Blow Fly

62

THE SKY IS TURNING A dirty blue with haze, and the wind picks up.

Scarpetta picks through paperwork as she talks to Dr. Lanier. Just now she finds a copy of the death certificate, folded up inside an envelope. The document isn't certified and should not have been released by Dr. Lanier s office. Only vital records would be authorized to send Scarpetta or any other requesting party a copy-a certified one. When Scarpetta was Chief, it would have been unthinkable for one of her clerks to make such an egregious error.

She mentions the problematic copy of the death certificate, adding, "I'm not trying to interfere with how you run your office, but thought you should know…"

"Goddamn!" he exclaims. "Let me guess which clerk. And don't assume it was a mistake. Some people around here would love nothing better than to get me into serious trouble."

The maiden name on her death certificate is De Nardi, her father Bernard De Nardi, her mother Sylvie Gaillot De Nardi.

Charlotte De Nardi Dard was born in Paris.

"Dr. Scarpetta?"

She vaguely hears his hoarse voice and coughing. Her mind locks on the abducted women, on Charlotte Dard's suspicious death and the information blackout that keeps the coroner clueless. The Louisiana legal system is infamous for corruption.

"Dr. Scarpetta? You there? Did I lose you?"

Jean-Baptiste Chandonne is scheduled to die soon.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Lanier," she finally says. "Let me ask you something. How did you hear about me?"

"Oh, good. I thought we'd gotten disconnected. An indirect referral. A rather unorthodox one suggesting I contact Pete Marino. That led me to you."

"An unorthodox referral from whom?"

He waits for another coughing fit to pass. "A guy on death row."

"Let me guess. Jean-Baptiste Chandonne."

"I'm not surprised you would figure that out. I've been checking, I admit it. You have a pretty scary history with him."

"Let's don't go into that," she says. "I also assume he's the source of information about Charlotte Dard. And by the way, Rocco Caggiano, the lawyer who represented our mysterious pharmacist who allegedly fled to Palm Desert? He's also Chandonne's lawyer."

"Now that I didn't know. You think Chandonne had something to do with Charlotte Dard's death?"

"I'm betting that he or someone either in his family or associated with it did," she says.