Unnatural Exposure

I raised my voice above all of them. 'Please! Quiet!'

'Dr Scarpetta…'

'Quiet!' I said more loudly, as I blindly stared out at aggressive people I could not make out. 'Now, I am going to ask you politely to leave,' I said.

'Is it the Butcher again?' a woman raised her voice above the rest.

'Everything is pending further investigation,' I said.

'Dr Scarpetta.'

I could just barely make out the television reporter as Patty Denver, whose pretty face was on billboards all over the city.

'Sources say you're working this as another victim in these serial killings,' she said.

'Can you verify that?' I did not respond.

'Is it true the victim is Asian, probably prepubescent, and came off a truck that is local?' she went on, to my dismay. 'And are we to assume that the killer may now be in Virginia?'

'Is the Butcher killing in Virginia now?'

'Possible he deliberately wanted the other bodies dumped here?'

I held up a hand to quiet them. 'This is not the time for assumptions,' I said. 'I can tell you only that we are treating this as a homicide. The victim is an unidentified white female. She is not prepubescent but an older adult, and we encourage people who might have information to call this office or the Sussex County Sheriff's Department.'

'What about the FBI?'

'The FBI is involved,' I said.

'Then you are treating this as the Butcher…'

Turning around, I entered a code on a keypad and the ' lock clicked free. I ignored the demanding voices, shutting the door behind me, my nerves humming with tension as I walked quickly down the hall. When I entered my office, Wesley was gone, and I sat behind my desk. I dialed Marino's pager number, and he called me right back.

'For God's sake, these leaks have got to stop!' I exclaimed over the line.

'We know damn well who it is,' Marino irritably said.

'Ring.' I had no doubt, but could not prove it.

'The drone was supposed to meet me at the landfill. That was almost an hour ago,' Marino went on.

'It doesn't appear the press had any trouble finding him.'

I told him what sources allegedly had divulged to a television crew.

'Goddamn idiot!' he said.

'Find him and tell him to keep his mouth shut,' I said. 'Reporters have practically put us out of business today, and now the city's going to believe there's a serial killer in their midst.'

'Yeah, well, unfortunately, that part could be true,' he said.

'I can't believe this.' I was only getting angrier. 'I have to release information to correct misinformation. I can't be put in this position, Marino.'

'Don't worry, I'm going to take care of this and a whole lot more,' he promised. 'I don't guess you know.'

'Know what?'

'Rumor has it that Ring's been seeing Patty Denver.'

'I thought she was married,' I said as I envisioned her from a few moments earlier.

'She is,' he said.

I began dictating case 1930-97, trying to focus my attention on what I was saying and reading from my notes.

'The body was received pouched and sealed,' I said into the tape recorder, rearranging paperwork smeared with blood from Wingo's gloves. 'The skin is doughy. The breasts are small, atrophic and wrinkled. There are skin folds over the abdomen suggestive of prior weight loss…'

'Dr Scarpetta?' Wingo was poking his head in the doorway. 'Oops. Sorry,' he said when he realized what I was doing. 'I guess now's not a good time.'

'Come in,' I said with a weary smile. 'Why don't you shut the door.'

He did and closed the one between my office and Rose's, too. Nervously, he pulled a chair close to my desk, and he was having a hard time meeting my eyes.

'Before you start, let me.' I was firm but kind. 'I've known you for many years, and your life is no secret to me. I don't make judgments. I don't label. In my mind, there

are only two categories of people in this world. Those who are good. And those who aren't. But I worry about you because your orientation places you at risk.'

He nodded. 'I know,' he said, eyes bright with tears.

'If you're immunosuppressed,' I went on, 'you need to tell me. You probably shouldn't be in the morgue, at least not for some cases.'

'I'm HIV positive.' His voice trembled and he began to cry.

I let him go for a while, his arms over his face, as if he could not bear for anyone to see him. His shoulders shook, tears spotting his greens as his nose ran. Getting up with a box of tissues, I came over to him.

'Here.' I set the tissues nearby. 'It's all right.' I put my arm around him and let him weep. 'Wingo, I want you to try to get hold of yourself so we can talk about this, okay?'

He nodded, blowing his nose and wiping his eyes. For a moment he nuzzled his head against me, and I held him like a child. I gave him time before I faced him straight on, gripping his shoulders.

'Now is the time for courage, Wingo,' I said. 'Let's see what we can do to fight this thing.'

'I can't tell my family,' he choked. 'My father hates me anyway. And when my mother tries, he gets worse. To her. You know?'

I moved a chair close. 'What about your friend?'

'We broke up.'

'But he knows.'

'I just found out a couple weeks ago.'

'You've got to tell him and anybody else you've been intimate with,' I said. 'It's only fair. If someone had done that for you, maybe you wouldn't be sitting here now, crying.'

He was silent, staring down at his hands. Taking a deep breath, he said, 'I'm going to die, aren't I.'

'We're all going to die,' I gently told him.

'Not like this.'

'It could be like this,' I said. 'Every physical I get, I'm tested for HIV. You know what

I'm exposed to. What you're going through could be me.'

He looked up at me, his eyes and cheeks burning. 'If I get AIDS, I'm going to kill myself.'

'No, you're not,' I said.

He began to cry again. 'Dr Scarpetta, I can't go through it! I don't want to end up in one of those places, a hospice, the Fan Free Clinic, in a bed next to other dying people I don't know!' Tears flowed, his face tragic and defiant. 'I'll be all alone just like I've always been.'

'Listen.' I waited until he calmed down. 'You will not go through this alone. You have me.'

He dissolved in tears again, covering his face and making sounds so loud I was certain they could be heard in the hall.

'I will take care of you,' I promised as I got up. 'Now I want you to go home. I want you to do what's right and tell your friends. Tomorrow, we'll talk more and figure out the best way to handle this. I need the name of your doctor and permission to talk to him or her.'

'Dr Alan Riley. At MCV.'

I nodded. 'I know him, and I want you to call him first thing in the morning. Let him know I'll be contacting him and that it's all right for him to talk to me.'

'Okay.' He looked furtively at me. 'But you'll be… You won't tell anyone.'

'Of course not,' I said with feeling.

'I don't want anyone here to know. Or Marino. I don't want him to.'

'No one will know,' I said. 'At least not from me.'

He slowly got up and stepped toward the door with the unsteadiness of someone drunk or dazed. 'You won't fire me, will you?' His hand was on the knob as he cast blood-shot eyes my way.

'Wingo, for God's sake,' I said with quiet emotion. 'I would hope you would think more of me than that.'

He opened the door. 'I think more of you than anyone.' Tears spilled again, and he wiped them on his scrubs, exposing his thin bare belly. 'I always have.'

His footsteps were rapid in the hall as he almost ran, and the elevator bell rang. I listened as he left my building for a world that did not give a damn. I rested my forehead on my fist and shut my eyes.

'Dear God,' I muttered. 'Please help.'

Chapter Five

The rain was still heavy as I drove home, and traffic was terrible because an accident had closed lanes in both directions on I-64. There were fire trucks and ambulances, rescuers prying open doors and hurrying with stretchers and boards. Broken glass glistened on wet pavement, drivers slowing to stare at injured people. One car had flipped multiple times before catching fire. I saw blood on the shattered windshield of another and that the steering wheel was bent. I knew what that meant, and said a prayer for whoever the people were. I hoped I would not see them in my morgue.