Lincoln opened his notes. “I did some deeper research into Mr. Ames. Before working for Bynum, he worked as an economic affairs officer—duty station Bogota. While there, there were three reports of women requesting reassignment. He was transferred out—I’m hitting a dead end. The women no longer work for the embassy and have refused comment. All three received twenty-five thousand dollars at the time, divided into three payments. I am checking his financials that far back. I don’t think the money came from him, but it sounds like hush money.”
Lincoln handed everyone a folder, then summarized Sebastian’s background. “Review of his social media, emails, and cell phone logs are in progress; we’re sorting personal from professional. From what I’ve seen, he looks like a wannabe silver spoon kid. Reading the postings, he seemed inept. No girlfriends. From the phone and text logs, three names pop up with regularity: Robert Bynum Jr., Burt Marshall, and Kevin Tyler, son of one of Bradford’s partners. We are identifying all the other numbers. Ian and Monique, did he give you any idea he knew the younger Whitman?”
Monique played with her wedding band. “No. The older Whitman knew him.”
Ian shook his head. “I don’t know. Whitman didn’t make any table banter. He was hung up on Cassie.”
“Don’t you think it’s odd he wouldn’t know the younger Whitman?” Lincoln asked.
Ian nodded. “Let’s find that link—if there is one.”
Lincoln finished up his report. “During the dinner, Sebastian made three calls—all under four seconds to Bynum Jr. Cassie’s and his seats were originally assigned to Bynum Jr. and Phyllis Wilson.”
Kieran nodded, scrawling notes in his tablet. “Good. Tate, you have the hospital?”
Tate rose. “Before her discovery in the bathroom, Ian removed an empty water glass from Cassie’s place setting. Residue in the bottom of the glass contained scopolamine and Rohypnol. Examination of blood drawn in the ambulance confirms the presence of both substances in her blood.” Tate handed the detectives a sealed cardboard box with a chain of evidence card attached.
“Cassie arrived in the emergency room at 2313 in cardiac arrest. After heroic procedures in the trauma room, she was placed in OR 1 under the direction of Dr. Joseph Maddox, Chief of Surgery. As a result of that surgery, Hunter Montgomery brought a formal complaint against Dr. Maddox for gross deviation from the standard of care. The hospital board is planning to discuss this and the other evidence we discovered.”
Martin stared at his tablet. “Ian, this just came in. On the Thursday morning after the attack, the one hundred thousand dollars wired into Joe Maddox’s savings account came from a bank in the British Virgin Islands. There is a trace in progress for the account holder.
“Before Cassie reached the OR, Dr. Maddox was operating on a private patient. The hospital operator reported Maddox received an important outside page from a woman who, according to the operator’s log, gave her name as Andromeda. Day shift nurse Pamela Barnes spoke with the scrub nurse who was with that patient. She said Maddox made the resident close so he could take the call. Wouldn’t let it go to speakerphone. Pam said, on his private patients, Maddox never allows residents to close.”
Ian winced. “According to mythology, Andromeda is Cassiopeia’s mythological daughter. She was the reason Cassiopeia was sentenced to be tortured for all eternity.” The air seemed to leave the room.
Tate returned to his report. “Cassie was stricken with severe septic shock. Dr. Montgomery discovered a piece of surgical sponge left inside her thigh wound—a wound three witnesses stated Dr. Maddox would not let anyone near. Upon examination, the sponge was contaminated with staph. If that wasn’t enough, Cassie was also stricken with bacterial meningitis.”
Martin handed the detectives and Kieran a file. “I went through Maddox’s credit card transactions. Maddox made a purchase at a supplier in Virginia. The day after Cassie was admitted, he ordered two vials of the bacteria that caused her meningitis.”
“You can buy this stuff over the counter?” Julian asked.
“Yeah, this and about a thousand other bugs. It’s listed as a biosafety level two, which basically means it doesn’t aerosolize easily. We saw what it did to her injected. Now we need to know why.”
Andy Blake scanned the evidence. “You have tied this up in a bow. With what you have, we have enough to arrest Maddox. We just need a warrant, but as you said, why? He’s not a stupid man. The money can’t be worth a career.”
“Ian, Tucker Hanlon is holding on line three.” Esther stood in the doorway, holding her hand to her ear in the sign of a telephone.
He called for a break, then suppressed his desire to run to the phone, walking calmly to his office instead. He took a deep breath before answering. “Tuck?”
“They’re still operating, but I want to give you an update. The orthopedist is working on her shoulder. It’s taking longer than expected. There’s more damage than we thought, and we had to slow down more when her heart got a little cranky. Hunt and the anesthesiologist took care of it. A cardiologist is coming by to examine her, so I notified security for clearance.”
“Will she wake up?”
“Nothing done today should interfere with that. But Cassie is on her own timetable.”
“Keep me posted.” Ian headed back to the boardroom.
Tate started the meeting again. “I spoke with our physician assistants. Cassie was undergoing dialysis with a premixed fluid, which arrived in a manufacturer’s carton from central supply the day before Cassie’s case hit the floor. Two cases were delivered to the ICU, both contaminated. That leaves a short window.
“Now the bad news—the camera in that area is disabled. I don’t think that had anything to do with Cassie. An analyst is sorting through discharge summaries, but seven patients died in the right timeframe—four dialysis patients. Martin spoke with Detective Ruiz after we discovered this.”
“Yes, after a heads up from you, we arranged for exhumations. Autopsies showed high potassium was the cause of death in the four dialysis patients. Before we got curious, their deaths were attributed to their chronic disease. We’re looking into their backgrounds, but nothing is popping, and no commonalities were found other than they required the same fluid as Cassie. Looks like she was the intended target,” Javier said.
“Otherwise, we have nothing. Our lab confirmed the entire case of Cassie’s solution was contaminated with lethal amounts of potassium. No prints, no other trace evidence. The hospital found the remainder of the other patients’ fluids. Same results. We’re checking other hospitals for unexpected dialysis patient deaths. The FBI product-tampering team is involved.” Martin frowned.
“As are detectives from Metro,” Javier reminded them.
Andy ran his hand through his hair. “Where does that leave us? We have Ames as her earlier and present attacker and very dead. We have Maddox as an attempted murderer. Was he the second attacker? We will need a bite impression.”
