"I saw her last night. Briefly, at her home."

I hesitated, reluctant to probe the soft places of their lives. "Susan seemed troubled. And she has not been herself at work of late."

He swallowed, fingers laced tightly on top of the table. His knuckles were white.

"We need to pray. Would you pray with me, Dr. Scarpetta?"

He held out his hand. "Please."

"As his fingers wrapped firmly around mine, I could not help but think of Susanas obvious disregard for her father and distrust for what he represented. Fundamentalists frightened me, too. I felt anxious shutting my eyes holding hands with the Reverend Mack Dawson as he thanked G.o.d for a mercy I saw no evidence of and claimed promises too late for G.o.d to keep. Opening my eyes, I withdrew my hand. For an uneasy moment I feared that Susanas father sensed my skepticism and wou1d question my beliefs. But the fate of my soul was foremost on his mind.

A loud voice sounded from upstairs, a m.u.f.fled protest could not make out A chair sc.r.a.ped across the floor. The telephone rang and rang, and the voice rose again in a primal outcry of rage and pain. Dawson closed his eyes. He muttered something under his breath that rather strange. I thought he said, "Stay in your room."

"Jason has been here the whole time." he said. I could see his pulse pounding in his temples. "I realize he can speak for himself. But I just want you to know this from me."

"You mentioned heas not feeling well."

"He woke up with a cold, the beginning of one. Susan took his temperature after lunch and encouraged him to go to bed. He would never hurta Well." He coughed "I know the police have to ask, have to consider domestic situations. But thatas not the case here."

"Reverend Dawson, what time did Susan leave the house today, and where did she say she was going?"

aShe left after dinner; after Jason went to bed. I think that would have been around one-thirty or two: She said she was going. over to a friendas house."

aWhich friend?" He stared past me. aA friend she went to high school with. Dianne Lee."

"Where does Dianne live?"

"Northside, near the seminary."

aDiannea's car was found off Strawberry Street, not in Northside."

aI suppose if somebody a She could have ended up anywhere."

aIt would be helpful to know if she ever made it to Dianneas house, and whose idea the visit was,a I said.

He got up and started opening kitchen drawers. It took him three tries to find the telephone directory. His hands trembled as he turned pages and dialed a number. Clearing his throat several times, he asked to speak to Dianne. aI see. What was that?" He listened for a moment. aNo, no." His voice shook. aThings are not all right."

I sat quietly as he explained, and I imagined him many years earlier praying and talking on the phone as he dealt with the death of his other daughter, Judy. When he returned to the table, he confirmed what I feared. Susan had not visited her friend that afternoon, nor had there been any plan for her to do so. Her friend was not in town.

aSheas with her husbandas family in North Carolina,a Susanas father said. aSheas been there several days. Why would Susan lie? She didnat have to. Iave always told her no matter what, she didnat have to lie."

aIt would seem she did not want anyone to know where she was going or who she was going to see. I know that raises unhappy speculations, but we need to face them,a I said gently.

He stared down at his hands.

aWere she and Jason getting along all right?"

aI donat know."

He fought to regain his composure.

aDear Lord, not again."

Again he whispered curiously.

aGo to your room. Please go."

Then he looked up at me with bloodshot eyes. aShe had a twin sister. Judy died when they were in high school. a aIn a car accident, yes. Susan told me. Iam so sorry."

aSheas never gotten over it. She blamed G.o.d. She blamed me."

aI did not get that impression,a I said.a'

aIf she blamed anyone, it seemed to be a girl named Doreen."

Dawson slipped out a handkerchief and quietly blew his nose. aWho?" he asked.

aThe girl in high school who allegedly was a witcha He shook his head.

aShe supposedly put a curse on Judy?"

But it was pointless to explain further. I could tell that Dawson did not know what I was talking about. We both turned as Hailey walked into the kitchen. She was cradling a baseball glove, her eyes frightened.

aWhat have you got there, darling?"

I asked, trying to smile.

She came close to me. I could smell the new leather. The glove was tied with string; a softball in the sweet spot like a large pearl inside an oyster.

aAunt Susan gave it to me,a she said in a small voice. aYou got to break it in. I have to put it under my mattress. Aunt Susan says I have to for a week."

Her grandfather reached for her arid lifted her onto his lap. He buried his nose in her hair, holding her tight. aI need for you to go to your room for a little while, sugar. Will you do that for me so I can take care of things? Just for a while?"

She nodded, her eyes not leaving me.

aWhat are Grandma and Charlie doing?"

aDonat know."

She slid off his lap and reluctantly left us.

aYou said that before,a I said to him.

He looked lost.

aYou told her to go to her room,a I said. aI heard you say that earlier, mutter something about going to your room. Who were you talking to?a'

He dropped his eyes. aThe child is self. Self feels intensely, cries, cannot control emotions. Sometimes it is best to send self to his room as I just did Hailey. To hold together. A trick I learned. When I was a boy I learned I had to; my father did not react well if I cried."

aIt is all right to cry, Reverend Dawson."

His eyes filled with tears. I heard Marinoas footsteps on the stairs. Then he strode into the kitchen and Dawson said the phrase again, in anguish, under his breath.

Marino looked at him, baffled. aI think your sonas home,a he said.

Susanas father began to weep uncontrollably as car doors slammed shut out front in the wintry darkness and laugher sounded from the porch.

