Pia headed toward the open door leading into her small office, thinking she might have to get her stuff, leave, and then return later that night to check out the biosafety microbiological storage freezer. In the process she practically collided with the maintenance man from the day before, O’Meary.

Obviously he knew Pia’s name. “Miss Grazdani! Nice to see you again. We just heard ten minutes ago that we can get back in here tomorrow morning to finish up. I’m just checking the site, making sure all the tools are here.” He then leaned toward Pia and whispered, “I’m not a hundred percent happy about being in here after what happened yesterday. But the job’s gotta get done. You think it’s safe in here now? Our boss says so.”

“I think it’s safe,” Pia said. “I don’t think it was ever unsafe.”

“Good to hear.” O’Meary straightened up to his full height. He jerked his thumb toward Pia’s ceiling. “I think we’ve isolated the problems with the short. It’s up there, so we should be outa your hair by lunch tomorrow.”

Pia didn’t respond. She doubted the problem would ever get solved. Besides, she wouldn’t be there at noon tomorrow or any other day.

“I hope we won’t be bothering you too much tomorrow,” O’Meary said, trying to be considerate. He tried to go around her. Pia stopped him.

“I know you’ve only been here a couple of days, but did you see anything unusual yesterday morning? Before all the excitement started. Anything that struck you as odd?”

“That Springer guy asked me already, and the Disease Control people. They took a long time about it.”

“I’m sure they were very thorough, but I’m wondering, because you were in here all morning and in different parts of the lab with your wires, if you saw anyone early on who you didn’t see in the lab later. Anyone who looked like he didn’t belong.”

O’Meary narrowed his eyes, but playfully.

“What are you, a cop now?”

“No, I’m not a cop.”

“I wasn’t working in that bio unit where they got sick, so I wouldn’t know about anyone in there. Are you sure this place is safe? The disease people were asking about contamination, like ‘Before the contamination . . .’ and so on. Is it really safe in here?”

“I’m sure it’s safe. I came back and I’m not about to take a risk with that bacteria.”

“So why the questions? You’re making me nervous.”

“I’m just making some of my own inquiries. Supposedly nothing abnormal was found here in the lab or in the biosafety unit. Did you see Dr. Rothman or Dr. Yamamoto at all?”

“I didn’t even know which one was which. There was a lot of people in and out of this lab, dropping stuff off.”