Patricia Cornwell - Cause Of Death

"I'm getting at that uranium fuels nuclear power plants, and CP amp;L has two nuclear power plants in Virginia and one in Delaware. Their mainframe is being broken into. Ted Eddings called my office with radioactivity questions. In his home PC he had all sorts of files on North Korea and suspicions that they were attempting to manufacture weapons-grade plutonium in a nuclear reactor."

"And the minute we start looking into anything in Sandbridge we get a prowler," Lucy added. "Then someone slashes our tires and Detective Roche threatens you. Now Danny Webster comes to Richmond and ends up dead and it appears that whoever killed him tracked uranium into your car." She looked at me. "Tell me what you need to see."

I did not require a complete customer list, for that would be virtually all of Virginia, including my office and me.

But I was interested in any detailed billing records that were at'Lussed, and what I was shown was curious but short. Out of five names, I recognized all but one.

"Does anybody know who Joshua Hayes is? He has a post office box in Suffolk," I said.

"All we know so far," said Janet, "is that he's a farmer."

"All right," I moved on. "We've got Brett West, who is an executive at CP amp;L. I can't remember his title." I looked at the printout.

"Executive Vice President in charge of Operations," Jan et said.

"He lives in one of those brick mansions near you, Doc," Marino said. "In Windsor Farms."

"He used to. If you study his billing address," Janet pointed out, "you'll see it changed as of last October. It appears he moved to Williamsburg."

There were two other CP amp;L executives whose records had been perused by whoever was illegally prowling the Internet. One was the CEO, the other the president. But it was the identity of the fifth electronic victim that truly frightened me.

"Captain Green." I stared at Marino, stunned.

His face was vague. "I got no idea who you're talking about."

"He was present at the Inactive Ship Yard when I got Eddings' body out of the water," I said. "He's with Navy Investigative Services."

"I hear you." Marino's face darkened, and Lucy and Janet's IOC case dramatically shifted before their eyes.

"Maybe it's not surprising this person breaking in would be curious about the highest-ranking officials of the corporation he's violating, but I don't see how NIS fits in," Janet said.

"I'm not sure I want to know how it might," I said.

"But if what Lucy has to say about gateways is relevant, then maybe the final stop for this hacker is certain people's telephone records."

"Why?" Marino asked.

"To see who they were calling." I paused. "The son of information a reporter might be interested in, for example."

Getting up from the chair, I began to pace about as fear tingled along my nerves. I thought of Eddings poisoned in his boat, of Black Talons and uranium, and I remembered that Joel Hand's farm was in Tidewater somewhere.

"This person named Dwain Shapiro who owned the bible you found in Eddings' house," I said to Marino. "He allegedly died in a carjacking. Do we have any further information on that?"

"Right now we don't."

"Danny's death could have been signed out as the same sort of thing," I said.

"Or yours could have. Especially because of the type of car. If this were a hit, maybe the assailant didn't know that Dr. Scarpetta isn't a man," Janet said. "Maybe the gunman was cocky and only knew what you would be driving."

I stopped by the hearth as she went on.

"Or maybe the killer didn't figure out Danny wasn't you until it was too late. Then Danny had to be dealt with."

"Why me?" I said. "What would be the motive?"

It was Lucy who replied, "Obviously, they think you know something."

"They?"

"Maybe the New Zionists. The same reason they killed Ted Eddings," she said. "They thought he knew something or was going to expose something."

I looked at my niece and Janet as my anxieties got more inflamed.

"For God's sake," I said to them with feeling, "don't do anything more on this until you talk to Benton or someone, Damn! I don't want them thinking you know something, too."

But I knew Lucy, at least, would not listen. She would be on her keyboard with renewed vigor the moment I shut the door.

"Janet?" I held the gaze of my only hope for their playing it safe. "Your hacker is very possibly connected to people being murdered."

"Dr. Scarpetta," she said, "I understand."

Marino and I left UVA, and the gold Lexus we had already seen twice this day was behind us all the way back to Richmond. Marino drove with his eyes constantly on his mirrors. He was sweating and mad because the DMV computer wasn't up yet, and the plate number he had called in was taking forever to come back. The person behind us in the car was young and white. He wore dark glasses and a cap.

"He doesn't care if you know who he is," I said. "If he cared, he wouldn't be so obvious, Marino. This is just one more intimidation attempt."

"Yeah, well, let's see who intimidates who," he said, slowing down.

He stared in the rearview mirror again, slowing more, and the car got closer. Suddenly, he hit his brakes hard. I didn't know who was more shocked, our tailgater or me, as the Lexus's brakes screeched, horns blaring all around, and the car clipped the rear end of Marino's Ford.

"Uh-oh," he said. "Looks like someone's just rearended a policeman."

He got out and subtly unsnapped his holster while I looked on in disbelief. I slipped out my pistol and dropped it in a pocket of my coat as I decided I should get out, too, since I had no idea what was about to happen. Marino was by the Lexus's driver's door, watching the traffic at his back as he talked into his portable radio.

"Keep your hands where I can see them at all times," he ordered the driver again in a loud, authoritative voice.

"Now I want you to give me your driver's license. Slow."

I was on the other side of the car, near the passenger's door, and I knew who the offender was before Marino saw the license, and the photograph on it.

"Well, well, Detective Roche," Marino raised his voice above the rush of traffic. "Fancy we should run into you.

Or vice versa." His tone turned hard. "Get out of the car.

Now. You got any firearms on you?"

"It's between the seats. In plain view," he said, coldly.

Then Roche slowly got out of the car. He was tall and slender in fatigue pants, a denim jacket, boots and a large black dive watch. Marino turned him around and ordered him again to keep his hands in plain view. I stood where I was while Roche's sunglasses fixed on me, his mouth smug.

"So tell me, Detective Cock-Roche," Marino said, who you snatching for today? Might it be Captain Green you've been talking to on your portable phone? You been telling him everywhere we've been going today and what we're doing, and how much you've been scaring our asses as we spot you in our mirrors? Or are you obvious just because you're a dumb shit?"

Roche said nothing, his face hard.

"is that what you did to Danny, too? You called the tow lot and said you were the doc and wanted to know what time to pick up your car. Then you passed the info down the line, only it just so happened it wasn't the doc driving that night. And now a kid's missing half his head because some soldier of fortune didn't know the doc ain't a man or maybe mistook Danny for a medical examiner."

"You can't prove anything," Roche said with the same mocking smile.

"We'll see how much I can prove when I get hold of your cellular phone bills." Marino moved closer so Roche could feel his big presence, his belly almost touching him.

"And when I find something, you're going to have a lot more to worry about than a driving penalty. At the very least I'm going to nail your pretty ass for being an accomplice to murder prior to the fact. That ought to get you about fifty years.