The Sinner: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

table. “Take a look at those.”
    He opened it and saw it was the set of photographs from the devastated village. “I’ve already seen these,” he said, and closed the folder again. “Maura showed them to me.”
    “You don’t seem very interested.”
    “It’s not exactly pleasant viewing.”
    “It’s not meant to be. Take another look.” She opened the folder, fished out one of the photos, and slapped it on top. “This one in particular.”
    Victor looked at Crowe, as though seeking an ally against this unpleasant woman, but Crowe simply gave him a what-can-you-do? shrug.
    “The photo, Dr. Banks,” said Rizzoli.
    “Exactly what am I supposed to say about it?”
    “That was a One Earth clinic in that village.”
    “Is that so surprising? We go where people need us. Which means we’re sometimes in uncomfortable or even dangerous situations.” He was still not looking at the photo, still avoiding the grotesque image. “It’s the price we pay as humanitarian workers. We take on the same risks our patients do.”
    “What happened in that village?”
    “I think it’s pretty obvious.”
    “Look at the picture.”
    “It’s all in the police report, I’m sure.”
    “
Look
at the goddamn picture! Tell me what you see.”
    At last his gaze fell on the photograph. After a moment, he said: “Burned bodies. Lying in front of our clinic.”
    “And how did they die?”
    “I’m told it was a massacre.”
    “Do you know that for a fact?”
    His gaze snapped up to hers. “I wasn’t there, Detective. I was at home in San Francisco when I got the phone call from India. So you can hardly expect me to provide the details.”
    “How do you know it was a massacre?”
    “That was the report we got from the police in Andhra Pradesh. That it was either a political or religious attack, and there were no witnesses, since the village was relatively isolated. People tend to avoid having much contact with lepers.”
    “Yet they burned the bodies. Don’t you find that odd?”
    “Why is it odd?”
    “The bodies were dragged into large piles before they were set on fire. You’d think that no one would want to touch a leper. So why stack the bodies together?”
    “It would be more efficient, I suppose. To burn them in groups.”
    “Efficient?”
    “I’m trying to come at this logically.”
    “And what’s the logical reason for burning them at all?”
    “Rage? Vandalism? I don’t know.”
    “All that work, moving the dead bodies. Hauling in the cans of gasoline. Building wooden pyres. And the whole time, the threat of discovery was hanging over them.”
    “What are you getting at?”
    “I’m saying the bodies
had
to be burned. To destroy the evidence.”
    “Evidence of what? It’s clearly a massacre. No fire’s going to hide that.”
    “But a fire would hide the fact it’s not a massacre.”
    She was not surprised when his gaze dropped away, his eyes suddenly reluctant to meet hers.
    “I don’t know why you’re asking me these questions,” he said. “Why don’t you believe the police report?”
    “Because either they got it wrong, or they were bribed.”
    “You know this, do you?”
    She tapped the photo. “Look again, Dr. Banks.”
    “I’d rather not.”
    “These aren’t just human corpses burned here. The goats were slaughtered and burned as well. So were the chickens. What a waste—all that nutritious meat. Why kill goats and chickens, and then burn them?”
    Victor gave a sarcastic laugh. “Because they might have had leprosy too? I don’t know!”
    “That doesn’t explain what happened to the birds.”
    Victor shook his head. “What?”
    Rizzoli pointed to the clinic’s corrugated tin roof. “I bet you didn’t even notice this. But Dr. Isles did. These dark blots on top of the roof here. At first glance, they just look like fallen leaves. But isn’t it strange, that there are leaves here, when there don’t seem to be any trees nearby?”
    He said nothing. He was sitting very still, his head bowed so that she could not read his face. His body language alone told her he was bracing for the inevitable.
    “They’re not leaves, Dr. Banks. They’re dead birds. Some kind of crows, I believe. Three of them are lying there at the edge of the photo. How do you explain that?”
    He gave a careless shrug. “They could have been shot, I suppose.”
    “The police didn’t mention any evidence of gunfire. There were no bullet holes in the building, no recovered cartridge