Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Gary sat at his desk, reading through the notes he’d taken during their conversation with Tyler. “Why is it every time we talk to someone, yet another coincidence pops up?”
“I was thinking the same thing.” Dan gestured to the sheet he’d been writing on.
“I don’t like this. Tyler calls Robert Martin, but instead he gets Samantha Phillips.
Who then disappears that same day, which is also the day after Jonathon Wilmer is killed.
Then she ends up dead. Which leads me in one obvious direction.
” Dan stared at him. “What if all these events are linked?”
“Which would imply there is a link to Leo’s death too.”
Dan nodded. “And something else. Professor Martin. Is he involved in all this somehow? What do we know about him? Apart from the fact that he’s a genius. He’d have to be to come up with the idea of staining the bases of DNA.”
“Let’s take a look.” Gary tapped on his keyboard. He clicked on several pages, cutting and pasting snippets of information as he did so. Across from him, Dan was typing too. “What are you doing?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute.”
Gary went back to his task. “I’m beginning to think this is another dead end,” he said after fifteen minutes.
“What have you found?”
Gary rested his arms on the desk and read from his notes. “Born in 1958. Went to university and majored in chemistry, then went to medical school. That was 1979 to 1983. When he graduated from medical school, he married Michelle Nolan. They’re still married.”
“So she’s the woman in the photo on his desk? She’s beautiful.”
“Their first child was born in 1984, a daughter, Katherine, about a year after he started his residency. In 1987 they had another daughter, Sharon. Dr. Martin finished his residency in 1988, then went back to school to complete a doctoral program. Their son, Dale, was born in 1989. And in 1998 Professor Martin went to work for the CDC. Joined Harvard Medical School in 2008.” Gary leaned back.
“That’s it?”
He nodded. “No hint that he’s gay. No skeletons in the closet. No scandals. In fact, just the opposite. He’s highly thought of. He’s written textbooks, done guest lectures.”
“What about his wife? His children? Is that how this all links to him?”
“Give me a minute.” Gary did some more browsing. He shook his head. “One of his daughters is married with two children. Her husband owns a chain of hardware stores. The other daughter is a librarian at the New York Public Library.”
“And the son?”
Another shake of his head. “Died in Iraq.”
Dan pushed out a heavy sigh. “I think you’re right. This doesn’t lead us anywhere.”
Gary’s phone buzzed. He glanced at it. “It never rains but it pours.”
“Let me guess. Travers wants an update.”
He chuckled. “Wow. It’s as if you know him.” He picked up a pen and tapped it on the desk. “He’ll want to know how far along we are in our investigations.”
“Which ones?” Dan scowled. “It’s as if we’re falling down the rabbit hole.
Each discovery brings new information and complexity, but we’re still no closer to discovering why Leo was killed.
It certainly wasn’t because a drug deal went foul.
Eddie Ray… well, I don’t think he’s of any importance, not that his girlfriend would agree.
Like I said, I think he was there to divert our attention away from Wilmer.
‘Hey, don’t look at that dead guy, look over here.
’ Which we did. Wilmer leads us to Dr. Phillips, who then disappears.
We’re put in charge of that investigation, only to have her killed in a car crash that might have been the result of explosives—we don’t know yet.
The only ironclad bit of information we have is that it was her in the crash.
And now we’re being led back to Leo again. ”
Gary said nothing.
“Well? Did I miss anything?”
“No, I think you caught everything. Maybe you should be the one to update Travers.”
Dan guffawed. “No thank you. I like my balls where they are.”
Gary grinned. “I like them there too.” He rose. “Come on. Let’s go see him. What can he do?”
Dan had already considered that. “Tear us both a new asshole.”
Thursday, October 4, 2018
“Did I miss something?”
Dan glanced up from his reading of Gary’s notes on the interview with Tyler. “Hm?”
“You look so thoughtful. I thought maybe I’d missed something.”
He placed the sheet on the desk. “I’ve read this three times now, and each time I reach the end, I get the same feeling—that I’m missing something. The only thing is, I have no idea what that is.”
Gary frowned. “I’ll take another look.” He stretched his arms above his head. “I am so ready for a break this weekend.”
Dan frowned. “You’re taking a break?”
He grinned. “Yes. And so are you. We have a wedding to attend, remember?”
Dan chuckled. “Why should I remember? You didn’t. I haven’t been to a wedding in ages. The last was my sister’s, a really overblown event in the Hamptons.”
“I think Nina’s will be a lot more low-key. The wedding is taking place in a barn in Ipswich. They were lucky to get it.”
