Page 39 of Line of Sight

09:00 a.m.

RILEY GAZEDat his surroundings. “Gotta say, this is way better than the closet we were in last summer.” Then he frowned. “Hey, don’t I get a desk?”

Gary snorted. “No, you do not. One, there isn’t room, unless you want us to go back to being cramped again like the last time, and two, you’re not permanent. You’re on loan, remember?” Not that he didn’t like the idea. Riley was a good detective, and truth be told, Gary had missed working with him.

Riley pouted. “I wouldn’t mind being permanent.”

“Then pull out all the stops on this case and we’ll see what Travers says. In the meantime, you can share either of our desks.”

He pulled a chair across the room and sat at the end of Dan’s desk. “Okay, let me get up to speed. What pattern have you established so far to the killings?”

“There isn’t one,” Gary said with a sigh. “Apart from the fact that all the crime scenes were from thrillers.”

“Did any of the victims know each other?”

“At first glance, there doesn’t appear to have been any connection between them,” Dan remarked. “Of course, we’ve only delved deep into the first chronological murder.”

“Okay, you said body number three. Fire away.”

Dan picked up a folder and opened it. “Mark Wilson, born 1973. Graduated from UMass in 1995, where he majored inbiochemistry. He was studying for his doctorate at the time of his death.” He started tapping on his keyboard.

“Smart guy, then,” Riley observed.

“Yeah.” Gary studied his copy of the folder. “His body was found by two hikers in the Acadia National Park on August seventeenth, 1997. There were no witnesses who saw him that day, but apparently he regularly climbed there, like, every weekend during the summer.”

“What about the autopsy? Anything stand out in it?”

Gary nodded. “There was evidence of ketamine. The pathologist couldn’t tell if it was enough of a dose to mean he was dead when disembowelment took place. We can only hope he was unconscious.”

Then he realized Dan was too quiet.

“What have you found?”

“Nothing that’s a surprise anymore.” He peered at the monitor. “I was looking for information on Wilson’s doctorate. He was trying to find a new antibiotic to combat an evasive hospital superbug. I can see why. Acinetobacter baumannii was identified by the World Health Organization as one of the world’s most dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Notoriously difficult to eradicate. It can cause pneumonia, meningitis, and infect wounds, all of which can lead to death.”

“What’s the part that isn’t a surprise?” Riley asked.

Dan leaned back in his chair. “Wilson was working with another grad student, Jennifer Sullivan.”

Riley frowned. “Her name is on your board. Is she one of the people Barry identified?”

Gary nodded. “She was supposedly in New York the morning Scott McCarthy was killed. No idea where she was when Brad was killed, but we’ll know more when we interview her.”

“Tell me more about these four names.”

Gary gave him the cut-down version.

“Was there any history of bad blood between her and Wilson?” Riley inquired. “Because I could see that happening, working closely with someone. There had to be a lot of pressure.”

Dan shook his head. “According to the report, quite the reverse. Everyone said they were the perfect team, opposites but suited.”

Riley’s eyes gleamed. “Ah, but what happened to all his research after he died? Did Jennifer publish their findings? Maybe she took all the credit. I mean, if this new antibiotic they were working on was gonna be so important, that would have been a real feather inhercap if she said, ‘Hey,look what I did.’”

Dan folded his arms. “Yes, she published their findings—but in both their names.”

Riley pulled a face. “Well, that shootsmytheory all to shit. Was she questioned at the time of his death?”

“Yes,” Gary replied, “but only because she was his research partner. The day his body was discovered, she was on a camping trip.”