He got upset.
‘I’ve got to verify her identity,’ I said, and I had no emotion left in me right now.
‘Won’t her dental records do that?’
‘If we find them. If she still has X rays left. If the army stays out of my way.’
‘The army doesn’t know about her.’ He paused, and for an instant his eyes were bright with tears. He looked away from me. ‘He just told us what he did when he sent the message from CAIN today.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘He said CAIN killed his brother. The description of Gault with her in New York sounded more like two men than a woman and a man.’ I paused. ‘Are there other siblings?’
‘Just a sister. We’ve known she lived on the West Coast but have never been able to locate her because apparently she doesn’t drive. DMV has no record of a valid license. Truth is, we’ve never been certain she is alive.’
I said to him, ‘She’s not.’
He flinched and looked away.
‘She hadn’t lived anywhere – at least not in recent years,’ I said, thinking of her pitiful belongings and malnourished body. ‘She’d been on the street for a while. In fact, I’d say she survived out there all right until her brother came to town.’
His voice caught and he looked wrecked as he said, ‘How could anyone do something like that?’
I put my arms around him. I did not care who walked in. I hugged him as a friend.
‘Benton,’ I said. ‘Go home.’
17
I spent the weekend and the New Year at Quantico, and though there was considerable mail on Prodigy, verifying Jane’s identity was not promising.
Her dentist had retired last year and her Panorex X-rays had been reclaimed for silver. The missing films, of course, were the biggest disappointment, for they might have shown old fractures, sinus configurations, bony anomalies, that could have effected a positive identification. As for her charts, when I touched upon that subject, her dentist, who was retired and now living in Los Angeles, got evasive.
‘You do have them, don’t you?’ I asked him point-blank on Tuesday afternoon.
‘I’ve got a million boxes in my garage.’
‘I doubt you have a million.’
‘I have a lot.’
‘Please. We’re talking about a woman we’re unable to identify. All human beings have a right to be buried with their name.’
‘I’m going to look, okay?’
Minutes later, I said to Marino on the phone, ‘We’re going to have to try for DNA or a visual ID.’
‘Yo,’ he said drolly. ‘And just what are you going to do? Show Gault a photograph and ask if the woman he did this to looks like his sister?’
‘I think her dentist took advantage of her. I’ve seen it before.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Occasionally, someone takes advantage. They chart work they didn’t do so they can collect from Medicare or the insurance company.’
‘But she had a hell of a lot of work done.’
‘He could have charted a hell of a lot more. Trust me. Twice as many gold foil restorations, for example. That would have meant thousands of dollars. He says he did them when he didn’t. She’s mentally impaired, living with an elderly uncle. What do they know?’
‘I hate assholes.’
‘If I could get hold of his charts, I would report him. But he’s not going to give them up. In fact, they probably no longer exist.’
‘You got jury duty at eight in the morning,’ Marino said. ‘Rose called to let me know.’
‘I guess that means I leave here very early tomorrow.’
‘Go straight to your house and I’ll pick you up.’
‘I’ll just go straight to the courthouse.’
‘No you won’t. You ain’t driving downtown by yourself right now.’
‘We know Gault’s not in Richmond,’ I said. ‘He’s back wherever he usually hides out, an apartment or room where he has a computer.’
‘Chief Tucker hasn’t rescinded his order for security for you.’
‘He can’t order anything for me. Not even lunch.’
‘Oh yeah he can. All he does is assign certain cops to you. You either accept the situation or try to outrun them. If he wants to order your damn lunch, you’ll get that, too.’