Merritt shrugged. “The rules come down from on high, and we follow them. Would appreciate your doing the same.”
“All right.”
Merritt looked ready to finish, but Hallie was not. “Can we talk about Emily? Graeter said you knew the details of her death.”
“What did he tell you?”
“Nothing. He told me to see you. Not very nicely, either.”
She nodded. “Graeter went through some bad times. He wasn’t in such good shape when he came down here. And he’s been at Pole way too long, poor man.” Merritt sipped her coffee.
“What happened?”
“He was the executive officer on a nuclear sub. The Jimmy Carter. An accident in the reactor area killed three sailors. May not have been his fault, but the captain had better connections up the chain. Graeter got the blame, and his career was over. Then his wife left him for another man — the same captain who had tossed him under the bus. Can you believe it?”
“Did he tell you all that?”
“God, no. You met him. The man talks like every word costs ten dollars. No, that information came from other sources.” She looked at her hands, then back at Hallie. “I’m going to share something gal to gaclass="underline" be careful with Graeter.”
“Careful how?”
“The man is a sad case, but he has problems.”
“Other than disliking women, you mean?”
“Oh, yes. He’s obsessed.”
“In the clinical sense?”
“He’s not certifiable. I don’t think he’s a bad man, deep down. But he can be like a little Hitler with his rules. Just don’t get sideways with him.”
“Forewarned,” she said. “But about Emily.”
Merritt scratched a fingernail over her desktop, as if trying to scrape away something crusty and foreign. “It’s tricky, with all these confidentiality regulations now. You’re not family, so I don’t—”
“What I hear stays here. I promise.”
“Why are you so interested?”
“Emily and I worked together at BARDA, part of CDC, and got to be good friends a few years back.”
“I didn’t know that.” Merritt seemed surprised and, for some reason Hallie couldn’t fathom, unhappy to hear that. “Not sure any of us did. No matter. It was very sad. That young woman was so sweet, and had such potential. What an awful waste.”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe this will help you understand why I wasn’t eager to talk. The sad fact is, Emily killed herself.”
Hallie knew that this was not true. She also knew that it was important not to let anyone else know that yet. She did her best to look and sound horrified. “Really? My God.”
“Isn’t that just the most tragic thing you ever heard?”
“Suicide? Emily Durant? It’s hard to believe.”
“I didn’t say suicide.”
“You said she killed herself.”
“Accidental drug overdose. There is a difference.”
“Who determined that?”
“The station manager, Doc, and me. I found her and wrote up the report, since technically she worked for me. But the others had to sign off.”
“How did you come to find her?”
“Her partner — Fido — started to worry after she didn’t show up in the lab. He went to her room and knocked. No answer. Called and asked me to look in on her.” Merritt shook her head. “Oh dear. It was very bad. She was dead on her bunk with a syringe stuck in one arm. There were injection marks in other places, syringes, more drugs. Just … just awful. I’m not used to that kind of thing.”
“How do you know about the injection marks?”
“She was almost naked. You couldn’t miss them. I’m no expert on druggies, but Doc said they find all kinds of strange places to shoot up.”
“I seriously doubt Emily Durant was a druggie,” Hallie said.
“Pole changes people. Emily had been here almost a year. You’ve just arrived.”
“Emily never used drugs when I knew her. She rarely even drank. She was a nationally ranked ski racer in college. Stayed in top shape.”
“To tell you the truth, her health had been deteriorating for some weeks before she died. I saw it. Others did, too.”
“How so?”
“The poor girl was exhausted. Depressed. Not eating. Forgetful.”
Must have been watching her pretty closely to know all that, Hallie thought. But then, a good chief scientist would.
“It’s called getting Polarized,” Merritt said. “Happens at the end of a long stay.”
“Why didn’t she just leave?”
“Don’t you know, I suggested that very thing? But she’d been given a sizable grant. And signed a contract. If she had to withdraw for mental health reasons … Well, I don’t have to tell you. Poor thing. It would have ended her career.”
“It might have kept her alive.”
Merritt gave Hallie an odd look. “Did you have any more questions about this?” Her tone indicated that she hoped Hallie’s answer would be no.
“What was the drug?”
“We don’t know just yet. But — and it pains me to say this — it’s like Alice’s Restaurant here. You can get anything you want.”
“What did the medical examiner’s report say?”
“We haven’t seen one yet.”
“Isn’t that unusual?”
“Not really. The ME at Christchurch does the autopsy and sends his report to the New Zealand Police. They give it to State, and they send it through diplomatic channels to Washington. After all that, it might be routed back to NSF and, if the powers there see fit, shared with us worker bees.”
“Did the doctor do a tox screen?”
“No, we’re not equipped for that.”
“You said you found injection marks, as in plural?”
“On her thighs and both arms.”
“Were photographs taken of the body? The death scene?”
“No.”
That struck Hallie as odd, too. “Does everybody know you were the one who found Emily’s body?”
“No, just Graeter, Doc, and Fido. Details like that are all confidential.” She hesitated, then continued: “And honestly, Hallie, you wouldn’t either, if I hadn’t learned you were friends. If details start leaking before the muckety-mucks get their paperwork, I could wind up in very hot water.”
“I give you my word, nothing I heard leaves this room.”
Merritt smiled. “I knew the minute we met that I could trust you. Just a feeling you get about some people.”
That sounded like a closing statement to Hallie. She got up to go. “Thanks for taking time, Aggie. I appreciate—”
Merritt waved her down. “Whoa, hang on. All we’ve done is talk work. What about you? Married, have a family?”
“No husband, no kids.”
“There must be a Mr. Right, though. Beautiful girl like you.”
“As a matter of fact. We’ve been together about a year.”
“Making family plans yet?”
“Excuse me?”
“You know, family plans. Marriage, babies, all that.”
Merritt’s questions were mild in tone and accompanied by a sincere-looking smile, but they felt strange to Hallie. They had known each other for only twenty minutes. And why would she care about Hallie’s family plans, of all things?
“We haven’t gotten there,” she said. Which was true, if you discounted her recent close call and the impasse with Bowman it had caused on the way to Dulles. Merritt didn’t need to hear any of that, but Hallie felt it would be discourteous to just walk out now without showing some personal interest in return.
“How about you, Aggie?”
“Married, you mean?” Long sigh. “Once. Not anymore.”
So, death or divorce, Hallie thought, either of which could bite if you reached too far. She nodded, waited to see if Merritt wanted to continue. She did.