Page 45 of Unnatural Death

“You heard her. Clear the area.” Lucy blocks Maggie from filming or getting closer. “You’re interfering with a police investigation.”

“That’s twice you’ve threatened me,” she replies.

“Don’t make it three times.”

“Now you’re trying to intimidate.”

“And you’re obstructing justice.”

“I’ll make sure Doctor Reddy is aware of our conversation.” Maggie stalks off as she gets on her phone.

“Well, I tried …,” she is saying, probably to Elvin Reddy.

“… Not even a glimmer of cooperation …”

Then I can’t hear her anymore, and Lucy helps Marino and me roll the stretchers up the REMOTE’s diamond plate ramp. I open the cargo door, closing it behind us, the vestibule brightly lit and clad in polished metal. It’s where we leave shoes, coats and other belongings before passing through airlocks connecting the four self-contained compartments.

“Maggie’s a rabid dog with a bone right now,” Marino says, and I’m fuming inside but he wouldn’t know it. “She sees an opportunity and this is just the beginning. I still can’t believe it. How is it possible we ended up with her again? And whatever she’s up to, she’s not going to quit until she gets what she wants.”

“I don’t know what she’s up to beyond her usual bullying.” I set my briefcase on top of a steel desk that reminds me of prison. “We’ve got enough to distract us.” The steel chair grates loudly when I move across metal flooring. “We don’t need anything else.” I sit down and begin unlacing my boots, resisting anger that’s hard to control once it gets going.

“Distractions are one of the most effective offenses,” Lucy says, and I can’t understand why Roxane Dare would put me in a position like this.

The governor terminated Elvin Reddy and Maggie Cutbush last July, only to repackage and reinstall them three months later. In some ways it’s worse than it was before, and I thought Roxane and I were friends. Were it not for her I wouldn’t have taken this job, and now I’m left to wonder why she hired me.

“… Also known as psyching someone out so they do themselves in.” Marino continues talking about Maggie. “That was the point of her accosting us in the parking lot …”

I’m suspicious she and Elvin have utility to the governor that wasn’t a factor when she appointed me. Or maybe it’s dirt they’ve threatened her with somehow. It’s been rumored for months that Roxane plans to run for the U.S. Senate. I’ve heard from people I work with that her attorney husband has been shopping for condos in Washington, D.C., where he’s interviewing with big law firms.

It’s said that unless something unforeseen happens, she’s expected to win. I’m not surprised by her ambitions, especially in Virginia, where the governor isn’t allowed to serve consecutive terms. Roxane has a year left in office, and I imagine that soon enough her Senate campaign will be announced. It will get into gear, overriding everything else no matter what she or anybody pretends and promises.

“… Maggie’s taking advantage of the situation to score political points.” Marino places his pistol, its extra magazines inside the vestibule’s gun locker. “Then if she’s lucky, she convinces the governor to fire the doc and me.” Banging the door shut, he pockets the key. “It’s been in the cards from day one …” He takes off his boots, the three of us moving around in our stocking feet.

On carts are boxes of PPE, and we put on Tyvek booties, the metal floor cold through the thin polyethylene. Lucy isn’t locking up her gun or staying for the duration, her face somber and preoccupied. Something haunts her that she’s not saying. I’ve been catching her flares of temper, her angry glints. I feel as if we’ve not looked each other in the eye all day. It’s not just because of her tinted glasses.

“… Her goal is to run us out of town,” Marino continues venting about Maggie. “She and Elvin both won’t stop until that’s what they do. Maybe at the end of the day the joke’s on us. Maybe we got moved here so certain people could throw us to the lions.”

“Way too much trouble,” Lucy says. “Maggie and Elvin are a problem, but not our biggest one.”

“And talking about them is exactly what they want,” I add.

“After not even three years, we’ll have to uproot all over again,” Marino launches in. “Only where the hell do we go this time? And no way I’m throwing in the towel and retiring.”

“Don’t worry so much,” Lucy says to him. “It gives the enemy power.”

“Easy for you to say. Try telling Dorothy we’re moving,” he replies, and I can predict her reaction.

She loves their townhome on the Potomac, my sister the happiest I’ve seen her in many years, maybe ever. Should that change, I know who she’ll blame, and it won’t be Marino. But it might be the end of them as a married couple, and not because of moving or even the location. It’s about him following me as he has since we left Virginia decades ago.

“Nobody’s running us off,” Lucy says to Marino.

“You got no idea the grief I’ll get at home if things turn to shit … !”

“Of course I have an idea. She’s my mother …”

As my niece and Marino go back and forth like they always have, I’m texting with Wyatt. I’ve asked him to enter our two new cases into the morgue office computer. They’re John and Jane Doe for now, the location Buckingham Run, their deaths unnatural, I let him know.

Then he’s sending me the newly accessioned numbers:NVA023-1898andNVA023-1899. My office is nearing the two thousand mark for cases so far this year in Northern Virginia alone.

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