Patricia Cornwell - Cause Of Death

"What about North Korea?" He was reading pages while Marino went through another drawer.

"The problem our government had with theirs several years ago when they were trying to make weapons-grade plutonium at one of their nuclear power plants."

"Supposedly, Hand is very interested in fusion, energy, that sort of thing," I said. "There's an allusion to that in the Book."

"Okay," said Wesley, "then maybe this is just a big profile on him. Or better stated, the raw makings of a big piece on him."

"Why would Eddings delete the file of a big article he had not yet finished?" I wanted to know. "And is it a coincidence that he did this the night he died?"

"That could be consistent with someone planning to commit suicide," Wesley said. "And we really can't be certain he didn't do that."

"Right," Lucy said. "He wipes out all his work so that after he's gone, no one's going to see anything he doesn't want them to see. Then he stages his death to look like an accident. Maybe it mattered a lot to him that people not think he killed himself."

"A strong possibility," Wesley agreed. "He may have been involved in something he couldn't get out of, thus explaining the money wired to his bank account every month. Or he could have suffered from depression or from an intense personal loss that we know nothing of."

"Someone else could have deleted the files and taken any backup disks or printouts," I said. "Someone may have done this after he was already dead."

"Then this person had a key, knew codes and combinations," he said. "He knew Eddings wasn't home and wasn't going to be." He glanced up at me.

"Yes," I said.

"That's pretty complicated."

"This case is very complicated," I said, "but I can tell you with certainty that if Eddings were poisoned underwater with cyanide gas, he could not have done this to himself And I want to know why he had so many guns. I want to know why the one he was carrying in his johnboat has a Birdsong coating and was loaded with KTWs."

Wesley glanced again at me, and his unflappability was hitting me hard. "Certainly, one could view his survivalist tendencies as an indicator of instability," he said.

"Or fear of being murdered," I said.

Then we went into that room. Submachine guns were on a rack on the wall, and pistols, revolvers and ammunition were inside the Browning safe that police had opened this morning. Ted Eddings had equipped a small bedroom with an arbor press, digital scale, case trimmer, reloading dies and everything else needed to keep him in cartridges. Copper tubing and primers were stored in a drawer. Gunpowder was in an old military case, and it seemed he had been fond of laser sights and spotting scopes.

"I think this shows a tilted mind-set." It was Lucy who spoke as she squatted before the safe, opening hard plastic gun cases. "I'd call all of this more than a little paranoid.

It's like he thought an army was coming."

"Paranoia is healthy if there really is someone after you," I said.

"Me, I'm beginning to think the guy was wacky," Marino replied.

I did not care about their theories. "I smelled cyanide in the morgue," I reminded them as my patience wore thinner.

"He didn't gas himself before going into the river, or he would have been dead when he hit the water."

"You smelled cyanide," Wesley said, pointedly. "No one else did, and we don't have tox results yet."

"What are you implying, that he drowned himself?" I stared at him.

"I don't know."

"I saw nothing to indicate drowning," I said.

"Do you always see indications in drownings?" he reasonably asked. "I thought drownings were notoriously difficult, explaining why expert witnesses from South Florida are often flown in to help with such cases."

"I began my career in South Florida and am considered an expert witness in drownings," I sharply said.

We continued arguing outside on the sidewalk by his car because I wanted him to take me home so we could finish our fight. The moon was vague, the nearest streetlight a block away, and we could not see each other well.

"For God's sake, Kay, I was not implying that you don't know what you're doing," he was saying.

"You most certainly were." I was standing by the driver's door as if the car were mine and I was about to leave in it. "You're picking on me. You're acting like an ass."

"We're investigating a death," he said in that steady tone of his. "This is not the time or place for anything to be taken personally."

"Well, let me tell you something, Benton, people aren't machines. They do take things personally."

"And that's really what this is all about." He moved beside me and unlocked the door. "You're reacting personally because of me. I'm not sure this was a good idea."

Locks rushed up. "Maybe I shouldn't have come here today." He slid into the driver's seat. "But I felt it was important. I was trying to do the right thing and thought you would do the same."

I walked around to the other side and got in, and wondered why he had not opened my door when he usually did. Suddenly, I was very weary and afraid I might cry.

"It is important, and you did do the right thing," I said.

"A man is dead. I not only believe he was murdered but think he might have been caught up in something bigger that I fear may be very ugly. I don't think he deleted his own computer files and disposed of all backups because that would imply he knew he was going to die."

"Yes. It would imply suicide."

"Which this case is not."

We looked at each other in the dark.

"I think someone entered his house late the night of his death."

"Someone he knew."

"Or someone who knew someone else who had access.

Like a colleague or close friend, or a significant other. As for keys to get in, his are missing."

"You think this has to do with the New Zionists." He was beginning to mellow.

"I'm afraid of that. And someone is warning me to back off."

"That would implicate the Chesapeake police."

"Maybe not the entire department," I said. "Maybe just Roche.

"If what you're saying is true, he's superficial in this, an outer layer far removed from the core. His interest in you is a separate issue, I suspect."

"His only interest is to intimidate, to bully," I said.

"And therefore, I suspect it is related."

Wesley got quiet, looking out the windshield, and for a moment I indulged myself and stared at him.

Then he turned to me. "Kay, has Dr. Mant ever said anything about being threatened?"

"Not to me. But I don't know if he would say anything.

Especially if he were frightened."

"Of what? That's what I'm having a very hard time imagining," he said as he started the car and pulled out onto the street. "If Eddings were linked to the New Zionists, then how could that possibly connect to Dr. Mant?"

I did not know, and was quiet as he drove.

He spoke again. "Any possibility your British colleague simply skipped town? Do you know for a fact that his mother died?"

I thought of my Tidewater morgue supervisor, who had quit before Christmas without giving notice or a reason.

Then Mant suddenly had left, too.

"I know only what he told me," I said. "But I have no reason to think he is lying."

"When does your other deputy chief come back, the one out on maternity leave?"

"She just had her baby."

"Well, that's a little hard to fake," he said.

We were turning on Malvern, and the rain was tiny pinpricks against the glass. Welling up inside me were words I could not say, and when we turned on Cary Street I began to feel desperate. I wanted to tell Wesley that we had made the right decision, but ending a relationship doesn't end feelings. I wanted to inquire after Connie, his wife. I wanted to invite him into my home as I had done in the past, and ask him why he never called me anymore. Old Locke Lane was without light as we followed it toward the river, and he drove slowly in low gear.