"Quick it will be," Dr. Lanier says. "I'm wondering if you would review a case for me, Dr. Scarpetta-an eight-year-old case that was never successfully resolved. A woman died under suspicious circumstances, apparently from a drug overdose. You ever heard of Charlotte Dard?"

"No."

"I've just gotten information-don't know if it's good or not-but I don't want to discuss it while you're on a cell phone."

"This is a Baton Rouge case?" Scarpetta digs in her handbag for a notepad and pen.

"Another story for another day. But yes, it's a Baton Rouge case."

"Your case?"

"It was. I'd like to send you the reports, slides and all the rest. Looks like I'd better dig back into this thing." He hesitates. "And as you might suspect, I don't have much of a budget…"

"Nobody who calls me has consultants built into the budget," she interrupts him. "I didn't either when I was in Virginia."

She tells him to FedEx her the case and gives him her address.

She adds, "Do you happen to know an investigator in Zachary named Nic Robillard?"

A pause, then, "Believe I talked to her on the phone a few months back. I'm sure you know what's going on down here."

"I can't help but know. It's all over the news," Scarpetta cautiously replies over the noise of the taxi and rush-hour traffic.

Neither her tone nor her words betray that she has any personal information about the cases, and her trust of Nic slips several notches as she frets that perhaps Nic called Dr. Lanier and talked about her. Why she might have done that is hard to say, unless she simply volunteered that Scarpetta could be a very useful resource for him, should he ever need her. Maybe he really does need her for this cold case he's just told her about. Maybe he's trying to develop a relationship with her because he's not equipped to handle these serial murders by himself.