The Serpent's Kiss

75

Matt Gray was on the phone in his office when Simona Toreanno was ushered in. He held up a hand and pointed to a chair. Then he spun sideways to her, displaying his profile. “Yes. Yes,” he said into the phone. “I understand. No, I think we got lucky on this one. No.”

He listened for some time, nodding his head. Then, “Yes, sir, I understand. No, they are no longer involved. I personally saw to it that Agent Church was suspended pending a hearing. After Harrington’s body was found at the casino, Stillwater disappeared. No, sir, they’re still here. It’s taking some time to get the three scenes and the car fit for analysis and re-use. The HMRU will be here for at least another twenty-four hours.”

Simona Toreanno sat patiently, listening. Matt Gray was clearly convinced the entire situation was over, The Serpent dead. It was a convenient ending. You wrote up your reports and moved on. No prosecution attempts, no bail hearings, or un-ending follow-up investigation, nothing.

But, if everything she, Jill and Stillwater thought was correct, The Serpent had played them for fools, using his knowledge of their procedures and expectations to manipulate the Bureau, the cops, and the entire public health sector.

She studied Matt for a moment, then let her gaze wander around the office. A photograph of the President. An American flag. A photograph of Ground Zero in New York City.

Then an abrupt shift from the trapping of the office to the trappings of political success. Matt shaking hands with the President. Shaking hands with the Attorney General. Shaking hands with the Director of the Bureau. Shaking hands with the Mayor of Detroit.

Other photographs from earlier in his career, standing with a gun at Waco. Not a big plus on his career calendar, she thought, but who knew? Maybe Matt was proud of that debacle.

And there on his desk were photographs of his wife and kids. Pretty wife. Three kids.

The man was a pig, she thought. Jill wasn’t the only one to have fallen briefly for his charms. He was good-looking, attentive, successful. When he first took over the Detroit office, his wife and children had stayed behind in Miami and Matt had let everybody think they were separated, the divorce imminent. He had swept through the female ranks of the local office like the plague. Jill had been caught in a career snafu around the time Matt’s wife and family moved to town and heard rumors about their affair. Matt tried to lay it all off on Jill, spreading rumors that she was a slut, that she slept with all of the men in the building, let alone the Bureau. She had fought back with the weapon at hand — the truth. It had gotten ugly before Matt solved it with apologies and a forced questionable promotion for Jill that resulted in Jill becoming mostly administrative rather than operative.

Some agents would have appreciated the administrative duties. But Simona knew that to Jill, it had been a demotion. So did Matt. He could claim she was being groomed for command, that she needed administrative experience, but what she was being groomed for was a low-level paper-pushing position. Filing reports and compiling statistics, not solving crimes or chasing bad guys. Everybody knew it. Moral of the story: don’t have an affair with your married boss.

“Yes,” Gray said. “Thank you, sir. I’ll keep you updated.” Gray hung up the phone and swung back toward Simona Torreano. “That was Director McCully. He’s quite pleased with how this ended.”

“I’m not sure that isn’t a little premature,” Simona said. “I was over at the Medical Examiner’s Office.”

Gray steepled his fingers. “Why?”

“Somebody needed to be.”

“You were supposed to be tracking down the members of the Working Group.”

“I did. Then I called the office. I—”

”Fine,” Gray said with a wave of his hand. “So what? It is William Harrington, right?”

“Yes. That seems to be confirmed. But the—”

”Sarin gas?”

“Yes, I think so. Look, Matt, we received a call from The Serpent around 2:40.”

“Well, actually, that reporter for NPR, Ball, he received the call. But yes, I think that was the right time.”

“And we found him around what? 5:30 or so?”

“Earlier than that, actually. Pretty close to 5:00.”

“Okay,” Simona said. She took a photocopy of a partial report that she had insisted Dr. Vijay Rajanikant provide, and placed it in front of Matt.

“What’s this?” He picked it up.

“Read it.”

He scanned the sheet, then pushed it aside. “How sure is he of this?”

“He seemed pretty sure. As sure as he’s likely to be.”

“As you know, time of death isn’t precise.”

“No, but there’s a difference between eight to ten hours and two-and-a-half hours, Matt.”

Gray shrugged. “There’s great variability, as you know. And perhaps he couldn’t take into account the temperature, and conditions in the car and the parking garage. It was pretty cold in there. And for all we know, the air conditioning was on in that car.”

Simona stared at him. “That’s nonsense, and you know it.”

“I don’t know it, Agent Toreanno,” Gray snapped. “I don’t know it at all. The third attack did not happen. Understand me? It did not happen. And further more, our prime suspect for the attacks was discovered dead from sarin gas at the scene of where the third attack was to occur. Which part of one plus one adds up to three for you?”

“The time of death of the body.”

“There’s no evidence besides that, and it’s notoriously unreliable. For all we know, sarin affects the body temperature in peculiar ways.”

