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.Whatever happened to her, anyway? Here you are, standing out in the cold.Where are my manners? Would you like to come in? She was such an attractive woman too.Oh, what was her name?""I really must be on my way," Dr.Marcus replies in a different voice, this one stiff and tight."I'm afraid I'm quite late for a meeting with the governor," he lies rather coldly.25* * *The sun is weak in the pale gray sky and the light is thin and cold.Scarpetta walks through the parking lot, her long dark coat flapping around her legs.She walks quickly and with purpose toward the front door of her former building and is annoyed that the number-one parking place, the parking place reserved for the chief medical examiner, is empty.Dr.Marcus isn't here yet.As usual, he is late."Good morning, Bruce," she says to the security officer at the desk.He smiles at her and waves her on."I'll sign you in," he says, pushing a button that unlocks the next door, the one that leads into the medical examiner's wing of the building."Has Marino gotten here?" she asks as she walks."Haven't seen him," Bruce replies.When Fielding didn't answer his door last night, she stood on his front porch trying to call him on the phone, but the old home number she had for him didn't work anymore, and then she tried Marino and could barely hear him because of loud voices and laughter in the background.He might have been in a bar, but she didn't ask and simply told him that Fielding didn't seem to be home and if he didn't show up soon, she was going back to the hotel.All Marino had to say about it was, okay, Doc, and see you later, Doc, and call if you need me, Doc.Then Scarpetta tried to open Fielding's front and back doors, but they were locked.She rang the bell and knocked, getting increasingly uneasy.Her former assistant chief and right-hand helper and friend had a car under a tarp in the carport, and she had little doubt that the car under the tarp was his beloved old red Mustang but she pulled up an edge of the tarp to make sure, and she was right.She had noticed the Mustang in the number 6 parking place behind the building that morning, so he was still driving it, but just because his Mustang was home under the tarp didn't mean he was inside the house and refusing to come to the door.He might have a second vehicle, perhaps an SUV.It would make sense for him to have a backup, more rugged vehicle, and he might be out somewhere in his SUV or whatever else he was driving these days, and was on his way and running a little late or had forgotten he had invited her to dinner.She went through all these convolutions as she waited for him to come to the door, and then she began to worry that something had happened to Fielding.Maybe he had hurt himself.Maybe he was suffering a violent allergic reaction and had broken out in hives or was going into anaphylactic shock.Maybe he had committed suicide.Maybe he timed his suicide with her coming to his house because he would think she could handle it.If you kill yourself, somebody has to handle it.Everybody always assumes she can handle anything, so it would be her terrible lot in life to be the one to find him in bed with a bullet in his head or a stomach full of pills and handle the situation.Only Lucy seems to know that Scarpetta has her limitations, and Lucy rarely tells her anything.She hasn't seen Lucy since September.Something is going on, and Lucy doesn't think Scarpetta can handle it."Well, I can't seem to find Marino," Scarpetta says to Bruce."So if you hear from him, please tell him I'm looking for him, that there's a meeting.""Junius Eise may know where he is," Bruce replies."You know, from Trace? Eise was going to hook up with him last night.Maybe go to the FOP lounge."Scarpetta thinks of what Dr.Marcus said when he called her barely an hour ago, something about the trace evidence, which apparently is the reason for this meeting, and she can't find Marino.He was at his old Fraternal Order of Police watering hole hangout last night, probably drinking with Mr.Trace Evidence himself, and she has no idea what is going on and Marino isn't answering the phone.She pushes open the opaque glass door and steps inside her former waiting area.She is shocked to see Mrs.Paulsson sitting on the couch, staring vacantly, her hands clutching the pocketbook in her lap."Mrs.Paulsson?" Scarpetta says with concern, walking over to her."Is someone helping you?""They told me to be here when they opened," Mrs.Paulsson says."Then I was told to wait because the chief hasn't gotten here yet."Scarpetta was not informed that Mrs.Paulsson would be present at the meeting with Dr.Marcus."Come on," she says to her."I'll take you inside.You're meeting with Dr.Marcus?""I think so.""I'm meeting with him too," Scarpetta says."I guess we're going to the same meeting.Come on.You can come with me."Mrs.Paulsson slowly gets up from the couch, as if she is tired and in pain.Scarpetta wishes there were real plants in the waiting area, just a few real plants to add warmth and life.Real plants make people feel less alone and there is no lonelier place on earth than a morgue, and no one should ever have to visit a morgue, much less wait to visit one.She presses a buzzer next to a window.On the other side of the glass is a countertop, then a stretch of gray-blue carpet, then a doorway leading to the administrative offices."May I help you?" a woman's voice blares over the intercom."Dr.Scarpetta," she announces herself."Come in," the voice says, and the glass door to the right of the window clicks open.Scarpetta holds the door for Mrs.Paulsson."I hope you haven't been waiting long," Scarpetta says to her."I'm so sorry you had to wait.I wish I'd known you were coming.I would have met you or made sure you had a comfortable place to sit and some coffee.""They told me to get here early if I wanted a parking place," she replies, looking around as they walk into the outer office where the clerks file and work on their computers.Scarpetta can tell that Mrs.Paulsson has never visited the OCME before.She isn't surprised.Dr.Marcus isn't the type to spend much time having sit-down visits with families, and Dr.Fielding is too used up to have sit-down emotionally wrenching meetings with families.She is suspicious that the reason for summoning Mrs.Paulsson to a meeting is political and is probably going to make Scarpetta angry and disgusted.From her cubicle a clerk tells them that they can go on back to the conference room, that Dr.Marcus is running a little late.It strikes Scarpetta that the clerks never seem to leave their cubicles.When she walks into the front office, it is as if cubicles work here, not people."Come on," Scarpetta says, touching Mrs.Paulsson's back."Would you like coffee? Let's get you some and we'll go sit down.""Gilly's still here," she says, walking woodenly and looking around with frightened eyes."They won't let me take her." She begins to cry, twisting the strap of her pocketbook."It's not right that she's still here.""What reason are they giving you?" Scarpetta asks as they walk slowly toward the conference room."It's all because of Frank.She was so attached to him, and he said she could come live with him.She wanted to." She cries harder as Scarpetta stops at the coffee machine and begins pouring coffee into styrofoam cups."Gilly told the judge she wanted to move to Charleston after she finishes this school year.He wants her there, in Charleston."Scarpetta carries their coffees into the conference room and this time sits at the middle of the long polished table.She and Mrs.Paulsson are alone in the big empty room and Mrs
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