Jack was pleased. He’d certainly made the right choice coming directly to Hiram House. Now, right after he’d put Laurie’s mind at ease, he’d be able to alert the authorities. In the back of his mind, he’d decided to let Bill Hargrove be the first to know, so he wouldbe the one to call the county sheriff who in turn would alert the state and federal authorities. At the same time, Jack was still going to call Lou Soldano and let him know as well.
Wasting no time, Jack took the stairs by twos and ducked into the house, starting a rapid search for Laurie. It was easy because just about every first-floor light was on, particularly in the spacious kitchen, which was blindingly bright and where he thought she might be. Unfortunately, the kitchen was empty. Quicky moving into the main part of the house, he found her with Warren, Jada, and Carol Nielson in the library. They were all sitting on the opposing sofas, with Laurie on one facing the others. As Jack sailed into the room still dressed only in a bathing suit, Laurie, who had apparently been speaking, let her jaw drop as she caught sight of him. Then, after blinking several times as if she were seeing a hallucination, she was on her feet. In the next instant she rushed toward him, and they met in a tight embrace with both totally at a loss for words, at least for a few moments. The others, who’d also stood when they saw Jack but held back, now came forward.
Of the two, Laurie was the first to recover, and when she did, she leaned back to look Jack directly in the eye. While still holding on to him tightly, she said with hints of both annoyance and relief: “Where in the hell have you been all night after having left no note and without your goddamned phone? It’s after midnight!”
“I’m sorry,” Jack managed. “I was very stupid but ultimately very lucky. I know that now, and it is a rather long and disturbing story, but let me give you all at least the gist before I run out and inform Bill of a disaster that’s happened over at the Bennet Estate….”
EPILOGUE
Thursday, October 16, 10:10a.m.
(Almost three months later)
Office of Chief Medical Examiner
New York City, New York
With Vinnie Amendola navigating at the head of the gurney and Jack at the rear, they had just maneuvered the recently autopsied corpse out through the double doors of the busy autopsy room on their way to the walk-in cooler when Jack’s mobile phone rang in his pocket. Since he had it onDo Not Disturbwhile doing autopsies, with only a few “favorites” allowed to ring through, he immediately called out to Vinnie to hold up.
When he answered, Laurie said, sounding mildly irritated: “Where are you?”
“Vinnie and I are over here at Dunkin Donuts on Second Avenue,” Jack said, unable to control his sarcastic urges. She knew full well where he was in the middle of the morning on a busy autopsy day, with almost thirty cases scheduled. The night before had been hectic for the OCME Medical Legal Investigators, as they had todeal with more than the usual number of medical disasters, homicides, suicides, and accidents.
“Oh, please!” Laurie moaned. She’d never been appreciative of Jack’s sarcastic bent. “Are you in the middle of a case?”
“I’m actually at the very end of a case,” Jack said. “Vinnie and I are on our way to the cooler with the body. I’ve got two more to go. What’s up?”
“Lou had called me earlier this morning and said he wanted to stop by and asked if I’d have time to see him,” Laurie explained. “I told him I would if he got here a bit after ten, which he did just a few minutes ago, but he never gave me a hint of what it was about. As it turns out, you should be here, too, even more than I. So, can you come up here to my office right now?”
“I suppose,” Jack said. He wasn’t thrilled with the idea as he wasn’t wild about the bureaucratic side of being a medical examiner, which was where Laurie spent most of her day as chief medical examiner. But with Detective Lieutenant Lou Soldano involved it was a little more appealing. They had done a case together the previous week involving the suicide of a young police cadet, and Jack wondered if it might involve fallout from that sad episode. “Okay! Let me get this body situated, and I’ll pop up,” he added.
“Perfect,” Laurie said and disconnected.
Surprised at the abrupt ending to the conversation, Jack shrugged.
“I’ve been summoned to make a quick visit up to the chief’s office,” Jack called out to Vinnie, who was already showing signs of impatience, which he didn’t feel obligated to hide because of the unique relationship he and Jack shared. Their close working circumstance made him feel more like a partner than an underling.
