Fetching my coat and umbrella, I walked out into a winter rain that was just beginning to freeze. As I hurried along 14th Street, I tried to recall the last tine I had spoken to Governor Joe Norring and decided it was almost a year ago at a blacktie reception at the Virginia Museum. He was Republican, Episcopalian; and held a law degree from UVA. I was Italian, Catholic, born in: Miami, and schooled in the North. In my heart I was a Democrat.

The Capitol resides on Shockhoe Hill and is surrounded by an ornamental iron fence erected in the early nineteenth century to keep out trespa.s.sing cattle. The white brick building Jefferson designed is typical of his architecture, a pure symmetry of cornices and unfluted columns with Ionic capitals inspired by a Roman temple. Benches line the granite steps leading up through the grounds, and as freezing rain fell relentlessly I thought of my annual spring resolution to take a lunch hour away from my desk, and sit here in the sun. Rut I had yet to do it. Countless days of my life had been lost to artificial light and windowless, confined s.p.a.ces that deed any architectural rubric.

Inside tree Capitol, I found a ladiesa room and attempted to bolster my Confidence by making repairs.

Despite my efforts with lipstick and brush, the mirror had nothing rea.s.suring to say. Bedraggled and unsettled, I took the elevator to the top of the Rotunda, where previous governors gaze sternly from oil portraits three floors above Houdonas marble statue -of George Washington. Midway along the south wall, journalists milled about with notepads, cameras, and microphones. I# did not-occur to me that I was their quarry until, as I approached, video cameras were mounted on shoulders, microphones were drawn like swords, and shutters began clicking with the rapidity of automatic weapons.

"Why wonat you disclose your finances?"

"Dr: Scarpetta : . ."

"Did you give money to Susan Story?"

"What kind of handgun do you own?"

"Doctor"

"Is it true that personnel records have disappeared from your office?"

They chummed the water with their accusations and questions as I fixed my attention straight ahead, my thoughts paralyzed. Microphones jabbed at my chin, bodies brushed against me, and lights flashed in my eyes. It seemed to take forever to reach the heavy mahogany door and escape into the genteel stillness behind it.

"Good morning," said the receptionist from her fine wood fortress beneath a portrait of John Tyler.

Across the room, at a desk before a window, a plainclothes, Executive Protection Unit officer glanced at me, his face inscrutable.

"How did the press know about this?"

I asked the receptionist.

"Pardon?"

She was an older woman, dressed in tweed.

"How did they know I was meeting with the governor this morning?"

"Iam sorry. I wouldnat know."

I settled on a pale blue love seat. Walls were papered in the same pale blue; the furniture was antique, with chair seats covered in needlepoint depicting the state seal. Ten minutes slowly pa.s.sed. A door opened and a young man I recognized as Norringas press secretary stepped inside and smiled at me.

"Dr. Scarpetta, the governor will see you now."

He was slight of build, blond, and dressed in a navy suit and yellow suspenders.

"I apologize for making you wait. Unbelievable weather weare having. And I understand itas supposed to drop into the teens tonight. The streets will be gla.s.s in the morning."

He ushered me through one well-appointed office after another, where secretaries concentrated behind computer screens and aides moved about silently and with purpose. Knocking lightly on a formidable door, he tuned the bra.s.s k.n.o.b and stepped aside, chivalrously touching my back as I preceded him into the private s.p.a.ce of the most powerful man in Virginia. Governor Norring did not get up from his padded leather chair behind his uncluttered burled walnut desk. Two chairs were arranged across from him and I was shown to one while he continued perusing a doc.u.ment.

"Word you like something to drink?" the press secretary asked me.

"No, thank you:" He left softly shutting the door.

The governor placed the doc.u.ment on the desk and leaned back in his chair. He was a distinguished-looking t.i.tan with just enough irregularity of his features to cause one to take him seriously; and he was impossible to miss when he walked into a room. Like George Washington, who was six foot two in a day of short men, Nofing was well above average height; his hair thick and dark at an age when men are balding of going gray.

"Doctor, Iave been wondering if there might be a way to extinguish this fire of controversy before itas completely out of control."

He spoke with the soothing cadences of Virginian conversation.

"Governor Norring I certainly hope there is."

"Then please help me understand why you are not cooperates with the police."

"I wish to seek the advice of an attorney, and have not had a chance to do so. I donat view this as a lack of cooperation."

"It certainly is your right not to incriminate yourself," he said slowly. "But the very suggestion of your invoking the Fifth only darkens the cloud of suspicion surrounding you. Iam certain you must be aware of that."

"Iam aware that I will probably be criticized no matter what I do right now. It is reasonable and prudent for me to protect myself."

