Date: Sun, 11 November 2007 11:12:03

From: “Oscar”

To: “Terri”

See, I told you Dr. Scarpetta wasn’t that kind of person. Obviously, she just didn’t get your earlier messages. Amazing how what’s under your nose and obvious sometimes works. Are you going to copy me on the e-mails?

Date: Sun, 11 November 2007 14:45:16

From: “Terri”

To: “Oscar”

No. That would be a violation of her Privacy.

This project has now risen to the stars. I’m in awe! So happy!

“What’s under her nose and obvious? It’s like she tried something, or he did, and got what he or she or both of them wanted,” Lucy said into her jawbone wireless earpiece. “What the hell’s she talking about?”

“I don’t know what was under her nose, but she’s mistaken. Or not being truthful,” Scarpetta replied.

“Probably untruthful,” Lucy said. “Which was why she wouldn’t let Oscar see e-mails from you.”

“There can’t be any e-mails from me,” Scarpetta said again. “I need to ask you about something. I’m standing in the middle of Terri Bridges’s apartment, and it’s not a good place for us to be having this conversation. Especially over cell phones.”

“I got you your cell phone. Remember? It’s special. You don’t have to worry. Neither do I. Our phones are secure.”

Lucy talked as she opened each e-mail account and looked in the e-mail trash for anything useful that might have been deleted.

She said, “May have given Oscar a reason to resent you as well. His girlfriend’s obsessed with her hero, who finally has answered her—he’s led to believe. And she won’t let him see the e-mails. Sounds like you might have created a problem you didn’t know anything about.”

“Or have anything to do with,” Scarpetta said. “What type of power supplies do her laptops use? That’s my simple question.”

One of Terri’s e-mail accounts was empty, and Lucy had saved that one for last, assuming Terri had created it but simply never gotten around to using it. As Lucy opened the trash folder, she was stunned by what she found.

“Wow,” Lucy said. “This is unbelievable. She deleted everything yesterday morning. One hundred and thirty-six e-mails. She deleted them one right after another.”

“Not a USB but a magnetized power cord? What was deleted?” Scarpetta asked.

“Hold on,” Lucy said. “Don’t go anywhere. Stay on with me and we’ll look at this together. You might want to get Jaime, Benton, Marino in there and put me on speakerphone.”

All of the deleted e-mails were between Terri and another user with the name Scarpetta612.

Six-twelve—June 12—was Scarpetta’s birthday.