Reunited by the Badge

by Deborah Fletcher Mello

  “Two slices of carrot cake to go. I’ll be back shortly with your food,” Jacob said as he backed away from the table and headed toward the kitchen.

  * * *

  A pregnant pause bloomed full and thick between them. Simone stared, the look she was giving him so intense that Paul felt his stomach flip as the air was sucked from his lungs. She was even more stunning than he remembered, and he remembered everything about Simone.

  Her hair had been freshly cut, her lush curls cropped short in a style that flattered her exquisite face. Chocolate-chip freckles danced across her nose and cheeks, complementing her warm copper complexion. Her dark eyes were large and bright and light shimmered in her stare. And she had the most perfect mouth, her full, luscious lips like plush pillows begging to be kissed. It took every ounce of fortitude he possessed not to lean over and capture her lips with his own. He took a deep breath and held it, hoping to stall the emotion that had swelled between them.

  If anyone had asked, Paul would have had to admit to falling in love with Simone at first sight. She’d been the most beautiful woman he had ever seen as she had skipped across the university’s quad. He’d stepped into her path and had introduced himself, asking for directions he hadn’t needed. Simone had walked him to the destination, talking a mile a minute, which she later admitted had been to calm her nerves about a class that had her concerned. Their friendship had been like spun sugar: threads deeply entwined, intensely sweet and delicately fragile. Simone treaded cautiously, wherein he was always ready to take risks.

  After spending a decade together, he had never imagined life without her until the day she’d told him to leave, unwilling to follow where he needed to go. He was still in shock, still hurt by the loss, still hoping for a reconciliation, even if he never said the words aloud. There was just something about the two of them together that worked, making it feel like all was well in the world, even when they were off-balance with each other.

  He finally spoke, Simone still waiting patiently for him to say something. “I think Lender Pharmaceuticals is poisoning patients who are taking their drugs.”

  Simone blinked, her lashes fluttering as she processed the comment. “That’s a serious accusation, Paul,” she said finally.

  He nodded. “I know, and I don’t make it lightly, but I believe that I have irrefutable proof that Lender Pharmaceuticals is purposely providing contaminated medications to doctors and medical facilities here in the United States and abroad.”

  Paul continued to explain. “I’ve been working in a clinic in Ghana. In Accra. It’s not a large facility but it supports the local orphanages in the area and has been a refuge for the community. I have patients that I had treated for a measles-related virus on a previous trip who should have been well by now, but they’re either still symptomatic, showing rapid deterioration or have succumbed to the illness. And not one or two patients, but dozens! The disease is spreading too quickly in communities that should be thriving when you consider the preventive and curative medications that Lender Pharmaceuticals has been providing. On this last trip I think I may have poked a bear by throwing accusing questions at them that the company wasn’t expecting.”

  “What’s the drug we’re talking about?”

  “It’s a synthetic drug called Halphedrone-B, which is being used worldwide to treat patients with autoimmune diseases, most especially in impoverished communities, because allegedly Lender is practically selling it at cost. But I think it’s the drug that’s killing them.”

  “What kind of proof do you have?”

  “The drugs. The patients. The fact that since I called BS on their products, I feel like someone wants to stop me from going public with the information.”

  “How? What’s happened that you haven’t told me?”

  Paul took a deep breath. He hadn’t given the series of mishaps while he’d been abroad any thought until he’d spoken with his brother. He’d experienced several minor accidents that could have been potentially devastating. There had been a car traveling too fast that had just missed hitting him, and a fire, the cause unknown and devastating the hut he’d been sleeping in. Lastly, the close encounter at the airport in Africa with a stranger he’d dismissed as mentally ill, a man swinging a machete haphazardly in his direction until security had taken him down. Considering all of it together, and now the two strangers who’d clearly had him in their sights, had him concerned.

  When he finished detailing the incidents, Simone shook her head, the gesture slow and methodic. “What else?”

  Paul took a deep breath and blew it past his full lips. “I overnighted blood and tissue samples, and drug samples to my brother. I asked him to run some tests for me. The samples have disappeared.”

  “Define disappeared.”

  “Someone took them. They knew he had them and they stole them right out of his lab.”

  “Do you think that someone is tracking you?”

  “I don’t know what to think, Simone. Hell, I’m not even sure what to do with what I do know.”