"Were you making payments to your morgue supervisor, Susan Story?"

"No, sir, I was not. I have done nothing wrong."

"Dr. Scarpetta."

He leaned forward in his chair and laced his fingers on top of the desk. "It is my understanding that you are unwilling to cooperate by turning over any records that might substantiate these claims youave made."

"I have not been informed that I am a suspect in any crime, nor have I received Miranda warnings. I have waived no rights. I have had no opportunity to seek counsel. At this moment, it is not my intention to open the files of my professional and personal life to the police or anyone else."

"Then, in summary, you are refusing to make full disclosure," he said.

When a state official is accused of conflict of interests or any other manner of unethical behavior, there are only two defenses, full disclosure or resignation. The latter yawned before me like an abyss. It was dear that the governoras intention was to maneuver me over the edge.

"You are a forensic pathologist of national stature and the chief medical examiner of this, Commonwealth," he went on. "Youave enjoyed a very distinguished career and an impeccable reputation in the law enforcement community. But in the matter before us, you are showing poor judgment. You are not being meticulous about avoiding any appearance of impropriety."

"I have been meticulous, Governor, and I have done nothing wrong," I repeated. "The facts will bear this out, but I will not discuss the matter further until I speak with an attorney. And I will not make full disclosure unless it is through him and before a judge in a sealed hearing."

"A sealed hearing?" His eyes narrowed.

"Certainly details of my personal life affect individuals besides me."

"Who? Husband, children, lover? It is my understanding you have note of these, that you live alone and are - to use the clich - wedded to your work. Just who might you be protecting?"

"Governor Norring, you are baiting me."

"No maaam. Iam simply looking for anything to corroborate your claims. You say you are concerned with protecting others, and Iam inquiring as to who these others might be. Certainly not patients. Your patients are deceased.

"I dog not feel that you are being fair or impartial," I said and I knew I sounded cold. "Nothing about this meeing was fair from the outset. Iam given twenty minutes notice to be here and am not told the agenda a"

He interrupted. "Why, Doctor, I should think you might have guessed the agenda-"

"Just as l should have guessed that our meeting was a public event."

"I understand the press came out in force." His expression did not change.

"Iad like to know how this occurred," I said heatedly.

"If youare asking if this office notified the press of ma meeting, Iam telling you that we did not."

I did not respond.

"Doctor, Iam not certain you understand that as public servants we must operate by a different set of rules. In a sense, we are not allowed private lives. Or perhaps it would be better to say that if our ethics or judgment are questioned, the public has a right to examine, in some instances, the most private aspects of our existences. Whenever I am about to undertake a certain activity or even write a check, I have to ask myself if what I am doing will holdup under the most intense scrutiny."

I noticed that he scarcely used his hands when he talked, and that the fabric and design of his suit and tie were a lesson in understated extravagance. My attention darted here and there as he continued his admonition, and I knew that nothing I might do or say would save me in the end. Though I had been appointed by the health commissioner, I would not have been offered the job, nor could I last long in it without the support of the governor. The quickest way to lose that was to cause him embarra.s.sment or conflict, which I had already accomplished. He had the power to force my resignation. I had the power to buy myself a little time by threatening to embarra.s.s him more.

"Doctor, perhaps you would like to tell me what you would do if you were in my position?"

Beyond the window rain was mixed with sleet, and buildings in the banking district were bleak against a dreary, pewter sky. I stared at Norring in silence, then quietly spoke.

"Governor Norring, I would like to think that I would not summon the chief medical examiner to my office to gratuitously insult her, both professionally and personally, and then demand of her that she surrender the rights guaranteed to every person by the Const.i.tution. Further, I would like to think that I would accept this personas innocence until she had been proven guilty, and would not compromise her ethics and the Hippocratic oath she had sworn to uphold by demanding that she open confidential files to public scrutiny when doing so might do harm to herself and to others. I would like to think Governor Norring, that I would not give an individual who has served the Commonwealth faithfully no choice but to resign for cause."

The governor absently picked up a silver fountain pen as he considered my words: For me to resign for cause after meeting with him would imply to all of the reporters waiting beyond his office door that I had quit because Norring had asked me to do something that I considered unethical.

"I have no interest in your resigning at this moment," he said coldly. "In fact, I would not accept your resignation. I am a fair man, Dr. Scarpetta, and, I hope, a wise one. And wisdom dictates that I cannot have someone performing legal autopsies on the victims of homicide when this individual, herself, is being implicated in homicide or as an accessory to it. Therefore, I think it best to relieve you with pay until this matter is resolved."

He reached for the phone. "John, would you be so kind as to show the chief medical examiner out?"

Almost instantly, the smiling press secretary appeared.

