The Einstein Pursuit

25

The parking lot near Olsen’s office had been empty the night before except for the doctor’s white Volvo. Today, six vehicles — four cars, a scooter and a bicycle — were parked outside the building. Dial hoped it was a positive sign. With any luck, it meant Olsen had come through on his promise to deliver a panel of experts to explain the science in the investigation.

Before leaving the institute, Eklund had arranged for some of the animal remains to be transported to Olsen’s lab, along with several tissue samples, pictures of the crime scene, and anything else he felt was appropriate. Since that time, the doctor’s car hadn’t moved an inch.

Dial pointed at the Volvo. ‘Apparently, none of us got a good night’s sleep.’

‘I told you: give him a project, and his focus is absolute.’

‘I just hope he has something to tell us.’

Eklund led Dial into the lobby and down the long corridor toward the small lecture hall where they had agreed to meet Olsen. Twenty meters from the doorway, they found the young police officer that Eklund had left to protect the chain of evidence. He was sitting on the floor with his knees pulled close to his chest. His head was buried in his folded arms.

‘Is he asleep?’ Dial asked.

‘Not asleep,’ the young man said without raising his head. ‘I just couldn’t take it anymore.’

‘Gunnar, what are you talking about?’ Eklund asked.

Hearing his name, the cop’s head jerked upward. He was stunned to see his boss and his boss’s boss standing in front of him. He jumped from the floor and stood at attention. ‘I’m sorry, sir. I thought it was them again. They’ve been squawking all night like parrots.’

Eklund leaned forward and sniffed the air. ‘Have you been drinking?’

‘No, sir! Of course not, sir! I’ve been standing guard all night.’

‘Then why are you babbling about birds?’

‘It’s them, sir. The scientists. They won’t stop their incessant bickering. And they keep saying the same things over and over again like parrots — really smart parrots.’

Eklund glared at the youngster. ‘And the evidence?’

‘My partner took it back to headquarters, sir, after Dr Olsen had completed his examination. For everyone’s protection, I decided to stay until you arrived.’

Eklund nodded his approval, a sign that pleased the rookie cop. Unfortunately for him, the moment was short-lived. ‘What have they learned?’

Gunnar’s smile faded. ‘I honestly don’t know, sir. Most of the science terms are things I’ve never heard before, and I didn’t want to interrupt for an explanation. They kept talking, faster and faster, using words and concepts that I didn’t understand. Eventually it all became a blur.’ He hung his head. ‘I came out here to get away from it and clear my mind.’

‘No shame in that,’ Eklund offered. ‘Your job was to safeguard the evidence. You did that and more. Now go home and get some rest.’

Gunnar lifted his head. ‘If you need me to stay …’

‘A bit of advice,’ Dial said as he patted the rookie on his shoulder. ‘If you’re offered a chance to sleep, you sleep. No matter what.’

‘Yes, sir. I will, sir. Good luck with … well … them.’ With that, Gunnar turned and practically ran toward the lobby before his superior changed his mind.

Eklund and Dial continued down the empty corridor. As they approached the meeting room, they could hear a cacophony of voices inside. The steel doors of the hall muffled the sound in such a way that they could not tell if topics were being discussed, debated, or outright argued, but one thing was certain: there was intensity to the tone.

Side by side, they pushed open the double doors and stepped into the hall. Their entrance caused the group inside to fall silent. The scientists turned and stared warily at the strangers. For a moment, Dial felt like a sheriff in the American Old West, sauntering into a rowdy saloon. Everyone stopped and waited for him to make a move.

Instead, the two lawmen just stood there and glared.

No words were spoken, but their point was made.

They were in charge of the meeting.

Olsen broke the tension with an introduction. ‘Everyone, this is Special Agent Johann Eklund of the National Police, and Director Nick Dial of Interpol’s homicide division.’ He turned toward the officers and smiled. ‘Rather than introduce my colleagues en masse, let’s save their names until they offer their opinions on the crime scene.’

‘That’ll be fine,’ Eklund said.

Olsen turned and faced his peers, who were settling into their seats in the first row of the lecture hall. ‘Suffice it to say, the men and women gathered here are at the top of their respective fields. We’ve been discussing your findings for several hours now, and while we’re not prepared to draw any definitive conclusions about the laboratory, we are fairly certain we can provide the background information that you seek.’

