Cutting Edge

staff. Go through it with a fine-toothed comb. Anything odd, you know what to look for-flag it and follow up.” To Rachel she said, “Learn everything you can about Jonah Payne and Jim Butcher. We can’t rule out that Butcher-who has the most to lose because he isn’t a scientist-may be peripherally involved. Maybe someone wants to punish him by killing his meal ticket.”

“That doesn’t sound like anarchists,” Pete said.

“No, and anarchists don’t generally kill. But someone died yesterday.”

“Unless it isn’t connected.”

“A bit too coincidental to me,” Nora said. “There’s a reason why Dr. Payne’s body was brought back to the research lab. Maybe it was just to watch us run around trying to figure out the unexplainable, but that would have been thought out by the killer. I doubt it’s so immature a reason, but there’s got to be a reason. When we find it, we may just discover the killer.”

She glanced at her watch. Ten minutes had passed.

“Go,” Pete said. “Let me know what’s happening when you’re done.”

She thanked her team, said good-bye to Quin, and went directly to Dean Hooper’s office.

Duke Rogan shook Dean Hooper’s hand when he entered his office. “Good to see you again, Hooper.”

“Likewise. How’s Sean?”

“Good.” He refrained from saying anything about Sean at Rose College this week. Better that Hooper didn’t know. Plausible deniability, should Sean learn something important to the investigation.

“I appreciate you coming in,” Hooper said.

“I was coming in anyway. What’s going on?”

“I had a disturbing call from Quantico. Our key profiler went over the case and wanted to discuss it immediately.”

There was a knock on the door, and a moment later Nora entered. Duke wanted to talk to her alone-hell, he just wanted her alone-but she was all business as usual.

“You wanted to see me?” She caught Duke’s eye and for a second, Duke knew she was thinking about last night. Good. That would keep her on her toes. He winked at her and she diverted her eyes, a faint blush rising.

Damn, but that was sexy.

“Yes. Everything taken care of? I read your report,” Hooper said.

“ERT already left for Payne’s cabin.”

“I’m planning to talk to Leif Cole again today.” She put up her hand before Hooper could object. “I know he’s threatened us with lawsuits every time we say boo, but I honestly believe that he knows something. I don’t think he’s involved-” Her voice trailed off and Duke wondered what, exactly, she did think. “But he has to suspect someone. Though they operate independently, it’s not a huge group of people.”

“You’re not going to get someone like Cole to turn state’s evidence.”

“No, but I might be able to feel my way around the situation and see if I can prod him hard enough to give up something without realizing it. It’s worth a shot, because right now we have next to nothing-unless ERT picks up a fingerprint in Lake Tahoe that we can match,” she added with a hint of sarcasm, enough to make Duke think she didn’t believe it would happen.

“Good plan,” Hooper said. He hit the speakerphone button, then dialed. “Hans Vigo called this morning and wanted to talk to us about the last letter sent by the BLF arsonists. Since Rogan here has been consulting, I hope you don’t mind I asked him to join us.”

“No,” she said, clearing her throat. She glanced at Duke, and he smiled at her.

Hans Vigo picked up the phone himself.

“Hans, it’s Dean Hooper. I have Nora English and Duke Rogan here with me.”

“Thanks for getting back to me so quickly,” Vigo said.

“What’s going on?” Hooper asked.

“I’ve been analyzing the four letters BLF sent after each arson, and I think we need to revisit the references to Agent English’s past cases.”

Duke straightened. “I hadn’t heard about that.” He glanced at Nora, who looked ill.

Hooper passed over a photocopy of the set of letters to both Nora and Duke. “The last one is on top. The places it references are all cases that Nora worked as an undercover agent.”

Duke watched Nora read. The way Hooper spoke … “Are you suggesting that the killer knows Nora?”

“No,” Nora said automatically. Somehow Duke didn’t even think that she’d heard what he’d said.

Hooper said, “When Hans called I pulled the cases that Nora worked. Only two were on file in the system.”

Nora tapped the letter. “The first two listed here I was an informant, not an agent.”

Hans spoke through the phone. “Which makes me think that the person who wrote this letter knows a lot about you. Killers who reach out to the media want attention,” Hans said. “And I think that this killer wants your attention.”

Duke’s chest tightened and he shifted in his seat. He didn’t want Nora under the gun from any nutjob.

“My attention?” Nora said. “What the hell for? Anarchists like the group we’re dealing with want attention for their political cause. Not from the FBI or anyone in it.”

“Correct,” Hans said. “It’s why they spray-paint their message on buildings, publish their ‘manifesto’ of action, and escalate. The letters posted on the newspaper message board are their way of making sure that they put their spin on their crimes-before the public is even aware of the arson from the regular news media, the arsonists post their reasons for the crime. Corrupt companies, animal testing, gene manipulation, whatever their specific cause is.”

Duke didn’t like the direction this was going. He skimmed the first three letters while Dr. Vigo spoke, then read the fourth letter carefully. It had a different tone and focus.

Vigo continued. “The first three letters focus on the individual entity and their so-called crime. For Langlier, it was that they engaged in animal and genetic testing to develop their pharmaceutical products. For Sac State, it was genetic engineering in agriculture. For Nexum, it was using animal by-products for profit. But for Butcher-Payne? That letter mentions in passing the use of animals in genetic research, but the primary focus of the letter is the actions of law enforcement in resolved investigations. None of these listed cases are open.”

Hooper said, “The earlier cases where Agent English was an informant aren’t cases where there was any doubt. All parties were convicted on solid evidence. I reviewed them thoroughly.”

“All it tells us is that another person in the group wrote the letter.” Nora put the letter aside, but the way she kept looking at it had Duke concerned. Because Nora was worried, no matter what she said.

“Yes, you’re right,” Vigo said. “But why?”

“Maybe there’s a new person in the group,” Nora suggested.

“Possible,” Vigo responded skeptically.

Nora said, “Based on past cases, we know that there are usually three or four people involved in these types of groups. Maybe one of them dropped out. Maybe someone else wanted to take a stab at public relations.” She sounded sarcastic, a way to distance herself from the intensity of the situation.

“Nora, you can’t ignore this,” Duke said.

“Let’s assume-just for a minute-that the killer fixated on me as the person trying to stop him. He does a little research and-voila! — learns of my high-profile cases and is trying to distract me.”

“Possible,” Vigo said once again.

The idea of a killer targeting Nora terrified Duke. He had no problem with Nora being an FBI agent working dangerous cases; he had a huge problem with her being the focus of a psychopath. His specialty was personal security, and he wasn’t letting Nora English out of his sight.

“This last letter is personal,” said Vigo. “It focuses on the ‘corrupt’ government-a phrase often used by these people when talking about both politicians and federal law enforcement. I went through the files on all those cases, and there are no other common factors except Agent English.”

“And the types of investigations,” Hooper said, “were all domestic terrorism cases.”

“I’m hardly the only agent who works domestic terrorism,” Nora said.