“That he’d met Lydia several years ago when the Family Circle Cup used to be played in Hilton Head. They had an affair, an ongoing one, which is why he kept an apartment here. Then that day in July, their punishment. He and Lydia were in her bedroom, you can fill in the rest. No one checked on Holly, and she drowned. They broke up. Her husband left her. She fell apart, completely.”

“And he started sleeping with Drew?”

“God knows how many people he’s slept with, Kay.”

“Why did he continue to keep this apartment? If his affair with Lydia was over.”

“Maybe to have a clandestine place to be with Drew. Under the guise of training. Maybe because he said the bright foliage, the weather, the ironwork, and old stucco homes reminded him of Italy. He continued to be a friend to Lydia—this is according to him. Went to see her now and then.”

“When was the last time? Did he say?”

“Several weeks ago. He left Charleston after Drew won the tournament here, then came back.”

“Maybe I’m just not putting these pieces together very well.” Scarpetta’s cell phone rings. “Why would he come back? Why didn’t he go with Drew to Rome? Or did he? She had the Italian Open and Wimbledon coming up. I’ve never understood why she suddenly decided to run off with friends instead of training for what could have been the greatest victories of her career. So she goes to Rome? Not to train for the Italian Open. But to party? I don’t understand.”

Scarpetta doesn’t answer her phone. She doesn’t even look to see who it is.

“He told me he went to New York right after she won the tournament here. Not even a month ago. Almost impossible to believe.”

Her phone stops ringing.

And Hollings says, “Gianni didn’t go with Drew, because she’d just fired him.”

“She fired him?” Scarpetta says. “Is this known?”

“It’s not.”

“Why did she fire him?” Her phone rings again.

“Because Dr. Self told her to,” Hollings says. “That’s why he went to New York. To confront her. To try to get Drew to change her mind.”

“I’d better see who this is.” Scarpetta answers her phone.

“You need to drop by on your way to the airport,” Lucy says.

“It’s not exactly on the way.”

“Another hour, hour and a half, and I think we can head out. The weather should be fine by then. You need to drop by the labs.” Lucy tells Scarpetta where to meet her, and adds, “I don’t want to talk about it on the phone.”

Scarpetta says she will. To Henry Hollings, she says, “I’m assuming Drew didn’t change her mind.”

“She wouldn’t talk to him.”

“And Dr. Self?”