Whiplash

Savich said, keeping his voice calm with effort, "You screwed things up already, Kesselring. Royal was very close to telling us the truth when you barged in."

Kesselring stared after the lawyers and Royal before turning back to say to Savich, "Yes, so it would appear. It seems I must apologize for my inopportune entrance. I had no idea things had reached a boiling point. I am Agent Andreas Kesselring of the German BND."

Bowie couldn't help himself, he had to add his two cents. "Kesselring, your timing sucked. Royal was this close"-Bowie snapped his fingers-"to laying his soul bare. Now his lawyers have got him back under control, and we may not have another chance."

Kesselring's face froze. He gave Bowie a stiff bow. "I have apologized, Agent Richards. I can do no more. You are Agent Bowie Richards, the Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven field office, are you not?"

"Yes, I am." Bowie saw that the usually hard-nosed Dolores was staring at the man like he was a Krispy Kreme. All right, so the guy was good-looking, no doubt about that, but Dolores was tough, curse her, he'd seen her bust badass drug dealers and yawn. Now she looked for the world like her hormones had taken over her brain. If Georgie ever looked at a man like that, Bowie would lock her in a closet until she was thirty. He'd have to think about assigning Dolores to cleaning the men's room for a week, see if that settled her hormones down.

Bowie waved to two chairs, but Agent Kesselring remained standing. He smiled at Agent Cliff and pulled out a chair for her, politely bowed her into it.

Savich said, "Kesselring, your coming in without even a knock-" Savich stopped himself, put away his mental whip. The man was standing stiff as a poker, his face expressionless, his hands fists at his sides. No need to belabor the point, Kesselring knew they were pissed. Savich doubted more haranguing would do any good since Bowie had laid it on with a trowel. He said, "Very well, Agent Kesselring. Apology accepted. Tell us what you know about the slowdown of production of the drug Culovort."

Kesselring said slowly, "I had no idea this drug Culovort was important to this case."

"It may be," Savich said shortly.

"I must apologize again, Agent Savich. I know little about the Culovort production problems, probably no more than you do, namely the company seems to have had problems both here in America and in Spain, and they have occurred at roughly the same time, which sounds like poorly timed coincidence to me. However, the situation in the Spanish plant is a bit different. The Spanish police are looking into the possibility of sabotage."

"Did you also find out the plant outside Madrid isn't going to be reopened?" Savich asked.

Kesselring looked taken off guard, but only for an instant. "No. If this is true, it is a very recent decision."

"No, it isn't," Savich said, an eyebrow arched. "Why do you think anyone would sabotage a drug production plant in Spain?"

Kesselring said, "There are miserable people in the world, Agent Savich, you yourself deal with them on a daily basis. Many times they have no tidy motives to explain their actions.

"In the case of Spain, I'm inclined to agree with the Spanish police that it was a saboteur, perhaps a person who reacted badly to a drug produced at the plant or who had a loved one harmed by a drug. Who knows? It is unfortunate, to be sure."

Savich said, "Both production facilities down at the same time, in two different countries. It sounds like sabotage, you're right, Agent Kesselring. It also sounds like it was carefully coordinated. Two unrelated occurrences? What are the odds of that happening?"

"You are a cynic, Agent Savich."

"In our line of work, I would say that major doses of cynicism keep us grounded in the real world, don't you agree?"

Kesselring looked at Savich more closely now. Odd, Savich thought, how the man could become still so quickly, and make his face utterly expressionless, giving nothing away.

"Perhaps it could seem so, but I happen to know personally several of the directors at Schiffer Hartwin. I have always believed them to be good men. They have never given me reason to doubt them.

"As you must know, we in Germany are as concerned with proper conduct of our pharmaceutical houses as you in the United States. Schiffer Hartwin is an excellent pharmaceutical house, usually well managed.

"Schiffer Hartwin operates worldwide and has done so for over one hundred years. The Culovort production problems, they appear to be inopportune, nothing more. However, in light of this murder, I will closely look into the situation again, to see if there is anything going on behind the scenes that could possibly be related to this drug."