The Serpent's Kiss

40

Agent Matt Gray was back in his office on the 26^th floor of the Patrick McNamara Federal Office Building on Michigan Avenue. He had changed out of his bloody shirt, but kept the Army boots on. He paced back and forth in front of the window overlooking downtown Detroit, the river and Windsor, Ontario beyond.

Two other agents sat at a round conference table, watching him. Gray said, “What’s the lab say about the phone?”

Agent Simona Toreanno said, “No fingerprints, but they’re otherwise working on it.”

Gray stopped his pacing and looked at his two top agents. “I would like to know why Frank McMillan would be behind these attacks. Ideas?”

Simona Toreanno’s face grew red. “It was a set-up. There’s no way Frank was The Serpent.”

Gray skewered her with his flat gaze. “Then how do you explain him having the phone in his duffel bag?”

“The Serpent put it there,” she said.

Gray jabbed at her with his index finger. “Right! Sure, Toreanno. The Serpent slipped into the area with the highest concentration of cops and agents looking for him, snuck inside the biocontainment tent and dropped it in Frank’s duffel bag. Why? Why take the risk?”

“He would know we would track the call,” she said. “So he knew it would cause problems. I doubt he could have predicted just how many problems. But we are running around chasing our tails instead of chasing him.”

“That’s bullshit.” Gray went back to his pacing. “This is a PR nightmare. A mass murderer in the middle of the Bureau. On my watch! I was much happier believing Stillwater was behind this.”

“He might be,” Roger Kandling said.

Gray turned to look at him. For the benefit of Agent Toreanno, he kept the look of pleased expectation off his face. “How so?”

Kandling, as if walking through a mine field, carefully said, “Stillwater had easy access in and out of the tent. The credentials to move among us. He was even in the MCC with you.” Kandling paused. “Sir, if I may suggest…”

“Go on,” Gray urged.

Toreanno watched Kandling intently.

“If Frank McMillan was actually this guy, The Serpent, he would know we were going to triangulate on the cell signal once we got the TV producer’s cell phone.”

“Which we probably should have confiscated immediately after she let us know about the call,” Toreanno said. She said it carefully as well, not wanting to suggest that Matt Gray had screwed up, though that’s what she thought. Gray hadn’t even demanded her phone. He had said Mary Linzey would never give it to them because of 1^st Amendment considerations. At the very least, Toreanno thought, if he hadn’t wanted to battle WXYZ’s lawyers, he should have demanded that an agent stay with her in case The Serpent try to call her again. It was only one of several major oversights that had occurred under Gray’s command. Toreanno felt that Gray was now busy trying to cover his ass and point the blame, rather than figure out what had really happened. And Gray was acting as if this entire deal was over. The Serpent had made a ransom demand, it hadn’t been paid, he’d killed people, and now he was done.

Agent Toreanno didn’t think The Serpent was done. She had told the lab people herself to keep that cell phone on and wait for the next call. To be prepared to track the incoming call.

Gray fixed his gaze on Toreanno, shifting to Kandling, then back to her. His eyes narrowed. “You’re saying that Frank wouldn’t have left that phone on if he were The Serpent.”

“Exactly,” said Kandling.

“So Stillwater could have put it in McMillan’s duffel bag and left it on, knowing it would be tracked and it would make McMillan and the Bureau look bad.”

“Exactly,” said Kandling again.

“Give me a break,” said Toreanno.

Gray spun on her. “You were just saying that the cell phone wasn’t Frank’s, that he couldn’t possibly be The Serpent. Now you’re changing your mind?”

“No,” she said. “I buy the scenario, just not that Derek Stillwater is The Serpent.”

Gray ticked off on his fingers. “One, Derek Stillwater is an expert in chemical warfare and terrorism. He has the expertise to set these sarin gas bombs. Two—”

”He was in Baltimore at the time of the first attack at the Boulevard Café,” Toreanno said.

“It was set off by phone. That cell phone. Which Stillwater could easily have—”

”This is bullshit!” Toreanno burst out. “You’ve got some sort of personal vendetta against this guy. It’s clouding your judgement, which hasn’t been…” She trailed off.

