Grissett introduced a petite strawberry blonde as Hospitalman Seaman Ryan. He said, “Grab a chair, ma’am. How can we help?”
“Well, so far I’ve spoken with the CMC, the CMAA, and the XO. I’d like your take on the Terranova rape.”
Grissett pulled a file and took a seat. “Okay, where do you want to start?”
“Injuries.”
“She wasn’t significantly hurt. We took photos of some bruises.”
“Under UV?”
“Actually, yes. I can provide JPEGs over the command LAN if you’ll give me your shipboard address.”
“I’m not plugged in yet, but should be shortly. Who conducted the examination?”
“Dr. Schell, assisted by myself and Duncanna here.”
“Did you follow the protocol?”
“She was fragile. I kept the forensic examination short.”
Aisha understood. Sexual assault forensics were intrusive and often humiliating for the victim. Yet they yielded the best evidence. “Are you SAP certified, Chief?”
Grissett made a wry face. “Unfortunately, no.”
“Was the physician? This Dr. Schell.”
“Not to my knowledge. We tried to contact squadron medical, get talked through it. But we’re in River City.”
“I’ve heard that expression, but what does it mean?”
“No Net. No e-mail. We looked up the requirements. Fortunately, we had fresh kits.”
“So you took swabs, at least. Mouth, vagina, rectal?”
“Not mouth or rectal. She told us they weren’t necessary. I took vaginal samples. Bagged, refrigerated, and sent ’em off on the helo. Scrapings from fingernails. The usual.”
“Combed her pubic hair?”
Grissett nodded at the assistant. “Ryan here did the pubic inspection. And took all the photos.”
“And you sent this all to Stuttgart.”
“In the mailbag.”
“So most likely, they went down with the tanker… which means, no forensic DNA.”
Grissett said, “Not necessarily.” He nodded to Ryan, who opened a small fridge bolted to the deck. Amid chilling soda cans and bottles of liquid medications slumped a small Baggie. When she held it up Aisha could make out the swab within, the carefully handprinted label. Ryan replaced it and sealed the door as Grissett said, “Sometimes official mail goes astray. Or takes too long to get there, and DNA degrades with heat. As you no doubt know. So I kept one sample.”
Aisha nodded. “Good work, Doc. The question will be where to send it. Even in peacetime it takes six, eight weeks to get results back from the lab.”
“Yeah, we’re sort of hanging out here at the end of the pole.” Grissett pointed to a ventilator fixture, which was buzzing in sympathetic vibration. “That thing only does that when we hit thirty knots plus. We’re barreling the hell along to somewhere. Usually the CO comes up on the 1MC, gives us the rundown, but he’s stopped doing that last couple days. You talked to the exec? She drop any hints where we’re heading?”
“We didn’t get into that. Just discussed the investigation.” Aisha held out her hand for the folder. “May I?”
Grissett twisted in his chair. “You need a copy. Ryan, how about going over to ship’s office. Clear the area around the copier. No one else looks at it.”
When the girl left and the door was closed again Aisha said, “I’m told this was the third incident of sexual assault so far this cruise.”
“That’s right, but not the only incidence of sexual harassment.”
“Really?”
“The XO had a man up for verbal harassment, too. Had him up to mast, I mean.”
“Who was that?”
“A machinist’s mate. He was accused under Article 134, indecent language. He called his female senior petty officer a ‘hucking skunt.’ The disciplinary review board kicked it up to the XO, who approved him for nonjudicial punishment.”
“The CO punished him?”
“I don’t remember exactly what he got, I wasn’t there. Rumor has it, he got chewed out, then cracked down on pretty hard.”
“Who was his petty officer?”
“An MM3… Scharner. Patty, I think. No, Sherri Scharner.”
“I’ll want to talk to her.”
“You can’t.” Grissett turned to pull another file out of the cabinet. “She’s dead.”
“Dead?”
“Natural causes. She was on the sick list. Malaise. Muscle aches. Dry, unproductive cough. Temperature, a hundred and one. Maybe a hundred and two. I issued ibuprofen, prescribed fluids and bed rest. The next morning, couple of her friends came down to check on her, take her to chow. But she was gone.”
“Wait a minute. Leo Schell, right? He said something about legionellosis.”
“Where did you see him?”
“On the tanker. For maybe two or three minutes, while we were hot decking.”
“Uh-huh… well, that’s what we had. Legionnaires’ disease. Maybe a third of the crew either got it, or had just gotten over it. That’s why you’ll see so many folks looking dragged out, like they haven’t gotten any sleep. A lot haven’t, but it’s also the aftereffects of the Crud.” Grissett held up a finger as she started to speak. “I wanted to pull us off the line, send us home. But the CO said we were on a national-security mission, we had to deal. Dr. Schell localized it to the forward hot-water heaters. We took all the freshwater systems down, tore the ship apart, and did a steam sterilization.
“I’ve been watching, and I haven’t seen a case since. But it hasn’t been that long. If you start feeling like you’ve got the flu, sore throat, see me at once. Most recover, but we had two who didn’t. Scharner was one.”
“You’re absolutely certain it was simply the disease?”
“That’s Dr. Schell’s sign-off there, on the cause of death. Want a copy of that, too?”
Aisha handed the folder back. “I don’t think so. Let’s go back to the sexual assaults before the rape. From what the CMAA told me, you’re not going to be holding any DNA from those.”
“No. The first case was just a groping in the dark—”
“Petty Officer Terranova, back in the helo hangar—”
“Actually above it, the catwalk area. Coming down from what we call the Iron Beach. No injury, except a slight abrasion to the neck. From a knife, we assume. No penetration, and no DNA recovery, though she did say he jerked off. But apparently into something he took with him.
“The second incident, Celestina Colón. That was in the aft passageway, next level down from here. The lights go out. Somebody grabs her from behind and shoves her into a fan room. He undresses and finger-fucks her, probably doing himself with the other hand. I took a rape kit, to be able to say we did, but no joy. He was rougher with her. She got bruised up some.”
“Escalation.” Aisha nodded.
“If it’s the same guy, could be. They say they tend to go further each time—”
“It’s in the literature. And borne out by my experience.”
“I defer to you, Special Agent, on that.”
Someone knocked. “It’s open,” Grissett called.
Ryan came in carrying two folders. She handed one to Aisha, who heaved herself reluctantly to her feet. “Thanks for the information, Chief Corpsman. Doc. I’ll be back, I’m sure, as things develop.”
A bulkhead phone buzzed. “Hold on,” Grissett said. He listened with an abstracted air. “We got Seaman Ryan. Duncanna Ryan. She do?… Okay then. Yes ma’am, will do.” He hung up. “XO wants to know if we had anyone you could keep in your hip pocket. Help you out. Dunkie, can you take that? What’re you doing right now?”
“Dusting the light fixtures, cleaning the head, back there. Then Beastie wanted me to inventory the dental tools—”