Read Vaccine Nation for Free Online Page A

police.”
    “—and the news said the police are looking for me as a ‘person of interest.’”
    “Go to the police, right now.”
    “I’m not going to the police until I know it’s safe. I don’t know whether this killer is some rogue cop or whether somehow the police are involved—”
    “Dani, for God’s sake—”
    “—but there were some suspicious guys who showed up at my office before the cops got there calling themselves the FBI. They left when the cops arrived, but the cops didn’t seem to know anything about them. Something really awful is going on.”
    “What are you involved in?”
    “I don’t know. That’s the point. But I need to make sure Gabe is safe. And maybe when I figure this thing out I’ll be able to go to the police.”
    “Who was this man who was killed?”
    “Someone from one of the big drug companies. I was going to interview for him for my next documentary. He’s a friend of that whistleblower, John McCloskey, I interviewed a few months ago. And I think this man may have been trying to blow the whistle on his company, too.” Dani stopped herself from mentioning the USB flash drive he’d given her.
    “Dani, this is unbelievable.”
    “I know. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t want you to worry.”
    “If you don’t call the police, I’m going to.”
    An image flashed into Dani’s mind: the killer grabbing Gabe by the hair, dragging him…“Mom, Mom, stop. Please! I’m afraid that may put me—and Gabe—in more danger than we are already.”
    That seemed to stop her. After a moment she said, “First things first. I’m leaving now to come pick up Gabe.”
    “And take him up to the lake?”
    “Yes, and take him up to the lake.” Then she said, with that Cindy Jackson resolve in her voice, “And then I’m going to figure out what to do about you, Danielle.”
    “Thanks, Mom,” Dani said, but Mom had already hung up on her.

    The call with Mom had gone better than she might’ve expected, Dani realized. This, after agonizing for ten minutes about how badly it had gone. Now she mocked herself. Mom was a formidable presence. Even when Dad was alive, she took care of all the finances, paid the bills, ran the house, planned vacations, set the meal plan—actually wrote it out for the week—assigned her siblings and she their chores and dispensed allowances. Dani usually approached a problem with, “what would Mom do,” frequently calling her to vent about stresses in her life, then waiting for Mom’s counsel. So today, how could Dani really expect to give her only half the story and have her accept it. And yes, going to the cops was the logical answer, but Mom hadn’t looked that blue-eyed, acne-scarred man in the face who nonchalantly checked his gun while she was screaming for help, then got ready to point it at her. That man in a cop uniform; either a cop, or masquerading as one. But did killers masquerading as cops have squad cars parked outside with their partners in them?
    A police car cruised by. She turned from the street, shielding her face, imagining that photo of her from the television on the digital screens in hundreds of NYPD cars in the city. She pulled her shoulder-length sandy hair into a ponytail and put a rubber band around it. Not much of a change, but it would have to do for now.
    She fingered the USB flash drive, now in the pocket of her blazer. John McCloskey. Maybe he would have some answers. She checked her watch. It hadn’t been long since she’d seen her photograph on the television, but she knew from those goofy thriller movies that James watched that the cops could trace peoples’ cell phones. It was dangerous to use hers again. She knew McCloskey’s address, so she took a crosstown bus to the Upper East Side.
    At his apartment building at 86th and 2 nd Avenue, the concierge called upstairs, got McCloskey on the phone. “Who may I say is calling?” the concierge asked.
    “Dani North.”

    Grover Madsen sat in