Chapter 116
‘Howis he?’ Poe asked Mukherjee.
‘He’ll never eat a large meal again, but he’s alive,’ he replied.
The tablet was round, about the size of a standard paracetamol, and was stained yellow with gastric juices. Doctor Mukherjee had put it under the theatre microscope to confirm it was still intact. It was now in the hospital lab. Doyle had wanted to examine it herself, but Poe had insisted she stay by his side.
‘You should have let me go with it,’ Doyle said. ‘I could have made sure it’s analysed correctly.’
‘You being there doesn’t add value. The lab are putting it through their gas chromatography–mass spectrometry machine and, in your own words, “Any idiot can do that”.’
They were in Mukherjee’s office. Flynn and Bradshaw had disappeared somewhere.
‘I assume you’re going public?’ Doyle said.
‘I’ve advised against it.’
‘Why?’
‘Beck will adapt. We saved Salt because we had advance notice and you figured out his delivery method. If hestopsgiving advance notice, there’ll be no more last-minute emergency operations, just a never-ending procession of dead morons. We need to figure out how he’s getting his doctored pills into the victim’s hands without them suspecting something. That’s how we stop him.’
Mathers knocked on the open door and stepped inside.
‘We’re meeting in one of the hospital conference rooms, Poe,’ she said. ‘And I’m sorry, but the decision has been made to go public. I relayed your concerns about Beck changing his modus operandi,but my commander feels we have to warn the public. Encourage people, particularly those with negative public personas, to be hypervigilant when it comes to taking medication.’
Doyle glanced at Poe.
He shrugged. ‘I’m just a sergeant,’ he said. ‘It’s their call.’