I think this is the moment formally to read him his Miranda rights…’
On cue, as Dingley stopped talking, Benton recited Johnson’s legal protection against self-incrimination.
Continuing the double act, Dingley picked up the moment his partner finished, speaking more towards the recording apparatus than to the security chief. ‘I am now showing Mr Johnson and his attorney the search warrant issued earlier today by a judge in private hearing …’
‘I should have been informed of this before this interview began!’ protested Clarkson.
‘That warrant authorizes the FBI to search Mr Johnson’s home as well as his office and locker at Dubette Inc. at McLean, North Virginia,’ continued Dingley. ‘It effectively seals every article in every stated place under court jurisdiction until Bureau searches have been completed.’
The email had been waiting when Parnell arrived that morning, addressed to him, not Lapidus, despite the request for further avian-flu specimens coming from the Greek geneticist. More cultures were being despatched. So were preliminary papers from Shanghai University updating research on a SARS vaccine incorporating DNA from the infecting virus. Part of the paper indicated that the Chinese were also experimenting upon a similar method of immunization against the current lethal bird flu.
‘It’s an idea,’ suggested Parnell, when Lapidus’s team assembled.
‘It goes along with your D, C, B, A approach,’ said Sato.
‘And there’s the linking respiratory factor in both conditions,’ Beverley pointed out.
‘The gamble comes, as it always does, in finding an acceptably safe level,’ said Lapidus. ‘Remember, we can’t try culture growth in eggs.’
‘What about the mice we already tested?’ asked Parnell. ‘Did we isolate a specific host gene?’
‘I tried, obviously,’ said Sato, at once. ‘The damned strain is so mephitic it’s like a pump gun – everything gets shot away.’
‘Maybe Ted’s just shown us a path,’ said Parnell. ‘We minimize the strength of the virus, under controlled conditions, to the point of destruction. Every level’s logged. Against each level we administer until we lose the pump-gun effect. And then go for tolerance, working through the logged levels. At an acceptable tolerance, we might locate our most likely friendly host. We get the mouse host, we look for a human match.’
‘Elementary, my dear Watson,’ gently mocked Lapidus.
‘How long’s a few thousand comparisons going to take?’ Parnell mocked back.
Seriously, Lapidus said: ‘How many other companies do you think might, as our people have, pick up on Shanghai?’
‘I don’t even want to make a guess. I know this is a race but I don’t want any of us running so fast we trip over ourselves,’ cautioned Parnell. ‘Dubette came far too close to that – to doing that – all too recently. We follow this research line, if it turns out to be feasible, like the scientists we are, and always will do as long as I am the director of this unit. And that’s scientifically. If someone comes out ahead of us, so be it. They did better than us and they deserved to get there first…’ Parnell came to a halt, suddenly embarrassed, at the same time as being aware of how often he seemed to need to stop talking, to draw breath. ‘That didn’t start as the lecture it turned out to be,’ he apologized.
‘I didn’t think it was a lecture,’ said Beverley. ‘I thought it was a professional commitment.’
A three-man forensic unit led the entry into the fetid apartment, on the Anacostia side of Capitol Hill, with the investigators, Johnson and the two lawyers behind. Which was where they remained, virtually unspeaking, as the protectively suited three methodically worked through Johnson’s home, room by room. Johnson insisted he had a licence for a second. 38 Smith and Wesson discovered in the dishevelled bedroom, and which Benton bagged, but remained silent at the gradual accumulation of name-stamped Dubette property, which ranged from pens and notepaper to crockery, linen and towels. A switchblade, one half of the handle broken, was found in a kitchen drawer, among an assortment of tools. Benton put that into an evidence envelope, too. In the living room there were several photographs of Johnson in Metro DC police uniform, none of them featuring either Peter Bellamy or Helen Montgomery. There was also a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings of reported cases in which Johnson had featured. There were also six newspaper stories of the 1996 corruption investigation into the Metro DC force. After a momentary hesitation, Johnson felt beneath an adjoining drawer for the taped-in-place hidden key to the one locked part of a bureau, in which was found Johnson’s bank deposit book, with a credit balance of $260,402.
As Dingley said they were seizing the book, Johnson started: ‘I want to say…’ before Clarkson said: ‘No, you don’t!’ stopping the man.
‘Do you carry a notebook, a message pad?’ asked Dingley. ‘Maybe there’s one in your office… around somewhere?’
Johnson reached into the drawer in which the deposit book had been locked and groped a plastic-bound pocketbook from its rear.
‘Why do you want that?’ intruded Clarkson.
‘The warrant gives us legal right to seize whatever we decide to be necessary,’ said Benton.
‘Necessary for what?’ demanded the lawyer.
‘There has to be later disclosure, but not at this stage,’ reminded Dingley.
There was no conversation whatsoever during the journey out to McLean, Johnson and Clarkson in the rear of the FBI car, Peter Baldwin following in his own vehicle, ahead of the forensic scientists. The flick knife Parnell had described Johnson carrying in his trouser pocket was found in a locker drawer, as well as a set of brass knuckledusters. The forensic examiners extracted the entire drawer and sealed it for further laboratory tests upon what appeared to be small specks of grey paint among debris and dust at its corners and bottom. The holstered. 38 Smith and Wesson was in another drawer, along with two spare clips of ammunition. In a top drawer of the desk in Johnson’s office, the search uncovered complete photocopies of both Richard Parnell and Rebecca Lang’s personnel files.
Dingley said: ‘That’s fortunate. Personnel told us Ms Lang’s records had been destroyed before we asked for them…’
The field office bar was on 14th Street and it was tradition to celebrate the first potential break in any case. Benton touched glasses with Dingley and said: ‘You know what I think we’ve got enough evidence for? Stealing a bunch of towels and serviettes from his employers.’
‘Don’t forget the salt and pepper shakers.’
‘And a set of salt and pepper shakers,’ added Benton.
‘How’s a bum like Johnson get over a quarter of a million bucks in the bank?’ asked Dingley.
‘You think he’s going to tell us?’ asked Benton, cynically.
Dingley looked unnecessarily at his watch. ‘Ed Pullinger is making the wire-tap application about now. Maybe that’s how we’ll find out.’
‘Let’s not forget why we’re involved,’ reminded Benton. ‘It’s not so much the murder. It’s suspected terrorism.’
‘Terrorism’s well funded,’ said Dingley. ‘It’s a point Pullinger is arguing to support the tap. And he’s trying for an order to get at Metro DC police records, too.’
‘Towels, serviettes and salt and pepper shakers,’ insisted Benton, gesturing for the bartender’s attention.
‘Don’t you forget the paint in the locker drawer.’
Thirty
The interviews with the two suspended Metro DC police officers were, of course, conducted separately, again at the FBI field office, and from both there was immediate legal insistence upon, instead of objection to, tape recordings. Each was also individually accompanied by two demanding lawyers, one personal, the other representing the Metro DC police department. Despite their separation, each officer quickly appeared to follow a virtually identical script. Of course they knew Harry Johnson: they’d worked with him. But they hadn’t been friends, acquaintances even – he was just a guy they’d seen around. No, Harry hadn’t indicated that he knew Richard Parnell’s car until the scientist himself led them to it. They had not recovered every item from Rebecca Lang’s purse from the bottom of the gorge when they arrested him – the terrorist-alert flight number had been shown to them for