  “So, you called me?”

  “I trust you.”

  There was a moment that passed between them as Simone remembered what that trust meant to them both. How important it had been to protect and nurture each other. To have complete and total faith in what they shared. She suddenly resisted the urge to wrap her arms around him, wanting to pull him close to tell him everything was going to be okay. To say it, even if she wasn’t certain that it would.

  “You probably shouldn’t go back to your apartment. Not until we’re sure it’s safe. You can stay with me while we figure it out,” she said instead.

  “I need to go to the hospital. I need to follow up on patients I have here.”

  She started to argue and then she didn’t. “I need to do some research. I also have a sorority sister at the FDA. I’ll call her tomorrow to see if they have any open investigations against Lender. I hope you’re wrong, Paul, but if you’re not, I’ll do whatever I can to help you take them down.”

  Paul reached for her hand, his palm sliding warmly against hers as he entwined her fingers between his own. For as much as he trusted her, he knew Simone trusted him, too. He’d spent most of his adult life assuring her that he would never walk her into trouble he couldn’t get her out of, and until now, he’d been certain that he could do that. Now he had doubts and that uncertainty felt like a sledgehammer to his abdomen. “Thank you, but I don’t want to drag you into this. Especially if it looks like it might get ugly.”

  “You should have thought about that before you called me.”

  “I honestly didn’t think you’d come.”

  “You knew I’d come.”

  Paul held the look she was giving him. He didn’t bother to acknowledge that she was right. Nor did he admit that he hadn’t really thought it through. He knew he didn’t need to tell her that he was suddenly feeling like he was out of his element, or that he was scared. But with her by his side, he had faith it would all work out. He didn’t need to say it because Simone knew. She knew him better than anyone.

  Minutes later he had paid for their meals and they were walking back up the block toward her car. Neither had spoken, nothing else needing to be said. Both had fallen into their own thoughts, planning what needed to come next, or not. Paul carried the bags of food and Simone had looped her arm through his, lightly clutching his elbow as she steadied herself on her high heels.

  The car lock disengaged when Simone pressed her hand to the door latch. Paul opened her side door, closing it after she was settled in the driver’s seat. He moved around the back of the vehicle to the passenger side, pausing to rest their dinners on the back seat. He had just opened his door when a gunshot rang loudly through the late-night air. The windowpane in the storefront behind him shattered, glass sounding like breaking chimes against the concrete sidewalk. The building’s alarm rang loudly, the harsh tones lou
d enough to wake the dead. A second shot shattered the car’s back window.

  Panic hit Paul broadside, rising fear holding him hostage where he stood. He was discombobulated, but he ducked, his gaze sweeping the landscape for an explanation. Simone shouted, the words incoherent as she shifted the car into Reverse. Paul jumped awkwardly into the passenger seat as she pulled forward, grazing the bumper of the car parked in front of her. A few quick turns and they were driving seventy miles per hour on Highway 41 until both were certain they weren’t being followed. When she finally slowed to the speed limit, Paul cussed, the profanity moving Simone to toss him a quick look.

  “What now?” she asked.

  “Whatever it takes,” Paul answered, still trying to catch his breath. “We’ll do whatever it takes to shut these bastards down.

  Simone nodded. “Let’s not get killed trying to do it.”

  Paul took a deep breath into his lungs and held it. His mind was racing, his thoughts a mishmash of questions with no answers. Confusion had settled deep into every crevice in his head; it felt like sludge was weighing down his thought process. “We should find somewhere to lay low,” he said. “Until we can figure it all out.”

  “We can go back to my house...” Simone started.

  “No. Now that they’ve seen us together, I don’t trust that they won’t find us there.”

  “Then we should go to the police station.”

  “Let’s just get a hotel room. I don’t think we should involve the police just yet.”

  “Someone shot at us, Paul! We need to file a report! My brothers need to know!”

  “I know that, Simone! But I need to think this through. Please, just give me a minute to think!”

  “We might not have a minute, Paul!” Simone’s voice rose an octave and the tension between them suddenly increased ten-fold. Before either could blink, the conversation took a sharp left turn and they were yelling back and forth, each determined to prove a point when there was none. It was Bickering 101 and reminiscent of when their relationship had gone all kinds of wrong.