Dial furrowed his brow. There was a drastic change in Olsen; he was like a different person in the lecture hall. Now in his element, he had transformed from the detached scientist he had been in the lab into a verbose academic. Of course, it only stood to reason, since lectures were an integral part of a professor’s work. Whether information was being conveyed to students, colleagues, or the investigators of a murder, the basic skills remained the same.

Olsen continued. ‘Let’s start with Dr Cassandra Larsson.’

One of the two women in the room — and by far the youngest scientist in the group — rose from her seat and walked to Olsen’s side.

Dial guessed her to be in her early twenties, and she looked nothing like the biology teachers he’d had in school. Tall and slender, with short blond hair and piercing blue eyes, her snug-fitting shorts and T-shirt would certainly turn heads on the street, but here no one seemed to notice but Dial. Though her body was extremely fit, she somehow made her outfit look wholesome, not indecent — as if she was striving for comfort rather than compliments.

‘Dr Larsson is our resident zoologist,’ Olsen explained. ‘When your associates arrived with the specimens last evening, it became clear that my specific expertise in human anatomy would have to be supplemented by someone with a far broader understanding of mammalian anatomy. Dr Larsson was the logical choice.’

I’m sure she was, thought Dial.

‘Working together through the night, we were able to identify and categorize most of the remains.’

‘What did you find?’ Eklund asked.

‘A menagerie,’ Cassandra answered. ‘The live specimens included mice, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, monkeys and chimpanzees.’

‘Wait. What do you mean by live specimens?’ Eklund was momentarily horrified by the suggestion that any of the scorched victims had still been alive when they had been found sealed in their cages.

‘These animals were alive when the fire broke out. Their deaths were caused by a combination of smoke inhalation and traumatic thermal decomposition of their organs.’

‘Put another way,’ Olsen clarified, ‘the fire caused their innards to burst.’

Cassandra nodded. ‘Unfortunately, yes.’

‘And that’s in contrast to what?’ Eklund asked.

‘The animals that were already deceased,’ Cassandra answered. ‘We have samples — bones and teeth mainly — from animals that were not alive at the time of the fire. This list includes pigs, turtles and juvenile gorillas, and all the other animals on the first list.’

Dial shook his head in confusion. ‘We’ll get back to the lists in a moment, but first I want to know how you’re sure these animals were not alive when the fire broke out. Is there a difference between how a live bone and a dead bone burn?’

‘If there is, I’m not the right person to ask about the distinction,’ Cassandra replied. ‘Our assumption that these animals were dead prior to the fire is based upon a number of factors: what little remained of the bodies, where these remains were located, their spatial arrangement, and an inspection of the equipment available.’

‘I’m not following,’ Dial said.

‘With the other animals — the mice and rabbits and so forth — we found complete, intact skeletons. We were told that these skeletons were found in cages, and that each species was housed separately.’

‘Go on,’ Dial said.

‘With regard to the second list of animals, there were only fragmented remains: the bits of bone and teeth I mentioned earlier. These remains were delivered to us exactly as they were found in the laboratory: layered inside a large metal box.’

‘Layered?’ Eklund asked.

‘Yes, layered. The bone at the top of the box was the brow ridge of a young gorilla. As we dug deeper, we discovered the foot of a pig. Next was a series of turtle bones, then some more pig, some rodents, some more gorilla, and a mix of the other animals.’

‘What separated the layers?’ Eklund asked.

‘Ash,’ Cassandra replied. ‘All that remained of their bodies.’

‘We compared this theory with the inventory of items found at the scene, and the photos,’ Olsen explained. ‘Your men determined that two large canisters of acetylene were destroyed in the fire. Acetylene is a flammable gas. It is certainly possible that this laboratory used it as fuel for their Bunsen burners and other equipment, but it’s highly improbable.’

‘Why not?’ Dial asked.

‘Acetylene burns at nearly twenty-four hundred degrees centigrade. It’s way too hot for use with standard experimentation. It’s also relatively unstable and expensive. Given the alternative of using the natural gas that is already piped into the building, acetylene is an illogical choice to use as everyday fuel. It is much better suited for short bursts of incredibly high heat.’

‘Like for incinerating a body,’ Dial concluded.

‘Precisely,’ Cassandra said. ‘Whoever was running this lab had built themselves a crematorium on site. Whenever they were done with a test subject, they simply incinerated the evidence.’

The words struck Eklund hard. Until that moment, he had been working under the assumption that the scientists who had died in the fire were innocent victims. But Cassandra’s comment made him wonder if he was seeing things from the wrong perspective.

What if the explosion was retaliation for their sins?

And if so, what sins had they committed?