“Any idea when that may have been?”
Lorraine shook her head.
“But if it is a narcotic,” said Dan, “wouldn’t there be some sign?”
“Like needle tracks?” said Lorraine. “They aren’t that obvious. Besides, there are other ways to ingest drugs.”
She attached a needle to a syringe.
“What are you going to do?” said Dan.
“Give you the benefit of a doubt. I’ll test his blood.”
“How long will it take?”
“I’ll have the results before he’s fully awake.”
Lorraine was better than her word. Within fifteen minutes she sailed through the hatch with tightened lips. Dan did not have to ask; he knew the results were positive.
“Three-methyl-fentanyl,” she said.
“What the hell is that?”
“An analog of fentanyl, which is synthetic heroin. Far more potent and much longer lasting than the real stuff.”
Dan gripped a handhold, as if he could draw strength from the frame of the station. The evidence that was quickly mounting against O’Donnell seemed overwhelming: the previous fight with Weiss, absence from the nightly game of darts, the missing button stuck to the ventilator grid outside the lab, O’Donnell’s drugged condition. A logical conclusion was that O’Donnell had encountered Weiss at his lab—perhaps in the act of trying to gain entry—killed him during a struggle, hid the body, then concocted an alibi by filling himself with this 3-methyl-fentanyl crap. Or maybe he was already on the stuff when he ran into Weiss at his lab.
What did he really know about O’Donnell? Who knew what he was doing in his lab? He could have cooked up the drugs himself. Maybe he was some sort of special agent sent to test the effects of illicit drugs in space. After all, hadn’t Russell Cramer’s problems mushroomed once O’Donnell arrived?
Dan felt ensnarled in a web of uncertainties. Police detectives used this line of thinking. So did prosecutors, judges, and juries. Suddenly, he was all of them rolled up in one. And he hated it.
“Orders are he is to be sent Earthside,” said Lorraine. “Even for a minor slip.”
“I know, I know,” snapped Dan. The problem was what to do in the meantime. “Get Freddy in here. And have him bring duct tape.”
O’Donnell mumbled and moaned but did not break through into consciousness as Dan and Freddy bound his wrists and ankles with the duct tape. When they finished, Lorraine carefully fit a padded helmet onto O’Donnell’s head. Dan and Freddy then maneuvered O’Donnell into the command module and tethered him to a handgrip outside Dan’s office door. Lorraine closed herself into the infirmary to prepare a report.
“I need my comm link back,” Dan said to Freddy. “Then stretch duct tape across Weiss’s compartment, O’Donnell’s compartment, and his lab. I don’t want anyone tampering with anything inside.”
It took Freddy less than two minutes inside the utilities section to reestablish a link with ground control. Then he flew off to follow the rest of Dan’s instructions. Meanwhile, Dan called Tom Henderson.
“I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon,” said Henderson.
“Maybe I’m just damn lucky,” Dan said sarcastically. He recognized Quigley and the other consultants milling behind Henderson. “I have a question for you, Tom. It isn’t necessarily related to the murder. Okay? What’s Hugh O’Donnell’s business up here?”
“He’s a Trikon scientist.”
“Trikon may have sent him, but Trikon business isn’t what he seems to be about,” said Dan. “Unless Trikon’s working with drugs.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“What about them?” said Dan, indicating the group behind Henderson.
“They don’t know, either,” said Henderson. “What the hell, you got a Trikon honcho on board. Ask him.”
“I will,” said Dan. “I have someone in custody who I believe may be Aaron Weiss’s murderer.”
“O’Donnell?”
“I said the question about O’Donnell wasn’t related.”
“Who is it?” said Henderson.
“I’m not going to tell you.”
“What?!” Quigley’s face appeared beside Henderson’s. “You’re not going to tell us? With all due respect, Commander Tighe, a murder in an orbiting facility is a complicated matter.”
“Damned right it is.”
“There are all types of considerations: political, international, diplomatic, not to mention legal and ethical.”
“I know all that, goddammit! That’s exactly why I’m not telling you.”