Lethal Exposure

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Thursday, 8:49 p.m.

Fox RiverMedicalCenter

After he received the fax from the Oakland Bureau office, Craig knew the next part was a job for Paige Mitchell and no one else. He found her in the hospital halls. She had been looking for him.

“Paige, you’re the people person, the Protocol Officer,” he said, gripping the curling fax in his hand. “You talk well to strangers. You know how to make people feel at ease even in difficult situations.”

She smiled and crossed her arms over her cream cable-knit sweater. The loose sweater hung long over her hips, complimenting dark brown slacks. “Keep on like that, Craig, and you’re going to make my head swell.”

Craig didn’t joke with her as he held out the list of names and addresses. “I need you to do some calling for me. Time to break the bad news and bring in the cavalry, for what it’s worth.”

Paige squinted down at the names, then looked up at him with her blue eyes. “What is this?”

“Georg Dumenco’s family. Their names were changed, everything kept classified. He wants to see them one last time.”

Paige studied the addresses. “They’re right here in the Midwest,” she said. “And Dumenco kept them secret?”

Craig shook his head. “The U.S. Marshal kept them secret. Dumenco didn’t know where they lived-he’s only seen them once a year since he fled to this country. Dumenco wanted it that way, for their own protection.”

Paige’s eyes widened. “You mean they’ve all been here within a day’s drive of Fermilab, and they never saw him, never got in touch?”

“Only once a year, under U.S. Marshal supervision, on carefully prearranged visits.”

“But putting the family up so close to him and yet blocked away, they must have known everything he was doing. Dumenco was in the paper often enough, at least in the technical journals. His wife could have tracked him down without much trouble.”

“Unless she was afraid. Unless he had told them not to.”

Paige shook her head. “I can’t decide if that was a kindness or a cruelty on Dumenco’s part.”

Craig sighed. “I won’t debate the matter with you, but it’s time for one last kindness. I’ve insisted on it.” He nudged the paper in Paige’s hand. “I want you to get in touch with them and bring them here. Now. Tonight. The FBI will provide the transportation, Code Red.” He looked down the long halls of hospital rooms. “Time for a final family reunion.”

At the nurse’s station several women and one man looked at computer screens, drank coffee, and gossiped with each other. Overhead, Craig saw one of the fluorescent light bulbs flickering, trying to throw out just a few more photons before it finally gave up the ghost… like Dumenco would, sometime soon.

Craig watched Paige’s expression grow serious. She swallowed hard and then nodded. Her eyes were misty. “Of course, Craig, I’ll do it. It’s the least I can do.”

She went immediately over to a pay phone by the waiting room, picked up the receiver, and began dialing.