“Damn!” Vinnie said, rolling his eyes. “That’s more thaninconvenient. Exactly how long am I going to be twiddling my thumbs down here waiting for your return? We’ve still got two cases to go.” Often Vinnie stayed voluntarily beyond his quitting time to finish a case with Jack.
“I’ll make it quick,” Jack said as they started moving again.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before,” Vinnie said dismissively over his shoulder.
After they got the current case into the cooler and the next case located, Jack ducked into the locker room, removed his soiled surgical gown, and put it into the laundry bin. Not wanting to take the time to change out of his scrubs, he merely donned one of the short, white doctor coats that were available for such circumstance.
Moving at a fast pace just shy of a jog up the stairs, Jack took advantage of the main corridor to get to the administration area and didn’t slow until he came abreast of Cheryl Stanford’s desk. As per usual, she was using her headset for a call and typing into her monitor all at the same time. When he managed to get her attention, she flashed a thumbs-up sign to indicate the coast was clear. With that encouragement, he entered the chief’s office without bothering to knock and wait for an okay. He was eager to get back downstairs to prove Vinnie wrong.
Expecting to see just Laurie and Detective Lieutenant Lou Soldano, Jack was stopped in his tracks just inside the door. Mildly nonplussed, he was confronted by a relative crowd of “suits”—well-dressed, high-level bureaucrats. Even Laurie was not where she normally would be, sitting behind her massive partners desk, but rather standing in front leaning against it. Jack sensed that she had been speaking the moment he barged in. Lou was next to her, and even he appeared more put together than usual with a clean shirt, his tie cinched up tight under his chin, and his hair combed.
“Please, everyone!” Laurie called out. She gestured toward Jack. “As promised, let me present Dr. Jack Stapleton. And now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask at least some of you to introduce yourselves.”
“I’ll be happy to start since I’ll be making the presentation,” a square-jawed, athletic-appearing, nattily dressed man in a dark blue suit said without hesitation. “Dr. Jack Stapleton, I’m FBI Special Agent Ronald Jeffries in charge of the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, more commonly known as JTTF….”
The moment this FBI agent introduced himself, Jack knew that this surprise, impromptu meeting involved what had become known at the OCME, particularly between himself and Laurie, as the Essex Falls Affair. Although he and Laurie had heard relatively little from the federal or even state authorities due to aspects of the case becoming belatedly classified, they had been kept up to date on what was going on in Essex Falls over the intervening months by Bob Nielson. Bob, of course, was in constant, direct contact with Police Chief Bill Hargrove even though the Bennet Estate murder-suicide investigation had been taken over by a combination of the Hamilton County sheriff, the New York State police, and the FBI. Besides, the OCME had already played a significant role in the ongoing investigation since the bodies Jack had briefly glimpsed in the depths of the lake in front of the Bennet House had been sent down to the OCME to be autopsied.
As Jack had expected, one of the lake bodies turned out to be the missing corpse of Ethan Jameson. The other was identified as John Daniels, who at the time wasn’t even known to be missing. In another particularly stunning surprise, the OCME Toxicology Department, thanks to the expertise of John DeVries, had determined that both individuals had been killed by the use of Novichok, afamily of Russian nerve agents that includes some powerful binary chemical weapons. These agents caused symptoms similar to some pesticides, only thousands of times more powerful. They’d also been used to poison dissidents of the Russian government, such as the Skripals in England and Alexei Navalny in Russia itself.
Although Bill Hargrove had not been the principal investigator of the murder-suicide, he’d dutifully stayed in close touch with those who were in charge and communicated the findings to Bob Nielson, who informed Jack. Although certain details had become classified, Jack learned that the supposed Netherlander militiamen were actually from Russia, which explained the Novichok. Two were Russian scientists with PhDs in biochemistry and one with an added PhD in molecular biology, and two were scientific technicians, all of whom worked in the Vector Institute in the Russian city of Koltsovo. In addition, all four were active members of major right-wing Russian militia with one being a general, another a major, and the other two corporals.
