Lock In (Lock In, #1)(80)

“My brother,” Bell said.

“Your brother,” I said. “Hubbard’s smart, but his intelligence and ambition are also his blind spot. He believes he’s covered every angle and every contingency. But we propose that there are a couple of angles he can’t see.”

“Because they are in his blind spot.”

“Yes.”

“Promise me my brother,” Bell said.

“I promise you I will do everything I can to save him,” I said. “I promise we will do everything we can.”

“Now tell me how you plan to capture Hubbard.”

“He intends to kill you,” I said.

“So you say.”

“I think we should let him try.”





Chapter Twenty-three

SAMUEL SCHWARTZ WAS not in the least pleased to see us on a Saturday morning but invited us in nevertheless. He sat us in his home office, in front of a desk festooned with pictures of two small children. “Yours?” Vann asked.

“Yes,” Schwartz said, sitting down behind his desk.

“Adorable,” Vann said.

“Thank you,” Schwartz said. “And to forestall the next set of questions, Anna and Kendra, ages seven and five, by way of seminal extraction and in vitro fertilization, the mothers are a married couple of my acquaintance, one of whom was a law school classmate, yes, the children know who I am and yes, I am an active part of their life. In fact I need to be at a soccer game almost immediately. I assume you’re here about Nicholas Bell.”

“Actually, we’re here about Jay Kearney,” Vann said.

“I’ve already talked to your fellow FBI agents about Jay,” Schwartz said. “I’ll tell you what I told them, which is that at no point in our professional or personal relationship did Jay ever reveal or even hint at his plans or his association with Dr. Baer. And as for my whereabouts that evening”—Schwartz nodded toward me—“your associate here can confirm my presence at Marcus Shane’s home that evening. We were at the dinner table when the Loudoun Pharma bombing happened.”

“Our labs tell us Kearney—or Baer—created a car bomb made out of ammonium nitrate,” Vann said.

“All right,” Schwartz said. “And?”

“It’s probably nothing but I’ll note that Agrariot is an Accelerant company. They make dehydrated and frozen food, cattle feed, and fertilizer.”

“Accelerant is a multinational conglomerate that wholly owns or has significant investment in nearly two hundred different companies, Agent Vann,” Schwartz said. “You are correct that it’s probably nothing.”

“Agrariot does have a warehouse in Warrenton,” Vann observed. “Right down Route 15 from Leesburg. And it’s missing several pallets of fertilizer from its inventory. I checked yesterday.”

“Then I hope you informed those associates of yours more directly involved in the investigation,” Schwartz said.

“We have,” Vann said.

“I understand Accelerant made an offer on Loudoun Pharma,” I said.

Schwartz turned to me. “This is the first I heard of it,” he said. “You might not give credence to rumors.”

“I don’t know that it’s a rumor if it comes directly from the CEO,” I said. “I spoke with Mr. Buchold yesterday afternoon.”

“Mr. Buchold was indiscreet,” Schwartz said. “There have been discussions, but nothing serious.”

“I also recall at dinner Lucas Hubbard being pretty negative about what Loudoun Pharma was doing,” I said. “Interesting that he would be considering buying the company now, especially after it’s been turned into a crater.”

“Lucas is interested in keeping jobs in Loudoun County,” Schwartz said. “Loudoun Pharma has products that fit into our portfolio.”

“Sure,” Vann said. “And one that you’d probably like to keep off the market.”

“Neuroulease,” I said, helpfully.

“That’s it,” Vann said. “Don’t want a bunch of Hadens unlocked. That’d cut into the profit margins of a whole bunch of Accelerant’s companies. And you need them cranking out revenue for the next several years at least.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know much about Neuroulease,” Schwartz said, rising. “Now, as I said, I have a soccer game—”

“Do you know much about Salvatore Odell, Michael Crow, Gregory Bufford, James Martinez, Steve Gaitten, or Cesar Burke?” Vann asked.

“I don’t know these men,” Schwartz said.

“They’re the janitors killed when Loudoun Pharma went up,” Vann said. “They only just managed to get them dug out the other day. They’re doing the memorial ceremony for them today.”

“Right now, just about,” I said.

“That so,” Vann said, to me, and then turned back to Schwartz. “Our med people tell me that a couple of them died when the building blew up, but the rest survived the explosion. They died from being buried under four stories of concrete. Pressed them flat. Crushed.”

“Memorial is closed casket,” I said.

“It would be,” Vann said.

“I’m very sorry to hear that,” Schwartz said.