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“Not sure where he’d get plague, but he has a lot of fleas. Someone would have to be really sick to disseminate plague.”
I was looking at the red and silver tins. “What are these?”
“Blasting grade black powder. It’s used as a bursting charge. Pooka isn’t much of a housekeeper. He’s obviously spilled some on the floor and not cleaned it up. You don’t want to light a match around this stuff. Be careful not to step in it.”
I pulled my phone out and called Morelli.
“I found the black powder,” I said. “Meet me at the Zeta house.”
TWENTY-ONE
RANGER STAYED UNTIL Morelli arrived and then he took off, picked up by one of his patrolmen.
Morelli stood hands on hips, looking around the cellar.
“Fireworks,” he said. “The lab should have picked up on that. This is blasting powder. Gun enthusiasts use a different grade.”
“Pooka is the only one with a key to the cellar,” I told Morelli.
“How did you and Ranger get in?”
“I suspected Gobbles might be down here, so we let ourselves in. I also suspected Gobbles might be in Pooka’s apartment so we let ourselves in there, too.”
Morelli looked like he was in pain. “Do I want to know this?”
“For you to decide. I have pictures.”
“Body parts in the fridge?” he asked.
“Blood.”
“What?”
“He had a bag that looked like it contained blood in his refrigerator. And he had dead mice in his freezer. I think he was feeding it to his fleas.”
“Fleas. Why doesn’t he just get his fleas a dog like everyone else?”
“He’s raising the fleas. He’s got aquariums all over his apartment, and they’re filled with fleas.”
“You’re making this up.”
“I swear.” I gave him my phone. “Thumb through the pictures.”
“This is Pooka’s apartment?”
“Pictures don’t do it justice. You can’t smell pictures.”
“Here’s my problem,” Morelli said. “All this might prove is that the murder victims were in this cellar. I have nothing that connects it to the murder weapon.”
“Do you know about Unit 731?”
“Yes. The Japanese army had a facility where they performed horrible acts in the name of science.”
“And they dropped fleas that were contaminated with bubonic plague on the Chinese,” I said.
“Did you see any vials of bubonic plague in Pooka’s apartment?”
“No, but some of the vials weren’t labeled.”
