by Alex Kava
“Make it soon, Ben. We both know how quickly this virus moves.”
The click that followed sounded like a trigger hitting on an empty chamber, abrupt and hollow.
Platt felt paralyzed.
There was another case. As far away as Chicago. Had he sent other packages with microscopic bits of Ebola, preserved and sealed in Ziploc plastic bags waiting to be opened? This was bigger than any of them had imagined. No way Janklow could make it all disappear.
Then Platt remembered something. Something Janklow said McCathy had told him about the virus. That it would take as little as a microscopic piece, preserved, sealed and delivered, perhaps even through the mail, to start an epidemic. That was before Maggie handed over the mailing package. Before they knew how the virus was delivered to the Kellerman house. Did McCathy know that’s how it was delivered? Or was it a lucky guess?
CHAPTER
62
Artie tried to think of someone to share the news with. Someone who would appreciate the brilliance of his puzzle-solving skills. He’d been able to answer a question that cold-case sleuths and law-enforcement officials across the States hadn’t been able to figure out for twenty-five years. It was as big as unveiling Ted Kaczynski as the Unabomber.
Almost as if his wish was being granted, he heard a door close. Not a slam. Just a soft tap.
It was probably nothing. Could have been his imagination. No one was around down here on the weekends.
He started flipping through his pages again, jotting down notes in the margins of his notebook.
Footsteps down the hall. He was certain.
Crap!
He stood frozen in place, eyes darting around him. The light switch. He needed to flip the fucking light switch.
Too late.
The footsteps were closing in. Right outside the door now.
He twisted around, looking for something to use as a weapon, and grabbed the closest thing he could find. A syringe. He pulled off the plastic needle guard just as he heard a key card slide into the door’s security lock.
“What the hell are you doing here tonight?”
Artie let out a sigh of relief that almost included, speak of the devil. “You scared the crap out of me,” he said instead.
“Don’t you realize you can see the light on underneath this door from the hallway?”
“Nobody’s around,” Artie defended himself. “It was your idea that I use the lab on the weekend.”
“I thought you were supposed to make the delivery yesterday.”
“I did,” Artie said, slipping the syringe into his pocket and trying to nonchalantly stack his paperbacks onto the incriminating pages of his notebook and the articles beneath it. “I went to Connecticut yesterday. Mailed them from there.”
“Them?”
Damn! This probably wasn’t the time to reveal his contribution.
“I meant the package. I mailed it yesterday.”
“So what are you doing here tonight?” His eyes darted around the countertops.
“I was just dropping off some stuff. You know, the DNA samples that I collect.”
Artie watched him look around the room and settle on the paperback of the Unabomber. He picked it up.
“How many times do I have to tell you not to carry these around in your backpack?”
He tossed it onto Artie’s pile and the books and articles shifted. Artie watched his eyes and held his breath, but he knew he was seeing exactly what Artie didn’t want him to see. He pulled one of the Tylenol articles out of the stack.
“What are you doing?”
“Just researching?”
He didn’t buy it. Artie needed to think fast. Then suddenly he relaxed. What was he worried about? They were the same. Artie knew that. Not just teacher and student. Kindred spirits.
“I figured it out,” Artie told him.
He didn’t respond. Just cocked an eyebrow and waited for Artie to explain.
“You’re brilliant,” Artie said, and he meant it. “The Tylenol murders. That was you. They always wondered if someone had done seven random murders just to cover up the one they really wanted to get away with.”
Still no response. Artie took that as a good sign.
He continued, “And by planting seven bottles in the Chicago area everyone believed your real target, which was in Terre Haute, had to be, like, some kind of fluke.”
There was no smile, but Artie reminded himself that he wasn’t really a smiler. That he no longer looked angry was good. He was rubbing a hand over his jaw, but waiting and listening.
“That’s what you’re doing now, too. Right? Mailing out a bunch of random packages with the virus so it looks like the work of some homegrown terrorist. All the while you have one target in mind. Right?” He glanced at his notebook, still opened to the list. “So who is it? Who’s the real target?”
“You think you’re pretty smart,” he told Artie. “But there’re all real targets. I’m taking care of every son of a bitch who’s screwed me over the years.”
Then he did something Artie should have known was a ruse. He smiled. “How did you figure out the Tylenol thing? I mean with Indiana? Something in here?”
He pointed to the stack and Artie grinned. He bent over and started to sort through the mess. He didn’t even see the microscope come crashing down onto his head.
Artie fit perfectly right on top of the dead monkey. He was unconscious when the freezer lid slammed shut and the padlock clicked back into place.
CHAPTER
63
The Slammer
Maggie dreamed of burnt flesh wrapped in plastic. She could even smell it. Her viewpoint was that of a child’s, eyes at waist level to the crowd of adults that she pushed and shoved her way through. The feel of linen fabric and metal buttons brushed her cheeks as she squeezed through two men in navy-blue suits and black shiny shoes.
Finally she reached her destination, a coffin at the front of the room. It towered above her, a polished mahogany casket set up high on a gold altar. There were flowers surrounding it, but their faint scent couldn’t mask the odor of ashes. Ashes and burnt flesh.
