She headed toward the man, feeling her fury increase with every footstep. He saw her, and then he must have heard something, because he turned and his eyes widened.
Lara smiled; the bond she shared with Meg—not to mention Meg’s training as an agent—meant her friend was standing between Myles and the rest of the facility. He was sandwiched between them, with nowhere to go. His only possibility of escape was to jump in the water, and even then he wouldn’t have gotten very far.
Lara reached him first. “What the hell were you planning, sending me out there?” she demanded.
He frowned in confusion. “Adrianna is out there,” he told her. “She and Dr. Amory are having a conversation with Cocoa. She doesn’t want to listen.”
Meg was directly behind him at that point, but she stayed silent and waited for Lara to speak.
“Want to tell me why you were snooping around the women’s shower?” Lara asked.
“Why I was— No!” Myles protested. “I wouldn’t.”
“You were seen. There was a witness. Just as there was a witness when you decided to put a chopped-up doll on my desk,” she accused him. He hadn’t been seen, of course, not then. But he didn’t know that.
His face went red.
“Meg, would you check out the end of the dock?” Lara said. “I don’t think Myles will take off. He has nowhere to go, because when people who are part of this get caught, they wind up dead. Don’t they, Myles?”
He just stood there, jaw locked, a sea of misery and confusion in his eyes.
“Move a muscle before I get back,” Meg warned him, “and you’ll be guilty of resisting arrest, and then God knows what we’ll have to do to you to capture you.”
She walked past Lara, simultaneously drawing her Glock from the holster at the small of her back and slipping her cell phone from her pocket.
Lara stared at Myles.
“It was a joke. It was just a joke,” he said.
“The doll? A bloody doll, dismembered like the bodies we found? A nice blond doll, just like me? That was a joke?”
He looked away.
“Who told you to do it, Myles?” she asked, thinking of Brett’s idea of an unwitting conspiracy. “How deeply are you into this thing?”
“I’m not in on anything. It was a joke. Okay, it was a bad joke. But you’re Little Miss Perfect, coming down here with a full-time job in two seconds, everyone fawning all over you. Smart, beautiful and everyone loves you—including the damned dolphins. Then you turn into Miss Supersleuth. I just wanted to scare you, show you you’re not so special.”
Lara heard footsteps behind her and turned quickly.
Meg was coming back.
Lara looked at her, arching a brow questioningly.
“Adrianna and Dr. Amory are down there waiting for you, hoping you can get Cocoa to listen to you,” Meg said.
“But—but he did it. He put that doll on my desk,” Lara said.
Meg inclined her head toward the path. When Lara turned to look, she saw Matt approaching. Obviously Meg had called him, and he’d come quickly from wherever he had been.
“Mr. Dawson,” Matt said. “I think you need to come with me.”
“Because of a doll?” Myles said, his voice cracking.
“Because of a whole lot of dead people,” Matt responded. “I can put cuffs on you, or we can walk out of here nicely together. It’s your choice.”
“I don’t know anything.” Myles insisted. “I didn’t do anything except chop up a doll. That isn’t illegal.”
Matt started toward him.
Myles backed away, hands up. “I’ll walk out! But you’re crazy. You can question me all night, but I just wanted to scare Lara, maybe make her quit. That’s all, I swear.” Then he gave up talking and walked away with Matt.
Lara and Meg watched the two men go.
“Thanks,” Lara said, and let out a soft sigh. “I suddenly thought that if I kept going, I’d find someone waiting there for me with a gun or a knife or something.”
Meg shook her head. “They really are trying to get Cocoa back to her lagoon.”
“I’ll see what I can do. What will Matt do with Myles?”
“Take him to headquarters. Call Brett and Diego.”
“What do you think? Was it a joke, or did someone bribe or threaten him into doing it?”
“I don’t know,” Meg said. “I honestly don’t know. Let’s hope that one of the guys can get the truth out of him,” she said. “For now...”
“Cocoa,” Lara said.
As they walked, Meg asked her, “What happened? What made you suspect Myles?”
“I didn’t, not at first. I found a tube of red paint in a locker this morning when I was changing. I took it and wrapped it up in my clothes, and I was going to tell you about it, but I never got a chance. Later, I heard someone when I was in the shower, and when I came out, the paint was gone.”
“But how did you know that Myles took it?”
“Miguel,” Lara said, and she smiled. “Miguel was watching.”
* * *
“Parkinson’s, ALS, I don’t know,” Brett said under his breath as he drove. “But it’s got to be something neurological.”
“What are you talking about?” Diego asked.
“Did you get a good look at Anthony Barillo? Did you see the way he shakes?”
“He shakes. So what? He’s weak, he’s old.”
“Not that old,” Brett said. “He’s somewhere in his early sixties. To be as frail as he is, to shake the way he does... Something’s going on.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“I think someone’s trying to save Anthony Barillo, and that’s what these experiments are all about.”
“So you think he—whoever he is—is killing people to save a life?”
“I do,” Brett said. “And I don’t think Barillo himself knows anything about it, so I’d say someone right under him—his brother, Tomas, most likely—is pulling the strings.”
