People pushed back their chairs and scurried out of the conference room with the urgency of a fire evacuation. Dopp waited until they had all funneled through the door before walking back to his own office. He felt chilled inside. Such treachery was unprecedented. What did it say about his own judgment that he had hired a person capable of it? He would have to beg the Lord’s forgiveness for such a costly error.
Who could the offender be? There was Doug Anderson, whom Dopp had recently denied a raise. (Budget problems prohibited anything of the sort.) Perhaps he was feeling especially spiteful? There was also Marie Hunter, who had once lied about being hospitalized when Dopp sensed she had actually gone on vacation. But was she capable of duplicity of this scale? And why? Then there was Trent, who had been acting frustrated recently, but swore his attitude had turned around. Dopp recalled how eagerly Trent had pledged not to disappoint him, so this kind of stunt would not make sense for him to pull. Meanwhile, the tech guys had found no evidence on anyone’s computers to suggest a culprit. Maybe someone would come forward.
In the meantime, Dopp’s only hope was Inspector Banks—the man who could deliver news that would render the leak meaningless. It was 9:45 A.M. Banks was probably on his way back from Arianna’s clinic already. While Dopp waited, he pulled out the Bible from his drawer. Yellow stubs protruded from the tops of the pages, marking certain sections Dopp had especially liked. He flipped to one tab randomly and read:
“Colossians 2:5: For though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.…”
Dopp continued to read, feeling the Lord’s words revive his soul and reinstill his humbleness. The betrayal of an employee seemed petty in contrast with Christ’s ultimate sacrifice. Motivation filled him anew: no one would get away with killing embryos on his watch, for he would track down the sinners and bring them to justice in Christ’s name. But it needed to happen before the state legislature mowed down the department, along with his job.…
There was a knock at the door. Banks.
“Come in,” Dopp called.
Banks walked in, dejected. “She passed.”
“No!” Dopp rose furiously. “How?”
“She said she read the paper this morning. I guess she could have had time to straighten things out before I got there, but we’ll never know. I went as early as I could.”
Dopp clenched his teeth, sending a sharp pain through his jaw. “Can you believe this?”
Banks shook his head. “In all of our years, I never … Do you have any idea who?”
“No. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“What now?”
“Well, for a start, I’m going to check out all the labs in the East Village myself. I know for a fact Arianna Drake isn’t going to a doctor there, like she told Trent.”
“How do you know?”
“I researched MS specialists in Manhattan. Since she’s a doctor herself, I know she would only go to the best. Funny enough, all the top-rated people practice at big-name hospitals like Mount Sinai, New York Presbyterian, Saint Luke’s. Nowhere near the East Village. You’d think that Trent, as a former reporter, would be able to figure that out. But no, he’s a gullible fool, I’m sorry to say.”
Banks clucked his tongue. “He’s just inexperienced and idealistic. Some young people tend to believe that true evil isn’t possible in the world. I used to think so myself.”
“If it weren’t, our department wouldn’t need to exist.”
“I know that. But maybe you should give Trent the benefit of the doubt. He hasn’t seen what we’ve seen. After all, he’s been a loyal employee for three years and he’s the only one of us in direct contact with her. She could still open up to him. Who knows?” Banks gave a close-lipped smile.
Dopp frowned. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, if we were going to catch her in error, it would have been today. Now she’s wise to us. She’ll be prepared. And Trent’s been trying to get her to talk, but he’s stymied by the Devil’s force in her. She’s a master manipulator, and he’s never been up against anything like that, so he needs us, and we need him.”
“Go on.”
“If we put more pressure on her and really intimidate her, she’ll want to confess all her worries to someone. Like good cop, bad cop. And who will be right there listening, playing to her fears, and encouraging her to spill her guts?”
Dopp nodded, fingering the cross pin on his lapel that mirrored Bank’s. “I like the way you think.”
* * *
“I’m quitting,” Patrick said.
No, Arianna thought, not again. The faces around her in the basement looked as appalled as she felt.
“What did you just say?” Sam asked Patrick, who hugged his arms close to his chest and looked away.
Arianna’s foot twitched, egging on her urge to jump out of her folding chair and kick it to the ground. But her legs would not cooperate.
Gavin and Emily Ericson flanked either side of Arianna in the group’s tiny circle, per the emergency Tuesday night meeting. All of them were gaping at Patrick.
“How do you dare,” Dr. Ericson spat. “After everything we’ve done!”
Emily put a hand on Arianna’s knee and said nothing, looking supremely disappointed.
“I have to quit,” Patrick said. He rocked slightly back and forth on his chair. “I’m sorry, Arianna, I really am. This was a very hard decision.”
“Just because of the crackdown? We got around the inspection, Patrick! They’re not going to catch us. The worst part is just that we’re losing time, so we
