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Chapters (24)
  1. Kay Scarpetta 15 - Book of the Dead
  2. Chapter 1
  3. Chapter 2
  4. Chapter 3
  5. Chapter 4
  6. Chapter 5
  7. Chapter 6
  8. Chapter 7
  9. Chapter 8
  10. Chapter 9
  11. Chapter 10
  12. Chapter 11
  13. Chapter 12
  14. Chapter 13
  15. Chapter 14
  16. Chapter 15
  17. Chapter 16
  18. Chapter 17
  19. Chapter 18
  20. Chapter 19
  21. Chapter 20
  22. Chapter 21
  23. Chapter 22
  24. Chapter 23

“Then it would seem to me Dr. Self must have called Paulo. We assume that, anyway, because she couldn’t just show up at the hospital. Whatever she told him over the phone inspired him to begin writing these notes,” Scarpetta says.

“Another sign of fabrication,” Benton says. “Using a patient’s initials for a file name. We’re not supposed to do that. Even if you do stray from protocol and good judgment, it doesn’t make sense he changed his patient’s initials. Why? To rename him. Why? To give him an alias? Paulo knows better than to do any such thing.”

“Maybe the patient doesn’t exist,” Scarpetta says.

“Now you see what I’m leading up to,” Benton says. “I don’t think the Sandman was ever Paulo’s patient.”

Chapter 20

Kay Scarpetta 15 - Book of the Dead

Chapter 20

E d the doorman is nowhere to be seen when Scarpetta walks into Rose’s apartment building at almost ten. It’s drizzling, and the dense fog is lifting, and clouds are rushing across the sky as the front moves out to sea.

She steps inside his office and looks around. There isn’t much on the desk: a Rolodex, a notebook with Residents on the cover, a stack of unopened mail—Ed’s and two other doormen’s—pens, a stapler, personal items such as a plaque with a clock on it, an award from a fishing club, a cell phone, a ring of keys, a wallet. She checks the wallet. Ed’s. He’s on duty tonight with what appears to be three dollars to his name.

Scarpetta walks out, looks around, still no sign of Ed. She returns to his office and thumbs through the Residents book until she finds Gianni Lupano’s apartment on the top floor. She takes the elevator, and listens outside his door. Music is playing, but not loudly, and she rings the bell, and she hears someone moving around. She rings the bell again and knocks. Footsteps and the door opens and Scarpetta is face-to- face with Ed.

“Where’s Gianni Lupano?” She walks past Ed, into the surround sound of Santana.

Wind blows through a window open wide in the living room.

Ed’s eyes are panicked as he talks frantically. “I didn’t know what to do. This is so terrible. I didn’t know what to do.”

Scarpetta looks out the open window. She looks down and can’t make out anything in the dark, just dense shrubbery and a sidewalk and the street beyond. She steps back and glances around a lavish apartment of marble and pastel-painted plaster, ornate molding, Italian leather furniture, and bold art. Shelves are filled with handsomely bound old books that some interior decorator probably bought by the yard, and an entire wall is occupied by an entertainment center too elaborate for a space this small.

“What’s happened?” she says to Ed.