“Why Tomas?” Diego asked. “I mean, Tomas stands to take over a giant crime empire. He might want his brother dead.”
“Barillo’s still his brother,” Brett said.
“Your mind is far too twenty-first century,” Diego said. “Throughout history, brothers have killed brothers for power and control. Cain and Abel, for a start.”
“One of Barillo’s children, then?” Brett said. “One of his sons is in med school. Whoever it is, he’s close enough to the seat of power to have access to money, so if he doesn’t have medical knowledge himself, he can just buy someone who does.”
“They could all be in on it,” Diego acknowledged.
Brett was thoughtful for a moment. “With Little Haiti right here, it’s easy enough to get the recipe for the traditional zombie toxin. He probably started out experimenting on animals, but that couldn’t tell him enough. He needed to test his theories on human beings. Where to look first? In the ranks of those who could disappear without consequences, unnoticed or noticed only by those who didn’t dare take action. Perhaps those who were desperate enough to seek haven in the United States by crossing the Florida Straits on rafts and inner tubes if they had to. But they weren’t always available. So he turned to the streets and people like Pierre Deveau. I don’t think he was interested in creating zombies for their own sake but in exploring how to affect the brain, with the goal of outsmarting the disease, or even bringing Barillo back from the dead with his facilities intact. He might even have been disappointed that his zombies were willing to kill their own family and friends, because that meant he’d failed in his goal.
“At some point he got braver and expanded his experiments into a hospital. I think at that point he was simply curious to see how well his potion could feign death, and he must have been very pl
eased with the results.”
Brett’s phone rang just then. He saw that it was Matt and used the car’s built-in Bluetooth to answer. “Hey, Matt. I’m in the car with Diego and we’ve got you on speaker.”
“I’m at HQ, and I’ve got the Sea Life intern, that kid Myles from the education department, in an interrogation room. He’s the one who put the doll on Lara’s desk. He claims he did it to scare her and get her to quit. Apparently he resents the fact that she’s the golden girl while he’s been trudging along unappreciated. I thought I’d let him cool his heels, then send you in.”
“How did you find out it was him?” Brett asked tersely.
“Lara found him out,” Matt said. “With a little help from Miguel, as it turns out.”
“A ghost fingered him?” Diego said. He looked over at Brett, but he didn’t seem as surprised as Brett would have expected, given that he’d never actually talked to his partner about seeing Maria and Miguel.
“Long story, but Lara found the paint and ended up confronting him. She lied and told him there was a witness, and at that point he folded pretty quickly.”
“Is Lara there with you?” Brett asked, trying to tamp down his anger that she’d been in danger and he hadn’t been there to protect her.
“No, she and Meg are still at Sea Life, finishing up after the event today. I’ll see you at headquarters.”
Diego didn’t say anything after Brett hung up. Finally Brett looked at him and asked, “You don’t think all of this is crazy?”
Diego looked at him and smiled slowly, shaking his head. “I’m half Cuban and half Irish. Hell, if a leprechaun walked onto the scene, I’m not sure I’d be surprised. So what the hell. If a ghost can solve our case, I’m all for it.”
17
“Cocoa is being as stubborn as all get-out,” Adrianna said, aggravated. “I could leave her back here overnight, which I may have to do, but Tampa, Luke and Bartholomew are already here. She’ll want to play as rough as they do, and I’m worried she’ll get hurt.”
Lara hadn’t told them that Myles had been taken down to FBI headquarters. For one thing, at her request, no one at Sea Life, except for Grady, knew about the doll, so there was no easy way to explain that Myles was gone and why. Anyway, it didn’t really matter. The day was over, and she would worry about tomorrow when it arrived.
Adrianna’s attention was all for the dolphin.
“She’s not listening to me, either,” Lara told Adrianna after ten minutes of fruitlessly trying to coax Cocoa back into her own lagoon. “I’m sorry. Can Rick help?”
“He’s with the last of our sponsors,” Adrianna said, shaking her head. “He likes to pull the ‘head trainer’ card when the big money is around. Besides...” she murmured, then hesitated. “The truth is, he doesn’t work as well with Cocoa as you do. Want to swim with her, see if that works?”
“I guess, but you’ll have to open the gates so I can go from lagoon to lagoon.”
“I’m worried the others might get in the way, so we’ll go around the long way. Through the bay,” Adrianna said.
“You really think she’ll follow me?” Lara asked.
“She followed you all over the bay the other day,” Adrianna reminded her.
Dr. Amory was still standing on the platform, so Lara turned to him. “What do you think?”
“I think you’re the most interesting research opportunity I’ve seen in ages,” he told her, grinning. “I think you need to give it a try so I can observe.”
“All right, I’ll grab my suit and be right back.”
When Lara turned to go, Meg followed. “I’m not letting you go anywhere alone,” she said.
“I’ll change in the office,” Lara said. “Nice and safe.”
“We’ll have to find an opportunity for you to wear that suit Sonia gave you,” Meg told her.
“Sounds great,” Lara said. “Meg, what do you think about Myles Dawson? Is he just a nasty jerk, or is he part of this?”
“Hopefully the guys are finding that out right now.”
