My cell rang with an incoming call. I answered immediately.
“Hey, ba––”
“I’m so sorry, Finn,” Waverly cut me off. “I’d be there if I could, but given the nature of our relationship, the director felt it was best if Duncan handled your case from here on out. He saw the shitshow with the reporters on the news this morning. We were in the middle of getting our asses chewed out when I got the call from Joel.”
“Do you know what’s going on?”
“No. Joel only said it was urgent and had to do with your stalker. Duncan just texted. He’ll be there in two minutes. He’s in the elevator.”
Waverly didn’t trust easily, but she trusted Duncan with her life…and now mine. The man was a mystery to me. He was standoffish on a good day, grumpy on others. I didn’t know what to make of him, other than he was obviously good at his job.
“Okay.”
“Finn.”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Be careful.”
I ended the call and stumbled backward a step when I looked up to find Duncan standing two feet from me. It was like he appeared out of nowhere.
“Jesus feckin’ Christ. Where did you come from?”
“My mother.” His lips twitched like he was fighting a smile. “Lanie said I should wear a bell.”
“She’s right.”
“Agent Palmer.” Joel held out his hand. “Good to see you again. Thank you for coming so quickly. I’m sure you’ve met Wes?”
The two men gave each other a chin lift.
“Hal, our building maintenance tech, is waiting for us in the conference room.” Joel ushered us down the hall to the large room we used for inter-department meetings. “He’s the reason I called.”
Hal stood as we entered, shaking everyone’s hands. After we were all seated, Joel nodded to him to begin.
“Honestly, I’m not quite sure where to start.” He picked up a pen, clicking the top over and over to extend and retract the ink cartridge. His unease bolstered my own. “As you know, we’ve had a bout of the flu going around for the past week. The symptoms have varied: nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and headache mostly. In an effort to rid the air of potential contaminants, I decided to change out the filters in the ventilation system, even though they weren’t due for another few weeks. I figured it couldn’t hurt, right?”
Hal pushed out of his seat and began pacing, muttering to himself about rules of ventilation, whatever the hell that meant. I looked at Joel, hoping for an explanation, but he looked even angrier than he did when he first came into my office. Surely the flu didn’t require the presence of the FBI.
“Keep going,” Duncan encouraged.
“Sorry. I’m just having a hard time believing someone would do this deliberately.”
“Tell them, Hal,” Wes demanded.
“The ventilation system was sabotaged."
Duncan sat up straight. “Sabotaged how? Be more specific.”
“The wires to the exhaust fan, which is what pulls the contaminants out of the air, were cut.
Duncan dropped his chin to his chest. “Carbon monoxide poisoning.”
“Yes,” Hal answered.
“Wait a second, you’re saying someone deliberately poisoned my employees?”
“Mr. O’Lachlan, the wires weren’t eroded, they were sliced cleanly in half.”
