Page 46 of Wild Fever

"Walk me through the steps. Tell me everything that happened from the moment your girlfriend called to the time we got here."

Bryan recounted the events. His story was consistent with everything we’d heard so far.

I didn't think the guy had intentionally done anything. His distress seemed genuine. Was he guilty of negligence? Perhaps. But I don't think there was any criminal intent on his part.

Brenda and her crew bagged the bodies.

Crenshaw and the other computer forensic guys arrived, looking bleary-eyed. These weren't their normal hours. The sheriff filled them in on the situation, and they went to work with the assistance of Dr. Cameron and Bryan. They gained access to the system and ran diagnostics, trying to see what went wrong and if anyone had tampered with anything.

JD and I talked to the sheriff in private while the IT guys did their thing. It would take them a while to sort through everything.

“What do you make of all this?” Daniels muttered.

“Security footage is non-existent, possibly deleted,” I said. “Only two units malfunctioned. I think we need to consider the possibility that these two were targeted.”

The sheriff stifled a groan.

“What do we know about these people?” I asked.

“That’s what you two are going to look into.”

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Icalled Isabella. She had her hands full, but I figured she could get to the bottom of this. The IT guys were good, but they weren't as good as Isabella. She’d have no problem hacking into the system and looking for nefarious activity or malware.

By the time we made it back to the boat, Paris Delaney and her news crew had arrived. They were on the dock. The cameraman had his rig shouldered, filming Brenda as her crew rolled out the bodies.

"This is private property, Paris," Daniels cautioned. “You’ve got no right to be here.”

She frowned at him. "What can you tell us? It's my understanding there was some kind of equipment malfunction. It obviously resulted in the death of two individuals."

"Get back on your boat, Paris, or I'll arrest you for trespassing."

“You would not do that to little old me.”

“Don’t test me.”

She frowned at him, but complied.

The trio boarded the boat. Paris stood at the bow as the cameraman filmed her with the island in the background. "Chaos here tonight at Horizon Cay. So far, there have been two confirmed deaths, but no details at this time. We’ll keep you updated as this story develops. I'm Paris Delaney, and you heard it from me first."

I cast off the lines, and the sheriff fired up the outboards.

Paris shouted across the gunwale, “I need to talk to you. Check your messages.”

We pulled away from the dock and headed back toward Coconut Key.

A couple of uniformed deputies stayed behind with the forensic team. We returned to the station and filled out after-action reports. I ran background on Lance Wentworth.

To say he’d done well for himself was an understatement. The guy was a billionaire hedge fund manager. I can't say that I was surprised. I never got around to asking Dr. Cameron what the fee was, but cryopreservation wasn't chump change, especially as a speculative treatment. For Lance Wentworth, the ROI was definitely lacking.

The sheriff stepped into the conference room and tossed a small baggie onto the oak tabletop. Inside were two red capsules.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s the latest thing to hit the streets. The kids call it Silk.”

“What is it?”