Christmas dinner went into the trash, the evening spent pacing about the house and talking on the phone while Lucy stayed inside my study with the door shut. Arrangements had to be made. Susanas homicide had thrown the office into a state of crisis. Her case would have to be sealed, photographs kept away from those who had known her. The police would have to go through her office and her locker. They would want to interview members of my staff.

aI canat be down there,a Fielding, my deputy chief, told me over the phone. aI realize that,a I said, a lump forming in my throat. aI neither expect nor want anyone down there."

a"And you?a" aI have to be."

aChrist. I canat believe this has happened. I just canat believe it."

Dr. Wright, my deputy chief in Norfolk, kindly agreed to drive to Richmond early the next morning. Because it was Sunday, no one else was in the building except for Vander, who had come to a.s.sist with the Luma-Lite. Had I been emotionally capable of doing Susanas autopsy, I would have refused. The worst thing I could do for her was to jeopardize her case by having the defense question the objectivity and judgment of an expert witness who also happened to be her boss. So I sat at a desk in the morgue while Wright worked. From time to time he commented to me above the clatter of steel instruments and running water as I stared at the cinderblock wall. I did not touch any of her paperwork of label a single test tube. I did not turn around to look.

Once I asked him, aDid you smell anything on her or her clothes? A cologne of some sort?"

He stopped what he was doing and I heard him walk several steps. aYes. Definitely around the collar of her coat and on the scarf."

aDoes it smell like menas cologne to you?"

aHmm. I think so. Yes, Iad say the fragrance is masculine. Perhaps her husband wears cologne?"

Wright was near retirement age, a balding, potbellied man with a West Virginian accent. He was a very capable forensic pathologist and knew exactly what I was contemplating.

aGood question,a I said. aIall ask Marino to check it, but her husband was ill yesterday and went to bed after lunch. That doesnat mean he didnat have on cologne. It doesnat mean her brother or father didnat have on cologne that got on her collar when they hugged her."

aThis looks small-caiiber. No exit wounds."

I dosed my eyes and listened. aThe wound in her right temple is three-sixteenths of an inch with half an inch of smoke - an incomplete pattern. A little bit of stippling and some powder but most will be lost in her hair. Thereas some powder in the temporalis muscle. Nothing much in bone or dura. a aTrajectory?" I asked.

aThe bullet goes through the posterior aspect of the right frontal lobe, travels across anterior to basal ganglia and strikes the left temporal bone, and gets hung up in muscle under the skin. And weare talking about a plain lead bullet, uh, copper coated but not jacketed."

aAnd it didnat fragment?" I asked.

aNo. Then weave got this second wound here at the nape of the neck. Black, burned abraded margin with muzzle mark. A little laceration about one-sixteenth of an inch at the edges. Lots of powder in the occipital muscles."

aTight contact?"

aYes. Looks to, me like he pressed the barrel hard against her neck. The bullet enters at the junction of the foramen magnum and C-one and takes out the cervicalmedullary junction. Travels right up into the pons."

aWhat about the angle?" I asked.

aItas angled up quite a bit. Iad say that if she was sitting in the car at the time she received this wound, she was slumped forward or had her head bowed."

aThatas not the way she was found,a I said. aShe was leaning back in the seat."

aThen I guess he positioned her that way;a Wright commented. aAfter he shot her. And Iad say that this shot that went through the pons was fired last. I would speculate she was already incapacitated, maybe slumped over when she was shot the second time."

At intervals I could handle it, as if we were not referring to anyone I knew. Then a tremor would go through me, tears fighting to break free. Twice I had to walk outside and stand in the parking lot in the cold. When he got to the ten week-old fetus in her womb, a girl, I retreated to my office upstairs. According to Virginia law, the unborn child was not a person and therefore could not have been murdered because you cannot murder a non person.

aTwo for the price of one,a Marino said bitterly over the phone later in the day.

aI know,a I said, digging a bottle of aspirin out of my pocketbook.

aIn court the d.a.m.n jurors wonat be told she was pregnant. It wonat be admissible, donat count he murdered a pregnant woman."

aI know,a I said again. aWrightas about done. Nothing significant turned up during her external exam. No trace to speak of, nothing that jumped out. Whatas going on at your end?"

aSusan was definitely going through something, Marino said.

aProblems with her husband?"

aAccording to him, her problem was with you. He claims you were doing weird s.h.i.t like calling her a lot at home, ha.s.sling her. And sometimes shead come home from work acting half crazy, like. she was scared s.h.i.tless about something."

aSusan and I did not have a problem."

I swallowed three aspirin with a mouthful of cold coffee.

aIam just telling you what the guyas saying. Other thing is - and I think youall find this interesting - looks like we got us another feather. Not that Iam saying it links Deighton and this one, Doc, or that Iam necessarily thinking that way. But d.a.m.n. Maybe weare dealing with some squirrel who wears down-filled gloves, a jacket. I donat know. Itas just not typical. Only other time Iave ever found feathers was when this drone broke into a crib by smashing out a window and cut his down jacket on broken gla.s.s."

My head hurt so much I felt sick to my stomach.

aWhat we found in Susanas car is real small - a little piece of white down,a he went on. aIt was clinging to the upholstery of the pa.s.sengeras door. On the inside, near the floor, a couple inches below the armresta aCan you get that to me?" I asked.

aYeah. What are you going to do?"

aCall Benton."

aIave been trying, dammit. I think he and the wife went out of town."

aI need to ask him if Minor Downey can help us."

aYou talking about a person or a fabric softener?"

aMinor Downey with hairs and fibers at the FBI labs. His specialty is feather a.n.a.lysis."

aAnd his nameas Downey, it really is?" Marino was incredulous.

aIt really is,a I said.

8.