He leaned closer to his patient, frowning a bit as he studied the tattoo of a rattlesnake coiled around the dead woman’s sagging left breast, its gaping mouth disturbingly aimed at her nipple.
“You tell me why the hell somebody gets something like this,” Fielding said.
“I’d say the tattoo artist got the best end of that deal,” I said. “Check the inside of her lower lip. She’s probably got a tattoo there.”
He pulled down her lower lip, and inside it in big crooked letters was Fuck You.
Fielding looked at me in astonishment. “How’d you know that?”
“The tattoos are homemade, she looks like a biker-type and my guess is she’s no stranger to jail.”
“Right on all counts.” He crabbed a clean towel and wiped his face.
My body-building associate always looked as if he were about to split his scrubs, and he perspired while the rest of us were never quite warm. But he was a competent forensic pathologist. He was pleasant and caring, and I believed he was loyal.
“Possible overdose,” he explained as he sketched the tattoo on a chart. “I guess her New Year was a little too happy-”
“Jack,” I said to him, “how many dealings have you had with the Chesapeake police?”
He continued to draw. “Very little.”
“None recently?” I asked.
“I really don’t think so. Why?” He glanced up at me.
“I had a rather odd encounter with one of their detectives.”
“in connection with Eddings?” He began to rinse the body, and long dark hair flowed over bright steel.
“Right.”
“You know, it’s weird but Eddings had just called me.
It couldn’t have been more than a day before he died,” Fielding said as he moved the hose.
“What did he want?” I asked.
“I was down here doing a case, so I never talked to him.
Now I wish I had.” He climbed up a stepladder and began taking photographs with a Polaroid camera. “You in town long?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Well, if you need me to help out in Tidewater some, I will.” The flash went off and he waited for the print. “I don’t know if I told you, but Ginny’s pregnant again and would probably love to get out of the house. And she likes the ocean. Tell me the name of the detective you’re worried about, and I’ll take care of him.”
“I wish somebody would,” I said.
The camera flashed again, and I thought about Mant’s cottage and could not imagine putting Fielding and his wife in there or even nearby.
“it makes sense for you to stay here anyway,” he added.
“And hopefully Dr. Mant isn’t going to stay in England forever.”
“Thank you,” I said to him with feeling. “Maybe if you could just commute several times a week.”
“No problem. Could you hand me the Nikon?”
“Which one?”
“Uh, the N-50 with the single-reflex lens. I think it’s in the cabinet over there.” He pointed.
“We’ll work out a schedule,” I said as I got the camera for him. “But you and Ginny don’t need to be in Dr. Mant’s house, and you’re going to have to trust me on that.”
“You have a problem?” He ripped out another print and handed it down.
“Marino, Lucy and I started our New Year with slashed tires.”
He lowered the camera and looked at me, shocked.
“Shit. You think it was random?”
“No, I do not,” I said.
I took the elevator up to the next floor and unlocked my office and the sight of Eddings’ Christmas pepper surprised me like a blow. I could not leave it on the credenza, so I picked it up and then did not know where to move it. For a moment, I walked around, confused and upset, until I finally put it back where it had been, because I could not throw it out or subject some other member of my staff to its memories.
Looking through Rose’s adjoining doorway, I was not surprised that she wasn’t here.
My secretary was advancing in years and did not like to drive downtown even on the nicest days. Hanging up my coat, I carefully looked around, satisfied that all seemed in order except for the cleaning job done by the custodial crew that came in after hours. But then, none of the sanitation engineers, as they were called by the state, wanted to work in this building. Few lasted long and none would go downstairs.