Patricia Cornwell - Blow Fly

Why me? The question bounces inside Nic's head like a bingo ball. Maybe she feels sorry for me.

"I've felt better," Scarpetta replies with a smile.

"Popeye and his wine. But he's brought worse poison than that."

"I don't know how anything could be worse," Scarpetta says as a knock sounds on the door. "Unless it really is poison. Excuse me."

She gets up from the couch. Room service has arrived on a table wheeled inside. Scarpetta signs the check and tips in cash. Nic notes that she is generous.

"Popeye's room-room one-oh-six-is the watering hole," Nic says. "Any night, just go on in with your six-pack and dump it in the bathtub. Starting around eight p.m., he does nothing but haul twenty-pound bags of ice to his room. Good thing he's on the first floor. I went once."

"Only once in ten weeks?" Scarpetta watches her closely, probing.

When Nic returns to Louisiana, she will face the worst homicide cases she may ever have in her life. So far, she hasn't said a word about them, and Scarpetta is concerned about her.

"When I was in medical school at Johns Hopkins," Scarpetta offers as she pours coffee, "I was one of three women in my class. If there was a bathtub full of beer anywhere, I can assure you I was never told. What do you take?"

"Lots of cream and sugar. You shouldn't be serving me. Here I am, just sitting." She pops up from her wing chair.

"Sit down, sit down." Scarpetta sets Nic's coffee on a table. "There are croissants and rather inedible-looking bagels. I'll let you help yourself."

"But when you were in medical school, you weren't a small-town…" Nic catches herself before saying hick. "Miami's not exactly some little mud puddle in Louisiana. All these guys in my class are from big cities."

She fixes her attention on Scarpetta's coffee cup, on how perfectly steady it is as she lifts it to her lips. She drinks her coffee black and seems uninterested in food.

"When my chief told me the department was offered a fully funded slot at the Academy and would I go, I can't tell you what I felt like," Nic goes on, worrying that she's talking too much about herself. "I really couldn't believe it and had to go to a world of trouble to make it possible for me to leave home for close to three months. Then I got here to Knoxville and found myself with Reba as a roommate.

"I can't say it's been fun, and I feel terrible sitting here and complaining." She nervously drinks her coffee, setting it down, then picking it up again, clenching her napkin tightly in her lap. "Especially to you."

"Why especially to me?"

"Truth is, I guess I was hoping to impress you."

"You have."

"And you don't seem the sort to appreciate whining." Nic looks up at her. "It's not like people are always nice to you, either."

Scarpetta laughs. "Shall I call that an understatement?"

"That didn't come out right. People are jealous out there. You've had your battles. What I'm saying is, you don't complain."

"Ask Rose about that." Scarpetta is quite amused.

Nic's mind locks, as if she should know who Rose is but can't make a connection.

"My secretary," Scarpetta explains, sipping her coffee.

An awkward silence follows, and Nic asks, "What happened to the other two?"

Scarpetta is confused.

"The other two women in your medical class."

"One dropped out. I think the other got married and never practiced medicine."

"I wonder what they're feeling now. Probably regret."

"They probably wonder about me, too," Scarpetta replies. "They probably think I feel regret."

Nic's lips part in disbelief. "You?"

"Everything comes with sacrifices. And it's human nature to have a hard time accepting anyone who's different. Usually, you don't figure that out until you get what you asked for in life and are shocked that in some instances your reward is hatred instead of applause."

"I don't see myself as different or hated. Maybe picked on a lot, but not back home," Nic quickly replies. "Just because I'm with a small department instead of LAPD doesn't mean I'm stupid." Her spirit rises, her voice heating up. "I'm not some mudbug swamp-rat redneck…" "Mudbug. "Scarpetta frowns. "I don't believe I know what that is."

"A crawfish."

"Did someone in the class call you a crawfish?"

Nic can't help but lighten up. "Oh, hell. None of them have ever even eaten a crawfish. They probably think it's a fish that crawls along the bottom of the ocean or something."

"I see."

"I know what you mean, though. Sort of," Nic says. "In Zachary, only two street cops are women. I'm the only female investigator, and it's not that the chief dislikes women or anything like that. In fact, the mayor's a woman. But most times when I'm in the break room, getting coffee or eating or whatever, I'm the only woman in there. Truth is, I rarely think about it. But I have thought about it a lot here at the Academy. I realize I try too hard to prove I'm really not a hick, and then I annoy everyone. Well, I know you need to go. You probably have to pack, and I don't want you to miss your plane."

"Not so fast," Scarpetta replies. "I don't think we're finished talking."

Nic relaxes, her attractive face more animated, her slender body less rigid in the chair. When she speaks this time, she doesn't sound as nervous.

"I will tell you the nicest thing anybody's said to me during this entire ten weeks. Reba said I look a little bit like you. 'Course, it was when she was drunk. Hope I didn't just insult you."

"You may have insulted yourself," Scarpetta modestly replies. "I'm somewhat older than you, if what I read on your application is to be trusted."

"Thirty-six in August. It's amazing what you pick up about people."

"I make it my business to know as much about people as I can. It's important to listen. Most people are too busy making assumptions, too self-absorbed to listen. And in the morgue, my patients speak very quietly and are unforgiving if I don't listen and find out everything I can about them."

"Sometimes I don't listen to Buddy like I should-when I'm frantic or just too tired." Sadness crosses her eyes. "I of all people ought to know how that feels, since Ricky hardly ever listened to me, which is one reason we didn't get along. One of many reasons."

Scarpetta has suspected that Nic's marriage is in trouble or has ended.

People who are unhappy in relationships carry about them a distinct air of discontent and isolation. In Nic's case, the signs are there, especially the anger that she thinks she hides.

"How bad?" Scarpetta asks her.

"Separated, well on our way to divorce." Nic reaches for her coffee cup again but changes her mind. "Thank God my father lives nearby in Baton Rouge or I don't know what I'd do about Buddy. I know damn well Ricky would take him from me just to pay me back."

"Pay you back? For what?" Scarpetta inquires, and she has a reason for all these questions.

"A long story. Been going on more than a year, from bad to worse, not that it was ever all that good."

"About as long as these women have been disappearing from your area." Scarpetta finally gets to her point. "I want to know how you're handling that, because it will get you if you let it. When you least expect it. It's not escaped my notice that you haven't brought up the cases once, not once, not while I've been here. Ten women in fourteen months. Vanished, from their homes, vehicles, parking lots, all in the Baton Rouge area. Presumed dead. I can assure you they are. I can assure you they were murdered by the same person, who is shrewd-very shrewd. Intelligent and experienced enough to gain trust, then abduct, then dispose of the bodies. He's killed before, and he'll kill again. The latest disappearance was just four days ago-in Zachary. That makes two cases in Zachary, the first one several months ago. So you're going home to that, Nic. Serial murders. Ten of them."