Back at the office, Meg waited while Lara changed. When they left, Lara noticed that there was still a group gathered near the exit by the gift shop, talking with Rick and Grady. She wondered how they could hear each other over the anthems and military songs that had been playing all day but seemed really loud now that the crowd had thinned out to almost nothing.
She and Meg made their way to the sandbar that led to the farthest platform.
Dr. Amory was nowhere in sight, and Adrianna was standing on the platform as if frozen, staring out at the water.
“Hey, Adrianna!” Lara called. “I’m back!”
Without saying a word, Adrianna fell face forward into the water, as if she’d been pushed by an invisible hand.
“What the hell?” Lara said.
“Get behind me,” Meg ordered, forging her way around a tangle of sea grape trees and ragged brush that had taken hold on the sandy spit. Her Glock was in her hand, and Lara followed her as the path curved toward the dock.
“We have to go help Adrianna!” Lara said.
And then she tripped over something.
A body.
* * *
“So you just don’t like Lara, is that it?” Brett asked, sitting across the table from Myles Dawson.
Dawson looked at the small digital recorder sitting between them. “I like her fine,” he said.
“Then, why would you play a trick like that on her?” Brett asked.
Myles slumped back and sighed. He lifted his hands. “You don’t understand. I’ve worked there for three years now. I’m still an intern. I teach classes. I play with kids. I smile and haul fish for the trainers. Hell, I get people coffee when they ask. It was past time for them to hire me and bring on some other sucker as an intern. Instead, they paid a fortune to hire Lara.”
“So you just wanted to scare her away? Why? Your job is nothing like hers.”
“Really? She was hired to do media. Next thing you know, she’s a star trainer and consultant for the FBI. She’ll be running Education soon enough. Dr. Amory thinks she’s the best thing we’ve seen since he doesn’t know when. He wants to work with her and Cocoa. If she starts working with Amory, I’ll never be full-time.”
“And you’re sure—you’re absolutely sure—that no one put you up to your ‘prank’?”
Myles looked back at Brett, baffled. He lifted his hands again. “What? I’m so stupid I can’t even have an original idea?”
Brett leaned forward. “People have died, Myles. Do you want to be convicted for being an accessory to murder?”
“Me? Murder? Good God, it was a prank!” Myles protested.
“You ever have a drug habit?” Brett asked him.
“What? No!”
“Were you ever caught stealing? Doing anything you shouldn’t have done?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you have a record or anything else someone else could hold over your head if you didn’t do as you were told?” Brett asked.
“No. No, no, no! What I did was stupid and I shouldn’t have done it, but I did it on my own,” Myles said, looking as if he was about to cry.
“And no one—no one—suggested in even that vaguest way that you should have done it?” Brett pushed.
Myles shook his head. “Do I need a lawyer?”
“You’re not under arrest.”
“But you just said—”
“We’re just talking here, Myles. And I’m really hoping that you really will talk to me.”
Myles seemed to sink into himself even more. “You must know everything there is to know about me. Big Brother is watching and all that. I don’t have a record. I admit I don’t always recycle, but that’s it. I just...I just got so jealous that I
wanted Lara to go away! Can’t you understand that?”
“Do you know of anyone else who dislikes her?” Brett asked.
“There must be other people who resent her, but I have no idea who they are. Rick, Grady, Dr. Amory and everyone else seem to think she’s more of a natural with the dolphins than they are. Maybe Adrianna! I mean, she’s never said anything to me, but she must get sick of hearing Rick praise Lara all the time.”
There was a rap on the door. Frowning, Brett got to his feet and went to answer. Matt was standing there with a sheaf of papers in his hand.
“I think I’m just getting somewhere,” Brett said. “Any chance this can wait?”
“Not a chance in hell. I just got the hospital’s list of every visitor who was there on the day of Randy Nicholson’s death. Trust me, you’re going to want to see it.”
* * *
As Meg kept running toward the spot where Adrianna had tumbled into the water, Lara, with her heart in her throat, bent down and saw that the body she’d stumbled over was Dr. Amory’s. He was crumpled on the ground, half-covered by one of the sea grape trees. There was a bloody gash on his head.
“Dr. Amory?” she said, testing for his pulse. He looked as if he had taken the curve too quickly and tripped, hitting his head on a tree root.
She was relieved to find he had a pulse. She started to rise to cry for help, but then she heard the blast of gunfire.
She ducked, shocked by how loud it had been. They must have heard it even back by the gift shop. At least that meant help would come quickly.
Was Adrianna still in the water, or had Meg gotten to her before the shot?
A voice came from somewhere past the sea grape trees. “Your friend is shooting at me, Lara. Make her stop. If you do, I’ll let you go down for Adrianna. She has about another minute and half, I imagine, before it’s lights out forever. My dart only gave her a little prick, but it’s enough to keep her from doing a thing to help herself. There’s a wonderful study on puffer fish poison. Seems way back when Cook was exploring, he and his men all grew sick after a meal in the South Pacific. Pigs on board, fed the remnants of the meal, all died. Turns out they’d been eating puffer fish. Scientists ran some weight calculations and determined that the dosage the men received was sufficient to harm but not to kill them, but it was more than enough to kill their pigs.”