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This came out more like a playback of a recording and both Michelle and Sean looked relieved.
“Okay,” Sean said. “Definitely not the Bureau.”
Michelle said to Paul, “How did you work out that was going to happen?”
“The men watching the facility? That was the first clue. Then a maintenance crew went in recently to do some routine work. Only that work had been done less than a month ago and wasn’t due to be done again for another three months. They spent a long time with the backup generator.”
“Then why did they even let them in the building?” asked Sean.
“Because the man who replaced Carla Dukes as director at Cutter’s authorized it. And he was being paid off.”
“And that work was really to sabotage the electrical systems and the backup generator,” said Michelle.
“And as we saw, they were successful in doing so,” replied Paul.
“So you called some… friends?” prompted Sean.
“Acquaintances,” she corrected. “They came, they saw, and they kicked ass.”
“They were going to do what, kill him?” said Michelle, eyeing Roy.
“Eventually, yes, and blame it on Peter or me or some other convenient target.”
She turned to her brother. “When I visited you at Cutter’s I asked you to think about some things. Have you?”
Roy nodded. He adjusted his glasses and said, “You asked me about patterns. I detected four different ones but all were connected to some degree. What we’ve learned recently has given me new information which I’ve now plugged into these scenarios.”
Roy’s speech now was firm, straightforward, more machinelike than human.
“Four patterns?” said Michelle.
He nodded. “First, Agent Murdock was killed because he’d discovered the existence of the E-Program. That’s not a deduction. He actually told me that when he came to see me at Cutter’s. He said something was definitely wrong and that he needed my help to get to the people responsible. Carla Dukes was eliminated because she wouldn’t go along with the extraction plan, whereas we know now that the new director had no such compunction. I saw him looking at me as we left Cutter’s. He has a terrible poker face; his guilt couldn’t have been plainer.”
Paul said, “He obviously didn’t believe you’d be in a position to tell anyone.”
“Right. Next, Hilary Cunningham was killed to incriminate Ms. Maxwell and distract you and Mr. King from the case.”
“And Bergin?” asked Sean.
“Obviously by someone he knew.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Sean.
“The window being rolled down and then back up by the killer.” He glanced at his sister. “She told me about that in the Morse code.”
“And Sean told me that,” said Paul.
“I guess great minds think alike,” noted Michelle.
“But I don’t know who killed him,” admitted Roy. “Not enough data to go on. The likely scenario was to remove him from the case so it wouldn’t move forward. They were buying time.” He paused. “But that doesn’t really make sense.”
“Why?” asked Michelle.
Sean answered. “Because the case wasn’t moving forward anyway, not with Edgar sitting at Cutter’s.”
“That’s exactly right,” said Roy.
“But at least Foster and Quantrell must be throwing fits,” said Bunting with a grim smile. “That’s a positive for our side.”
