Page 162 of The Bone Code

Ryan offered no suggestion.

“What’s the thinking on the explosion at InovoVax?” I shifted topics. But not much.

“Some douche nozzle blew the place sky-high.”

“Why was Murray there in the middle of the night?”

“Eisenberg said that was his habit.”

“But why?”

Ryan started to reply. I cut him off.

“My guess is he was involved in something shady. Skimming? Cooking the books? Jacking with production? Stealing drugs? Maybe he was out there trying to cover his ass. Maybe he’d planned to set a fire, destroy records or data or whatever. Maybe things went south, and boom!”

I was on a roll.

“Maybe,” I continued, “that’s the reason Murray killed Melanie. Maybe she’d discovered what he was up to and had threatened to expose him. Maybe that’s what her notes were all about. But why her daughter?”

“Deep inhale.”

“You sound like a masseuse.”

The oxygen intake helped some.

Not for long.

Way too many maybes. Way too much speculation.

35

Friday, November 19

My mind spent the drive back to Anne’s spinning those maybes. Mixing them with unexplained references and unanswered questions.

Turning from the connector onto IOP, the mental turbulence ran aground on two specific items. A name popped to the foreground.

Off to my right, the late-afternoon sun was tinting the marsh and the waterway tangerine. I checked the time: 4:37 p.m. Not too late, I hoped.

I arrived at Anne’s house, rushed inside, and dug my mobile, a pen, and a tablet from my shoulder bag. After locating a number recently added to my contacts, I dialed.

“Alika Bangoboshe.” The flute.

“It’s Temperance Brennan. Tempe. I hope I haven’t caught you at a bad time?”

“Not at all. I am grading exams.”

“I don’t want—”

“I am ready for a break.”

I liked this woman.

“I wondered if I could roll a few more questions by you.”

“Of course.”

“When we last spoke about the materials that I sent, you said the presence of the termCRISPRsurprised you.”