Hannah looked about her in confusion.
‘Something else doesn’t make sense about this,’ she said. ‘Meyer was supposedly on board that jet that we intercepted at Charlottesville, right. But he’s not aboard, and neither are Warner, Lopez or Amber Ryan. We then hear they’re all alive and well in Kentucky, but I didn’t see any evidence to support that, did you?’
‘Report came in from on high,’ Mickey shrugged. ‘I guess they didn’t need to prove it.’
Hannah’s mind raced as she looked down at the pool of blood at her feet. ‘Somebody else was here. And who knew that Warner and his accomplices were both safe in Kentucky and not involved in the fire near Nathalie? One moment they’re highly dangerous international fugitives, the next we’re closing the case despite multiple civilian deaths?’
Mickey watched her for a moment before he replied.
‘There’s nothing connecting the deaths in Nathalie to Stanley Meyer or his accomplices,’ he pointed out.
‘There was yesterday, right up until Stanley here suddenly reappeared in the company of lawyers and Huck Seavers. This stinks, Mickey, and Jenkins wants it zipped up as soon as possible.’
‘I don’t like the way you’re thinking.’
‘I don’t like the way the bureau’s acting,’ Hannah shot back.
She looked down at the blood, and on an impulse she knelt down and pulled an evidence kit from her pocket.
‘What are you doing?’ Mickey asked. ‘Samples have already been taken.’
‘I know,’ she said. ‘So I’m taking one for myself.’
Ethan did not know how the men with whom they travelled had gained access so quickly to police radios and other law enforcement agencies, although he had an idea, but they were supremely well equipped and within minutes of making a call their vehicle was travelling rapidly toward a massive hotel.
He could see through the windows that the hotel was located amid sumptuous grounds, forested hills and broad lawns that spread as far as the eye could see in the bright sunshine. The image would have been picture perfect were it not for the flashing hazard lights of multiple police cars, a pair of ambulances nearby.
Amber Ryan leaned forward in her seat as her face crumpled in grief.
‘No,’ she gasped.
Ethan remained silent as the vehicle pulled up alongside the police cordon and Amber yanked open the door and virtually threw herself out into the sunlight. Ethan followed, Lopez behind him as Amber ran to the nearest police officer, who was guarding a cordon preventing any vehicles from getting closer to the hotel.
‘What’s happened?!’ she asked, the tension in her voice palpable.
‘I’m afraid I can’t discuss the details of the incident with you ma’am, would you kindly step back from … ’
‘Stanley Meyer,’ Amber cut across the officer. ‘Is he … ’
Amber could not complete the sentence as the officer frowned. ‘Are you family, ma’am?’
‘He’s her father,’ Lopez informed the officer gently. ‘We’ve been searching for him.’
The officer’s eyebrows raised as he suddenly recognized Lopez and then Ethan, probably from a BOLO likely issued to local law enforcement, and his hand moved momentarily for his sidearm before he then recalled that the BOLO had been withdrawn recently.
‘Can you tell us what happened?’ Ethan asked.
The police officer gestured over his shoulder to the hotel, where Ethan could see a white tent pitched in front of the building, police maintaining a cordon to prevent the residents from seeing what was happening.
‘Suspected suicide,’ the police officer said. ‘Victim has been identified as … ’ The officer hesitated. ‘I’m sorry ma’am, Stanley Meyer.’
Amber let out a wail of grief and threw her hands over her face as she turned away. Lopez moved to her side, arms wrapping around her as Ethan stepped closer to the officer.
‘Do you have any details? I’m here with the Defense Intelligence Agency.’
‘What’s the DIA got to do with this?’
‘It’s a long story, believe me.’
‘I can’t divulge any information without the say — so of my superiors and with all due respect sir, you’ve recently been a suspect in a homicide case yourself.’
‘I know,’ Ethan said. ‘The whole thing’s a major set up and Stanley Meyer was its chief victim. All I need to know is whether this was a suicide or not.’
The officer chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment before replying.
‘The officers called to the scene reported that staff witnessed many suits travelling to and from the fifth floor,’ he said.
Ethan looked at the hotel, and up at the fifth floor balcony where a female detective was examining something.
‘No evidence of anybody else in the suite at the time?’ Ethan asked.
‘Not that I’m aware of, but the feds like to keep their cards close to their chests. Makes them feel more important … ’
‘Feds?’ Lopez asked as Amber was gently led away by her escorts.
‘Yeah,’ the officer shrugged. ‘Can’t imagine what they’re doing here, and now you’re with the DIA asking questions. Is this one of those big cover — ups or something?’
Ethan watched the detective on the hotel balcony as she produced an evidence bag from her jacket and began collecting something from the balcony floor.
‘Does this place have security cameras in place?’
‘That’s the thing,’ the officer replied. ‘They’ve been wiped.’
‘Right this morning before the suits left the building?’
‘How did you know that?’
‘Seen this sort of thing before,’ Ethan explained. ‘I think that there was somebody else involved. Chances are he’s an African — American, over six feet tall and well built, mid — fifties. If any of the staff recall seeing a man of that appearance visit the hotel this morning, you might want to pass it on to the detectives — or take a little of the glory for yourself?’
The officer virtually beamed at Ethan.
‘I’ll check it out. Anything else?’
‘Yeah, as a matter of fact. Do you think that you could get me a direct line to the DIA from here? I don’t have my phone anymore and we need to place an urgent call.’
‘Stand by,’ the officer agreed, ‘I’ll get on it.’
As the officer walked away Ethan turned to see Amber now sitting on a low wall nearby, the two escorts watching over her and consoling her as Lopez approached Ethan.
‘Are you going to tell me what this is all about?’
‘Stanley did not invent the fusion cage,’ Ethan replied. ‘He deliberately drew attention to himself by fleeing, and of course given his history everybody assumed that he was the inventor. We’ve all spent this time chasing the wrong person around the globe.’
‘Then who invented it?’
Ethan smiled, impressed by the ingenuity of it all.
‘The only other person who disappeared but was not paid off,’ he replied. ‘Stanley’s wife, Mary.’
Lopez stared into space for a moment and then her eyes lit up. ‘Stanley said that she was a biochemist.’
‘Exactly,’ Ethan said. ‘By the time she retired, Fleischmann and Pons had already had their cold fusion scandal. She would have been working at the time and would have had access to the data they produced in order to replicate the success, or alleged success, of their experiments. What if she saw something in the experiments that the others did not?’
‘Maybe she decided not to report her findings,’ Lopez echoed his thoughts, extrapolating what might have gone through Mary Meyer’s head. ‘Maybe she saw through the MIT fudging of the test results and realised that there was a conspiracy behind attempts to suppress the technology. If she is anywhere near as determined as her husband was, she might have decided to forge ahead alone.’