Free Five Scarpetta Novels by Patricia Cornwell

came over and sat next to her, the fire warming our backs.
    â€œI guess I’ll have to take your word on that.”
    â€œGood.”
    â€œListen”—I patted her leg—“you’ve been assigned to HRT as their technical consultant. It has never been anyone’s assumption that you will fast-rope out of helicopters and run four-minute miles with the men.”
    She looked over at me with flashing eyes. “You’re one to talk about limitations. I don’t see that you’ve ever let your gender hold you back.”
    â€œI absolutely know my limitations,” I disagreed. “And I work around them with my mind. That is how I have survived.”
    â€œLook,” she said with feeling, “I’m tired of programming computers and robots, and then every time something big goes down—like the bombing in Oklahoma City—the guys head off to Andrews Air Force Base and I get left. Or even if I go with them, they lock me in some little room somewhere like I’m nothing but a nerd. I’m not a goddamn nerd. I don’t want to be a latchkey agent.”
    Her eyes were suddenly bright with tears and she averted them from me. “I can run any obstacle course they put me on. I can rappel, sniper-shoot and scuba-dive. More important, I can take it when they act like assholes. You know, not all of them are exactly happy to have me around.”
    I had no doubt of that. Lucy had always been an extremely polarizing human being, because she was brilliant and could be so difficult. She was also beautiful in a sharp-featured, strong way, and I frankly wondered how she survived at all on a special forces team of fifty men, not one of whom she would ever date.
    â€œHow is Janet?” I asked.
    â€œThey transferred her out to the Washington Field Office to do white-collar crime. So at least she’s not far away.”
    â€œThis must have been recent.” I was puzzled.
    â€œReal recent.” Lucy rested her forearms on her knees.
    â€œAnd where is she tonight?”
    â€œHer family’s got a condo in Aspen.”
    My silence asked the question, and her voice was irritated as she answered it. “No, I wasn’t invited. And not just because Janet and I aren’t getting along. It just wasn’t a good idea.”
    â€œI see.” I hesitated before adding, “Then her parents still don’t know.”
    â€œHell, who does know? You think we don’t hide it at work? So we go to things together and each of us gets to watch the other being hit on by men. That’s a special pleasure,” she bitterly said.
    â€œI know what it’s like at work,” I said. “It’s no different than I told you it would be. What I’m more interested in is Janet’s family.”
    Lucy stared at her hands. “It’s mostly her mom. To tell you the truth, I don’t think her dad would care. He’s not going to assume it’s because of something he did wrong, like my mother assumes. Only she assumes it’s because of something you did wrong since you pretty much raised me and are my mother, according to her.”
    There was little point in my defending myself against the ignorant notions of my only sister, Dorothy, who unfortunately happened to be Lucy’s parent.
    â€œAnd Mother has another theory now, too. She says you’re the first woman I fell in love with, and somehow that explains everything,” Lucy went on in an ironic tone. “Never mind that this would be called incest or that you’re straight. Remember, she writes these insightful children’sbooks, so she’s an expert in psychology and apparently is a sex therapist, too.”
    â€œI’m sorry you have to go through all this on top of everything else,” I said with feeling. I never knew quite what to do when we had these conversations. They were still new to me, and in some ways scary.
    â€œLook”—she got up as