Lurleen started talking as soon as she closed the door to the family room.
“Stephanie thinks Jonathan will talk to you, Ditie. Alone. He wouldn’t tell her what was wrong beyond saying it was something he’d done that he was deeply ashamed of. He said it was something only a doctor might understand. She asked if you could come over tomorrow night after work.”
I looked at Mason. “Is that all right with you?”
“I’ll have to check with Kevin. I’m not sure he’ll be enthusiastic about your interviewing one of his suspects. I’ll call him tomorrow and see what he thinks.”
“I was hoping we could settle this tonight,” Lurleen said.
“I’m not willing to disturb Kevin during his dinner hour with something that can wait until the next day.”
“Very well. I’ll let Stephanie know the decision has been delayed.”
She stood and gave Mason a curt goodbye. “Call me later,” she said before she left the house.
I looked at my watch. I needed to start dinner, but I also needed to make a phone call.
“We’ll have leftovers tonight,” I said. “I have to reach someone before it’s too late to call.”
“I’ll see if Jason has finished his homework and wants a quick game of chess,” Mason said.
I ran upstairs to my bedroom for privacy.
Maybe before I talked to Jonathan, assuming that I was allowed to do that, I could find out if there was anything going on at the CDC that might be troubling him. I had a friend Kathryn who worked in a lab there, not on special pathogens, but still she might know gossip about the place.
She picked up on the first ring.
“Got a minute?” I asked.
“Sure. It’s been a while, Ditie,” Kathryn said. “How are you? I heard about your marriage from a mutual friend, can’t remember who, and she said you’d be having a big open house to celebrate. I hope I’m invited. Is that why you called?”
“You will be invited, but that’s not why I called. I have a friend, an acquaintance really, whose husband seems to be having a hard time at work. He’s in the viral special pathogens lab and—“
She cut me off. “You’re not talking about Jonathan Mathews are you?”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“I work in the lab next door,” Kathryn said. “We’re all worried about him. Rumor has it he might be fired soon.”
“Fired?”
“Yes! He’s been there seven years, now head of the lab, but lately it seems as if he can’t keep up. We’re all worried about him. He’s a friend, and I’ve tried to talk to him but no luck. He said it’s simply an issue he has to work out on his own.”
“Is it something to do with the unit? He told his wife it was a personnel issue. Is someone at work causing him trouble?”
“Not that I’ve seen. It’s a small unit and everyone has been there for a long time. I haven’t heard of any personnel issues, except for the latest one—that Jonathan might be fired.”
“What do you think is going on with him, Kathryn?”
“I wish I knew. Jonathan is private about all things, not just his work. He keeps telling me everything is fine, so honestly I don’t have a clue. I don’t think it has to do with the viral special pathogens lab. They’re like a well-oiled machine. They have too much to do lately, and I suppose that could have gotten to Jonathan, but it’s clear he loves his work. I’ve never seen him unable to cope with the load. As to threats from outside, the lab is under tight security and it’s not where the most dangerous pathogens are housed. Nothing can get in or out of either lab. So Jonathan couldn’t release a dangerous pathogen into the world even if someone was trying to force him to do that.”
“As a physician and a mother, I’m glad to hear that,” I said.
“Me too,” Kathryn said.
“I’ll let you go in a minute, but do you have any idea when Jonathan’s odd behavior started?”
Kathryn was quiet for a few seconds. “It seems to me things changed over the summer. My husband and I had a barbecue Memorial Day weekend for all the lab folks. Jonathan and Stephanie came and they seemed like a happy couple. I felt a little jealous of their carefree lifestyle. They never had kids, and we’re struggling with our sixteen-year old son, who is happy to talk to anyone but us.
“Anyway, I saw no signs of trouble then. It was later in the summer that I noticed Jonathan was more irritable, wasn’t cracking his usual sly jokes about how the place was run. He seemed to be losing weight, and I asked him about it. He claimed he was working out, but that wasn’t how it looked to me.”
“Do you think he’s sick?”
“Don’t know. As I said he’s a private person, so I didn’t even tackle that.”
“Thanks, Kathryn. One more question. Has anyone recently come on board in Jonathan’s lab?”
“Not in his lab. Someone new started work in mine over the summer, Adeline Morgan.”
“Adeline Morgan?” I asked.
“Why do you sound so surprised? Do you know her?”
“I’ve never met her but I’ve heard her name mentioned. What’s she like?”
“She’s becoming a good friend of mine. What do you know about her?”
“Nothing really,” I said. “I’d love to meet her sometime.”
“I’ll let her know that.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll keep you posted about when we’ll have our open house, maybe a brunch during the holidays.”
“Sounds great.”
We hung up, and I sat for a moment to put together what I’d heard. Part of me was relieved. The viral special pathogens branch could have been a prime spot for domestic or international terrorism, and Kathryn took that worry off the table. Whatever was troubling Jonathan didn’t have to do with that. So what did he mean by a personnel issue? Adeline Morgan started work about the same time Jonathan began falling apart. What if anything did that mean?
