'Sir, I think I know why you did it.'
Janklow turned slowly, eyebrows raised but his face still angry.
'What is it, Dr. Platt, that you
'I considered it myself. That the Ebola may have come from our own labs.You want to protect USAMRIID. After the anthrax debacle I can understand—'
'You have no idea what you're talking about.'
'Sir, I just know—'
'Did you find any Ebola samples missing?'
'No, sir, I did not, but it would be difficult—'
The hand went up to stop him. Palm facing out. A definite tremor.
'There are no Ebola samples missing from USAMRIID.'
Platt kept his shoulders back, his stance tall, his face impassive.
'Let me ask you this, Dr. Platt…' Janklow's voice leveled to normal. 'Do you have any idea how much the vaccine for Ebola brings on the black market?'
Platt stared at him and he could see it wasn't a question Janklow expected an answer to.
'I better find out that you have no clue,' Janklow warned. 'Because although there are no Ebola tissue samples missing from this facility there is vaccine missing.'
CHAPTER
77
Tully found Emma in her usual lounge spot, in the living room on the floor and in front of a blaring TV. He was relieved to see no packages. Just the regular teenage mess of magazines and junk food.
A news brief interrupted her television show. She muted the sound, but Tully asked her to turn it back on when he saw that it was a press conference at Saint Francis Hospital in Chicago. There wasn't anything he didn't already know. Two doctors and a CDC guy fielding questions and keeping to the basics. In the corner of the screen was a picture of Markus Schroder. It looked like a wedding shot and included his wife. The guy looked like an ordinary joe. An accountant, they were saying, for a Chicago firm. Tully didn't recognize him. He'd batted the name around his brain all morning and couldn't place it. Even now as he studied the photo there was nothing he recognized about the man. Then Tully glanced at the wife. There was something familiar about the eyes. Did he know her?
'It's so sad,' Emma was saying.
'Did they say the wife's name?'
'Yeah, something with a
Vera Schroder. No, the name didn't mean anything to Tully, either.
'Gotta go, sweet pea. Remember everything I said, okay?'
He was back on the road again. He got Maggie's message and revised his route. It would take him more than forty minutes to UVA. He was looking for a radio station with more news from Chicago when his cell phone rang.
'This is Agent Tully.'
'Conrad's mom got one of those cute little packages filled with money, too.' It was Caroline again and even more angry.'What the hell's going on, Tully?'
The realization hit him and it felt as if Caroline's words had injected ice water into his veins. He could see everything so clearly.
He had recognized Vera Schroder. And now he remembered where. It was a photo from a newspaper clipping that his roommate had insisted he keep tacked on their bulletin board to motivate him. A distraught young woman, devastated at finding her parents dead in their home after taking cyanide-laced Tylenol. Only, her name wasn't Schroder then. It was Vera Sloane. She was George Sloane's sister.
CHAPTER
78
UVA at Charlottesville was Maggie's alma mater, so when Professor Sloane told her to meet him in the Old Medical School Building she knew exactly where it was. She also knew from her alumnae newsletters that the building was now used for faculty offices. Other than offices, it housed research laboratories and clinical-training facilities. Fall break made it possible for her to find a quick parking spot.
Maggie had worked with Professor Sloane only once before, but she knew him from teaching at Quantico. His forensic-documents class used to follow her criminal-behavior class. Cunningham frequently called on Sloane as a consultant when documents were a part of a case. She wasn't surprised that Tully and Ganza hadn't pressed the professor when he gave them what sounded like a quick assessment. Tully and Sloane rubbed each other the wrong way. She knew it from the tension the two men gave off just being in the same room. She was hoping she could get information out of Sloane that perhaps Tully wasn't able to.
The front door to the Old Medical School Building was unlocked, though there was no one in the halls. She took the elevator to the basement, and as soon as she got off she could hear what sounded like monkeys screeching at the end of the hallway. Doors were closed and secured with key-card locks. A few signs indicated most of the rooms down here were research labs. One had a QUARANTINE sign posted.
She continued to search for what could be Sloane's office. Unsuccessful she headed down the other direction despite the screeching. Her cell phone started ringing and she grabbed it out of her pocket.
'This is Maggie O'Dell.'
'It's Sloane,' Tully said, and he sounded out of breath.
'I'm looking for him now.'
'No, you don't understand—'
That was all Maggie heard before she felt the blow to the back of her head.
CHAPTER
79
Tully couldn't believe he hadn't seen it earlier.
He barreled down the Hwy-20 exit off of I-95. It would take him forever to get to Charlottesville. Maggie's cell phone was going to voice message. Had Sloane already done something to her?
Now, of course, it all made sense.
He remembered George Sloane asking where he was when the box of doughnuts was delivered.
Sloane had said, 'If I remember correctly, you can't resist a chocolate doughnut.'
Chocolate doughnuts were Tully's one constant obsession. He went through stages. Oreo cookies, licorice and once upon a time jelly beans, but chocolate doughnuts were a mainstay. But that wasn't what should have set off the trigger. Sloane had also said, 'So terrorists are delivering their threats at the bottom of doughnut boxes now?'
How did he know the note was at the bottom of the box? Only Cunningham, Maggie, Ganza and himself knew that.You'd never assume a note to be at the bottom. Sloane knew because he placed it there.
And why would Caroline and her fiance be targeted by the Ebola mailer unless her old sweetheart, who had still been in touch with her as recently as July, was somehow involved?
Her old sweetheart, Indy aka George Sloane, had gone a bit berserk the last time she had chosen someone else. It had even gotten him thrown out of the FBI before he finished training. As a result he became a forensic- document expert, still working with the FBI but always on the outside, working on the fringes. Working on every major case but never getting the credit he thought he deserved. George Sloane had always wanted to be a feebie, not a professor.
How many other packages had Sloane mailed?
And Maggie was with him right now. Unable to answer her phone.
Maybe Tully was wrong. Maybe she wasn't in danger. It was possible her cell phone was just out of range. Maybe there was no reason for Tully to panic.
