Rapid and Fatal

Patricia Cornwell’s Rapid and Fatal opens on Good Friday with Virginia chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta called to the Alexandria mansion of billionaire security magnate Adam Quilton and his wife, Mimi. Both have collapsed and died while eating Chinese takeout from Fen Palace. The scene initially looks like an extraordinary double allergic reaction: Adam and Mimi both have serious yellow-jacket allergies, dead insects are scattered around them, insect spray is nearby, and apparent sting marks are visible on their bodies. But Scarpetta immediately notices problems. Their EpiPens, normally kept in the family room, have vanished, and Adam’s large yellow-gold diamond ring is missing.

Adam’s daughter Lonnie Quilton, who runs Quilton Security, had been elsewhere in the house before leaving for dinner with her godfather, megachurch celebrity Booker Wylie. The newest member of the Quiltons’ security staff, former soldier Apollo Noonan, claims he simply delivered the takeout and then left the room. Security footage apparently supports him. Scarpetta does not trust the scene.

At almost the same time, twenty-year-old Gary Santabar dies after crashing his vintage Mustang. Gary, a former high-school football star whose life unravelled after his mother’s death, has been working as a food-delivery driver. Inside his car is a carton of Fen Palace boneless spareribs.