Indispensable Party (Sasha McCandless Legal Thriller No. 4) by Melissa F Miller

persons unknown. After the purchaser had the virus in hand, he or
they dispatched someone to kill Joubert.”
    Leo felt her hands go cold. He
rubbed them in what he hoped was a reassuring manner.
    The room was silent, save for the
soft ticking of Naya’s wall clock and their breathing.
    “And the French authorities think
the virus is on its way here, to the United States?” Sasha finally asked.
    “Yes. Actually, they suspect it’s
probably already within the borders. Joubert’s body was found early this
morning, but he’d been dead for several hours—possibly a day. Joubert signed
into the building very late Friday evening, his time and didn’t stay long. So,
the time line goes like this: assuming he was involved, on Friday, he stole the
virus and handed it off to the purchaser—”
    She interrupted him. “Why do they
think he sold it?”
    “There was a large wire transfer
into his account from an off-shore bank on Saturday morning. It fits the theory.”
    “Okay, sorry I interrupted. Go
on.”
    “No, stop me if you need to,” Leo
said.
    Laying it all out for her, step
by step, was enabling him to step back from the crisis and view it
analytically. It was helping to loosen the fear that gripped him.
    He went on, “After the money hit
Joubert’s account, he stopped at a bank machine and withdrew his daily limit.
He did the same thing again, a few hours later. Judging by the locations of the
banks, he was making his way to the Loire Valley, where his family has an old
farmhouse they use for getaways. Apparently, he was going to hole up there. A
neighbor reports seeing him in the village market Saturday afternoon buying
groceries. That evening, he was found stabbed to death in the home by a friend
who’d heard he was in the village and stopped by for a glass of wine.”
    “But, Homeland Security thinks
the virus is already here?”
     Leo realized it likely wasn’t
appropriate to pull one’s outside counsel onto one’s lap while discussing a
possible national crisis, but he did it anyway. He noted that she didn’t
resist.
    “It’s just a theory. But, the
theft and the murder were both well-planned and organized. The smart way to do
it, if you were going to steal the virus and then kill the only person who
could link you to the theft would be to get the virus out of the country immediately
and then have a second, unrelated person kill Joubert. A cleaner. The CIA has a
team on the ground now, combing through the Pasteur Institute and the Marshal’s
Office is pulling all the flight manifests that left France today to look for
anyone that pops out as even remotely suspicious. The French authorities are
working the murder scene. The first priority, of course, it to determine if the
virus is stateside and to find it. Given the time difference, the scene is
already cold. Don’t forget, it’s already Sunday there.”
    Sasha nodded. It was very early
Sunday morning in France, but Connelly was right: time was not on their side.
    “Just out of curiosity, assuming
this theory’s correct, what’s the going rate for stealing a deadly virus?”
    “The equivalent of four million
U.S. dollars was transferred into Joubert’s account,” Leo said.
    “Oh.”
    “Yeah, oh.”
    Sasha twisted around and pressed
her hands against his chest. She searched his face then said, “I don’t
understand how this all fits together, but it can’t possibly be a coincidence
that you’re missing vaccines.”
    Leo nodded. “I know. I called
Tate and told him to schedule a videoconference board meeting for this
afternoon. He complained about it, but I told him he’s just going to have come
in from the slopes for half an hour.”
    Sasha bit down on her lip for a
moment before asking her next question. Leo steeled himself, knowing what it
would be.
    “What’s our worst case scenario?
If the virus is here and it gets released, how bad is it going to be?” she
asked.
    Really bad , Leo thought.
During his years at the Department of