Port Mortuary (54 page)

“Then the flybot was in her apartment,” I presume. “And did Benton offer you any coffee?”

“I’m coffeed out. Some of us haven’t been to bed yet.”

“I’m in bed working. Doesn’t mean I’ve slept.”

“Must be nice. I’d like to stay home and work in bed.” He takes the iPad from me and searches through files.

“Maybe we could adjust your job description. You can stay home and work in bed a certain number of days each year, depending on your age and decrepitude, which we’ll have to evaluate. I suppose I’ll be the one to evaluate it.”

“Oh, yeah? Who’s gonna evaluate yours?” He finds a photograph he wants me to see.

“Mine doesn’t need evaluating. It’s obvious to one and all.”

He shows me a close-up of the flybot, only at a glance it’s hard to know what it is, just a shiny wiry object on a square of white paper on Dawn Kincaid’s dining-room table. The micromechanical device could be an earring, it occurs to me. A silver earring that was stepped on, which is exactly what is suspected, Marino tells me. Lucy thinks the flybot was stepped on while the EMTs were working on Eli, then later, Dawn found it when she returned to Norton’s Woods, possibly wearing the same long, black wool coat that she had on in my garage, a coat that I believe was Fielding’s. A witness claims to have observed a young man or woman, the person wasn’t sure which, in a big black coat walking around Norton’s Woods with a flashlight, several hours after Eli Goldman died there. The individual in the big coat was out there alone, and the person who saw him or her thought it was strange because he or she did not have a dog and seemed to be looking for something while making odd hand gestures.

“It must have been huge on her and practically dragged on the ground,” Marino says, getting up from the bed. “I’m not saying she was trying to look like a man, but with her short hair and the big coat, and a hat and glasses on or whatever? As long as you don’t see her rack. She’s got quite a rack. Has that in common with her dad, right?”

“I’ve never known Jack to have large breasts.”

“I mean both of them built.”

“So she returned when she assumed it was safe to do so, and even though the flybot was badly damaged, it responded to radio frequency signals sent by the data gloves?” I turn off the iPad and hand it to him.

“I think she just saw it on the ground, think it was shiny in the flashlight and she found it that way. Lucy says the bug is DOA. Squashed.”

“Do we know exactly what it does or was supposed to do?”

Marino shrugs, towering over me again, still in his parka, which he hasn’t bothered to unbutton, as if he didn’t intend to stay long. “This isn’t my area of expertise, you know. I didn’t understand half of what they were talking about, Lucy and the general. I just know the potential for whatever this thing is supposed to do is something to be concerned about, and DoD intends to do some sort of inspection of Otwahl to see what the hell is really going on over there. But I’m not sure we don’t already know exactly what the hell is going on over there.”

“Meaning what?”

He returns the iPad to its case and says, “Meaning I worry there’s R-and-D going on that the government damn well knows about but just doesn’t want anyone else to know, and then you get kids out of control and the shit hits the fan. I think you get my drift. When are you coming back to work?”

“Probably not today,” I tell him.

“Well, we got a shitload of things to do and undo,” he says.

“Thanks for the warning.”

“Buzz me if you need something. I’ll call the hospital and let you know how the psycho’s doing.”

“Thanks for stopping by.”

I wait until the sound of his heavy footsteps stops at the front door, and then the door shuts again, and then a pause, and Benton resets the alarm. I hear his footsteps, which are much lighter than Marino’s, as he walks past the stairs, toward the back of the house where he has his office.

“Come on, let’s get up,” I say to Sock, and he opens his eyes and looks at me and yawns. “Do you know what bye-bye means? I guess not. They didn’t teach you that at the prison. You just want to sleep, don’t you? Well, I’ve got things to do, so come on. You’re really quite lazy, you know. Are you sure you ever won a race or even ran in one? I don’t think I believe it.”

I move his head and put my feet on the floor, deciding there must be a pet shop around here that has everything a skinny, lazy old greyhound might need for this kind of weather.

“Let’s go for a ride.” I talk to Sock as I find my slippers and a robe. “Let’s see what Secret Agent Wesley is doing. He’s probably in his office on the phone again, what do you bet? I know, he’s always on the phone, and I agree, it’s quite annoying.

“Maybe he’ll take us shopping, and then I’m going to make a very nice pasta, homemade pappardelle with a hearty Bolognese sauce, ground veal, red wine, and lots of mushrooms and garlic.

“I need to explain up front that you only get canine cuisine; that’s the rule of the house. I’m thinking quinoa and cod for you today.” I continue talking as we go down the stairs. “That will be a nice change after all that chicken and rice from the Greek diner.”