Blood rushed to his face as his heartbeat doubled. If there was one thing he hated more than anything else, it was being pressured like this, especially by some media schmuck. “Who told you about this?”
“A friend,” the reporter replied.
“Well, even if there were any truth to what you’re saying, I certainly wouldn’t discuss it over the phone like this. And, don’t get me wrong, there is no story here, but I’d like to hear what you have to say in more detail. Could we meet to discuss it?”
“Sure,” Jack replied. “When and where?”
“I’ll send a car for you now. Are you at your office?”
“Yes.”
“They’ll be there directly.”
Before hanging up the phone, Arthur said, “One more thing, Jack.”
“What’s that?”
“Have you told anybody else about this story?”
There was a hesitation. “No.”
“Good, don’t or you lose any exclusive on anything.”
“Damn,” Arthur muttered as he slammed the phone into its cradle. He furiously pounded out a message on his phone and then stepped out of the office.
“May I use your office for a bit longer?” He asked the nurse who was sorting through patient records outside.
“Of course,” she replied.
Arthur walked down the hall to Carl, Irving, and Steve. “I need to speak with you three in private. Come with me.”
They piled into the small office. Arthur let the tension, his ally, build for a minute before he said, “I just got off the phone with a reporter at WOTN. He knows what’s going on here with this suspected virus. I want to know how this information has got out. Right now.”
His eyes blazed as they moved between the three men.
Carl spoke first. “None on my team has spoken to anyone. It must have been Pell. He probably contacted the media just to get this out there, to distract everyone from the real issue about him shooting a cop.”
“I have the news reporter being picked up now and believe me, by the time I’m done with him I will know exactly where the trail leads. So if any of you has anything to say, you’d better say it now. It’ll be your jobs if I find out I’m not being told the truth.”
“I’m telling you, Arthur. This sounds just like the sort of thing Pell would do,” Carl said. “We’re professionals. None of us have said a word, have we?” He turned to Irving and Steve for support.
“Well?” Arthur asked as he stepped into Steve’s and the Irving’s personal space, glaring at each man fearsomely.
“Well sir,” Irving began tentatively. “Pell was babbling about the virus and the doctors—”
“I know about that,” Arthur said. “It was a stupid move by Carl to tell them anything but that’s done. Right now, I want to make sure none of you is the leak. Look me in the eyes and answer that question.”
Each man professed their innocence satisfactorily and Arthur glared at Carl for a long moment. He made a slow hissing sound as he took a long intake of breath between clenched teeth and shook his head. “So that means your foolish decision to talk to those doctors is the reason we’re in this mess.”
Carl opened his mouth to say something but Arthur shut him down. “I’ll deal with you in due course,” he said before opening the door of the office and heading outside.
Dr. Epstein was right there, talking on a phone at the nurses’ station. Arthur walked over and pressed down on the hook switch, disconnecting the Doctor’s call.
Dr. Epstein began, “What the—”
“I want you and that intern in here. Now.”
“Page Lasu and have him meet us,” Dr. Epstein said to a nurse as he stepped into the office.
Arthur stood silently in the office, keying a message into his iPhone for an update from the agents that were on their way to get Jack Long as he waited impatiently for Lasu to arrive.
After a few minutes, the door opened and Lasu walked in. The tension in the room was palpable, and the young doctor looked like he was going to crumple under the invisible pressure. This kid’s never going to make it through his internship, Arthur thought as he glared at the most likely candidate for the Loose Lips award.
“I’ll get straight to the point,” he said. “The fact that Agent Moscovitz here, for whatever reason, decided to share information with you about an active investigation is unfortunate, but we need to know exactly who you might have told about this.”
“I didn’t tell anyone!” The intern screamed as he looked wildly at the men around him. “Nobody.”
“I didn’t say you did,” Arthur said. “And what about you, Doc? Did you talk to anyone about this?”
Dr. Epstein shook his head back and forth.
“You didn’t even tell your wife about it?”
The now visibly nervous man continued to shake his head.
Arthur stepped forward, stood directly in front of the doctor and Lasu and said, “Do you realize how important this is? If this gets out in the media, we’re going to have a crisis. Hysteria in the general public is not a good thing, gentlemen. I need to corral anyone who knows anything about this until we can either confirm or deny the whole thing. Do you understand? This isn’t a game.”
He waited for one of them to talk.
“I talked to my wife about it last night,” the doctor said finally, his face turned down in disgrace. “I’m sure she didn’t tell anyone else, though.”
Arthur took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “Where’s your wife now?”
“At home, as far as I know.”
“You,” Arthur said as he pointed to Steve Strange. “Take the doctor and go find his wife. Bring her to the office. If you can find out if she talked, then get whoever she talked to and bring them in as well.”
“I’m an American citizen,” the doctor said. His verbal polish gone, face flushed, eyes wide. “You can’t do this.”
Arthur grabbed the doctor by the shirt and pulled him so that their faces were an inch apart. Dr. Epstein struggled, but it was pointless. Arthur was in tremendous shape for a man his age. He could easily bench press the apparently chatty doctor.
“Listen to me, Doc. I’m only going to say this once. You’re either going to work with me or against me and, you can trust me when I say, you don’t want to be on my bad side in a situation like this. Do you understand?”
The doctor nodded violently. Arthur let him go and watched as he and Agent Strange ran from the room.
“Be fast about it,” Arthur yelled at them as the door shut. “Now, what about you?” He said as he turned to Lasu.
7:00 am PDT Humboldt County, California
Sunlight filtered around the edges of a shade and provided the only light in the room. Chris sat up slowly, trying to piece together where he was and how he had gotten here. Last night came back to him slowly. Jesus Christ. Two car accidents, Miguel and his boys – he was lucky to be alive. Unbelievable. He could vaguely remember walking for miles, then hearing the music and stumbling up onto the porch. After that, it was all blank.
Bloody gauze wrapped his forearm. He touched the bulge where the unset bone pressed against the medical dressing and flashed back to the disturbing sensation of touching the jagged bone last night. He could still feel the sharpness of the bone on his fingertips. Bending his elbow sent an intense pain up his arm that rippled across his chest and up his neck. He clenched his teeth, holding in the agonizing scream.
He tried to stand but was too weak and dropped back down onto the bed. After a minute or two, he tried again, and this time got to his feet. He walked over to the door and turned the knob. Locked – from the other side.
“What the…” he muttered as he walked over to the window and lifted the shade.