“The New York prosecutor’s in town.” I don’t have to say for which cases. “I’m on my way to meet her right now, Governor. I hope you understand.”
“I think it would be a good idea for you and me to meet, too.” He is firm. “I was going to take you aside at the party.”
I have the sensation of stepping on broken glass, afraid to look because I might find I am bleeding. “Whenever it’s convenient for you, Governor Mitchell,” I respectfully answer.
“Why don’t you stop by the mansion on your way home?”
“I can probably be free in about two hours,” I tell him. “I’ll see you then, Kay. Say hello to Ms. Berger,” he goes on. “When I was attorney general, we had a case that involved her office. I’ll tell you about it sometime.”
Off 4th Street, the enclosed bay where bodies are received looks like a square, gray igloo appended to the side of my building. I drive up the ramp and stop at the massive garage door, realizing with intense frustration that I have no way to get in. The remote opener is in my car, which is inside my garage at the house I have been banished from. I dial the number for the after-hours morgue attendant. “Arnold?” I say when he answers on the sixth ring. “Could you please open the bay door?”
“Oh, yes ma’am.” He sounds groggy and confused, as if I just woke him up. “Doing it right now, ma’am. Your opener not working?”
I try to be patient with him. Arnold is one of those people who is overwhelmed by inertia. He battles gravity. Gravity wins. I am constantly having to remind myself that there is no point in getting angry with him. Highly motivated people aren’t fighting for his job. Berger has pulled up behind me and Marino is behind her, all of us waiting for the door to rise, granting us entrance into the kingdom of the dead. My portable phone rings.
“Well, ain’t this cozy,” Marino says in my ear.
“Apparently she and the governor are acquainted.” I watch a dark van turn into the ramp behind Marino’s midnight blue Crown Victoria. The bay door begins to lurch up with screeching complaints.
“Well, well. You don’t think he has something to do with Wolfman leaving us for the Big Apple, do you?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” I confess. The bay is large enough to hold all of us, and we get out at the same time, the rumbling of engines and shutting of doors amplified by concrete. Cold, raw air jars my fractured elbow again, and I am baffled to see Marino in a suit and tie. “You look nice,” I
dryly comment. He lights a cigarette, his eyes fastened to
Berger’s mink-draped figure as she leans inside her Mercedes to collect belongings from the backseat. Two men in long, dark coats open the tailgate of the van, revealing the stretcher inside and its ominous, shrouded cargo.
“Believe it or not,” Marino says to me, “I was going to stop by the memorial service for the hell of it, then he decides to get whacked.” He indicates the dead body in the back of the van. “It’s turning out to be a little more complicated than we thought at first. Maybe more than a case of urban renewal.” Berger heads toward us, loaded down with books, accordion files and a sturdy leather briefcase. “You came prepared.” Marino stares at her with a flat expression on his face. Aluminum clacks as stretcher legs open. The tailgate slams shut.
“I really appreciate both of you seeing me on such short notice,” Berger says.
In the glare of the lighted bay, I note the fine lines on her face and neck, the faint hollows in her cheeks that tattle on her age. At a glance, or when she’s made up for the camera, she could pass for thirty-five. I suspect she is a few years older than I am, closer to fifty. Her angular features, short dark hair and perfect teeth coalesce into a portrait of the familiar, and I connect her with the expert I have seen on Court TV. She begins to resemble the photographs I pulled up on the Internet when I released search engines to find her in cyberspace so I could prepare myself for this invasion from what seems an alien galaxy.