“Certainly, you know we’re going to be asked about this. Certainly, you must realize it doesn’t look good that “within weeks of your morgue assistant’s depositing an unexplained amount of cash, you wrote a check for a large amount of cash.”

I shut my eyes and ran my fingers through my hair as Wesley got up from the table and came around behind me.

“Kay” - I felt Wesley’s hands on my shoulders - “for God’s sake, you’ve got to tell him.”

13

Kay Scarpetta 4 - Cruel and Unusual

13

Had Grueman never been a practitioner of the law, I would not have entrusted my welfare to him. But before teaching he had been a litigator of renown, and he had done civil rights work and prosecuted mobsters for the Justice Department during the Robert Kennedy era. Now he represented clients who had no money and were condemned to die. I appreciated Grueman’s seriousness and needed his cynicism.

He was not interested in trying to negotiate or protest my innocence. He refused to present the slightest shred of evidence to Marino or anyone. He told no one of the ten-thousand- dollar check, which was, he said, the worst piece of evidence against me. I was reminded of what he had taught his students on the first day of criminal law. Just say no. Just say no. Just say no. My former professor, abided by these rules to the letter, and frustrated Roy Patterson’s every effort.

Then on Thursday, January 6, Patterson called me at home and requested that I come downtown to his office to talk.

“I’m sure we can dear all this up,” he said amicably. “I just need to ask you a few questions.”

The implication was that if I cooperated, then something worse might be derailed, and I marveled that Patterson would consider, for even a moment, that such a shopworn maneuver would work with me. When the Commonwealth’s Attorney wants to chat, he’s on a fishing expedition that does not involve letting anything go. The same is true of the police. In good Gruemanian fashion, I told Patterson no, and the next morning was subpoenaed to appear before the special grand jury on January 20. This was followed by a subpoena duces tecum for my financial records. First Grueman claimed the Fifth, then filed a motion to quash the subpoena. A week later, we had no choice but to comply unless I wished to be held in contempt of court. About this same time, Governor Norring appointed Fielding acting chief medical examiner of Virginia.

“There’s another TV van I just saw it go by,” Lucy said from the dining room, where she stood staring out the window.

“Come on in and eat lunch,” I called out to her from the kitchen. “Your soup is getting cold.”

Silence.

“Aunt Kay?”

She sounded excited.

“What is it?”

‘You’ll never guess who just pulled up.”