“You are dust and unto dust you shall return.” She could hear a voice whisper. “Ashes to ashes.” But she couldn’t see anyone.
She already knew what she’d see when she looked over the smooth edge of the coffin, past the satin bedding. The dream was a familiar one, a replay of the actual event. She was twelve years old all over again, going through her father’s funeral, step by step, all over again.
By now her mind accepted the images, not skipping a single frame, lingering over details. She’d see her father dressed in a brown suit, his hands wrapped like a mummy and tucked down by his sides. She’d hear the crinkle of plastic under his clothes. She’d examine the burnt skin on his face, blistered and black despite the mortician’s best efforts to paint over it. The smell was so real each time that she would awaken nauseated, sometimes gagging and holding her stomach. She couldn’t stop it no matter how many times she tried, going as far as pinching herself in her dream, not feeling the sting and knowing that once the images began they would play through the entire reel.
She climbed the altar, twelve-year-old knees scraping against the polished wood and sweaty fingers gripping and pulling herself up to look over the edge. But this time it wasn’t her father lying inside. Instead, she saw Cunningham, eyes closed, hands folded over one another. He looked so peaceful, so content.
And then she saw movement.
At first just a flicker of cloth, a pucker beneath a shirt button. Then another and another until his entire body seemed to be boiling, maggots popping out of the seams, down through his sleeves, crawling on his hands, over his face, out of his mouth.
Maggie jolted awake. She swatted at her arms. Wiped at her face. Batted down her hair. She jumped out of the bed and threw back the bedcovers. She gasped to catch her breath. Her chest heaved and her heart pounded. She was on the verge of hyperventilating, trying to calm
herself, wrapping her arms tight around her body. Her skin was slick with sweat. She swallowed blood and realized she had bitten her lip.
A dream, she told herself. Just a stupid dream.
Still, she stumbled to the glass viewing wall. The monitors on the other side blinked green and red. Silent lines danced across computer screens, but there was no one there. She picked up the phone receiver, listened to the dial tone and stared at the contraption. There were no numbers, no keypad. Of course not. It was simply an intercom between the two rooms. She slapped the glass with the palm of her hand, resisting the urge to ball up a fist and pound.
She looked back at the other phone. Who could she call? She stayed paralyzed, leaning against the cool glass.
Other than Gwen there was no one.
Her choice, she reminded herself.
No. Somewhere along the road it had stopped being a choice.
She made her way to the small bathroom and peeled off the damp gown, exchanging it for another from the pile. She glanced at herself in the mirror. Her hair was tangled. Her skin pale and damp. Her eyes swollen. She looked like crap. She ran her fingers through her hair. Splashed cool water on her face, cupping handful after handful, waiting, hoping for it to revive her.
When she returned he was standing on the other side of the glass, watching for her. Concern in those intense brown eyes. It was as if he knew.
His eyes never left hers as she crossed the room. She picked up the receiver.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she lied.
“I don’t think so.” He tapped his own lip to remind her of her bloodied one. Then he pointed to the bed where the covers were twisted in a pile, half on the floor.
“Just a bad dream,” she told him, wiping at her lip.
“Fever?”
“I don’t think so.”
He waited, examining her, a doctor confined to using only his eyes.
“I need to see Assistant Director Cunningham.” Before he protested she added, “I just need to see him. He doesn’t even need to know I’m there.”
“Okay.”
He surprised her. She’d expected an argument.
“You can see him. And then I’m taking you home,” he said.
At first she didn’t think she heard him correctly.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m letting you out of the Slammer.”
She closed her eyes, leaned against the glass, hoped this wasn’t just another episode in her cruel dream.
“Understand there are conditions,” he said, his voice gentle in her ear.
She opened her eyes but stayed against the glass. It felt as if she was leaning into him, so close despite the thick wall of glass.
“We’ll still have to vaccinate you every day,” he continued. “The first sign, even the smallest symptom, and I’ll want you back in here. And you’ll need to be careful. No swapping body fluids…” He paused, and when she looked up at him he was smiling. “Not even a kiss.”
“You’re really cramping my style.”
“I figured as much.”
“Why?” she asked. “Why now?”
“Because it’s been over forty-eight hours. Your blood is showing no signs of the virus. You haven’t had any symptoms.” Then he hesitated as if he was still deciding whether to share more. He stood closer to the glass. “And because I think you’ll be safer away from here.”
CHAPTER
64
Reston, Virginia
Tully found Emma watching TV and eating leftover pizza on the sofa.
He opened his mouth to ask but she beat him to it. “On the counter. Only one slice of supreme left but there’s pepperoni.”
His daughter knew him too well. He grabbed a paper plate, filled it, sprinkled it down with hot peppers and plopped down beside her.
“It’s awfully late, sweet pea.”
“No school tomorrow. Fall break.”
“Right. I forgot.”
“What about you? Were you with Gwen?”
“No, at work.” He had spent the entire evening at Quantico, searching databases and looking for some connection to Cunningham and this killer. “What are we watching?”