“You don’t think Dr. Rajanikant would have known that? Or Dr. Stillwater?”

She knew she’d blown it even as she said it. Matt narrowed his eyes. “Excuse me? What did you say?”

“I’m sorry. That was a slip. Nothing.”

“No,” Gray said, getting to his feet. “You mentioned Dr. Stillwater. What does he have to do with this?”

“Nothing, sir.”

Gray came around his desk. There was something about his posture and the aggressive nature of his movements that suggested he was stalking her. “I’m going to ask you a direct question, Agent Toreanno. It’s verifiable. One phone call to the M.E.’s Office and I’ll know. Think about that when you answer.”

She stared at him, feeling trapped.

Gray said, “Was Derek Stillwater at the M.E.’s Office?”

She hesitated before answering. “Yes.”

Gray glared at her. “In what capacity?”

“Sir?”

“Why was he there?”

“I think it was his job. He wanted to confirm the time of death.”

“Why?”

Jill sat up straighter. “I imagine because he thought Harrington’s death was rather convenient.”

“Yes, lucky for us he killed himself before he killed a couple hundred more people. Did Stillwater influence Doc… the M.E.’s decision?”

“No.”

Gray moved closer, looming over her. “Are you sure? Did Derek Stillwater in any way affect the M.E.’s decision?”

“No.” Firmly.

Gray turned and walked back behind his desk. He stared out at the city below him, the lights of the city and the traffic a moving mosaic of illumination against the early evening darkness. Voice low, Gray said, “Was Jill Church there as well?”

When she didn’t answer, Gray turned. “I expect an answer. Was Jill Church at the Medical Examiner’s Office with Derek Stillwater?”

Simona swallowed. “Matt, you have to take this seriously. This guy—”

”Stillwater?”

“What?”

“This guy, Derek Stillwater?”

“No! This guy, The Serpent. He’s been playing games with us all day long. He’s basing these attacks on these written scenarios—”

”Yes, I’ve had a chance to read the one it was all based on. Very interesting. And it ended with the attack on the casino at 4:00, which we know didn’t happen.”

“But he would know we would have found that out by now. Why else would he have booby-trapped Harrington’s office and his house? How—”

Matt rapped his fist on his desk. “Agent Toreanno, enough. You’ve given your report. Thank you. Go back to your office and write it up. And I want a written report on exactly what happened at the Medical Examiner’s Office, including the presence of Jill Church. With an accurate time line.”

Toreanno slowly stood up. “You’ve got to take this seriously. You’ve got to realize he might be planning an attack somewhere for eight o’clock tonight. We can’t stand down now.”

Gray turned to his computer and began tapping keys. “You’re dismissed.”

Feeling rising hysteria in her voice, Toreanno said, “Matt, you’re being a fool.”

He turned to her. “What was that?”

“Stop being a jackass! You’re assuming the best. You need to assume the worst! What will happen to your precious career if The Serpent’s still alive and he kills again and you shut the op down?”

Gray’s voice was flat. “Dismissed. And consider yourself warned, Agent Toreanno. Another outburst like that one and you will be looking for work with Jill Church.”

She started to respond, considered better, and spun on her heel, leaving his office. She clenched and unclenched her fists, frightened, truly frightened that she had two choices and neither was good. She could go to her office, file her reports and go home and pray that William Harrington had really been The Serpent and it was all over. Or she could ignore orders, commit insubordination and no matter what the outcome, quite possibly lose her job, her career and her pension.

It was no choice, really. She had to coordinate with Jill and Stillwater.

Simona was heading for the elevator when Roger Kandling appeared. “Simona!”

She turned, impatient. “What?”

“I need to talk to you for a moment. Come on.”

Puzzled, she followed Roger Kandling. She and Roger were at the same level in the Bureau, competitors, in a way. Kandling was pretty much Matt Gray’s protégé, being groomed for the SAC job, should Matt move on. He was a good agent, political, ambitious, smart. In her opinion he was too by-the-book, lacking creative initiative, but in the Bureau that could be the way to get ahead, too.

He led her through the office and to an interrogation room.

“What’s in here?” she asked.

“I need to talk to you in private. It’s important.”

With a shrug, she stepped into the interrogation room, basically just an office with a table and chairs, no windows, no decorations. She stepped in, then spun as the door shut behind her. She reached for the knob, but it was locked. “Hey! Let me out!”

After a moment, Roger Kandling’s voice came over the intercom. “This is by direct orders of Matt, Simona. I’m sorry. He feels it’s for your own good. He knew you were going to go off on your own and he doesn’t want you to get in trouble. Just relax and—”

Simona didn’t pay attention to the rest. She couldn’t believe this was happening. But maybe she could. Matt Gray wasn’t a dummy. He’d likely know that she would pursue what she felt was the correct avenue.

Instead of screaming and shouting, she took out her cell phone and dialed Jill Church’s number.