When she finally reaches the front desk, she asks for her bill and is handed an envelope.

"This just came in for you, ma'am," the harried receptionist says as he tears off the printout of her room charges and hands it to her.

Inside the envelope is a fax. Scarpetta walks behind the bellman pushing her cart. It is loaded with bags and three very large hard cases containing carousels of slides that she has not bothered to convert to PowerPoint presentations because she can't stand them. Showing a picture of a man who has blown off the top of his head with a shotgun or a child scalded to death does not require a computer and special effects. Slide presentations and handouts serve her purposes just as well now as they did when she started her career.

The fax is from her secretary, Rose, who must have called about the same time Scarpetta was miserably making her way from the elevator to the lobby. All Rose says is that Dr. Sam Lanier, the coroner of East Baton Rouge Parish, very much needs to speak to her. Rose includes his home, office and cell telephone numbers. Immediately, Scarpetta thinks of Nic Robillard, of their conversation not even an hour ago.

She waits until she is inside her taxi before calling Dr. Lanier's office number. He answers himself.

"How did you know who my secretary is and where to reach her?" she asks right off.

"Your former office in Richmond was kind enough to give me your number in Florida. Rose is quite charming, by the way."

"I see," she replies as the taxi drives away from the hotel. "I'm in a taxi on the way to the airport. Can we make this quick?"

Her abruptness is more about her annoyance with her former office than with him. Giving out her unlisted phone number is blatant harassment-not that it hasn't happened before. Some people who still work at the Chief Medical Examiners Office remain loyal to their boss. Others are traitors and bend in the direction that power pulls.