Free Point of Origin by Patricia Cornwell Page A

settled back.
    'Let's talk about something besides your reputation for a moment,' I began in a calm voice. 'Let's talk about what this New York trial is all about.'
    'I know what it's all about.'
    I was going to give her an opening argument anyway and raised my hand to make her listen.
    'Temple Gault killed at least five people in Virginia,' I began, 'and we know Carrie was involved in at least one of these since we have her on videotape pumping a bullet into the man's head. You remember that.'
    She was silent.
    'You were in the room when we watched that horrific footage right there in gory color on TV,' I went on.
    'I know all this.'
    Anger was crawling into Lucy's voice again.
    'We've been over it a million times,' she said.
    'You watched her kill,' I went on. 'This woman who was your lover when you were all of nineteen and naive and doing an internship at ERF, programming CAIN.'
    I saw her draw up more into herself as my monologue became more painful. ERF was the FBI's Engineering Research Facility, which housed its Criminal Artificial Intelligence Network computer system known as CAIN. Lucy had conceived CAIN and been the driving force behind its creation. Now she was locked out of it and could not bear to hear its name.
    'You watched your lover kill, after she had set you up in her cold-blooded premeditated way. You were no match for her,' I said.
    'Why are you doing this?' Lucy's voice was muffled, her face resting on her arm.
    'A reality check.'
    'I don't need one.'
    'I think you do. And by the way, we won't even go into the personal details both Carrie and Gault learned about me. And this brings us to New York, where Gault murdered his own sister and at least one police officer, and now forensic evidence shows that he didn't do it alone. Carrie's fingerprints were later recovered on some of Jayne Gault's personal effects. When she was captured in the Bowery, Jayne's blood was found on Carrie's pants. For all we know, Carrie pulled that trigger, too.'
    'She probably did,' Lucy said. 'And I already know about that.'
    'But not about Eddie Heath. Remember the candy bar and can of soup he bought at the 7-Eleven? The bag found with his dying, mutilated body? Carrie's thumbprint has since been recovered.'
    'No way!' Lucy was shocked.
    'There's more.'
    'Why haven't you told me this before? She was doing this all along, with him. And probably helped him break out of prison back then, too.'
    'We have no doubt. They were Bonnie and Clyde long before you met her, Lucy. She was killing when you were seventeen and had never been kissed.'
    'You don't know that I'd never been kissed,' my niece said inanely.
    No one spoke for a moment.
    Then Lucy said, and her voice quavered, 'So you think she spent two years plotting a way to meet me and become . . . And do the things she did to . . .'
    'To seduce you,' I cut in. 'I don't know if she planned it that far in advance. Frankly, I don't care.' My outrage mounted. 'We've moved heaven and earth to extradite her to Virginia for those crimes, and we can't. New York won't let her go.'
    My beer bottle was limp and forgotten in my hands as I shut my eyes, and flashes of the dead played through my mind. I saw Eddie Heath propped up against a Dumpster as rain diluted the blood from his wounds, and the sheriff and prison guard killed by Gault and probably Carrie. I had touched their bodies and translated their pain into diagrams and autopsy protocols and dental charts. I could not help it. I wanted Carrie to die for what she had done to them, to my niece and me.
    'She's a monster,' I said as my voice shook with grief and fury. 'I will do anything I can to make sure she is punished.'
    'Why are you preaching all this to me?' Lucy said in a louder, upset voice. 'Do you somehow think I don't want the same thing?'
    'I'm sure you do.'
    'Just let me throw the switch or stick the needle in her arm.'
    'Don't let your former relationship distract you from justice, Lucy.'
    'Jesus Christ.'
    'It's already an