‘Gold lasts a long time.’ Graham glanced up at him. ‘There are people who are nervous about what is put into their mouths. The chemicals in composite white fillings supposedly can cause nerve damage. They stain and wear out more quickly. Some people believe silver causes everything from cystic fibrosis to hair loss.’

Then Marino spoke. ‘Yo, well, some squirrels just like the way gold looks.’

‘Some do,’ Graham agreed. ‘She might be one of those.’

But I did not think so. This woman did not strike me as one who cared about her appearance.

I suspected she had not shaved her head to make a statement or because she thought it looked trendy. As we began to explore her internally, I understood more, even as the mystery of her deepened.

She had undergone a hysterectomy that had removed her uterus vaginally and left her ovaries, and her feet were flat. She also had an old intracerebral hematoma in the frontal lobe of her brain from a coup injury that had fractured her skull beneath the scars we had found.

‘She was the victim of an assault, possibly many years ago,’ I said. ‘And it’s the sort of head injury you associate with personality change.’ I thought of her wandering the world and of no one missing her. ‘She probably was estranged from her family and had a seizure disorder.’

Horowitz turned to Rader. ‘See if we can put a rush on tox. Let’s check her for diphenylhydantoin.’

5

Kay Scarpetta 6 - From Potter’s Field

5

Little could be done the rest of the day. The city’s mind was on Christmas, and laboratories and most offices were closed. Marino and I walked several blocks toward Central Park before stopping at a Greek coffee shop, where I drank coffee because I could not eat. Then we found a cab.

Wesley was not in his room. I returned to mine and for a long time stood before the window looking out at dark, tangled trees and black rocks amid snowy expanses of the park. The sky was gray and heavy. I could not see the ice-skating rink, nor the fountain where the murdered woman was found. Though I had not been on the scene when her body was, I had studied the photographs. What Gault had done was horrible, and I wondered where he was right now.

I could not count the violent deaths I had worked since my career began, yet I understood many of them better than I let on from the witness stand. It is not difficult to comprehend people being so enraged, drugged, frightened or crazy that they kill.

Even psychopaths have their own twisted logic. But Temple Brooks Gault seemed beyond description or deciphering.