Patricia Cornwell – Scarpetta11 – The Last Precinct

Rose buzzes me to say that the governor is calling for our ten o’clock telephone appointment. I motion for Marino to shut my office door while I wait on the line for Mitchell. Re­ality again intrudes. I am returned to my predicament and its wide broadcast. I have a feeling I know exactly what the gov­ernor has on his mind. “Kay?” Mike Mitchell is somber. “I was very sorry to see the paper this morning.”

“I’m not happy about it, either,” I let him know.

“I’m supportive of you and will continue to be,” he says, maybe to ease me into the rest of what he plans to relay, which can’t be good. I don’t respond. I also suspect he knows about Berger and probably had something to do with her being ap­pointed the special prosecutor. I don’t bring it up. There is no point. “I think in light of your current circumstances,” he goes on, “that it’s best you relinquish your duties until this matter is resolved. And Kay, it’s not because I believe a word of it.” This is also not the same thing as saying that he thinks I am innocent. “But until things calm down, I believe your continu­ing to run the medical examiner system for the common­wealth would be unwise.”

“Are you firing me, Mike?” I ask him point-blank.

“No, no,” he is quick to say, and his tone is gentler. “Let’s just get through the special grand jury hearing, and we’ll go from there. I haven’t given up on you or your idea of being a private contractor, either. Let’s just get through this,” he says again.

“Of course, I will do whatever you wish,” I tell him with all due respect. “But I have to say that I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the commonwealth for me to withdraw from ongoing cases that still need my attention.”

“Kay, it’s not possible.” He is the politician. “We’re only talking two weeks, assuming your hearing turns out all right.”

“Good God,” I reply. “It has to.”

“And I’m sure it will.”

I get off the phone and look at Marino. “Well, that’s that.”

I start throwing things in my briefcase. “I hope they don’t change the locks the minute I’m out the door.”

“Really, what could he do? When you think about it, Doc, what could he do?” Marino has resigned himself to this in­evitability.

“I would just like to know who the hell leaked it to the me­dia.” I shut my briefcase and snap in the locks. “Have you been subpoenaed, Marino?” I go ahead and ask. “Nothing’s confidential. May as well tell me.”

“You knew I would be.” He has a pained expression on his face. “Don’t let the bastards get you, Doc. Don’t give up.”

I pick up my briefcase and open the office door. “I’m doing anything but give up. In fact, I’ve got a lot to do.”

His expression asks, what”? I’ve just been ordered by the governor to do nothing. “Mike’s a good guy,” Marino says. “But don’t push him. Don’t give him a reason to fire you. Why don’t you go somewhere for a few days? Maybe go see Lucy in New York. Didn’t she head on up to New York? Her and Teun? Just get the hell out of here until the hearing. I wish you would so I don’t have to worry about you every other minute. I don’t even like you being out there in Anna’s house all by yourself.”

I take a deep breath and try to tuck in my fury and hurt. Marino is right. There is no point in pissing off the governor and making matters worse. But now I feel run out of town on top of everything else, and I have not heard a word from Anna, and that stings, too. I am almost in tears, and I refuse to cry in my office. I avert my eyes from Marino, but he catches my feelings.

“Hey,” he says, “you got every right not to feel good. All of this sucks, Doc.”

I cross the hallway and cut through the ladies’ room, on my way to the morgue. Turk is sewing up Benny White and Jack is sitting at the counter doing paperwork. I pull out a chair next to my assistant chief and pluck several stray hairs off his scrubs. “You got to quit shedding,” I say, trying to hide my up­set. “You going to tell me why your hair keeps falling out?” I have been meaning to ask him for weeks. As usual, so much has happened and Jack and I have not talked.

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