Tess was surprised how quickly things were wrapped up at the station.
It was agreed that Tennant and his men would work their way deeper into the tunnel in the direction Hayde had gone. SWAT teams from the FBI and LAPD would enter the tunnel at other access points, then seal off all known means of egress. The tunnel continued in an essentially straight line to the North Hollywood station-NoHo, to the locals-and that station, as well as the Universal City depot, was now under police lockdown. There were no stations after that. NoHo was the end of the line.
Somewhere under the earth, between Universal City and NoHo, Hayde would be found. Then the only question was how he would choose to handle this final crisis. He could surrender or fight. If he fought, he would use whatever he had left of the VX. In the confined space of the tunnel, with limited access to outside air, he would have an ideal environment in which to release the nerve agent.
Unless, of course, he was already out of the tunnels. He could have escaped via a maintenance passageway, stolen a car and gone…anywhere.
And if he was out there, roaming loose, he might not be found or stopped in time.
This was the thought that flicked at her, rough as a lizard’s tongue, as she took the entrance ramp of the Santa Monica Freeway, heading for the ATSAC command center, where the crisis managers were again gathering.
The cell phone in her handbag buzzed. She answered it out of habit: "McCallum."
"Who is this?" a female voice asked.
Tess remembered that the phone had belonged to Dodge. "Sorry," she said. "This is FBI Agent Tess McCallum. I’m an associate of Detective Dodge-"
"Of course. Agent McCallum. I met you in Radiology. This is Rachel Winston."
The pathologist. "Hello, Doctor."
"You screening Jim’s calls?"
"Something like that." She changed the subject. "Working late?"
"Emergency hours-because of the, uh, well, the emergency. You know, you could’ve shared more info with me."
"I was under orders to keep quiet."
"Well, it’s all over the media now. Anyway, I finally got that information Dodge was looking for. Maybe you can pass it on to him?"
"Will do," Tess said, hoping Winston didn’t pick up on the catch in her voice.
"The antemortem X rays from Scott Maple’s dentist came through. I’ve just had a chance to make a comparison, and I can say definitively that the body from the chem lab is not that of Mr. Maple."
"Wait a minute. Is not?"
"No question about it. You can have a forensic dentist double-check the results, if you want, but I guarantee my conclusion will hold up. There are no significant similarities between the teeth on Scott Maple’s films and the teeth I radiographed this afternoon."
"So it’s someone else," Tess said half to herself.
"Must be. Look, I’ve got to run, but-"
"Could it be someone older?"
"Excuse me?"
"In the X-ray room you said there was a lot of dental work for a twenty-two-year-old. Maybe that’s because the victim was older than twenty-two."
"Good point. My guess is, we’re dealing with someone in his late thirties at a minimum."
Tess thanked the doctor and clicked off.
Then she stared at the blur of the freeway, trying to make sense out of things.
Scott Maple hadn’t died in the fire.
So who had?