‘It describes almost everyone I’ve ever worked with.’
‘Except for me, I hope.’
‘You, Dr Scarpetta, are an exception to just about everything I can think of.’
We were walking through a long corridor, heading to the lobby, and I did not want to leave him right now. I felt lonely and wasn’t sure why.
‘I would love for us to have dinner,’ I said, ‘but Lucy’s got something to show me.’
‘What makes you think I don’t already have plans?’ He held the door for me.
The thought bothered me, even though I knew he was teasing.
‘Let’s wait until I can get away from here,’ he said, and we were walking toward the parking lot now. ‘Maybe over the weekend, when we can relax a little more. I’ll cook this time. Where are you parked?’
‘Over here.’ I pointed the key’s remote control.
Doors unlocked and the interior light went on. Typically, we did not touch. We never had when someone might see.
‘Sometimes I hate this,’ I said as I got into my car. ‘It’s fine to talk about body parts, rape and murder all day long, but not to hug each other, hold hands. God forbid anybody should see that.’ I started the engine. ‘Tell me how normal that is? It’s not like we’re still having an affair or committing a crime.’ I yanked my seatbelt across my chest. ‘Is there some don’t-ask-don’t-tell FBI rule no one’s let me in on?’
‘Yes.’
He kissed me on the lips as a group of agents walked by.
‘So don’t tell anyone,’ he said.
Moments later, I parked in front of the Engineering Research Facility, or ERF, a huge, space age-looking building where the FBI conducted its classified technical research and development. If Lucy knew all of what went on in the labs here, she did not tell, and there were few areas of the building where I was allowed, even when escorted by her. She was waiting by the front door as I pointed the remote control at my car, which was not responding.
‘It won’t work here,’ she said.
I looked up at the eerie rooftop of antennae and satellite dishes, sighing as I manually locked doors with the key.
‘You’d think I’d remember after all these times,’ I muttered.
‘Your investigator friend, Ring, tried to walk me over here after the consultation,’ she said, scanning her thumb in a biometric lock by the door.
‘He’s not my friend,’ I told her.
The lobby was high-ceilinged and arranged with glass cases displaying clunky, inefficient radio and electronic equipment used by law enforcement before ERF was built.
‘He asked me out again,’ she said.
Corridors were monochromatic and seemed endless, and I was forever impressed with the silence and sense that no one was here. Scientists and engineers worked behind shut doors in spaces big enough to accommodate automobiles, helicopters and small planes. Hundreds of Bureau personnel were employed at ERF, yet they had virtually no contact with any of us across the street. We did not know their names.
‘I’m sure there are a million people who would like to ask you out,’ I said as we boarded an elevator, and Lucy scanned her thumb again.
‘Usually, not after they’ve been around me very long,’ she said.
‘I don’t know, I haven’t gotten rid of you yet.’
But she was very serious. ‘Once I start talking shop, the guys turn off. But he likes a challenge, if you know the type.’
‘I know it all too well.’
‘He wants something from me, Aunt Kay.’
‘Would you like to hazard a guess? And where are you taking me, by the way?’
‘I don’t know. But I just have this feeling.’ She opened a door to the virtual environment lab, adding, ‘I have a rather interesting idea.’
Lucy’s ideas were always more than interesting. Usually they were frightening. I followed her into a room of virtual system processors and graphic computers stacked on top of each other, and countertops scattered with tools, computer boards, chips and peripherals like DataGloves and helmet-mounted displays. Electrical cords were bundled in thick hanks and tied back from the blank expanse of linoleum flooring where Lucy routinely lost herself in cyberspace.