Predator

45

Lucy has a macroadenoma. Her pituitary gland, which hangs by a threadlike stalk from the hypothalamus at the base of the brain, has a tumor.

The normal pituitary is about the size of a pea. It is referred to as the Master Gland because it transmits signals to the thyroid, the adrenals and ovaries or testes, controlling their production of hormones that dramatically affect metabolism, blood pressure, reproduction and other vital functions. Lucy’s tumor measures approximately twelve millimeters, or approximately half an inch, in diameter. It’s benign but won’t go away on its own. Her symptoms are headaches and an overproduction of prolactin, resulting in unpleasant symptoms that mimic pregnancy. For now, she controls her condition with drug therapy that is supposed to lower prolactin levels and shrink the tumor in size. Her response hasn’t been ideal. She hates taking her medication and isn’t consistent with it. Eventually, she might have to have surgery.

Scarpetta parks at Signature, the FBO at theFort Lauderdaleairport where Lucy hangars her jet. She gets out and meets the pilots inside as she thinks aboutBenton, not sure she’ll ever forgive him, so sick with hurt and anger that her heart is racing and her hands are shaking.

“There are still a few snow showers up there,” Bruce, the pilot in command, says. “We should be in the air about two hours twenty. We have a decent headwind.”

“I know you didn’t want catering, but we’ve got a cheese tray,” his copilot says. “Do you have baggage?”

“No,” she says.

Lucy’s pilots don’t wear uniforms. They are specially trained agents of her own design, don’t drink or smoke or do any kind of drugs, are very fit and trained in personal protection. They escort Scarpetta out to the tarmac where the Citation X waits like a big, white bird with a belly. It reminds her of Lucy’s belly, of what’s happened to her.

Inside the jet, she settles into the large leather seat, and when the pilots are busy in the cockpit, she callsBenton.

“I’ll be there by one,one fifteen,” she says to him.

“Please try to understand, Kay. I know what you must feel.”

“We’ll talk about it when I get there.”

“We never leave things like this,” he says.

It’s the rule, the old adage. Never let the sun go down on your wrath, never get into a car or a plane or walk out of the house when you’re angry. If anybody knows how quickly and randomly tragedy can strike, he and Scarpetta do.

“Fly safe,”Bentonsays to her. “I love you.”

Lex and Reba are walking around the outside of the house as if looking for something. They stop looking when Lucy makes her conspicuous entrance into Daggie Simister’s driveway.

She kills the engine of the V-Rod, takes off her black, full-face helmet and unzips her black ballistic jacket.

“You look like Darth Vader,” Lex says cheerfully.

Lucy’s never known anybody so chronically happy. Lex is a find, and the Academy wasn’t about to let her go after she graduated. She’s bright, careful and knows when to get out of the way.

“What are we looking for out here?” Lucy asks, scanning the small yard.

“The fruit trees over there,” Lex replies. “Not that I’m a detective. But when we were at the other house where those people disappeared”-she indicates the pale orange house on the other side of the waterway-“Dr. Scarpetta said something about a citrus inspector over here. She said he was examining trees in the area, maybe in the yard next door. And you can’t see it from here, but some of the trees over there have these same red stripes.” She again points to the pale orange house on the other side of the water.

“Of course, the canker spreads like crazy. If trees are infected here, I suppose a lot of trees in the area might be, too. I’m Reba Wagner, by the way,” she says to Lucy. “You’ve probably heard about me from Pete Marino.”

Lucy looks her in the eye. “What might I have heard if he’s talked about you?”

“How mentally challenged I am.”

“Mentally challenged might stretch his vocabulary to the point of injury. He probably said retarded.”

“There you have it.”

“Let’s go in,” Lucy says, heading to the front porch. “Let’s see what you missed the first time,” she says to Reba, “since you’re so mentally challenged.”

“She’s kidding,” Lex says to Reba, picking up the black crime-scene case she parked by the front door. “Before we do anything else”-she directs this to Reba-“I want to verify the house has been sealed since you guys cleared the scene.”

“Absolutely. I saw to it personally. All the windows and doors.”

“An alarm system?”

“You’d be amazed how many people down here don’t have them.”

Lucy notices stickers on windows that say H amp;W Alarm Company and comments, “She was worried, anyway. Probably couldn’t afford the real thing but still wanted to scare away bad people.”

“Problem is, the bad guys know that trick,” Reba replies. “Stickers and signs in the flower beds. Your typical burglar would take one look at this house and figure it probably doesn’t have an alarm system. That the person inside probably can’t afford it or is too old to bother.”

“A lot of elderly people don’t bother, it’s true,” Lucy says. “For one thing, they forget their codes. I’m serious.”

Reba opens the door and musty air greets them as if the life inside fled long ago. She reaches in and flips on lights.

“What’s anybody done about it so far?” Lex says, looking at the terrazzo floor.

“Nothing except in the bedroom.”

“Okay, let’s just stand out here a minute and think about this,” Lucy says. “We know two things. Her killer somehow got inside the house without breaking down a door. And after he shot her, he somehow left. Also through a door?” she asks Reba.

“I’d say so. She’s got all these jalousie windows. No way to climb through them unless you’re Gumby.”

“Then what we should do is start spraying at this door and work our way back to the bedroom where she was killed,” Lucy says. “Then we’ll do the same thing at all the other doors. Triangulating.”

“That would be this door, the kitchen door and the sliders leading from the dining room to the sunporch and on the sunporch itself,” Reba tells them. “Both sets of the sliders were unlocked when Pete got here, so he says.”

She steps inside the foyer, and Lucy and Lex follow. They shut the door.

“We ever find out any other details about the citrus inspector you and Dr. Scarpetta happened to notice around the time this lady was shot?” Lucy asks, and on the job, she never refers to Scarpetta as her aunt.

“I found out a couple things. First, they work in pairs. The person we saw was alone.”

“How do you know his partner wasn’t out of sight? Maybe in the front yard?” Lucy asks.

“We don’t. But all we saw was this one person. And there’s no record any inspectors were even supposed to be in this neighborhood. Another thing, he was using one of those pickers, you know, the long pole with a claw or whatever so you can pull down fruit from high up in the tree? From what I’ve been told, inspectors don’t use anything like that.”

“What would be the point?” Lucy asks.

“He took it apart, put it in a big black bag.”

“I wonder what else was in the bag,” Lex says.

“Like a shotgun,” Reba says.

“We’ll keep an open mind,” Lucy says.

“I’d say it’s a big fuck-you,” Reba adds. “I’m in plain view on the other side of the water. A cop. I’m with Dr. Scarpetta and obviously we’re looking around, investigating, and he’s right there looking at us, pretending to examine trees.”

“Possibly, but we can’t be sure,” Lucy replies. “Let’s keep an open mind,” she reminds them again.

Lex crouches on the cool terrazzo floor and opens the crime-scene case. They close all the blinds in the house and put on their protective disposable clothing, then Lucy sets up the tripod, attaches the camera and the cable release, while Lex mixes up the luminol and transfers it to a black pump spray bottle. They photograph the area just inside the front door, then lights out, and they get lucky on their first try.

“Holy smoke,” Reba’s voice sounds in the dark.

The distinct shape of footprints glow bluish-green as Lex mists the floor and Lucy captures it on film.

“He must have had a hell of a lot of blood on his shoes to leave this much after walking all the way across the house,” Reba says.

“Except for one thing,” Lucy replies in the dark. “They’re heading in the wrong direction. They’re coming in instead of leaving.”