As I emerged from the governoras offices, I was accosted from every direction. Flashguns went off in my eyes, and it seemed that everyone was shouting. The lead news item the rest of the day and the following morning was that the governor had temporarily relieved me of my duties until I could clear my name. An editorial conjectured that Norring had shown himself to be a gentleman, and if I were a lady I would offer to step down.

11.

Friday I stayed home in front of the fire, continuing the tedious and frustrating job of making notes to myself as I attempted to doc.u.ment my every move over the past few weeks. Unfortunately, I was in my car driving home, front the office at the time the police believed Eddie Heath wars abducted from the convenience store. When Susan was murdered, I was home alone, for Marino had taken Lucy shooting: I was also by myself the early morning that Frank Donahue was shot. I had no witnesses to testify to my activities during the three murders.

Motive and modus operandi would be significantly more difficult to sell. It is very uncommon for a woman to kill execution style, and there could be no motive at all in Eddie Heathas slaying unless I were a closet s.e.xual s.a.d.i.s.t.

I was deep in thought when Lucy called out, "Iave got something." She was seated before the computer, the chair swiveled around to one side, her feet propped up on an ottoman. In her lap were numerous sheets of paper, and to the right of the keyboard was my Smith and Wesson thirty-eight.

"Why do you have my revolver in here?" I asked uneasily.

Pete told me to dry-fire it whenever I have a chance. So Iave been practicing while running my program through the journal tapes."

I picked up the revolver, pushed the thumb latch, and checked the chambers, just to be sure.

"Though Iave still got a few tapes to run through, I think Iave already gotten a hit on what weare looking for," she said.

I felt a surge of optimism as I pulled up a chair.

"The journal tape for December ninth shows three interesting TUs."

"TUs?" I asked.

"Tenprint Updates," Lucy explained. "Weare talking about three records. One was completely dropped or deleted. The SID number of another was altered. Then we have a third record which was a new entry made around the same time the other two were deleted or changed. I logged into CCRE and ran the SID numbers of both the altered record and the new record entered: The altered record comes back to Ronnie Joe Waddell."

"What about the new record?" I said.

"Thatas spooky. Thereas no criminal history. I entered the SID number five times and it kept coming back to ano record found.a'

Do you understand the significance?"

"Without a history in CCRE, we have no way of knowing who this person is."

Lucy nodded. "Right. Youave got someoneas, prints and SID number in AFIS, but thereas no name or other personal identifiers to match him up with. And that would indicate to me that somebody dropped this personas record from CCRE. In other words, CCRE has been tampered with too.

"Letas go back to Ronnie Waddell," I said. "Can you reconstruct what was done to his ?"

"Iave got, a theory. First, you need to know that the SID number is a unique identifier and has a unique index, meaning the system wonat allow you to enter a duplicate value. So if, for example I wanted to switch SID numbers with you, Iad have to delete your record first. Then after Iave changed my SID number to yours, Ia'd, reenter your record, giving you my old SID number.

"And thatas what you think happened?" I asked.

"Such a transaction would explain the TUs Iave found in the journal tape for December ninth."

Four days before Waddellas execution, I thought.

"Thereas more," Lucy said. "On December sixteenth, Waddlels record was deleted from AFIS."

"How can that be?"

I asked, baffled. "A print from Jennifer Deightonas house came back to Waddell when Vander ran it through AFIS a little over a week ago."

aAFIS crashed on December sixteenth at ten-fifty-six A.M. exactly ninety-eight minutes after Waddellas record was deleted," Lucy replied. "The data base was restored with the journal tapes, but youave got to keep in mind that a backup is done only once a day, late in the afternoon. Therefore, any changes made to the data base the morning of December sixteenth hadnat been backed up yet when the system crashed. When the data base was restored, so was Waddellas record."

"aYou mean someone tampered with Waddells SID number four days before his execution? Then three days after his execution; someone deleted his record, from AM?"

"Thatas the way it looks to me. What I canat figure is why the person didnat just delete his, record in the first place. Why go to all the trouble to change the SID number, only to turn around and delete his entire record?"

Neils Vander had a simple answer to that when I called him moments later.

"Itas not unusual far an inmateas prints to be deleted from AFIS after heas dead," Vander said. "In fact, the only reason we wouldnat delete a deceased inmateas records would be if it were possible his prints might turn up in any unsolved cases. But Waddell had been in prison for nine, ten years - head been out of commission too long to make it worthwhile to keep his prints on line."

"Then the deletion of his record on December sixteenth would have been routine," I said.

"Absolutely. But it would not have been routine to delete his record on December ninth, when Lucy believes his SID number was altered, because Waddell was still alive then."