“I don’t need nothing right now.” His face was pale.
“I’ve got to meet Dr. Jenrette at the morgue. Are you coming?”
“No,” he said.
“I’m going on back to the Travel-Eze. I’m gonna drink beer until I puke again, then I’m gonna switch to bourbon. And after that I’m gonna call Wesley’s ass and ask him when the shit we can get out of this armpit town, because I tell you, I don’t have another decent shirt here and I just ruined this one. I don’t even have a tie.”
“Marino, go lie down.”
“I’m living out of a bag this big,” he went on, holding his hands not too far apart.
“Take Advil, drink as much water as you can hold, and eat some toast.
I’ll check on you when we finish at the hospital. If Benton calls, tell him I’ll have my portable phone with me or he can call my pager. ”
“He’s got those numbers?”
“Yes,” I said. Marino glanced at me over his handkerchief as he mopped his face again. I saw the hurt in his eyes before it slipped back behind its walls.
9
Dr. Jenrette was doing paperwork in the morgue when I arrived as the hearse did shortly before ten. He smiled nervously at me as I took off my suit jacket and put a plastic apron over my clothes.
“Would you have a guess as to how the press found out about the exhumation?” I asked, unfolding a surgical gown. He looked startled.
“What happened?”
“About a dozen reporters showed up at the cemetery.”
“That’s a real shame.”
“We need to make sure nothing more gets out,” I said, tying the gown in back and doing my best to sound patient.
“What happens here needs to remain here. Dr. Jenrette.” He said nothing.
“I know I am a visitor and I wouldn’t blame you if you resented the hell out of my presence. So please don’t think I’m insensitive to the situation or indifferent to your authority. But you can rest assured that whoever murdered this little girl keeps up with the news. Whenever something gets leaked, he finds out about it, too.”
Dr. Jenrette, pleasant person that he was, did not look the least bit offended as he listened carefully.
“I’m just trying to think of who all knew,” he said.
“The problem is by the time word got around that could have been a lot of people.”
“Let’s make sure word doesn’t get around about anything we might find in here today,” I said as I heard our case arrive. Lucias Ray walked in first, the man in the porkpie hat right behind him pulling the church cart bearing the white casket. They maneuvered their cargo through the doorway and parked close to the autopsy table. Ray slipped a metal crank out of his coat pocket and inserted it in a small hole at the casket’s head. He began cranking loose the seal as if he were starting a Model-T.
“That should do it,” he said, dropping the crank back into his pocket.
“Hope you don’t mind my waiting around to check on my work. It’s an opportunity I don’t usually get, since we’re not in the habit of digging up people after we bury’em.” He started to open the lid, and if Dr. Jenrette hadn’t placed his hands on top of it to stop him, I would have.
“Ordinarily that wouldn’t be a problem, Lucias,” Dr. Jenrette said.
“But it’s really not a good idea for anyone else to be here right now.”
“I think that’s being a might bit touchy.” Ray’s smile got tight.
“It’s not like I haven’t seen this child before. Why I know her inside and out better than her own mama.”
“Lucias, we need you to go on now so Dr. Scarpetta and I can get this done,” Dr. Jenrette spoke in his same sad soft tone.
“I’ll call you when we’re finished.”
“Dr. Scarpetta” –Ray fixed his eyes on me”–I must say it does appear folks are a little less friendly since the Feds came to town.”
“This is a homicide investigation, Mr. Ray,” I said.
“Perhaps it would be best not to take things personally since nothing has been intended that way.”