“I see.”
“As all this progressed,” I continued, “I began to get the unsettling impression if any scandal erupts, it’s going to be over what’s supposedly been happening inside my office. The implication: I’ve hurt the investigation, perhaps indirectly caused more women to die . . .”
I paused. My voice was starting to rise. “In other words, I have visions of everyone ignoring the city’s screw up with the 911 call because everyone’s so busy being enraged with the OCME, with me.”
He made no comment.
I lamely added, “Maybe I’m getting bent over nothing.”
“Maybe not.”
It wasn’t what I wanted to hear.
“Theoretically,” he explained, “it could happen exactly as you’ve just outlined it. If certain parties want it to happen that way, because they’re trying to save their own skins. The medical examiner is an easy scapegoat. The public, in the main, doesn’t understand what the ME does, has rather ghastly, objectionable impressions and assumptions. People tend to resist the idea of someone cutting up a loved one’s body. They see it as mutilation, the final indignity-”
“Please,” I broke out.
He mildly went on, “You get my point.”
“All too well.”
“It’s a damn shame about the computer break-in.”
“Lord. It makes me wish we were still using typewriters.”
He stared thoughtfully at the window. “To get lawyerly with you, Kay.”
His eyes drifted toward me, his face grim. “I propose you be very careful. But I strongly advise you not to get so caught up in this that you let it distract you from the investigation. Dirty politics, or the fear of them, can be unsettling to the point you can make mistakes sparing your antagonists the trouble of manufacturing them.”
The mislabeled slides flashed in my mind. My stomach knotted.
He added, “It’s like people on a sinking ship. They can become savage. Every man for himself. You don’t want to be in the way. You don’t want to put yourself in a vulnerable position when people are panicking. And people in Richmond are panicking.”
“Certain people are,” I agreed.
“Understandably. Lori Petersen’s death was preventable. The police made an unforgivable error when they didn’t give her 911 call a high priority. The killer hasn’t been caught. Women are continuing to die. The public is blaming the city officials, who in turn have to find someone else to blame. It’s the nature of the beast. If the police, the politicians, can pass the buck on down the line, they will.”
“On down the line and right to my doorstep,” I said bitterly, and I automatically thought of Cagney.
Would this have happened to him? I knew what the answer was, and I voiced it out loud. “I can’t help but think I’m an easy mark because I’m a woman.”
“You’re a woman in a man’s world,” Fortosis replied. “You’ll always be considered an easy mark until the ole boys discover you have teeth. And you do have teeth.”
He smiled. “Make sure they know it.”
“How?”
He asked, “Is there anyone in your office you trust implicitly?”
“My staff is very loyal . . .” He waved off the remark. “Trust, Kay. I mean trust with your life. Your computer analyst, for example?”
“Margaret’s always been faithful,” I replied hesitantly. “But trust with my life? I don’t think so. I scarcely know her, not personally.”
“My point is, your security – your best defense, if you want to think of it as such – would be to somehow determine who’s been breaking into your computer. It may not be possible. But if there’s a chance, then I suspect it would take someone who’s sufficiently trained in computers to figure it out. A technological detective, someone you trust. I think it would be unwise to involve someone you scarcely know, someone who might talk.”
“No one comes to mind,” I told him. “And even if I found out, the news might be bad. If it is a reporter getting in, I don’t see how finding that out will solve my problem.”
“Maybe it wouldn’t. But if it were I, I’d take the chance.”
I wondered where he was pushing me. I was getting the feeling he had his own suspicions.