‘It’s an idea,’ suggested Parnell, when Lapidus’s team assembled.
‘It goes along with your D, C, B, A approach,’ said Sato.
‘And there’s the linking respiratory factor in both conditions,’ Beverley pointed out.
‘The gamble comes, as it always does, in finding an acceptably safe level,’ said Lapidus. ‘Remember, we can’t try culture growth in eggs.’
‘What about the mice we already tested?’ asked Parnell. ‘Did we isolate a specific host gene?’
‘I tried, obviously,’ said Sato, at once. ‘The damned strain is so mephitic it’s like a pump gun – everything gets shot away.’
‘Maybe Ted’s just shown us a path,’ said Parnell. ‘We minimize the strength of the virus, under controlled conditions, to the point of destruction. Every level’s logged. Against each level we administer until we lose the pump-gun effect. And then go for tolerance, working through the logged levels. At an acceptable tolerance, we might locate our most likely friendly host. We get the mouse host, we look for a human match.’
‘Elementary, my dear Watson,’ gently mocked Lapidus.
‘How long’s a few thousand comparisons going to take?’ Parnell mocked back.
Seriously, Lapidus said: ‘How many other companies do you think might, as our people have, pick up on Shanghai?’
‘I don’t even want to make a guess. I know this is a race but I don’t want any of us running so fast we trip over ourselves,’ cautioned Parnell. ‘Dubette came far too close to that – to doing that – all too recently. We follow this research line, if it turns out to be feasible, like the scientists we are, and always will do as long as I am the director of this unit. And that’s scientifically. If someone comes out ahead of us, so be it. They did better than us and they deserved to get there first…’ Parnell came to a halt, suddenly embarrassed, at the same time as being aware of how often he seemed to need to stop talking, to draw breath. ‘That didn’t start as the lecture it turned out to be,’ he apologized.
‘I didn’t think it was a lecture,’ said Beverley. ‘I thought it was a professional commitment.’
A three-man forensic unit led the entry into the fetid apartment, on the Anacostia side of Capitol Hill, with the investigators, Johnson and the two lawyers behind. Which was where they remained, virtually unspeaking, as the protectively suited three methodically worked through Johnson’s home, room by room. Johnson insisted he had a licence for a second. 38 Smith and Wesson discovered in the dishevelled bedroom, and which Benton bagged, but remained silent at the gradual accumulation of name-stamped Dubette property, which ranged from pens and notepaper to crockery, linen and towels. A switchblade, one half of the handle broken, was found in a kitchen drawer, among an assortment of tools. Benton put that into an evidence envelope, too. In the living room there were several photographs of Johnson in Metro DC police uniform, none of them featuring either Peter Bellamy or Helen Montgomery. There was also a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings of reported cases in which Johnson had featured. There were also six newspaper stories of the 1996 corruption investigation into the Metro DC force. After a momentary hesitation, Johnson felt beneath an adjoining drawer for the taped-in-place hidden key to the one locked part of a bureau, in which was found Johnson’s bank deposit book, with a credit balance of $260,402.
As Dingley said they were seizing the book, Johnson started: ‘I want to say…’ before Clarkson said: ‘No, you don’t!’ stopping the man.
‘Do you carry a notebook, a message pad?’ asked Dingley. ‘Maybe there’s one in your office… around somewhere?’
Johnson reached into the drawer in which the deposit book had been locked and groped a plastic-bound pocketbook from its rear.
‘Why do you want that?’ intruded Clarkson.
‘The warrant gives us legal right to seize whatever we decide to be necessary,’ said Benton.
‘Necessary for what?’ demanded the lawyer.
‘There has to be later disclosure, but not at this stage,’ reminded Dingley.
