Lock In (Lock In, #1)(81)

“Are you,” Vann said.

“I think that’s all the time I have,” Schwartz said.

“How close are you to Lucas Hubbard?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” Schwartz said.

“I mean, I’m remembering at dinner the other night when Lucas asked you a question and you blanked out on the answer,” I said. “Hubbard reached over to reassure you after you blanked and patted your hand. I’m not a slavish follower of gender roles, but that seemed pretty ‘not guy’ to me. You don’t strike me as the sort to need reassurance, and Hubbard doesn’t strike me as the sort to offer it to you. You’re his corporation’s chief lawyer, not his girlfriend.”

“I think you’re reading too much into it,” Schwartz said.

“And there was the moment I was talking to you about your threep, and you looked at me like you had no idea what I was saying,” I said. “Hubbard answered for you then, too. I remember you reading us the riot act when we had Bell in the interrogation room. I don’t think it’s like you to let someone else speak for you.”

“Maybe it wasn’t him not speaking,” Vann said.

“Maybe not,” I said, looking at Schwartz.

“You and I did speak,” Schwartz said. “I remember very clearly in your father’s trophy room we spoke about the fact I was using a woman Integrator.”

“Brenda Rees,” I said.

“She’s dead now,” Vann said.

“Yes,” I said.

“Opened fire at a café and then blew herself up with a grenade.”

“I was there for it,” I said.

“So was I,” Vann said, and motioned to her arm, in its sling. “She shot me.”

“Me too,” I said.

“It’s strange,” Vann said.

“Being shot?” I asked.

“Yes,” Vann said, and pointed at Schwartz. “But I was more thinking about Mr. Schwartz here having two Integrators blow themselves up in the same week.”

“That is strange,” I said.

“I mean, what are the odds?” Vann asked me.

“Pretty slim, I’d say.”

“I’d say pretty slim too,” Vann said. “Maybe not as slim as these Integrators being eaten by bears or falling into a wheat thresher. But still, overall, pretty remarkable coincidence.”

“Agent Vann,” Schwartz said. “Agent Shane. We are d—”

“She says you weren’t there,” I said.

“What?” Schwartz said, distracted.

“Brenda Rees,” I said. “She told me that you weren’t there at dinner. She says you were gone.”

“Right at the time Jay Kearney was doing his thing,” Vann said.

“Jay Kearney was integrated with Dr. Baer,” Schwartz said. “Baer said so on that recording of his.”

“Well, no,” I said. “Kearney’s mouth said it, and we assume that Baer was speaking it because Baer was in the background. But we have an alternate theory.”

“It goes like this,” Vann said. “You integrate with Kearney and go to Baer’s apartment. He’s expecting Kearney. You drug Baer so he passes out, make the video, shove a knife into his temple, position the threep to make it look like suicide, and then take a quick trip to Loudoun Pharma with Kearney.”

“And are back with us in time for dessert,” I said. “If we had dessert. I wasn’t there for that part.”

“No, because Loudoun Pharma blew up,” Vann said.

“You just accused me of murdering Baer,” Schwartz said.

“Yes,” I said.

“And the six janitors,” Vann said.

“And Jay Kearney,” I said.

“Eight total,” Vann said.

“I’m done speaking to you two,” Schwartz said. “I’m not going to say any more to you without a lawyer. If you plan to arrest me, do it now. Otherwise, get out of my house.”

“Mr. Schwartz, one more word,” Vann said.

Schwartz looked at her, impassive as only a threep can be.

“‘Interpolator,’” Vann said.

“What did you say?” Schwartz said.

“Oh, I think you heard me just fine,” Vann said.

“I don’t know what the word means,” Schwartz said.

“We’re past that point, don’t you think, Mr. Schwartz?” Vann said. “You know perfectly well what that word means. And you know what it means that we know it. It means that you are f*cked, sir. Magnificently so.”

Schwartz was silent again.

“Options,” Vann said, and ticked up a finger. “Door number one. You maintain your right to remain silent and your right to an attorney. Good for you. I applaud your stand. We arrest you for those eight murders we’ve mentioned plus the murders of Bruce Skow and Brenda Rees. We’ll also be charging you with the kidnapping of Kearney and Skow and Rees. Not to mention the attempted murders of me and Agent Shane, here. Plus a whole other grab bag of miscellaneous charges which I won’t go into but I imagine that you are already running down a list of in your brain, because you are a lawyer. We go to trial, you lose, your body goes into a federal Haden detention center, and you get to speak to other human beings one hour a week, forever.”