“What?” Gray growled.

“Nothing, sir. I’m sorry. Derek Stillwater may work outside strict investigative procedures, but that’s his job, sir. He’s supposed to observe outside the chain of command and make suggestions. I agree that the Department of Homeland Security is an unorganized mess, but this notion of placing experts in specific types of terrorist situations to advise and suggest alternative avenues of response is a good one. If you really believe Stillwater set the bomb off from Baltimore using that phone it’s a simple matter to track which Baltimore cell it was called from — right before an entire Bureau team flew in and picked him up.”

He stared at her for a long moment. Then he said, “Agent Toreanno, I believe we’re through here. I suggest you go back over to the MCC and coordinate with Agent Cortez.”

She stood up. “Sir, for the record, I don’t believe The Serpent is done. If the schedule continues, he’ll strike again at 4:00. And he may very well contact us with a ransom demand or warning an hour or an hour-and-a-half before then. We should be ready for that possibility.”

“Thank you, Agent Toreanno. That’s all.”

Toreanno blinked, then turned and walked out of Gray’s office.

Kandling said, “I think she’s right.”

Gray waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “All the more reason to lock Derek Stillwater up. Have you heard from Jill Church?”

Kandling hesitated.

Gray wheeled on him. “Have you?”

“It seems,” he said slowly, “that Derek Stillwater found Rebecca Harrington murdered in her home in Ferndale. Last I heard, Jill was at the murder scene.”

Gray looked puzzled. “Who the fuck is Rebecca Harrington?”

“It’s in the update,” Kandling said, pointing to a file on Gray’s desk. “She’s the ex-wife of Dr. William Harrington.”

Gray still had a blank expression on his face. “Who is?”

Kandling took even longer to answer. “There were nine people at the Boulevard Café this morning, sitting right at ‘ground zero,’ right on top of the gas canisters. They were regulars. Every Thursday morning at 8:00. Usually there were ten of them, the tenth being Rebecca Harrington.”

“There were over fifty people there. What makes them so special?”

“It’s all in the update,” Kandling said evenly. “But I’ll recap. One of them, John Simmons, was a professor at Wayne State University, the Assistant Director of the Center for Biological and Chemical Terrorism Research.”

Before he could continue, Gray waved him off. “It sounds like a smokescreen. Why kill fifty people when you want to kill just one.”

“Or nine,” Kandling said. “Maybe that was just convenient. Why blow up the entire Oklahoma City Federal Building when you just wanted to hurt the FBI?”

Gray frowned, turned back to pacing in front of the window. After a moment, he said, “I want you to provide a press statement.”

“Me, sir?”

“Yes, you,” Gray said, back to Kandling. “It will say that our investigation is ongoing, that Agent Frank McMillan had in his possession the cellular phone that made the original call from The Serpent. We have no reason to suspect Agent McMillan was The Serpent, and that we are leaving the investigation open, including looking at a number of potential suspects, including Derek Stillwater, with the Department of Homeland Security. Got that? Be vague, diffuse some of the—”

”The press isn’t going to let me get away with that, sir. And shouldn’t this come from you or Sheridan?”

“I want it to come from an agent.”

Kandling said nothing for a long time. So long that it caught Gray’s attention and he turned to look at Kandling. “Do you have a problem with that, Agent Kandling?”

“Yes sir, I do.”

“Are you being insubordinate?”

Kandling shook his head. “I don’t mean to be, sir. But I think you — if I may be candid, sir — I think you need to back off Derek Stillwater and try to figure out who the hell The Serpent really is. I agree with Simona. The Serpent’s not finished yet and we’re running out of time. This lead with William Harrington and Rebecca Harr—”

”Fine,” Gray snapped. “In your statement, include that along with Stillwater, we are looking at one or more Wayne State faculty members who may have the motive, means and opportunity to commit these crimes. That way we’ve covered our asses sufficiently. That work for you?”

“I would be happier if Tabitha Sheridan did it. She’s the media rep.”

“I want you to do it, Kandling. Understand? You. Consider it an order.”

Kandling nodded, slowly rising to his feet. “Yes, sir.”