Blow Fly (Kay Scarpetta #12)(100)
"I'm not," she replies, leaning away from him, her sinuses assaulted by the overpowering cologne he must have splashed on when he uprooted her to go to the restroom.
"Don't have to tell me that. One or two spoken words and I know." He sips his vodka and orange juice. "Let me guess. Not Texas, either. You don't exactly look Mexican." He grins.
She resumes reading a structural biology article in Science magazine and wonders when the man will get the not-so-subtle message to leave her alone.
Rarely is Scarpetta accessible to strangers. If she is, then usually within two minutes they ask where she's going and why and wander into the restricted airspace of her profession. Telling them she's a doctor doesn't stop the quizzing, nor does saying that she's a lawyer, and should she let on that she is both, the consequences are bad enough. But to go on and explain that she is a forensic pathologist will mean the ruination of her trip.
Next, JonBenet Ramsey, O. J. Simpson and other mysterious cases and miscarriages of justice bubble up, and Scarpetta is trapped, buckled in her seat at an altitude of some thirty thousand feet. Then there are those strangers who don't care if she works but would rather see her later for dinner, or preferably for a drink in a hotel bar that might lead to a hotel room. They, like the tipsy slob sitting to her right, would rather stare at her body than hear about her r?sum?.
"Looks like a mighty complicated article you're reading," he says. "I'm guessing you're some sort of schoolteacher."
She doesn't respond.
"You see, I'm good at this." He squints his eyes and snaps his thick fingers, pointing at her face. "A biology teacher. Kids are worthless these days." He lifts his drink from his tray and rattles the ice in the plastic cup. "I don't know how you stand being around them, to tell the truth," he goes on, apparently having decided she is a teacher. "Plus, they don't think twice about bringing a gun to school."
She feels his puffy eyes on her as she continues to read.
"You got children? I got three. Teenagers, all of them. Obviously, I got married when I was twelve." He laughs, and flecks of spittle spray through the air. "How 'bout I get your card from you-in case I need a little tutoring while both of us are in Baton Rouge? You changing planes or going there? I live in the downtown area, the name's Weldon Winn-with two n's. Good name for a politician, huh? Guess you can imagine the campaign slogans if I ever run for office."
"When are we landing?" Albert asks her.
She looks at her watch and forces a smile as the name Weldon Winn shocks her. "Not too much longer," she says to the boy.
"Yes, ma'am, I can just imagine signs all over Louisiana: It's Win-Win with Winn. Get it? And Go with the Winner. Maybe I'll be lucky and have an opponent named Miracle. So Winn Needs No Miracle. How 'bout that? And when Mr. Miracle slides hopelessly downhill in the polls, he'll be called Miracle-Whipped. "He winks again.
"I suppose there's no chance you might run against a she," Scarpetta comments without looking up from her magazine, pretending she doesn't have a clue that Weldon Winn is the Middle District U.S. Attorney for Louisiana that Nic Robillard complained about.
"Hell. No woman would take me on."
"I see. So what kind of politician are you?" Scarpetta finally asks him.
"One in spirit only at the moment, pretty lady. I'm the U.S. Attorney for Baton Rouge."
He pauses to let the importance of his position sink in, finishing his screwdriver and craning his neck in search of a flight attendant. Spotting one, he holds up an arm and snaps his fingers at her.
It can't be chance that Weldon Winn just happens to be sitting next to her on a plane when she just happens to be on her way to assist in a suspicious death that, according to Dr. Lanier, just happens to have captured Weldon Winn's interest, after she just happens to have left Jean-Baptiste Chandonne.
She tries to figure out how Winn would have had time to intercept her in Houston. Maybe he was already there. She has no doubt whatsoever that he knows who she is and why she's on this flight.
"Got a getaway in New Orleans, quite a cozy little palace in the French Quarter. Maybe you can visit while you're in the area. I'll be around for just a couple nights, got business with the governor and a few of the boys. I'd be more than happy to give you a personal tour of the capital, show you the bullethole in a pillar where Huey Long was shot."
Scarpetta knows all about the notorious Huey Long's assassination. When the case was reopened in the early nineties, the results of the new investigation were discussed at various forensic science academy meetings. She's had enough of the pompous Weldon Winn.
"For your own edification," she tells him, "the so-called bullethole in the marble pillar was not caused by a bullet intended for Huey Long or anyone else, but more likely from an imperfection in the stone or a chiseled facsimile of a bullethole to attract tourism. As a matter of fact," she adds, as Winn's eyes flatten and his smile freezes, "since the assassination, the Capitol was restored, and that particular pillar s marble panels were removed and never returned to their original location. I'm surprised you spend a lot of time at the state capital and don't know all this," she concludes.
"My aunt's supposed to pick me up and if I'm late, what if she isn't there?" Albert asks Scarpetta, as if the two of them are traveling together.