Kiel was bouncing slightly on his toes, a boxer already throwing the first punches. I supposed wool-sorter’s disease was a nickname for anthrax; it would be a mistake to start the conversation by asking him.

“Those canisters—Colonel Baggetto told me the other night he was looking for one. Did it go missing from here?”

“What are you now? An investigator for the NIH? I don’t need to account for my equipment to you or anyone else.”

His voice was harsh, but he’d stopped bouncing. That made me think he knew about the canisters.

“You knew Dr. Roque,” I said.

“Oh, yes. PH Roque.”

“PH?” I asked.

“Publicity Hound,” he snarled. “Oh, I know, nil nisi bonum and all that. Don’t mouth pieties at me.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” I said. “You know he died of a virulent strain of flu. And I presume you know that Dr. Edward Hitchcock, from the geology department, is in the Cleveland Clinic with a similar infection?”

I paused, but he didn’t speak. The vein over his right eye started pulsing: danger sign. Sue-Anne and the two young men looked at one another. One of the guys shook his head slightly, a warning not to speak.

“Both of them were handling soil samples from Doris McKinnon’s farm. That made me think of anthrax.”

“Did it, now? Let’s see: First you thought you were a mental-health expert, next you were with the NIH, inspecting my equipment. Now you think you’re with the CDC, an expert on infectious diseases?”

CDC. The Centers for Disease Control. I didn’t know what NIH stood for, and it didn’t matter. Kiel thought broad insults would goad me into losing my temper, which meant I needed to be relaxed and smiling.

“I spoke with a doctor this morning who suggested anthrax.” Okay, Jewel Kim was a nurse, but Kiel seemed to be the kind of person who would sneer at nurses.

“Your Chicago doctors are surprisingly ignorant,” Kiel jeered. “Or was it one of the cretins at the local hospital? Anthrax does not mimic flu. If that’s all you wanted to know, you could have phoned me.”

“I wondered who would want your daughter dead,” I said. “You surely know that someone tried to smother her yesterday morning.”

“You think her life has great value to society?”

I pulled a stool out from underneath the counter and sat. “I won’t mouth pieties to you, such as everyone’s death diminishes me. I do wonder whether you’ve spent so many years in fury that no other emotions can arise in you, but I’m only an investigator of human frauds and felonies, not of their hearts’ deepest secrets.

“However, someone did try to murder Ms. Kiel yesterday morning. Even if you don’t think her life has value, aren’t you a tiny bit curious about who wants your daughter dead?”