“Maybe we should just bring him in for questioning,” Oliver said to Marge.

“Under whose authority!” Shockley tried to bellow. Instead, it came out a bleat. “You have no authority here!”

“Yeah, buddy, tell that to the judge.” Marge brought out a pair of cuffs.

“This is absurd!”

“Stand up!”

“I will not—”

“Ah, so you want to add a resisting arrest charge to the others?” Oliver said.

“What other charges? What am I under arrest for?”

Marge said, “Obstruction of justice—”

“This is absurd!”

“You’re repeating yourself,” Oliver said. “Stand up.”

“But I don’t know anything!” Shockley was dripping sweat. “I swear to Jesus I don’t know what Ken was doing with Reginald. For all I know, they could have been lovers!”

The room fell quiet.

Oliver said, “Is that statement conjecture based on Reggie’s lifestyle or do you know something definite, Doc?”

Shockley was panting, tried to slow himself down. “Well. Ken wasn’t married…and I don’t think he had a girlfriend.”

Marge said, “You didn’t answer Detective Oliver’s question, sir. Do you know that for a fact?”

“No.”

“So let’s drop that angle and assume the murders had something to do with Fisher/Tyne. Maybe Leonard was telling Decameron something in private. What might that have been?”

“I don’t—”

“Twitch, twitch, twitch,” Marge said. “Let’s try again. What would Leonard say to Decameron in person that he couldn’t say over the phone?”

The room was silent. Shockley buried his head in his hands, then looked up. “Maybe…maybe, he got wind of something.”

“And what might that be?” Marge said.

“That the Curedon project’s being axed.”

Again, no one spoke. Oliver tried to hide his astonishment. Marge looked up for a moment, disguising her surprise.

Shockley said, “It was supposed to be hush-hush. But sometimes it’s hard to keep secrets around here. Especially since e-mail is easily retrievable if you know the right code words.”

Oliver said, “Why are you eighty-sixing Curedon? I thought the trials were going well.”

“They were until a couple of months ago.”

“The increase rate in mortality,” Marge said.

“Yes. How’d you find out about that?”

“Decameron. He told us it was data error.”

“No…it is not data error.” Shockley took a deep breath. “It’s not that Curedon’s a total bust. It still has potential. Lots of potential. But with the recent numbers and with Azor Sparks gone…no longer able to guide us through the bumps…the board has had some substantial doubts about the drug. Some want to cut the losses while they’re still manageable.”

A long silence.

Marge said, “Why would Leonard, a statistician and research designer, care if you axed Curedon?”

“I don’t know!” Shockley looked beseechingly at Marge. “It doesn’t make sense. Because he was the one who’d been interpreting the numbers for us. As a matter of fact…”