"Papa gave it to me for my birthday, " Regina smugly said. "And he's never given that book to my sisters because they don't care about adventure and are cowards. I can just imagine Faith trying to land a plane after the pilot has a heart attack, and Constance would panic to death if she were lost in the desert or adrift at sea. "

She rummaged in her knapsack and pulled out the bright yellow little handbook.

"So, what would you do if your parachute didn't open?" She tested him as she smoothed open a dog-eared page that was stained with what looked like chocolate.

"I would check my chute before I jumped, " Andy replied as his patience tightened like a guitar string about to snap.

"What about if lightning struck?"

"I would avoid it. "

"Would you stand under a tall tree?" Regina was determined to evoke a wrong answer from him.

"Of course not. "

"What if you were diving a hundred feet down and ran out of air?" Regina asked in a confrontational manner.

"I wouldn't. "

Regina smacked the handbook shut and shoved it back into her knapsack.

"When do you think I can get a uniform?" she asked with mounting anger.

"After you attend the academy and graduate. We're talking the better part of a year, assuming the academy accepts you. "

"They have to accept me. "

"Just because your father's the governor doesn't mean anybody has to accept you, " Andy replied a bit sharply.

"I don't intend to tell anybody who you are beyond saying that you're an intern who's riding along with me. "

"Then I'll tell them, " she countered, opening the window and flicking out the gum.

"That would be very unwise. Don't you think it's time you let people like you for yourself instead of for who you are? And don't throw anything out the window. "

"What if they don't?" Her mood wilted. "And you know they won't. Nobody has ever liked me even when they know who Papa is. So why would they like me if they didn't know who he is?"

"I guess you're just going to have to see what happens and face reality for once, " Andy said as he turned off on Clay Street. "And if people don't like you, you have only yourself to blame. "

"Bullshit. None of it's my fault. " Regina's voice got louder and more strident. "I can't help the way I was born!"

"It's your choice to be rude and selfish, " Andy said. "And I'm not hard of hearing-yet. Lower your voice. Maybe for once you might think about others instead of yourself. How about the poor person back there who steps on that gum you just threw out? How would you like it if you stepped on someone's gum when you were dressed for work, in a hurry, couldn't afford new shoes, and had a sick baby at home?"

This had never occurred to Regina.

"The only reason no one likes you is because you don't like anybody, either. People sense that, " Andy went on as he pulled in behind the modern brick building called Biotech II that housed the chief medical examiner's office and the forensic laboratories.

"I don't know how, " Regina confessed. "You can't know how to do something if no one has ever shown you. And all my life, everyone has treated me special because of who I am, so I've never had a chance to think about anybody else. "

"Well, now you've got your chance. " Andy parked in a visitor's space and got out of the car. "Because I'm going to treat you like shit if you treat me like shit. Maybe it's good you're at the morgue. You can practice being nice to dead people and they won't care if you can't pull it off. "

"That's a great ideal" Regina enthusiastically followed Andy along the sidewalk and inside the lobby. "Except how do you worry about someone's feelings if they can't feel anything anymore?"

"It's called sympathy, it's called having compassion. Words foreign to you, no doubt. " Andy stopped at the information desk and signed in. "Try to think about what the poor people down here have been through and how sad their friends and loved ones are, and for once don't focus on yourself. And if you're obnoxious, that's the end of your internship because I'm not going to put up with it, and I know the chief won't put up with it. She'll throw you out on your ass in a nanosecond. "

"Papa can fire her, " Regina pointed out.

"She'll eat your papa for breakfast, " Andy said.

He handed Regina a small notebook and a pen as electronic locks clicked free and they entered the chief medical examiner's office.

"Take notes, " he instructed her. "Write down everything the doctors say and keep your mouth shut. "

Regina was not accustomed to taking orders, but the instant she noticed graphic autopsy photographs on desks in the front office, she began to lose her usual bravado and self-absorption. The clerks knew Andy very well, it seemed, and were very friendly and flirtatious with him. Regina was stunned and thrilled when Andy introduced her as his intern.

"Lucky you, " one of the clerks said, giving Regina a sly wink.

"Why can't I be your intern?" another one coyly asked him.

"Whoa, baby. I'd be happy to let you teach me a thing or two. "

"We're here on the fisherman's case. " Andy was all business. "Is Doctor Sawamatsu doing the case?"

"No. He hasn't come in yet. "

"What about the chief?" Andy was relieved that Dr. Sawamatsu wasn't in and hoped he wouldn't show up at all.

In the first place, Dr. Sawamatsu's English was poor, and Andy had a very difficult time understanding him, especially when he started throwing around medical terms. Dr. Sawamatsu was also clinical and came across as rather cold-blooded and cynical, and Andy took great exception to anyone who was callous around victims, alive or dead. Worst of all, Sawamatsu had repeatedly bragged to Andy about a secret collection of souvenirs that included artificial joints, breast and penile implants, a glass eye, pieces and parts from plane crashes and other disasters, and Andy doubted that the chief knew about her assistant's unseemly hobby, because the collection was at his home and not at the office.

"Maybe I'll just tell her, " Andy thought out loud as he followed a long carpeted corridor to Dr. Scarpetta's office suite.

"Tell who what?" Regina looked around in wonder, pausing to stare inside offices where microscopes were perched on desks and X-rays were clipped to light boxes.

"Don't ask questions, and as we say in bomb investigations, don't touch or move anything in any way, " Andy warned her. "And everything you hear and see can never be divulged to anyone, including your family. "

"I'll try, " she replied. "But I've never kept a secret before. "

Barbie Fogg routinely listened to secrets and had a few of her own. Worried that Lennie might have secrets, too, she decided to take the next exit and loop around so she could return to the Exact Change tollbooth and confide to Hooter that Barbie was worried about her marriage.

"Lennie's leaving town and came right out and said he wants a girlfriend! You don't think he's having affairs on the road because I won't have sex anymore, do you?" Barbie poured out her heart to Hooter. "Well, anyway, Lennie sells real estate, meaning he's often at home with nothing much to do, so he usually watches the twins and certainly has plenty of time for affairs. And to make matters worse, he's heading out to Charlotte for an important meeting and I'll pretty much be stuck at the house. Meaning it's possible I won't be seeing you for a whole week. "

Both Barbie and Hooter were disappointed. It seemed they had been friends forever.

"Oh dear, I didn't realize how much I'm going to miss you, " Barbie confessed.

"Lord, Lord, I gonna have separate anxiety without you coming through my booth! Who I gonna talk to anymore? Why he gotta go to Charlotte? You know, I get so sick and tired of people going to North Carolina. Like it some kind of promise land or something. You know, I never even been to North Carolina. What so special about it, huh?"