I can’t compete with a poker game,” I said to him as I fastened my shoulder harness,
“but I was going to make lasagne tonight. And it doesn’t look like Lucy’s going to get in. So if-”
“It don’t look like driving back after midnight would be a smart thing,” he cut me off as snow swirled across the tarmac in small white storms.
“I’ve got a guest room,” I went on.
He looked at his watch, and decided it was a good time to smoke.
“In fact, driving back now isn’t even a good idea,” I stated. “And it looks like we need to talk.”
“Yeah, well, you’re probably right,” he said.
What neither of us counted on as he slowly followed me to Sandbridge was that when we arrived, smoke would be drifting up from the chimney. Lucy’s vintage green Suburban was parked in the drive and blanketed with snow, so I knew she had been here for a while.
“I don’t understand,” I said to Marino as we slammed car doors shut. “I called three times.”