Tully couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it earlier.

He barreled down the Hwy-20 exit off of I-95. It would take him forever to get to Charlottesville. Maggie’s cell phone was going to voice message. Had Sloane already done something to her?

Now, of course, it all made sense.

He remembered George Sloane asking where he was when the box of doughnuts was delivered.

Sloane had said, “If I remember correctly, you can’t resist a chocolate doughnut.”

Chocolate doughnuts were Tully’s one constant obsession. He went through stages. Oreo cookies, licorice and once upon a time jelly beans, but chocolate doughnuts were a mainstay. But that wasn’t what should have set off the trigger. Sloane had also said, “So terrorists are delivering their threats at the bottom of doughnut boxes now?”

How did he know the note was at the bottom of the box? Only Cunningham, Maggie, Ganza and himself knew that. You’d never assume a note to be at the bottom. Sloane knew because he placed it there.

And why would Caroline and her fiancé be targeted by the Ebola mailer unless her old sweetheart, who had still been in touch with her as recently as July, was somehow involved?

Her old sweetheart, Indy aka George Sloane, had gone a bit berserk the last time she had chosen someone else. It had even gotten him thrown out of the FBI before he finished training. As a result he became a forensic-document expert, still working with the FBI but always on the outside, working on the fringes. Working on every major case but never getting the credit he thought he deserved. George Sloane had always wanted to be a feebie, not a professor.

How many other packages had Sloane mailed?

And Maggie was with him right now. Unable to answer her phone.

Maybe Tully was wrong. Maybe she wasn’t in danger. It was possible her cell phone was just out of range. Maybe there was no reason for Tully to panic.

Tully told himself this as he continued to punch down on the car’s accelerator.