What Lies Behind by J. T. Ellison Page A

world.”
    “First, we need to talk about a media strategy.”
    “What?”
    “Regardless of how this goes down, Xander, you’re going to be the lead at the top of the hour on every news channel in the country. Your name and image will be put out there. Like the cops sitting outside this door, half the people will want to congratulate you, half will want you prosecuted. Unfortunately, it’s the latter half who are the most vocal. So we need to be prepared. I want you safe, out of harm’s way and out of a jail cell.”
    “Okay. If you say so.”
    “Good.” Lawhon smiled again. “Now, tell me everything.”

Chapter 16
    Georgetown University Medical School
    THE MOMENT THEY were given the go-ahead, Fletcher and Sam got into his car and made the short drive to the Georgetown University campus. The dean of the medical school, Dr. Nate Simpson, and Sam’s immediate boss, Dr. Hilary Stag, were waiting for them in the dean’s office.
    Hilary looked genuinely upset; the smile lines around her usually merry eyes were set and grim. The dean looked no better—a happy, rotund man with a white goatee and wire-rim glasses, Sam had always thought he looked a bit like Santa Claus, minus the red suit, but this morning he was frowning and dour.
    What, exactly, had Tommy Cattafi done?
    After the introductions were made, Dean Simpson settled down to business. “No sense beating around the bush. If Cattafi survives, and I do hope he does, despite all of this, you can ask him yourself what he was up to.”
    Hilary crossed her long legs. She was wearing sheer hose that made a
shurring
noise each time she moved. “He was found in the gross anatomy lab, Samantha. In a state of undress. One of the corpses had been...interfered with.”
    The expression on Fletcher’s face was priceless. Sam wasn’t quite as fazed; it happened, more than people realized. Whether a natural proclivity toward necrophilia, or an attachment formed during the semester, Cattafi wouldn’t be the first student caught diddling a corpse, nor would he be the last.
    “Why wasn’t I told about this?” Sam asked. She was teaching a new class of forensic gross anatomy to the first years. It was part of the new pathology program.
    “It wasn’t in your lab, to start with—it was Dr. Wilhelm’s. And we chose to handle it internally because we had no real evidence that the boy had been doing anything of a...sexual nature.”
    “Then why was he undressed?” Fletcher asked.
    “We asked Mr. Cattafi the same thing. His shirt was unbuttoned—we asked why. He refused to answer.”
    Sam sat forward in her chair. “If it wasn’t sexual, Hilary, what exactly was he caught doing? You need to tell us everything.”
    The dean glanced at Hilary, then nodded.
    “Please understand, we must ask that you keep this confidential. If word got out, it could severely damage the reputation of the school.”
    Fletcher started to say something, but Sam put a hand on his arm. “No problem. We’ll keep this just between us, unless it becomes absolutely necessary to the investigation. Deal?”
    “He was taking tissue samples from the reproductive organs, the brain, the heart, the liver. We saw this on film, of course, after he was caught. When the janitor walked in on him, Mr. Cattafi’s bags were packed, his shirt was open and he had a needle in Mr. Anderson’s vas deferens.”
    Sam saw Fletcher glance at his crotch and bit back a smile.
    “How new to the program is Mr. Anderson?”
    “I believe he arrived only a few days before the incident.”
    Fletcher looked blank. Sam said, “We use fresh cadavers. There is a regular supply.”
    “I see,” Fletcher said, grimacing.
    “Was Cattafi going after sperm, do you think?” Sam asked.
    “I don’t know,” the dean said. “Why would he be?”
    “I’m wondering, Dean, if Cattafi was as advanced as everyone says. Perhaps he was simply experimenting.”
    “Or he’s some sort of freak, and we didn’t weed him out early