Blow Fly

101

INSIDE THE GEORGE BUSH Intercontinental Airport, Scarpetta stands near a wall, out of traffic.

She sips black coffee, knowing it's the last thing she needs. Her appetite has abandoned her, and when she bought a hamburger less than an hour ago, she couldn't swallow the first bite. Caffeine makes her hands shake. A hit of Scotch would calm her down, but she won't dare, and the reprieve would only be temporary. Of all times, she needs to think clearly now, to somehow handle her stress without self-destructive assistance.

Please answer your phone, she silently begs.

Three rings and, "Yeah."

Marino is driving his loud truck.

"Thank God!" she exclaims, turning her back to passengers walking with purpose or running to their gates. "Where in God's name have you been? I've been trying to reach you for days. I'm so sorry about Rocco…"

For Marino's sake, she is.

"I don't want to talk about it," he replies, subdued and more unhappy than usual. "Where I've been is hell, if you want to know. Maybe broke my all-time record for drinking bourbon and beer and not answering the goddamn phone."

"Oh, no. Another fight with Trixie. I told you what I think of…"

"I don't want to talk about it," he says again. "No offense, Doc."

"I'm in Houston," she tells him.

"Oh, shit."

"I did it. I took notes. Maybe none of it is true. But he did say that Rocco has a place in some gay district near downtown. In Baton Rouge. Chances are good the house isn't in his name. But neighbors must know about him. Could be a lot of evidence in that house."

"On another subject, in case you ain't been listening to the news, a female arm turned up in one of the creeks down there," he informs her. "They're doing DNA. Might be the last lady, Katherine Bruce. If it is, he's getting frenzied. The location the arm was found in was right off Blind River, which runs into Lake Maurepas. This guy's got to be familiar with the bayous and so on around there.

"Word is, the creek where the arm was isn't easily accessible. You'd have to know where it is, and almost nobody goes there. He was using the arm as gator bait, on a hook suspended from a rope."

"Or he was displaying it for the shock effect."

"I don't think that's it," he says.

"Whatever the case, you're right, he's escalating."

"Probably looking for another one even as we speak," he says.

"I'm headed to Baton Rouge," Scarpetta says.

"Yeah, I figured you would." Marino's voice is barely audible over the thrumming of his V-8 engine. "All to help out with some stupid drug overdose that happened eight years ago."

"This isn't just about a drug overdose, Marino. And you know it."

"Whatever it's about, you ain't safe down there, which is why I'm heading that way. Been driving since midnight and have to stop every other minute for coffee, then I have to stop again every other minute for a john."

She reluctantly tells him about Rocco's connection to the Charlotte Dard case, that he represented a pharmacist, an alleged suspect.

It is as if Marino doesn't hear her.

"I still got another ten hours on the road. And I gotta sleep at some point. So I probably won't catch up with you until tomorrow," he says.