"What's your name, ma'am? " said Decker.
'"Dr. Gin Panzella. I'm a board-eligible internist, and I'm as sane as you are. ' She launched into an account of the mishaps that had befallen former members of the Guidelines committee who happened to be Duncan's patients, but Duncan interrupted her after a few sentences.
- "Agent Decker, do we have to listen to these ravings?
Check with the FBI. Just last week she led them on a wildgoose chase with some story of my implanting some poison in Senator Marsden. ' "Wait, " Gin said. "Don't listen to him. He pulled a reverse on that one." Duncan shook his head sadly as he stared at her. God, the bastard was a good actor. A regular Jack Nicholson. You'd almost think he truly felt sorry for a former colleague's deteriorating mental condition.
"After a full medical exam on the senator, " Duncan said, "including an MR scan, they found nothing and ended up looking like fools. You can check it out."
"Trust me, " Decker said. "We will check it out. We check everything out."
"Good. The name of-the agent in charge of that particular boondoggle was Canney. I'm sure he rues the day he was conned into believing Dr. Panzella."
"Canney? " Decker said.
"Yeah. I'll give him a call."
"Come on! " Gin said. "You've got to listen to me! " ' We listen to everybody, " Decker said. He turned to the man who was holding her.
"You and Briggs take her owntown and get her statement. I'm going to get in touch rith Mallard and see if we can put this deal off for a while. I on't like the smell of this.
Don't like it at all."
"Thank you, God! " Gin said as they started leading her toward the rear of the building. "I don't care if you believe eye or not, just don't let the president come here today." Decker looked at her with new interest as he opened the loot to the parking lot. "That's not always our decision, ma'am. So, you know Gerry Canney, do you? " He knew Gerry's first name! "Yes! Since high school. Do you? " "We've met. Are you the one who told him about the "-esident's surgery? " "That's me! You're the one he called? " Decker didn't answer that.
He was staring at the car that had just pulled into the rear lot.
A long night. A bad night. Gerry hadn't had a wink of sleep SlnCC 6
A. M.
yesterday morning. He was tired, his stomaching was on fire, and he was generally pissed.
After leaving the Tremont Hotel last night he'd been unable to had a trace of Gin. The only action he'd had was the 91 I call to her apartment that turned out to be a false -'arm. Nobody home when the ambulance got there, but the _oor had been wide open.
Something strange and ominous about that call. Something going on that he couldn't quite grasp. Something just uUt of reach. And it was that tantalizing closeness that had kept him running all night.
He hadn'r been able to stop, hadn't been able to drop it. He'd called Mrs. Snedecker and asked if Martha could stay overnight. Martha didn't mind. She liked sleeping over anywhere. Sometimes that worried him. He'd talked to her on the car phone, then kept driving, periodically stopping back at the Bureau building. He'd even spoken to Gin's parents. No, they hadn't heard from her. He hoped they were telling him the truth and he hadn't been patrolling the whole damn northwest all night for nothing.
He'd just made another stop at Gina's apartment. Still empty. And now, for the third time tonight, or this morning7 rather, since the sun was threatening to rise, he was checking out Lathram's building.
He pulled into the rear lot and was startled to find three cars there, two of them Federal, according to their plates. As he parked and got out of his car, he saw a very grim-looking Gin being escorted from the building by three guys in suits.
Weak with relief, he leaned back against the car. Thank God!
At least she was alive, though not looking too well. And the three with her, had to be Secret Service. Bob Decker was one of them.
Secret Service . . . the president's surgery. Shit. If she'd been right about that, what else had she been right about?
He slammed the car door behind him. God damn it!
Gin's face broke into a smile. "Gerry! " "Speak of the devil, " Decker said, "we were just, " "You son of a bitch! " Gerry shouted as he strode toward them. "Son of a bitch! " The two other agents with Decker pulled back and their hands started drifting toward their jackets.
"It's okay, " Decker said. "I know him. A Fibby."
"Gin, " Gerry said, "are you okay? " She beamed at him. "I am now."
She looked so small and fragile between them. Gerry wanted to take her in his arms and tell her she'd be all right, but now wasn't the time, not in this place, not in this company.
He turned to Decker. "You told me you knew nothing about any surgery on the president, yet here you are at Lathram's surgicenter at five in the morning. You want to explain that, pal? " Decker shrugged. "The Man says he doesn't want anyone told, no one gets told."
"This could have ended up a disaster, you know." '"You mean if we'd let this young lady run loose in there? " "No, I mean if she hadn't found her way here."
"Gerry! " Gin said, her eyes wide. "You mean you believe >, , me!
'"I don't know exactly what I believe, but I know there's enough fishy stuff connected with Dr. Lathram that you shouldn't let him come within a couple of miles of the president." Decker's bantering manner was gone. "He told us this little lady led you and the Bureau on a wild-goose chase last week."
"It was a wild-goose chase, all right, but I'm not so sure anymore who was leading us." '"And the doc inside says she stabbed him."
"With the trocar, " Gin said. "The same one he used on me. The one he was going to use on the president." Gerry winced at the way that sounded. So far out. Who on earth would believe her?
Which worked perfectly to Lathrarn's advantage.
But what if he'd intended that all along?
'"My agents'll take her downtown and get a statement, " "No, wait! " Gin cried. "We can settle this all now. I know how. ' "Come on, miss, " said the red-haired agent holding her, and began guiding her toward the car.
Gerry put a hand on his chest. "Give her a minute. Let's hear her out.
Maybe if I'd done that a while back, the five of us might be home in bed instead of standing here at this ungodly hour." She'd been right about the president's surgery. What else had she been right about?
The grateful look Gin gave him more than made up for all these sleepless hours.
"All right, " Decker said. "Five minutes, then she's on her way.
Duncan couldn't imagine how things could get much worse, but assumed they probably would.
As he watched the Secret Service agents escort Gin to the parking lot, he discarded all plans of making further use of the TPD. Damage control was the immediate and most pressing concern.
And the first, all-important task was to dispose of the TPD.
Duncan pulled the vial from his pocket and hurried back downstairs to Oliver's lab. He placed it in the utility sink, covered it with a paper towel, and smashed it into tiny fragments. He ran water into the sink for a while, then dumped the remaining glass shards from the strainer into the soggy paper towel. He rinsed the syringe Gin had used, running acetone through the barrel and the needle to destroy any trace of TPD.
Then he simply dropped it in the sharps receptacle with all the other used syringes.
He left the water running while he went back upstairs to the men's room and flushed the remnants of the vial, its label, and the paper towel into the Chevy Chase sewer system .
And that was that. TPD? I don't know what she's talking about.
Search the place. Be my guest.
The last remaining sample of the compound was nestled in his thigh.