My cell rang before I could go downstairs to start dinner.
“Change in plans,” Lurleen said. “Major change in plans. Jonathan is in the hospital. Someone tried to run him off the road this afternoon. He’s at Piedmont Hospital, one broken arm and one fractured hip. He’ll be there for a while.”
“Will he be all right?”
“Stephanie says yes, but he’ll be in the hospital for a few days at least. She says maybe you could talk to him there over the weekend.”
“I’m glad he’s okay, and I can probably do that.”
“There is other news,” Lurleen said, “but I’d rather share it without Lucie around. It will scare her. It scares me.”
“Not much scares Lucie, except what she doesn’t know,” I said.
“Let me say that differently. It should scare her, and it’s time to keep her out of this whole investigation.”
“Mason would say it’s past time to keep us all out of this investigation,” I said.
“As usual, chèrie, Mason is right about that, but Stephanie has become my friend. I can’t desert her when she needs me most.”
“I think maybe Mason and I better come to you. Lucie has a way of hearing things in this house. Can Danny come over to stay with the kids?”
“Yes.”
I found Mason in the kitchen warming up leftover spaghetti. Lucie was making the salad. “Starving kids, so I had to act.”
Jason was setting the table. “Dad beat me,” Jason said but he didn’t seem to mind.
“We have ground rules,” Mason said bringing in the bowl of spaghetti and setting it on the dining room table. Lucie followed behind with the salad.
“I told Jason I will never play down to him, but I’ll try to teach him what I know. And every other game will be about some particular part of chess—opening moves, plays by famous players, that sort of thing. It won’t be long before he’s beating me. I can tell that already.”
The doorbell rang setting off Hermione. Her barking turned to wild tail wagging once she saw it was Danny at the door.
Mason asked why Danny had come over, and I explained the situation as quietly as I could. Lucie, of course, needed the details.
“Why are you here, Danny?” she asked. “And why do Mama and Uncle Mason have their jackets on right when we’re about to have dinner?”
Truth or as much as I could tell of it was what I gave her, including the fact that Jonathan was in the hospital after what seemed to be a hit and run.
“Jonathan is hurt?” Lucie said. “Mama, do you know what day it is? It’s October 26th.”
“I hadn’t realized that,” I said.
“Is that why you’re going over to talk to Lurleen?” Lucie asked.
“She wants to talk to me. She said Mason and I should both come over, so that’s where we’re headed.”
“Ah,” Lucie said. “Does Lurleen think Jonathan’s accident is related to Nicole’s death?”
“I have no idea, Lucie,” I said.
“You’ll tell me what Lurleen says?’ Lucie asked.
“If I can.”
I said goodnight to both my children and told Danny where he could find my latest batch of cookies for dessert after dinner.
“We’re all set,” Danny said closing the door behind us.
We took Mason’s car, and he was quiet for most of the short trip.
I told him about the significance of today’s date—that it was the date Luke died, the same date Mr. Strout died a year later, and now the date Jonathan was run off the road.
“I’ll make sure Kevin is aware of that. You know I don’t like this, Ditie,” he said, as we pulled into Lurleen’s driveway behind a car we didn’t recognize.
“I know, and I’m sorry. This is supposed to start a short vacation for you. We’ll plan to do something with the kids over the weekend, more Forced Family Fun. Maybe a hayride somewhere, a drive around town to see the Halloween decorations. We’ll get the information from Lurleen—you’ll pass it on to Kevin, and that will be it.”
“Hmm,” was all Mason said.
Lurleen opened the door before we could knock. Behind her stood Stephanie, who was in tears.
We sat down in Lurleen’s elegant living room. It was the opposite of mine, full of antique furniture and exquisite finds from auctions Lurleen loved to attend. People weren’t that interested in antiques anymore, so most of what Lurleen had she’d bought at bargain rates. Some of the furniture was from her aunt’s estate, and the overall effect was stunning. Like Lurleen, it was original, warm and beautiful.
We both declined anything to drink when Lurleen offered. Mason and I chose chairs directly across from Stephanie who sat on a settee beside Lurleen. We waited for one of them to speak.
“Jonathan finally admitted he’d been lying to me for months,” Stephanie said before she burst into a new flood of tears. “He could have been killed today, and that’s the only thing that made him open up. Someone wanted him to die today on the anniversary of the other deaths, and I think he has some idea who it might be.”
“Who?” Mason asked after a moment of silence.
“He won’t tell me that,” Stephanie said. “He said he won’t tell anyone until he knows for sure.”
“Does he have any idea how dangerous that is?” Mason asked. “He might not survive the next attack.”
“I’ve told him that,” Stephanie said, “but he won’t talk to me. Maybe he’ll tell you, Ditie.”