“I worry about her,” Shrew said as calmly as she could, her hands shaking so hard she had to lace them tightly in her lap. “I worry about all the publicity she gets and the nature of what she … well, the subject matter. It appeals to the ones who do the things she talks about.”

She took a deep breath. She’d said just the right thing. What she mustn’t do is make any allusion to having read anything about Dr. Scarpetta on the Internet, specifically in the very columns Shrew had posted today.

“I have a feeling you’re thinking about something in particular,” he said. “So get it out on the table.”

“I think she might be in danger,” Shrew said. “It’s just a feeling.”

“Based on what?” He looked stonily at her.

“Terrorists,” she said.

“Terrorists?” He looked less stony. “What terrorists?” He didn’t look as offended.

“It’s what all of us are afraid of these days.” Shrew tried that tactic.

“I tell you what.” Pete Marino got up and was a giant towering over her. “I’m leaving my card for you, and I want you to do a lot of thinking. Anything that comes to mind, even if it seems trivial, you call me right away. I don’t care what time it is.”

“I can’t imagine who would do something like that.” She got up and followed him to the door.

“It’s always the ones you don’t imagine,” he said. “Either because they knew the victim or they didn’t.”

8

Kay Scarpetta 16 - Scarpetta

8

Cyberspace, the perfect place to hide from ridicule.

Gotham was an online college, where students saw Dr. Oscar Bane’s talents and intelligence and not the dwarfed vessel that contained them.

“It couldn’t be a student or group of students,” he said to Scarpetta. “They don’t know me. My address and phone number aren’t listed. There’s no physical college where people go. The faculty meets several times a year in Arizona. And that’s as much as most of us see each other.”

“What about your e-mail address?”

“It’s on the college website. It has to be. That’s probably how it started. The Internet. Easiest way to steal your identity. I told the DA’s office. I said that’s probably how they got access to me. My speculations didn’t matter. They didn’t believe me, and I realized they might be part of the mind stealing. That’s what’s happening. They’re trying to steal my mind.”

Scarpetta got up from her chair. She tucked her notepad and the pen into her lab coat pocket.

She said, “I’m moving around to the other side of the table so I can look at your back. You must go out at least some.”