“So one nervous bug and they all pile on… I’ve got luggage.” Nick checked the suitcase he’d found. “Tag says it belongs to Quadros. Looks like he was staying here.”

“There’s a laptop on the bedside table.” Grissom brushed bees off the keyboard and tapped the space bar. “It doesn’t seem to be encrypted.”

“Think we just got lucky?” said Nick. “I mean, it looks like either Quadros was the Bug Killer, or the real thing decided to thin out the competition-meaning it has to be Vanderhoff.”

“Maybe,” said Grissom. “We’ll know more once we take a closer look at this laptop.”

“Congratulations,” said Ecklie. He smiled at Grissom as if he’d just won an award. Grissom didn’t smile back. “It looks like our killer got so overconfi-dent he solved our problem for us.”

“I’m not so sure that’s the case. In fact, I’m not sure the case has been solved.”

“How can you say that? Your own report lists what you found on that laptop-the text of the lette rs sent to Athena Jordanson, the e-mails used to lure the Harribold vic-even how he planned to poison the buffet at the Embassy Gold.” Ecklie shook his head. “I have to hand it to you, Gil-you were right on target about that. You saved a lot of lives.”

“Did I? I didn’t have anything to do with stopping Quadros-he did that to himself. And that’s what bothers me.” Grissom leaned forward, frowning. “I’m finding it hard to believe that someone who’s demonstrated nothing but careful planning until now would slip up in such an obvious way.”

“They all make a mistake sooner or later, Gil. You know that. Just be glad we caught this guy before it was too late.”

“We only found a small amount of homobatrachotoxin in the room. The evidence points to his manufacturing it in quantity.”

“Homeless people being recruited to process mass amounts of an esoteric poison? Come on, Gil-there’s no proof of that, only a few missing indigents. And you know as well as I do that they could have just as easily moved on. People living on the street don’t usually leave a forwarding address.”

“And experienced entomologists don’t usually die of bee stings.”

“Well, this one did. Unless you have some doubt that the body you found is actually that of Roberto Quadros?”

Grissom shook his head. “The thought had occurred to me-but we got in touch with the Brazilian university he worked for, and they supplied an exemplar of his fingerprints. It’s Quadros.”

“Then the case is closed, Gil. Stop worrying about it.”

“Good to have you back, Al,” said Grissom, standing in the doorway to the autopsy room.

Doc Robbins turned around and said, “Hello, Grissom. Good to be back. Can’t wait to get back to work.”

“Here. A little welcome-back present.” He walked forward and handed Robbins a small cardboard box.

Robbins leaned on his crutch with one hand, took the box with the other. He let the crutch dangle off his forearm by the support as he opened the box.

It was a large tarantula, encased in Lucite. Robbins grinned as he hefted it. “Nice weight,” he said. “Should come in handy the next time I need to squash a pest.”

“ ‘It is difficult to say who do you the most mischief; enemies with the worst intentions or friends with the best.’ ”

“Benjamin Franklin?

“Edward Bulwer-Lytton.”

“Isn’t he the guy who wrote ‘It was a dark and stormy night’?”

“Very good. Most people attribute that line to Snoopy.”

Robbins set the paperweight down on the very same counter the Brazilian wandering spider had leapt from. “S noopy had a better agent. Is this strictly a social call, or was there something else?”

Grissom walked over to the autopsy table, where the body of Roberto Quadros lay. His skin was still red and grossly swollen, dotted with approximately three and a half thousand stingers; the Y-shaped suture on his chest told him that Robbins had finished his autopsy. “Is the tox screen back yet?”

“Just came in. It was definitely the envenomation that killed him, though we did find small amounts of the homobatrachotoxin you told us to look out for.”

“How much?”

Robbins limped over to his desk and picked up a piece of paper. “Point-zero-four micrograms,” he said.

“Not a lethal dose,” said Grissom, “but more than you’d expect from simple environmental exposure.”

“And definitely enough to have an effect.”

“One of the initial symptoms of homobatrachotoxin poisoning is paralysis. I think the amount in Quadros’s bloodstream was enough to produce that.”

“It would explain why he didn’t try to get away from the bees-he couldn’t move.”

Grissom studied the corpse’s face; it was so swollen as to be unrecognizable. “Al, can you send a sample of Quadros’s hair to tox? It’s possible these levels built up over time-if so, I’d like to know how long.”

“Sure. You think he was expo sed repeatedly?”

“Maybe.” Grissom shook his head. “But something doesn’t add up here.”

Grissom found Nathan Vanderhoff beside the pool.

Vanderhoff sat up on his lounger when he saw Grissom approaching. He was in one of the shaded cabanas, dressed in shorts and sunglasses and with a laptop beside him.

“Nathan,” said Grissom, “mind if we talk?”

“Not at all. I heard about Roberto-terrible, just terrible.”

“Yes.” Grissom took out his own sunglasses and slipped them on. “Excuse me. The glare off the pool-bright light is one of the things that can trigger a migraine.”

“Not to mention stress. I imagine you’ve been under a great deal of that lately.”

Grissom shrugged and pulled up a deck chair. “Part of the job. I’m just sorry I missed so much of the conference.”

“Yes, there were some good presentations this year-though I’m afraid I missed quite a few myself.”

“I apologize if the investigation inconvenienced you.”

“Not at all. You were simply being professional. I’m afraid I haven’t been-Vegas simply offers too many opportunities to indulge.”

“That it does. What’s been occupying your time?”

Vanderhoff smiled. “Oh, this and that. I’m a bit of a foodie-the restaurant selection is quite impressive.” He paused. “Afraid I’m not much of one for the buffets, though. They remind me too much of repletes.”

Grissom knew what he referred to: a replete was a specialized class of worker ant, one that essentially functioned as a living food dispenser. It hung upside down from the roof of a storeroom, its distended belly holding so much liquid that if it were to fall it would burst. Its sole purpose was to regurgitate stored nectar when other sources of food weren’t available.

“Better selection, though,” said Grissom. “Nathan, did Roberto ever talk to you?”

“About the case? Of course. All four of us discussed it, even after it became obvious we were suspects. Then Khem was arrested, and we assumed you had your man. But now that Quadros is dead… well, I have to say I’m a bit nervous.”

Grissom glanced around. Two women in extremely brief swimsuits had just climbed out of the pool, sunlight gleaming off their perfect tans. “You don’t seem nervous,” he said.

Vanderhoff chuckled, eyeing the women. “I thought I’d make a poorer target if I stayed in public. Of course, there are some fringe benefits…”

“Did Quadros ever say anything that seemed… odd?”

“It’s hard to say what would qualify, Gil. Roberto, as you know, was more than a little outspoken-and had quite a temper, as well. I would have classified any discussion with him that wasn’t punctuated by an outburst or two as odd.”

“Did he ever say anything about Athena Jordanson?”

“The singer? No, not that I can recall. But really, I didn’t know the man well; I only met him in person for the first time here.”