Unnatural Exposure

Chapter Thirteen

Sheriff Rob Roy was a legend in Sussex County and ran uncontested every election year. He had been to my morgue many times, and I thought he was one of the finest law enforcement officers I knew. At half-past six, I found him at the Virginia Diner, where he was sitting at the local table, which literally was where the locals gathered. This was in a long room of red-checked cloths and white chairs, and he was eating a fried ham sandwich and drinking coffee, black, his portable radio upright on the table and full of chatter.

'Can't do that, no sir. Then what? They just keep selling crack, that's what,' he was saying to a gaunt weathered man in a John Deere cap.

'Let 'em.'

'Let 'em?' Roy reached for his coffee, as wiry and bald as he ever was. 'You can't mean that.'

'I sure as hell can.'

'Might I interrupt?' I said, pulling out a chair.

Roy's mouth fell open, and for an instant he did not believe whom he was looking at.

'Well, I'll be damned.' He stood and shook my hand. 'What in tarnation are you doing out in these parts?'

'Looking for you.'

'If you'll excuse me.' The other man tipped his hat to me and got up to leave.

'Don't you tell me you're out here on business,' the sheriff said.

'What else would it be?'

He was sobered by my mood. 'Something I don't know about?'

'You know,' I said.

'Well, what then? What do you want to eat? I recommend the fried chicken sandwich,'

he said as a waitress appeared.

'Hot tea.' I wondered if I would ever eat again.

'You don't look like you're feeling too good.'

'I feel like shit.'

'There's this bug going around.'

'You don't even know the half of it,' I said.

'What can I do?' He leaned closer to me, his attention completely focused.

'I'm posting bond for Keith Pleasants,' I said. 'Now this obviously won't happen before tomorrow, I'm sorry to say. But I think you need to understand, Rob, that this is an innocent man who has been set up. He's being persecuted because Investigator Ring is on a witch hunt and wants to make a name for himself.'

Roy looked baffled. 'Since when are you defending inmates?'

'Since whenever they aren't guilty,' I said. 'And this guy is no more a serial killer than you or I. He didn't try to elude the police and probably wasn't even speeding. Ring's hassling him and lying. Look how high the bond was set for a traffic violation.'

He was silent, listening.

'Pleasants has an old, infirm mother who has no one to take care of her. He's about to lose his job. Now I know Ring's uncle is the secretary of public safety, and he's also a former sheriff,' I said. 'And I know how that goes, Rob. I need you to help me out here. Ring has got to be stopped.'

Roy pushed his plate away as his radio called him. 'You really believe that.'

'Yes, I do.'

'This is fifty-one,' he said into the radio, adjusting his belt and the revolver on it.

'We got anything on that robbery yet?' a voice came back.

'Still waiting for it.'

He signed off and said to me, 'You got no doubt in your mind that this boy didn't commit any crime.'

I nodded again. 'No doubt. The killer who dismembered that lady communicates with me on the Internet. Pleasants doesn't even know what that is. There's a very big picture that I can't get into now. But believe me, what's going on has nothing to do with this kid.'

'You're sure about Ring. I mean, you got to be if I'm going to do this.' His eyes were steady on mine.

'How many times do I have to say it?'

He slammed his napkin down on the table. 'Now, this really makes me mad.' He scooted back his chair. 'I don't like it when an innocent person's locked up in my jail and some cop's out there making the rest of us look bad.'

'Do you know Kitchen, the man who owns the landfill?' I said.

'Oh sure. We're in the same lodge.' He pulled out his wallet.

'Someone needs to talk to him so Keith doesn't lose his job. We have to make this thing right,' I said.

'Believe me, I'm going to.'

He left money on the table and strode angrily out the door. I sat long enough to finish my tea, looking around at displays of striped candy, barbecue sauce and peanuts of every description. My head hurt and my skin was hot when I found a grocery store on

460 and stopped for milk, Hershey's syrup, fresh vegetables and soup.

I charged up and down aisles, and next thing I knew my cart was full of everything from toilet paper to deli meats. Then I got out a map and the address Pleasants had given to me. His mother was not too far off the main route, and when I arrived she was asleep.

'Oh dear,' I said from the porch. 'I didn't mean to get you up.'

'Who is it?' She peered blindly into the night as she unhooked the door.

'Dr Kay Scarpetta. You have no reason…'

' What kind of doctor?'

Mrs Pleasants was wizened and stooped, her face wrinkled like crepe paper. Long gray hair floated like gossamer, and I thought of the landfill and the old woman deadoc had killed.

'You can come on in.' She shoved open the door and looked frightened. 'Is Keith all right? Nothing happened to him, did it?'

'I saw him earlier, and he's fine,' I assured her. 'I brought groceries.' I had the bags in my hands.

'That boy.' She shook her head, motioning me into her small, tidy home. 'What would I do? You know, he's all I've got in this world. When he was born I said, "Keith, it's just you."'

She was scared and upset and didn't want me to know.

'Do you know where he is?' I gently said.

We entered her kitchen with its old, squat refrigerator and gas stove, and she did not answer me. She started putting groceries away, fumbling with cans and dropping celery and carrots to the floor.

'Here. Let me help,' I tried.

'He didn't do anything wrong.' She began to cry. 'I know he didn't. And that policeman won't leave him be, always coming over, banging on the door.'

She stood in the middle of her kitchen, wiping her face with her hands.

'Keith says you like chocolate milk, and I'm going to make you one. It's just what the doctor ordered.'

I fetched a glass and a spoon from the drain board.

'He'll be home tomorrow,' I said. 'And I don't imagine you'll be hearing from

Investigator Ring anymore.'

She stared at me as if I were a miracle.

'I just wanted to make sure you have everything you need until your son gets here,' I

said, handing her the glass of chocolate milk mixed medium dark.

'I'm just trying to figure out who you are,' she finally said. 'This is mighty good. Nothing in life any better.' She sipped and smiled and took her time.

I briefly explained how I knew Keith and what I did professionally, but she did not understand. She assumed I was sweet on him and issued medical licenses for a living. On my way home, I played CDs loudly to keep me awake as I drove through thick darkness, where for long stretches there was not a single light except stars. I reached for the phone.

Wingo's mother answered and told me he was sick in bed. But she got him on the line.

'Wingo, I'm worried about you,' I said with feeling.

'I feel terrible.' He sounded like it. 'I guess you can't do anything for the flu.'

'You're immunosuppressed. When I talked to Dr Riley last, your CD4 cell count was not good.' I wanted him to face reality. 'Describe your symptoms to me.'

'My head's killing me, my neck and back are killing me. Last time my temperature was taken it was a hundred and four. I'm so thirsty all the time.'

Everything he said was setting off alarms in my head, for the symptoms also described the early stages of smallpox. But if his exposure was the torso, I was surprised he hadn't gotten sick before now, especially in light of his compromised condition.

'You haven't touched one of those sprays we got at the office,' I said.

'What sprays?'

'The Vita facial sprays.'