“No evidence of seminal fluid in or on her body or on the clothing found in the tub,” Dr. Lester said. “Or at the scene. Of course, they used UV light, as did I. Nothing fluoresced the distinctive bright white that seminal fluid does.”
“In sexual assaults, some perpetrators wear condoms,” Scarpetta said. “Especially these days, because everybody knows about DNA.”
Fractured data streamed across dark screens, reattaching at mind-numbing speed, as if it were fleeing and being caught.
Maybe Berger was getting acclimated to cyberspace. Her headache had mysteriously vanished. Or maybe adrenaline was the cure. She was feeling aggressive because she didn’t like being bucked. Not by Morales. Certainly not by Lucy.
“We should get started on the e-mail,” Berger said, and it wasn’t the first time she’d said it since Marino had called.
Lucy didn’t seem the least bit interested in Marino or what he was doing, and she wasn’t listening to Berger’s insistence that they turn their attention to e-mail. They had the passwords right in front of them, but Lucy refused to change her focus until she had a better idea why her aunt’s name continued to appear with alarming frequency in the fragmented revisions of the thesis Terri, or perhaps Oscar, had been writing.
“I’m afraid your interest is too personal,” Berger said. “And that’s exactly what I’m worried about. We need to look at e-mails, but you’d rather look at what’s been written about your aunt. I’m not saying it isn’t important.”
“This is where you have to trust that I’m doing things the right way,” Lucy said, not budging.
The legal pad with the passwords written on it remained where it was, on the desk, next to Lucy’s keyboard.
“Patience. One thing at a time,” Lucy added. “I don’t tell you how to run your cases.”
“Seems that’s exactly what you’re telling me. I want to get into their e-mails, and you want to keep reading this thesis or whatever the hell it is. You’re not helping me.”
“Helping you is exactly what I’m doing—by not deferring to you or allowing you to tell me how to do my job. I can’t allow you to have any influence over me and direct me, that’s the point. I know what I’m doing, and there’s a lot you don’t understand yet. You need to know exactly what we’re doing and why and how, because if this becomes the big deal I’m sure it will, you’re going to be asked and attacked. It won’t be me in front of the judge and jury explaining the forensic computer part of this investigation, and you probably won’t be able to call me in as an expert witness for at least one obvious reason.”
“We have to talk about that,” Berger said bluntly.
“The relationship issue,” Lucy said.
“You would be discredited.” Berger seized the opportunity to voice her misgivings and maybe put a stop to things.
Or maybe that’s what Lucy was about to suggest. Maybe Lucy was about to quit and put a stop to things.
“Frankly, I’m not sure what to do,” Berger added. “If you could be objective about it, I’d ask you for a suggestion. You started something not knowing it personally involved you. Now what? You probably don’t want to continue with this, either. I suspect you’re realizing it’s a bad idea and we should shake hands and walk away, and I’ll find another company.”
“Now that we know my aunt’s involved? Are you kidding? The worst idea of all would be to quit and walk away,” Lucy said. “I’m not quitting. You probably want to fire me. I warned you that you would. I also told you there is no other company. We’ve been through that.”
“You could let someone else finish running your program.”
“My proprietary software? Do you have any idea what it’s worth? That’s like letting someone else fly my helicopter with me sitting in the back or letting somebody else sleep with my lover.”
“Does your lover live with you? Do you live in this loft?” Berger had noticed stairs leading to a second level. “It’s risky working where you live. I’m assuming this person doesn’t have access to highly classified—”
“Jet Ranger doesn’t have a password to get into anything, don’t worry,” Lucy said. “What I’m saying, literally, is nobody’s touching my software. It’s mine. And I wrote the code. Nobody’s going to figure it out, and that’s deliberate on my part.”
“We have a major conflict neither you nor I anticipated,” Berger said.
“If you want to make it one. I don’t want to quit, and I won’t.”
Berger scanned data rolling by at a dizzying rate. She looked at Lucy and didn’t want her to quit.
“If you fire me,” Lucy said, “you’ll hurt yourself in a way that isn’t necessary.”
“I have no intention of hurting myself. Or you. I have no intention of hurting the case. Tell me what you want to do,” Berger said.
“I want to teach you a few things about recovering overwritten files, because as you pointed out, people don’t realize it’s possible. You can expect opposing counsel to go after you on this one. As you’ve noticed, I find analogies helpful. So here’s one. Let’s say you visited your favorite vacation spot. Sedona, for example. Let’s say you stayed in a certain hotel with a certain person. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say you stayed with Greg. Images, sounds, smells, emotions, tactile sensations are captured in your memory, much of it not conscious.”
“What are you doing?” Berger asked.
“A year later,” Lucy went on, “you and Greg take the same flight to Sedona on the same weekend, rent the same car, stay in the same room of the same hotel, but the experience isn’t going to be identical. It’s altered by what has gone on in your life since then, altered by your emotions, your relationship, your health, his health, by what preoccupies you, preoccupies him, altered by the weather, the economy, road detours, renovations, every detail right down to the flower arrangements and chocolates on your pillows. Without being aware of it, you’re overlaying old files with new ones that aren’t identical, even if consciously you don’t notice the difference.”
“I’ll state this clearly,” Berger said. “I don’t like people snooping into my life or violating my boundaries.”
“Read what’s out there about you. Some nice, some not so nice. Read Wikipedia.” Lucy held her gaze. “I’m not saying anything that isn’t public information. You spent your honeymoon with Greg in Sedona. It’s one of your favorite places. How is he, by the way?”
“You have no right to research me.”
“I have every right. I wanted to know exactly what I’m dealing with. And I think I do. Even though you haven’t offered much in the way of honesty.”
“What have I said that you think is dishonest?”
“You haven’t said. You haven’t said anything,” Lucy replied.
“You have no reason to distrust me, and you shouldn’t,” Berger said.
“I’m not going to abort what I’m doing because of boundaries or a possible conflict of interest. Even if you order me to,” Lucy said. “I’ve downloaded everything onto my server, so if you want to take the laptops and walk out of here, go right ahead. But you won’t stop me.”
“I don’t want to fight with you.”
“It wouldn’t be smart.”
“Please don’t threaten me.”
“I’m not. I understand how threatened you might feel and how reason might dictate that you should try to remove me from this case, from everything. But the fact is, you don’t have the capabilities to stop me from what I’m doing. You really don’t. Information about my aunt was inside an apartment where a woman was just murdered. A thesis that Terri or someone was constantly working on and revising. I’d use the word obsessively. That should be what you and I are worried about. Not what other people think or whether they’re going to accuse us.”