Whiplash

cracked, laid it all out. His lawyers knew it too. Both of them were looking at Kesselring as if he were the sheriff who'd ridden into town and shot the bad guys.
    Kesselring looked at each of them dispassionately, gave a slight bow, then said in perfect English, "Agent Cliff and I have been listening from the hallway. You are Special Agent Dillon Savich of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are you not?"
    Savich nodded. He wanted to take Kesselring down a notch for what he'd done, but Royal and his lawyers were still there.
    Bender never loosened his grip on Royal's arm. "Agent Kesselring, we understand you are here to help solve Herr Blauvelt's murder. We have finished for today, and are leaving. Good day to you." Bender and Toms, Royal between them, hustled out the door in about two seconds.
    Savich said, keeping his voice calm with effort, "You screwed things up already, Kesselring. Royal was very close to telling us the truth when you barged in."
    Kesselring stared after the lawyers and Royal before turning back to say to Savich, "Yes, so it would appear. It seems I must apologize for my inopportune entrance. I had no idea things had reached a boiling point. I am Agent Andreas Kesselring of the German BND."
    Bowie couldn't help himself, he had to add his two cents. "Kesselring, your timing sucked. Royal was this close"-Bowie snapped his fingers-"to laying his soul bare. Now his lawyers have got him back under control, and we may not have another chance."
    Kesselring's face froze. He gave Bowie a stiff bow. "I have apologized, Agent Richards. I can do no more. You are Agent Bowie Richards, the Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven field office, are you not?"
    "Yes, I am." Bowie saw that the usually hard-nosed Dolores was staring at the man like he was a Krispy Kreme. All right, so the guy was good-looking, no doubt about that, but Dolores was tough, curse her, he'd seen her bust badass drug dealers and yawn. Now she looked for the world like her hormones had taken over her brain. If Georgie ever looked at a man like that, Bowie would lock her in a closet until she was thirty. He'd have to think about assigning Dolores to cleaning the men's room for a week, see if that settled her hormones down.
    Bowie waved to two chairs, but Agent Kesselring remained standing. He smiled at Agent Cliff and pulled out a chair for her, politely bowed her into it.
    Savich said, "Kesselring, your coming in without even a knock-" Savich stopped himself, put away his mental whip. The man was standing stiff as a poker, his face expressionless, his hands fists at his sides. No need to belabor the point, Kesselring knew they were pissed. Savich doubted more haranguing would do any good since Bowie had laid it on with a trowel. He said, "Very well, Agent Kesselring. Apology accepted. Tell us what you know about the slowdown of production of the drug Culovort ."
    Kesselring said slowly, "I had no idea this drug Culovort was important to this case."
    "It may be," Savich said shortly.
    "I must apologize again, Agent Savich. I know little about the Culovort production problems, probably no more than you do, namely the company seems to have had problems both here in America and in Spain, and they have occurred at roughly the same time, which sounds like poorly timed coincidence to me. However, the situation in the Spanish plant is a bit different. The Spanish police are looking into the possibility of sabotage."
    "Did you also find out the plant outside Madrid isn't going to be reopened?" Savich asked.
    Kesselring looked taken off guard, but only for an instant. "No. If this is true, it is a very recent decision."
    "No, it isn't," Savich said, an eyebrow arched. "Why do you think anyone would sabotage a drug production plant in Spain?"
    Kesselring said, "There are miserable people in the world, Agent Savich, you yourself deal with them on a daily basis. Many times they have no tidy motives to explain their actions.
    "In the case of Spain, I'm inclined to agree with the Spanish police that it was a saboteur, perhaps a person who reacted badly to a drug produced at the plant or who had a loved one harmed by a drug. Who knows? It is unfortunate, to be sure."
    Savich said, "Both production facilities down at the same time, in two different countries. It sounds like sabotage, you're right, Agent Kesselring. It also sounds like it was carefully coordinated. Two unrelated occurrences? What are the odds of that happening?"
    "You are a cynic,