As I suspected, the autopsy suite was locked, and when I took the elevator upstairs, the offices of my assistant chiefs were empty, and the receptionists and clerks were gone. I was completely alone on the second floor, and I started feeling frightened. When I entered my office and saw CAIN’s dripping red name on my computer screen, I felt worse.
‘All right,’ I said to myself. ‘No one is here right now. There’s no reason to be afraid.’
I sat behind my desk and placed my .38 within reach.
‘What happened earlier is the past,’ I went on. ‘You’ve got to get control of yourself. You’re decompensating.’ I took another deep breath.
I could not believe I was talking to myself. That wasn’t in character, either, and I worried as I began dictating the morning’s cases. The hearts, livers and lungs of the dead policemen were normal. Their arteries were normal. Their bones and brains and builds were normal.
‘Within normal limits,’ I said into the tape recorder. ‘Within normal limits.’ I said it again and again.
It was only what had been done to them that was not normal, for Gault was not normal. He had no limits.
At a quarter of five I called the American Express office and was fortunate that Brent had not left for the day.
‘You should head home soon,’ I said. ‘Roads are getting bad.’
‘I have a Range Rover.’
‘People in Richmond do not know how to drive in the snow,’ I said.
‘Dr. Scarpetta, what can I help you with?’ asked Brent, who was young and quite capable and had helped me with many problems in the past.
‘I need you to monitor my American Express bill,’ I said. ‘Can you do that?’
He hesitated.
‘I want to be notified about every charge. As it comes in, I’m saying, versus waiting until I get the statement.’
‘Is there a problem?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But I can’t discuss it with you. All I need from you this moment is what I just requested.’
‘Hold on.’
I heard keys click.
‘Okay. I’ve got your account number. You realize your card expires in February.’
‘Hopefully, I won’t need to do this by then.’
There are very few charges since October,’ he said. ‘Almost none, actually.’
‘I’m interested in the most recent charges.’
‘There are five for the twelfth through the twenty-first. A place in New York called Scaletta. Do you want the amounts?’
‘What’s the average?’
‘Uh, average is, let’s see, I guess about eighty bucks a pop. What is that, a restaurant?’
‘Keep going.’
‘Most recent.’ He paused. ‘Most recent is Richmond.’
‘When?’ My pulse picked up.
Two for Friday the twenty-second.’
That was two days before Marino and I delivered blankets to the poor and Sheriff Santa shot Anthony Jones. I was shocked to think Gault might have been in town, too.
‘Please tell me about the Richmond charges,’ I then said to Brent.
‘Two hundred and forty-three dollars at a gallery in Shockhoe Slip.’
‘A gallery?’ I puzzled. ‘You mean an art gallery?’
Shockhoe Slip was just around the corner from my office. I couldn’t believe Gault would be so brazen as to use my credit card there. Most merchants knew who I was.
‘Yes, an art gallery.’ He gave me the name and address.
‘Can you tell what was purchased?’
There was a pause. ‘Dr. Scarpetta, are you certain there isn’t a problem here that I can help you with?’
‘You are helping me. You’re helping me a great deal.’
‘Let’s see. No, it doesn’t say what was purchased.
I’m sorry.’ He sounded more disappointed than I was.
‘And the other charge?’
‘To USAir. A plane ticket for five hundred and fourteen dollars. This was round trip from La Guardia to Richmond.’
‘Do we have dates?’
‘Only of the transaction. You’d have to get the actual departure and return dates from the airline. Here’s the ticket number.’
I asked him to contact me immediately if further charges showed up on the bank’s computer. Glancing up at the clock, I flipped through the telephone directory. When I dialed the number of the gallery, the phone rang a long time before I gave up.