Chapter 10 — The Second Interview

Priya went back to Thomas Kerr with a warrant.This time she brought Webb, and she brought the search authority for his office and his university lab, and she did not begin with the vague opening.She began with the 2019 paper."You wrote about glycol-based carrier mediums as time-release vehicles for dermal delivery of veratrum alkaloids," she said. They were in his office, and he was very still, and Webb was near the door, and the plant specimens on the windowsill were in his peripheral vision. "We have found exactly this compound on a document that was in contact with Conrad Vane's skin for ninety-six minutes before his death."Kerr looked at the window. Not at the plants. At the city beyond it."I want to be clear about what you're facing," Priya said. Her voice was steady and factual. "We have physical evidence of the compound on the delivery vehicle. We have toxicology establishing it was in Conrad Vane's system at lethal concentration, absorbed transdermally. We have documentation of your communication with Elise Hartwell across a period that includes the preparation of this compound." She paused. "What we are still establishing is the precise scope of your involvement. Whether you prepared this compound and provided it, or whether your involvement extended further.""I didn't know," Kerr said. His voice was low. "What it was for."The room was very quiet."Tell me," Priya said.He told her.Elise had contacted him in January — not by phone, not by email. In person, at a restaurant in Midtown, the first time they'd seen each other since their relationship had ended fourteen months prior. She had been warm, measured, the version of herself he'd known. She had told him she needed help with a project. She had described it as a security measure — a non-lethal deterrent compound that could be applied to a surface to cause temporary cardiac symptoms in someone who was threatening her, as a way of buying time in a confrontational situation.He had believed this because he had wanted to believe this. Because she had asked him, and he had loved her, and the explanation was technically plausible.He had prepared the compound in his personal lab space. He had provided it to her in a small sealed vial with application instructions. He had not asked further questions."The dose you prepared," Priya said. "Was it calibrated for temporary cardiac symptoms, or for arrest?"A long silence."For arrest," he said. "I knew the dose she specified was lethal. I told myself it was precautionary. That she would never actually use it." He looked at his hands. "I told myself that so I could give it to her."Priya looked at him.She thought about Conrad Vane's February memo, positioning Elise for prosecution. She thought about Elise in January, already building her solution while Conrad was still constructing his trap.She thought about what it meant to be that far ahead."You're going to make a full statement," she said. "Now. Everything. The compound, the application specifications, the date and location of the handover, every communication you had with Elise Hartwell from January onward." She paused. "And I want to be honest with you about something, Dr. Kerr. You prepared a lethal compound and provided it to someone who used it to commit murder. The statement you give today, and your full cooperation from this point forward, will be the most significant factor in what happens to you."He nodded. His head moved like it weighed more than it should."I know," he said. "I've known since the morning after the gala. I've been — I've been waiting for this."She thought: people who know they've done wrong and wait for the consequence are a specific kind of tragedy. Not innocent. But not entirely the other thing either."Let's start from the beginning," she said.