Chapter 19

The FBI was finally getting around to questioning her.

“I feel like I should have a lawyer or something,” Annabelle said as she indicated that the agents should take a seat.

“That’s your prerogative, of course,” answered the female agent, “but you aren’t being accused of anything here. We just have some general questions we’d like to ask you.”

“All right.”

“You were the producer of Dr. Lee’s piece this morning, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“And we’ve been told that you knew nothing of Dr. Lee’s intention to obtain anthrax and bring it into this building. Is that also correct?”

“Yes, it is. He had talked once about the idea, but I never thought he would actually do it, especially after Linus Nazareth told him not to.”

“When did Nazareth say that?”

“At a staff meeting one morning last week.”

The FBI agent made a notation.

“Do you have any idea how he got the anthrax?”

Annabelle paused before answering. “I would imagine he obtained it from the lab where part of the piece was shot, but I don’t know for sure.”

“Were you with Dr. Lee at the lab?”

For once, Annabelle was glad that KEY News was under such strict budget constrictions. Beth Terry, the unit manager, had approved the travel expenses for only the medical correspondent to fly out to the lab. Annabelle had set up the lab shoot and arranged for a local camera crew over the telephone but hadn’t actually flown to the site.

“No, I wasn’t.”

“So you don’t know who Dr. Lee may have had contact with once he was at the lab?”

“That’s correct.”

As the agents were rising to leave, Annabelle glanced at her computer screen and clicked on the message directed to all personnel. Yelena Gregory was going to do a closed-circuit broadcast to the employees to announce the good news. Preliminary tests showed no trace of anthrax in the Broadcast Center. With a sigh of relief, Annabelle checked her phone messages, learned that she would be lunching alone, and headed for the cafeteria.