“What happened?”

From the FBI agent’s tone, Nic knew that he was really asking, “What did you do?”

“He started a fight in my uncle’s club, and we got into it,” Nic replied. “I think I pissed him off.”

“Obviously.” Carter retrieved his phone and held it out toward Nic. “Call him and apologize. Get him back here now.”

“Whoa, I don’t think so. He was out of line, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to talk to me anyway. He’s the one who—”

“I don’t care, Officer Juliano. We have a lot of sick people in there. Ms. Deshpande here thinks that the burgers may have been poisoned. She’s the only one not showing any symptoms yet, and she’s also the only one who refused to eat the burgers. If it’s a poison, there may be an antidote. But the only people who could be in possession of that antidote have vanished without a trace. We need Burke back here now.”

Taz stepped in and said, “We have good people on this, and you’ve been solving cases longer than that kid’s been alive. I know he’s a genius and all but—”

“But what? He’s different? Eccentric? That kid sees patterns and solutions that no one else sees. I met August because his father is an old friend, and he needed me to get his kid out of trouble. When he first asked, I immediately thought drugs or something else kids do when they’re young and stupid. But his son had committed fraud and hacked a bunch of computers. He received all of those degrees in his spare time in his room on a laptop under a false identity. And he didn’t pay for any of it, even though it looked like he did in the college’s accounting software.”

“But you pulled some strings and got him off?” Taz asked.

“Under the condition that he do some work for me. There was an old case that I could never solve. One of those that really gets under your skin and sticks with you. So I made Burke review the case. A fresh pair of eyes. I knew from his father that he’d always dreamed about joining the FBI. It was an obsession for him, but Burke was too scared to pursue it. He didn’t think he could handle the academy and the people portion of it. I wanted to see if he could find any clues I may have missed.”

“So did he?” Nic asked.

Carter smiled. “We had a suspect in custody within 24 hours, who’s currently serving 20 years for a crime she would have gotten away with.”

“She?”

“The details aren’t important, but the point is that since then, August has solved 27 cold cases without ever stepping out into the field. Nothing but the files, a computer, and a beautiful mind.”

Nic rubbed his temples and said, “I’ll give it a shot, but I don’t think he’ll listen to me. I don’t know what to tell him.”