The Serpent's Kiss

31

Jill was frantically trying to decide how to respond to the fact that Derek had been arrested in Birmingham when the local police showed up. She figured Derek would just have to sit tight until she got her own mess straightened out. The detective who approached her from the Ferndale Police Department studied Jill’s identification closely before turning to frown at Michael. “Who’s this?”

“My son. Michael Church. Before you ask—”

”You bring your son along on investigations?”

Damn, Jill thought. He asked before I could explain. “It’s a little complicated.”

“I just bet it is.”

Jill took a deep breath. Detective Wayne Bezinski was short, balding and slight. He wore wire-rimmed glasses that magnified his blue eyes. Dressed casually in khaki slacks, a dress shirt and a windbreaker, he nonetheless carried himself with confidence. Bezinski was accompanied by another detective, a woman. She was broad, probably in her forties, with steel-gray hair she wore to her shoulders. She wore a dark pantsuit with no-nonsense rubber-soled shoes. She kept very quiet and stood aside, keeping an eye on Michael.

“Detective,” she said. “Take one more look at my identification and then stop interrupting me.”

Bezinski tapped his finger on her I.D. folder. “Fine, Ms.—”

”That’s Agent Church. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Are we clear on that?”

Bezinski frowned, then handed back her identification. “We’ve got a body upstairs?”

“Yes. I’ve also called in a Bureau evidence specialist from downtown.”

“What’s this all about? Murders aren’t your jurisdiction.”

“This is related to the sarin gas attacks in Detroit.”

Bezinski’s eyes widened. Then he shifted his gaze to Michael, who was standing nervously next to his car. Bezinski’s expression shifted and his eyes narrowed. He turned back to Jill. “Why’s he here?”

“Someone else needed my car, so I called Michael to come get me and I planned to use his car. On the way back to Troy I received a call about the body here.” She gestured at Rebecca Harrington’s house.

“Uh-huh,” Bezinski said. “Okay. Kind of inconvenient. Who called you about the body here?”

She hesitated. “An agent with the Department of Homeland Security.”

Bezinski looked up from his notepad. His expression became even more inscrutable than before. “His name?”

“Derek Stillwater.”

Something flickered in Bezinski’s face. “And your relationship with Derek Stillwater?” His pen was poised over the notepad.

“I’m acting as the FBI liaison with the Department of Homeland Security. Agent Stillwater is a specialist in biological and chemical warfare. He flew in with the Bureau’s Hazardous Materials Response Unit.”

Bezinski’s left eyebrow raised just a fraction of an inch. “What time was this?”

“What?”

Bezinski focused on her. “What time did Agent Stillwater fly into town with the Bureau people?”

This question caught her more than a little off guard. “Why?”

“Why what?” Bezinski countered.

“Why do you want to know?”

“Just tell me, please.”

“Right around nine o’clock.”

Bezinski wrote that down and looked up at her. “You’re sure of that?”

“Yes. I was waiting at the helicopter pad at Henry Ford Hospital when they arrived.”

“Where did they come from?”

“They?”

“The Hazardous… What was it again?”

“HMRU,” she said. “They’re out of Quantico, Virginia.”

“And Stillwater?”

“Baltimore, Maryland.”

Bezinski’s eyebrow rose again. “What time was the attack at that restaurant?”

Jill put her hands on her hips. “What is this all about?”

Bezinski met her gaze. “Clearing something up in my mind, Agent Church. And it seems to me that a few facts that I can verify would help.”

“It was at 8:00. Almost exactly 8:00.”

“Stillwater and the HMRU made it from Virginia and Maryland to Michigan in an hour?”

“The HMRU has a one-hour response time. They were called immediately.”

“Is there any chance whatsoever that Derek Stillwater was here in Detroit at 8:00 this morning?”

“No.”

Bezinski nodded. “Agent Church, I’m not entirely certain what’s going on here, but all local law enforcement agencies have been notified to be on the lookout for Derek Stillwater. He has been classified as a ‘person of interest,’ whatever the hell that means, and it was hinted that he might be behind these attacks.”

Jill stared. “What?!”

“You heard me. But the time frame doesn’t seem to work right. Of course, perhaps he set it up earlier and triggered it from a remote location.”

“Where is this coming from?”

“Your office.”

“The FBI?”

Bezinski nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

Well, thought Jill. That explained the Birmingham cops. And it smelled like something Matt Gray might be behind. “I believe Stillwater’s in custody in Birmingham,” she said.

“I see. How do you—”

”He just called me only a few minutes ago. And I can assure you, Detective, that I was with Agent Stillwater at the time of the second attack. He’s not responsible for it. Now, the woman here, however, is directly involved. In fact, her ex-husband is our prime suspect. She was supposed to be at the site of the first attack today. And in her ex-husband’s office at Wayne State University we found evidence that causes us to believe he’s the prime suspect — not Derek Stillwater — in these attacks. The office was also booby-trapped.”

“That explains the eyebrows,” Bezinski said.

“What?”

Bezinski ran a finger over his own eyebrows and then pointed to her. She ran her fingers over her own eyebrows. They felt short and spiky. Like they’d been fried. “I didn’t even notice,” she said.

“So there was an explosion?”

She nodded.

“Two mass killings, an explosion and now a corpse.” Belinski glanced over at Michael. “This just isn’t your day, is it?”

“No.”

“Let’s go in and look at our scene. You have a warrant?”

“No.”

He studied her. “Probable cause?”

“A tip.”

“From?”

“Stillwater.”

“He have a warrant?”

“You’d have to ask him,” she said.

Bezinski eyed her, then sighed. “Shit. Let’s go in. Tell you what, Agent Church. I was having a much better day myself before you showed up. Son,” he said to Michael. “Stay right here with Detective Standish. She’ll have some questions to ask you. That okay with you, Agent Church?”

Jill nodded, giving Michael a significant look.

“Fine,” Bezinski said. “Let’s get down to business.”