Color of Blood(38)

“That’s what they said. I can have them double-check it.”

“No, that’s all right. I guess that’s a dead end. Just as well, I suppose.”

“Are you still trying to figure out what happened to that poor man, Garder?”

“Well, I was, but not anymore. I think it’s time to put this to bed. I seem to be the only one who doesn’t like the shark theory, and the uranium thing was odd, but so be it.”

“I beg your pardon? What uranium thing?”

“When they got Garder’s personal belongings back in the States, they found uranium dust all over his clothes. I didn’t even know you had uranium mines.”

“Heavens, yes,” she said. “They’re all over the state, but you can’t just walk into a uranium mine. He must have been given permission by the mine owners.”

“I looked at his trip reports, and he never once mentioned a visit to a uranium mine,” Dennis said. “There were nickel mines, copper mines, iron-ore mines, but no uranium mines.”

“They must be excited that you might have uncovered something, Dennis. You said you always deliver the goods.”

“Well, not this time, I’m afraid. Everyone thinks I should just drop it. I’m afraid the book is probably closed.”

Judy was silent; she felt she should try to help Dennis. Perhaps it was the investigator in her that could not stop working, or perhaps it was something else entirely.

“Dennis, I was wondering about something. I’m sure it’s nothing, but you know the watches that Garder had in his apartment? The box full of watches?”

“Yes, I remember,” Dennis said.

“Well, I know this may sound foolish, and it’s OK if you think I’m just being batty, but when we looked at them together that day, I was struck by how cheap they were. I thought we’d see something more dear, to be honest.”

“Dear?”

“Yes, you know. Expensive.”

“I’m not sure I know what you’re suggesting, Judy.”

“Well, this fellow Garder was quite a watch collector, I gather. And we found out that he would sometimes spend several thousand dollars for a watch. Yes?”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“Well, if the watches in the box we found are inexpensive watches, then where are all his expensive watches?”

Judy waited for Dennis to reply, but he said nothing, and she panicked, afraid she had embarrassed herself.

“Forgive me,” she said quickly. “It was a lame idea.”

“No, it’s an interesting idea. I guess I didn’t notice the quality of the watches. You’re quite observant, Judy. I like that about you.”

“Stop it, Dennis. I’m blushing.” And she was, her neck glowing a deep pink.





Chapter 17


“You can’t remove anything from those cartons,” the man told Dennis. “They’re contaminated and fall under another set of regulations.”

“But my name’s on the form; I’m the person who had them sent here. It’s my case, and you can’t tell me what I can and can’t have,” Dennis said, trying his best to bluff the night supervisor.

“Negative,” the man said firmly. “It doesn’t work that way. Contaminated materials require a separate set of protocols. You should know that.”

“Look, I’m working on an important investigation in the OIG,” Dennis said, leaning forward to look at the man’s laminated ID tag on his shirt, “and you, Mr. Elia, are impeding that investigation.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Of course you are. I need access to some of the material in one of those crates. You’re preventing me from seeing that material.”

The man stared at Dennis for several seconds, then reached over and picked up the phone and dialed.

“I need some help,” he said. “Someone from the IG’s office is here, and he wants to sign out some material from one of the hazmat cartons we got last week. He insists that I let him take it.”

Dennis could faintly hear the other person’s high-pitched voice from the earpiece.

“OK,” Elia said. “We’re in D-12.” He hung up. “I need the officer in charge to help out.”

Dennis idly picked the nonexistent dirt from underneath his fingernails while he waited. After twenty minutes a small plump woman in her fifties opened the door and joined them. She was wearing a blue cotton polo shirt and a pair of khaki slacks, and vaguely reminded Dennis of a Best Buy sales clerk. Her blonde hair appeared to be artificially colored and was permed into a kind of bob.

“Can I see your ID?” she said.

He gave her his plastic card. She sat down at a computer screen and typed in several items from his card. Dennis knew she was calling up the internal database and would find his department and photograph. She stared at the screen, looked at the ID in her hand, and then at Dennis.

She logged off the computer, returned the ID to Dennis, and said, “You can’t take the materials out of the building. Mr. Elia has already told you that. I’m not sure what else we can do for you.”

“It’s critical that I get access to a box of watches in one of the cartons,” Dennis said. “Surely you can let me sign out that box. I was told the radiation exposure wasn’t that harmful, so I don’t understand why my investigation is being held up by your silly regulations.”