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.She feels Captain Poma’s interest in her as she looks at another photograph, grateful the waiter doesn’t seem inclined to come their way.He’s busy with the table of loud Americans.“Close-up of her legs,” she says.“Bruising around her ankles.”“Fresh bruises,” Captain Poma says.“He grabbed her, maybe.”“Possibly.They aren’t from ligatures.”She wishes Captain Poma wouldn’t sit so close to her, but there’s no where else for her to move unless she pushes her chair into the wall.She wishes he wouldn’t brush against her when he reaches for photographs.“Her legs are recently shaven,” she goes on.“I would say shaven within twenty-four hours of her death.Barely any stubble.She cared about how she looked even when she was traveling with friends.That might be important.Was she hoping to meet someone?”“Of course.Three young women looking for young men,” Captain Poma says.Scarpetta watches Benton motion for the waiter to bring another bottle of wine.She says, “Drew was a celebrity.From what I’ve been told, she was careful about strangers, didn’t like to be bothered.”“Her drinking doesn’t make much sense,” Benton says.“Chronic drinking doesn’t,” Scarpetta says.“You can look at these photographs and see she was extremely fit, lean, superb muscle development.If she’d become a heavy drinker, it would appear it hadn’t been going on long, and her recent success would indicate that as well.Again, we have to wonder if something recently had happened.Some emotional upheaval?”“Depressed.Unstable.Abusing alcohol,” Benton says.“All making the person more vulnerable to a predator.”“And that’s what I think happened,” Captain Poma says.“Randomness.An easy target.Alone at the Piazza di Spagna, where she encountered the gold-painted mime.”The gold-painted mime performed as mimes do, and Drew dropped another coin into his cup, and he performed once more to her delight.She refused to leave with her friends.The last thing she ever said to them was, “Beneath all that gold paint is a very handsome Italian.” The last thing her friends ever said to her was, “Don’t assume he’s Italian.” It was a valid comment, since mimes don’t speak.She told her friends to go on, perhaps visit the shops of Via dei Condotti, and she promised to meet them at the Piazza Navona, at the fountain of rivers, where they waited and waited.They told Captain Poma they tasted free samples of crispy waffles made of eggs and farina and sugar, and giggled as Italian boys shot them with bubble guns, begging them to buy one.Instead, Drew’s friends got fake tattoos and encouraged street musicians to play American tunes on reed pipes.They admitted they had gotten somewhat drunk at lunch and were silly.They described Drew as “a little drunk,” and said she was pretty but didn’t think she was.She assumed people stared because they recognized her, when often it was because of her good looks.“People who don’t watch tennis didn’t necessarily recognize her at all,” one of the friends told Captain Poma.“She just didn’t get how beautiful she was.”Captain Poma talks on through their main course, and Benton, for the most part, drinks, and Scarpetta knows what he thinks—she should avoid the captain’s seductions, should somehow move out of range, which in truth would require nothing less than her leaving the table, if not the trattoria.Benton thinks the captain is full of shit, because it defies common sense that a medico legale would interview witnesses as if he is the lead detective in the case, and the captain never mentions the name of anyone else involved in the case.Benton forgets that Captain Poma is the Sherlock Holmes of Rome, or, more likely, Benton can’t stomach the thought, he is so jealous.Scarpetta makes notes as the captain recounts in detail his long interview with the gold-painted mime, who has what appears to be an infallible alibi: He was still performing in his same spot at the base of the Spanish Steps until late afternoon—long after Drew’s friends returned to look for her.He claimed to vaguely remember the girl, but he had no idea who she was, thought she was drunk, and then she wandered off.In summary, he paid little attention to her, he said.He is a mime, he said.He acted like a mime at all times, he said
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