“Are you going to be okay?” Dan knew the day would bring a lot of memories with it, not just of growing up with Cory, but losing him too.
“I’ll be fine,” Gary assured him. “It’ll feel weird not having Cory there, but….”
Dan was on the brink of walking over to him to hug the breath out of him when a knock at the door killed the conversation, and an officer stuck his head into the office.
“You have a visitor in Interview Room One.”
They thanked him. Gary removed his jacket from the back of his chair. “Who wants to see us, I wonder?”
Dan would have bet even money on it not being Tyler. He thought they’d pretty much exhausted that source of information.
They walked through the precinct, and all the while Dan kept himself closed off. There were fewer hostile glances than there had been when he first arrived, and he put that growing acceptance down to the success he and Gary had had in their cases so far.
Nothing countered disbelief like a little proof.
That didn’t mean Dan was welcomed with open arms. He was starting to learn cops had long memories.
Gary opened the door to the interview room and came to a dead halt. “Oh.”
Dan followed him inside to find Nathan Chambers sitting at the table, drinking water from a clear plastic cup.
“Haven’t we already received your report?”
Chambers put the cup down. “Yes, but that’s not why I’m here.”
Gary pulled out the chair facing him and sat, Dan beside him.
“What can we do for you, Mr. Chambers?”
He leaned forward, his hands clasped on the table. “You’re looking into the death of Dr. Samantha Phillips. You’ve also been checking into her background, and that of Professor Robert Martin.”
What the hell?
Dan schooled his features, impressed by Gary’s lack of reaction.
“And how do you know that?” Gary’s voice was even.
Chambers reached into his jacket and removed what Dan recognized instantly as a black badge wallet. He flipped it open and handed it to Gary.
Gary’s eyebrows shot up. “Why would the Department of Homeland Security be interested in our investigations?”
What the hell wasn’t enough of a reaction. This was definitely a What the fuck? moment, followed by the realization that their case was growing arms and legs to the point where he and Gary could find themselves out of their depth.
Chambers appraised him with cool eyes. “Why are you so interested in Dr. Phillips’s death?”
Dan recovered quickly, refusing to let himself be intimidated by Chambers’s badge. He forced a chuckle. “How much time can you spare us?”
“What about your company, SecureCo? Is that a front?” Gary inquired.
“No, it really is my company. My operatives tend to do a lot of work for one man, though. I believe you know him.” Chambers regarded them, his features neutral.
“Goes by the name of Uncle Sam.” He replaced the wallet in his inside pocket and leaned back in his seat.
“And as for how much time I have, I’m staying right here until you’ve answered my question. ”
Gary gave him a précis of what they’d discovered. “As of right this minute, all we have are a lot of loose ends.”
“Then I’m sorry to have to tell you they will remain so.”
Gary stiffened. “And what exactly does that mean?”
Chambers studied him for a moment, and Dan got the impression he was sizing Gary up. Finally he relaxed his shoulders. “I appreciate you want to know more, but if you pursue these inquiries, you’ll only hit a brick wall.”
“Which inquiries are we talking about?” Gary demanded. “The case of Leo Deakins? Eddie Ray? Jonathon Wilmer? Dr. Phillips?” His breathing hitched. “Or all of them?”
A layer of cold settled on Dan like a fall of fresh snow.
“My advice to you, gentlemen, is to walk away from these cases. Now. Let them stay closed.”
“And if we don’t?”
Chambers fired a glance at Gary, the kind of look that told Dan he expected his advice to be taken. “I think we’re done.” He stood. “No hard feelings, I hope. I wouldn’t like us to part on a sour note.”
“What you mean is, you want to leave the door open in case you need to pop back sometime,” Gary remarked.
Chambers smiled. “Exactly. I don’t want to burn any bridges.”
Gary rose too, his hand extended, and they shook.
Dan’s heartbeat raced as he lurched to his feet to take Chambers’s hand. He gripped it tightly, and Chambers frowned when the expected release didn’t occur.
“Mr. Porter?”
Dan wasn’t about to relinquish his grasp, not until he knew what was—
Oh.
At last he let go, and Chambers gave him a wary glance. “Rather an overly enthusiastic farewell, don’t you think?”
New knowledge sent adrenaline flushing through Dan’s system. “And don’t you think there’s something you should have told us, Mr. Chambers?”
Chambers frowned. “About the fact that I work for an intelligence agency? Ever heard the term ‘need-to-know basis’?”
Dan shook his head. “I wasn’t referring to that.”
His frown deepened. “Then what?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Dan kept his tone light. “Maybe the fact that Samantha Phillips was your sister?”