There was no conversation whatsoever during the journey out to McLean, Johnson and Clarkson in the rear of the FBI car, Peter Baldwin following in his own vehicle, ahead of the forensic scientists. The flick knife Parnell had described Johnson carrying in his trouser pocket was found in a locker drawer, as well as a set of brass knuckledusters. The forensic examiners extracted the entire drawer and sealed it for further laboratory tests upon what appeared to be small specks of grey paint among debris and dust at its corners and bottom. The holstered. 38 Smith and Wesson was in another drawer, along with two spare clips of ammunition. In a top drawer of the desk in Johnson’s office, the search uncovered complete photocopies of both Richard Parnell and Rebecca Lang’s personnel files.
Dingley said: ‘That’s fortunate. Personnel told us Ms Lang’s records had been destroyed before we asked for them…’
The field office bar was on 14th Street and it was tradition to celebrate the first potential break in any case. Benton touched glasses with Dingley and said: ‘You know what I think we’ve got enough evidence for? Stealing a bunch of towels and serviettes from his employers.’
‘Don’t forget the salt and pepper shakers.’
‘And a set of salt and pepper shakers,’ added Benton.
‘How’s a bum like Johnson get over a quarter of a million bucks in the bank?’ asked Dingley.
‘You think he’s going to tell us?’ asked Benton, cynically.
Dingley looked unnecessarily at his watch. ‘Ed Pullinger is making the wire-tap application about now. Maybe that’s how we’ll find out.’
‘Let’s not forget why we’re involved,’ reminded Benton. ‘It’s not so much the murder. It’s suspected terrorism.’
‘Terrorism’s well funded,’ said Dingley. ‘It’s a point Pullinger is arguing to support the tap. And he’s trying for an order to get at Metro DC police records, too.’
‘Towels, serviettes and salt and pepper shakers,’ insisted Benton, gesturing for the bartender’s attention.
‘Don’t you forget the paint in the locker drawer.’
Thirty
The interviews with the two suspended Metro DC police officers were, of course, conducted separately, again at the FBI field office, and from both there was immediate legal insistence upon, instead of objection to, tape recordings. Each was also individually accompanied by two demanding lawyers, one personal, the other representing the Metro DC police department. Despite their separation, each officer quickly appeared to follow a virtually identical script. Of course they knew Harry Johnson: they’d worked with him. But they hadn’t been friends, acquaintances even – he was just a guy they’d seen around. No, Harry hadn’t indicated that he knew Richard Parnell’s car until the scientist himself led them to it. They had not recovered every item from Rebecca Lang’s purse from the bottom of the gorge when they arrested him – the terrorist-alert flight number had been shown to them for the first time by a Metro DC forensic scientist, Professor Jacob Meadows, who’d produced the entire contents of the handbag after the recovery of the body and the vehicle. Neither had been present at that recovery. As far as they knew, the recovery had been carried out by police engineers who had also collected up material later handed over to Professor Meadows. Their involvement had begun, after a radio alert while they were on patrol, with the discovery, from the ID in her purse, that Rebecca Lang had worked at Dubette. At the time of their going to McLean, the death of Ms Lang had been considered a fatal traffic accident, not murder. Both believed it was Harry Johnson who had told them of the personal relationship between Ms Lang and Richard Parnell, although it might first have been suggested by Dwight Newton – neither could be absolutely sure. They had not attached any significance to the flight number when they found it among Rebecca Lang’s belongings – it had been Parnell’s attorney who had introduced that significance into the initial court hearing. They had believed there was bona fide justification to take Richard Parnell into custody, considering the circumstances of what they then believed to be a fatal accident and the damage to Parnell’s car. Their arrest procedure had conformed to every legal regulation and guidance. There had been no intimidation, harassment or abuse, either verbal or physical – throughout they had acted fully within the legally established boundaries of suspect arrest, based upon preliminary forensic findings. Neither remembered Johnson specifically drawing their attention to the damage to Parnell’s car – it had been obvious as they approached. They didn’t look around the Toyota, for any paint-debris evidence of it being hit by a neighbouring car.