Delusion in Death

He gave her the substance—a vial, a little bottle. Or slipped it into her pocket without her noticing. Either way, she didn’t have a clue. Maybe he asks her to order him a sandwich, a bowl of soup, whatever. Has to run next door or across the street for a minute. She knows him, she’s served his lunch plenty of times. No prob. I’ll put it in for you .”
    “But CiCi Way, the friend who survived the first attack, didn’t say anything about Snyder being approached,” Peabody began. “Wait. Bumped into someone at the bar. She said Macie bumped into somebody at the bar.”
    “Crowded, talking, bump—easy to drop it into her pocket. He’s ballsy,” Eve observed. “He’s plenty ballsy. Unseal or open the container,drop it into a pocket, walk away. The couple minutes he’s exposed in the bar—if that long—doesn’t worry him.”
    She lifted her eyebrows when Teasdale raised her hand. “Agent?”
    “I would like to know the nature of the substance. Has your lab fully identified it, or—”
    “We have it. Peabody, put up the lab report.”
    When it came up—all those long, strange scientific names, all the odd symbols, Teasdale folded her hands in her lap, studied and nodded.
    “I see. Concentrated, and with the synthetic … But it would require … Hmm. Yes, I believe I see. I’d like to have a copy of this formula, and any data pertaining to it. I assume you’ve verified my security clearance.”
    “You assume correctly. Peabody, copy the nerd file for Agent Teasdale. No offense.”
    Again, that slight smile. “Absolutely none taken. As you appear to be both efficient and thorough, I assume you know the genesis of this formula.”
    “Revelation, Six,” Eve said coolly. “So HSO is aware.”
    “I can’t verify this formula is in HSO’s files, but can verify a substance containing much of these elements, and some which were not identified at the time it was discovered, has been documented. I’ve studied what was available to me.”
    “Care to share with the rest of the class?”
    “Red Horse. Hard data on the cult, and the man suspected of using this substance has been classified. Above my clearance. I am, however, well versed in the history and culture of the cult. To believe the use in these two incidents of the same formula used in the name of Red Horse during the Urban Wars is coincidence would be, as Detective Reineke succinctly put, bullshit. Therefore, there must be aconnection between these incidents and those. Though the details are buried, and most—again to my knowledge—were destroyed before the end of the war.”
    “We agree on the bullshit.”
    “I can and will request authorization to access more data.”
    “Do that. Meanwhile, Detective Callendar’s been looking for that connection.”
    “I’ve got names,” Callendar reported. “Names of people known to be or suspected to be members or associated with Red Horse. Names of children reported abducted. Names of those recovered, and those unrecovered. I’m working on crossing those names with our vics, wits, and those connections. It’s not finding the needle in the haystack, Lieutenant, it’s finding the right sliver of hay in the stack.”
    “Here I could help,” Teasdale stated. “Authorization will take time, even with Director Hurtz’s backing. But on this I can be useful now. If Detective Callendar is agreeable.”
    Callendar glanced at Dallas, got the nod. “Yeah, sure.”
    “What about chatter?”
    “We’re monitoring that,” Callendar told Eve. “We’ve got some excitement from the sickos, but nothing that mentions Red Horse, nothing that claims credit.”
    “Keep at it. Detective Strong, progress?”
    “It’s the mix,” Strong began. “The peyote, the mushrooms. They’re natural substances and easy to come by. And they’re old school so not a lot of dealers bother with them. In the mix, it’s the LSD and the Zeus that have the better potential to track. I’m tugging some lines, poked at a couple of my weasels. A significant buy of LSD would pop. It’s not a popular illegal. None of my sources know anything about a major buy. I think he’s cooking it.”
    “If so,” Teasdale commented, “he’d need equipment; a safe, privatearea, preferably a lab, and a strong knowledge of chemistry. It’s a dangerous recipe.”
    “If he got his hands on the formula, he doesn’t have to know much chemistry,” Strong argued. “No more than your average chem cook. But the ingredients mean he