Wouldn't you be if you were the victim of rape and assault?
Then you believe her?
Amanda was going to answer when she noticed Tony Fiori walking toward them. He was wearing green surgical scrubs under a white coat that looked as though it had never been washed. Scraps of paper poked out of the jacket's bulging pockets.
Tony!
Fiori looked puzzled for a moment. Then he smiled.
Hey, Amanda. What are you doing up here?
We just finished interviewing a witness in a case. This is Herb Cross, our investigator. Herb, this is Dr. Tony Fiori, an old friend from high school.
Herb shook Tony's hand.
Do you have time for a cup of coffee? Tony asked Amanda. I got bumped out of the OR by an emergency and I've still got half an hour before I have to be back.
I don't know, Amanda said hesitantly, looking at Cross.
That's fine, the investigator replied.
You're sure you don't need me?
I' m just going back to the office to write my report. We'll catch up later.
Okay, then. I'll see you at the office.
She turned to Tony. I can use a caffeine fix. Let's go.
It was raining when Amanda and Tony walked outside. They sprinted across the street to Starbucks, and Amanda found a table while Tony ordered for them.
One grande skinny caramel latte, he said, placing the drink in front of Amanda.
That looks like regular coffee, Amanda said, pointing to Tony's cup.
Hey, I' m a barbarian. What can I say?
Amanda laughed. It's strange we don't see each other for years, and now we bump into each other twice in less than a month.
It's fate, Tony answered with an easy smile.
You look like you're working hard.
Like the proverbial dog. Fortunately, my senior resident is a good guy, so it's not as bad as it could be.
What are you doing?
I've been on the surgical intensive care rotation for two months, but I've been doing elective surgeries for the past two days hernias, appendectomies. It's two-for-one day today. Let me take out your appendix and I'll remove your spleen for free.
No, thanks, Amanda answered with a laugh. I gave at the office.
Tony took a long drink of coffee. Man, I needed that. I've been at it since six this morning without a break.
I' m glad I came along.
Tony leaned back and studied Amanda.
You know what I remember about you? he asked with a smile. The swimming. You were so great at the state meet my senior year, and you were only a freshman. Did you keep it up in college?
All four years.
How' d you do?
Pretty well. I won the two hundred free in the PAC-Ten my junior and senior years and placed at nationals.
Impressive. Did you try for the Olympics?
Yeah, but I never really had a chance to make the team. There were three or four girls who could kick my butt on my best day. To tell you the truth, I was burnt out by my senior year. I didn't swim at all when I was at law school. I' m just getting back to it now.
Where did you go to law school?
NYU. The last two years I had a clerkship at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. You went to Colgate, right?
Only for a year. My dad died and it hit me hard. Tony's eyes grew moist, and he looked down at the table.
Now Amanda remembered. Dominic Fiori had been Frank's law partner. He was raising Tony after a bitter divorce. During winter break of Amanda's sophomore year in high school, Dominic had died in a fire. The sudden death of a parent was bound to be traumatic.
Anyway, I dropped out for a while and bummed around Europe and South America for a year after that, he continued in a subdued tone. Then I was a ski instructor in Colorado for a while before I got my act together and went back to school at Boulder. My grades weren't good enough for an American medical school, so I ended up in Peru. I took some tests when I graduated and was accepted at St. Francis for my residency.
That's a tough road.
Tony shrugged. I guess, he answered, looking a little embarrassed. So you were interviewing Justine for your case? he asked, changing the subject.
How did you know?
I have amazing psychic powers. Also, I read the papers. Your father and Cardoni have been all over the news since they found those heads. Tony was suddenly serious. You know, I was there when Cardoni had his run-in with Sandowski.
No, I didn' t.
Did he really decapitate her?
Amanda's legal training reared its head. I can't really talk about that.
Sorry, I didn't mean to be nosy. It's just ... I knew ' em both. He shook himself, as if trying to clear away an unpleasant image.
Amanda hesitated, then made a decision. I guess I can tell you. It'll come out at the trial anyway. There's a videotape of Mary Sandowski being killed. Whoever did it operated on her while she was conscious. She shivered. You're probably used to seeing people in pain, but I've never seen anything like that.
I haven't seen anything like that either, Amanda. A doctor tries to ease suffering. I' d have been just as upset as you.
Tony glanced up at the clock on the wall. I' m going to have to get back. He hesitated. Uh, look, he asked nervously, do you want to get together sometime? You know, dinner, a movie?
Amanda flashed a reassuring smile. Sure. I' d like that.
Tony grinned. Great. Give me your number.
Amanda took out a business card and wrote her home number on the back. Tony stood up.
Don't rush off, he told her. Finish your latte. I'll call soon.
Amanda watched Tony duck into the rain and jog back toward the hospital. She wondered if he' d really call. It would be tough giving up an evening in the library to go to dinner with a drop-dead gorgeous doctor, but Amanda believed she was woman enough to make the sacrifice.
And she sent us on our way, Herb Cross told Frank Jaffe as he concluded his account of the Justine Castle interview.
What was your opinion of her? Frank asked. Cross slouched in the client chair in Frank's office and stared at the West Hills through the window at Frank's back while he gathered his thoughts.
She's very bright and very dangerous. She hates our client and will do everything she can to put him on death row if she's called as a witness.
Cardoni thinks she set him up.
Cross looked surprised. He thinks Castle is a serial killer?
That's what he says. She's a surgeon, she knew Grant.
Cross looked skeptical.
I don't buy it either, Frank said, but we have to worry about Castle. I need to know if there's some way to get to her if she testifies. Go to the jail. Talk to our client. Get as much background on her as you can, then go after her.
Chapter 18
Bobby Vasquez found Sean McCarthy neck deep in paperwork when he walked into the squad room and pulled up a chair to the detective's desk.
Hey, Bobby, McCarthy said. What have you got?
A lot, he answered, opening a file he was carrying. Cardoni grew up outside of Seattle. His parents were divorced and Cardoni started getting in trouble soon after the split. He was a star wrestler in high school, excellent grades, but he was also arrested for assault. The case never came to trial. I don't know why it was dismissed.
After high school Cardoni went to Penn State on a wrestling scholarship, but he lost it in his sophomore year when he was arrested for assault.
Any specifics?
I got the police report on that one. It was a bar fight. He really fucked up the other guy. Cardoni went into the army as part of a plea bargain. Charges were dismissed.
How' d he do in the army?
No trouble I could find. He qualified for the wrestling team and trained during his hitch. He also excelled at unarmed combat. After the army, Cardoni went to Hearst College, in Idaho. Good grades, NCAA Division Two nationals as a junior and a senior, then medical school in Wisconsin and a residency at New Hope Hospital in Denver.