“Nothing. Just filling dead air.”
They sat, quietly watching for a few minutes.
“I guess she’s pretty okay,” Emma said.
Tully thought she was referring to the actress on the TV show.
“She dresses a lot classier than Mom.”
He was exhausted. It took him a minute to realize the “she” was Gwen.
“Sometimes I think Mom still wants to be twentysomething instead of fortysomething.”
“I’m glad you think Gwen’s pretty okay,” he said.
“You and Mom were together a long time, weren’t you?”
More questions. Maybe the wedding had brought it on. Didn’t all kids have a fantasy that their divorced parents would someday reunite?
“We dated for quite a while before we got married.” He didn’t add that he didn’t want to marry Caroline until he was certain she wanted him, not either of his buddies. He didn’t like remembering that emotional battle. Sometimes the pawn. Sometimes the knight. Caroline had that effect on men. That ability to make them feel special one minute, worthless the next, and the whole time still competing for her attention.
“Long-distance, right?” Emma continued, bringing Tully back. “You were training at Quantico and she was in Chicago studying art?”
“Right.”
“How did you guys end up in Cleveland?”
“I grew up in Cleveland. You know that. Can I have a swallow of your Diet Coke?”
She handed it to him without a single eye-roll or a heavy sigh. Instead, her mind seemed focused on one subject.
“Where does Indiana come in?”
“Indiana?”
“Yeah. Didn’t they call you Indy when you went through training?”
Another reminder he didn’t like. Even after all these years.
“No, Indy was one of my roommates at Quantico. Actually, he was dating your mother first. That’s how I met her.”
She looked confused. “But what was your nickname?” Before he could respond, she answered her own question. “Oh, wait. You were J.B. Reggie was J.B. Jelly beans.”
Tully winced. “I hated the name Reggie. Being called J.B. actually gave me the idea to just use my real initials.”
“Your real initials?”
“Reginald James.”
“That’s not so bad,” she said then went quiet.
When he looked over, her face was crinkled in thought and she had her thumbnail inserted between her teeth. The biting and gnawing had stopped years ago but sometimes she still put it in her teeth out of nervous habit.
“Your mom told you about Indy?” Tully asked.
She shook her head.
“I found some letters she had stashed in that old desk down in the spare bedroom. I thought they were letters from you to Mom.”
“I can’t believe she kept them after all this time.” But in a way he wasn’t surprised. A few years ago Tully would have been hurt to learn Caroline had kept Indy’s letters. Now it didn’t sting, just a tug, nothing more.
“I’m sorry, Dad.” Emma sounded a bit shaken—not as if she was worried she’d be in trouble, so much as she couldn’t believe she had made such a mistake. “I really did think they were from you.”
“It’s okay, sweet pea. Those letters were from a long time ago.”
“Actually not that long ago.”
“Excuse me?”
“Well, most of the letters are from 1982, but then there’re three others. The most recent one was from July.”
“This year?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Congratulating her on getting married, again. But he didn’t sound like he meant it.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because he says something like, ‘Congratulations for choosing the wrong man, again.’
That’s kinda rude.” She rolled her eyes. “I should have known you’d never say anything like that.”
CHAPTER
65
USAMRIID
She should have prepared herself.
“He’s getting a treatment,” Platt told her as he led her through the cinder-block hallways.
Maggie had dressed back in her street clothes. It was amazing how something that simple could feel so good. She had to leave behind the purple-flowered jacket. It had been confiscated early on because of Mary Louise’s vomit. A splatter on her sleeve. The one thing that separated Maggie’s fate from Cunningham’s.
Funny how life was, Maggie thought. As an FBI agent she had come face-to-face with killers, been sliced on, shot at and left for dead in a freezer. But she never would have guessed that life or death could depend on her proximity to a little girl’s vomit.
“How is Mary Louise?” she asked Platt as they continued through the maze of hallways. She didn’t expect any details. He’d already made it clear none of the others’ conditions were something he would discuss.
“She’s good,” he said, glancing back at her. “So far.”
They came to the end of a hallway and he punched in a code then slid a key card through the designated slot. This time the hiss of the air-lock door didn’t make Maggie’s stomach plunge. Platt stopped with his hand on the door handle and looked back at Maggie again. She caught his apprehension.
“You’re not used to seeing him like this,” Platt warned her.
Maggie figured Platt was an Army colonel. It was part of his job to make things sound more dramatic, to take everything at its most serious level. He had to overcompensate especially in life-or-death matters.
She followed him into the viewing room and immediately noticed that all the monitors and equipment were humming, flashing, beeping a steady rhythm. She stayed away from the glass wall that separated this room from the small hospital room. She tried not to draw the attention of the two spacemen working inside the room. They were hanging IVs, double bags, one clear liquid, another possibly blood or plasma. Maggie couldn’t tell, either way, there were enough tubes to warrant something serious. And there was the equipment. Though she couldn’t hear the hiss or whirl or beeps, she saw one of the spacemen pushing buttons on machines and monitors and could see their correspondence to some of the computer screens in the dark outside room where she and Platt stood.