  Chapter 2

  The no-tell motel they’d found by the highway was fetid, reeking of debauchery and sin. The smell of cigarettes, marijuana, sex and body odor was pungent through the late-night air. Simone distorted her face with displeasure as Paul closed the door to room thirty-eight and tossed the key card on the laminated dresser. He sat down on the foot of the mattress beside her and exhaled his first sigh of relief since leaving the restaurant. Simone had finally stopped shaking and Paul felt like he could breathe normally again.

  Neither spoke. Both were still reeling from the fight they’d had in the car. Simone had wanted them to drive straight to the police station. Paul had refused, insisting that it would only make things worse. He was adamant that they needed additional proof to substantiate his claims and the only way to get that was if no one knew where they were or what they were after. Simone knew her family wouldn’t take them disappearing lightly and she trusted her brothers would look for them. They still hadn’t come to an agreement. The argument had been contentious, the intensity of their emotions palpable.

  “It doesn’t make any sense,” Simone finally said, breaking the silence. “No one we know would think our not going to the police is a smart thing to do.” There was still an air of hostility in her tone.

  And a hint of defiance in his as he responded. “No one knows what we’re up against. Even we don’t know yet, Simone.”

  “Which is why going to the police would make sense. I know my brothers would back us up.”

  “I don’t agree. All that’s going to happen is that the police will dismiss my concerns because the proof I have is shaky at best. The preliminary test results Oliver sent me still need to be analyzed and there’s more testing that needs to be done. Lender will be tipped off that we’re on to them and we won’t be able to prove what they’re doing or stop them.”

  “In the movies when people don’t go to the police, they die. They fall off cliffs, demons get them, all kinds of horrors,” Simone said facetiously.

  “In the movies I’ve seen the police get it, too.”

  “You’re watching the wrong movies.”

  “You watch too many.”

  Simone tossed up her hands in frustration. “I’m an officer of the court, Paul! I have a responsibility to uphold the law. I have a damn badge, for heaven’s sake!”

  Paul cut his gaze in her direction, a smile pulling at his mouth. “Why do they issue you a badge anyway? You’re a prosecutor.”

  Simone shifted her body, turning to stare at him. “Are you making fun of my badge?”

  “I just asked the question!”

  Her tone was laced with attitude. “It makes me official. It says that I represent the courts of the state and that I took the Attorney’s Oath and I’ve promised to honor its tenets. Don’t you dare make light of what I do, Paul Reilly. It’s as important to me as the Hippocratic Oath that you doctors take.”

  “I’m not, Simone. I was just curious about the badge. They don’t give us doctors one.”

  “No, they give you those white jackets with your names embroidered over the breast pockets. Same thing, different medium.”

  “I cannot believe we’re sitting here arguing over a tin emblem.” He lay backward on the bed, pulling his arms over his head.

  “We’re arguing about involving the police. Don’t change the subject.”

  Paul blew a soft sigh as another wave of silence swept between them. Both sat listening instead to the noise in the room. An alarm clocked ticked loudly from the nightstand next to the bed and water leaked from the faucet in the bathroom. There was a steady rhythm of clicks and plops, both just loud enough to be annoying. Minutes passed before he spoke again. “I’ll do whatever you think is best, Simone.”

  “You will?”

  “Yeah,” he mumbled as he folded an arm over his eyes.

  She nodded. “I’ll call my brother. We need to at least tell him that we’re safe. We can also tell him what we know in an unofficial capacity. If they can help work it from their end, it can’t hurt. Until we figure out what the hell we’re doing, we can use all the help we can get.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay? Really?”

  “Yeah, baby, okay.”

  A noise outside the door pulled Simone upright. “Did you hear that?”

  Paul mumbled, “No. I didn’t hear anything.”

  Simone stood and moved to the window to peer through the blinds. Outside, three working women were gathered in the parking lot changing their clothes. Bare asses and boobs were on full display and no one seemed to be concerned. Laughter rang through the late-night air, their good time fueled by the bottle of booze being passed between them. Simone exhaled, turning back toward the bed. “I don’t know if I can stay here...” she started.

  The rest of her comment stalled in midair, warm breath the slightest whistle past her lips. Paul had fallen into a deep sleep, jet lag and exhaustion fully claiming him. He snored softly and for a quick moment Simone realized just how much she missed hearing him beside her at night.

  Shaking the thought, she grabbed her cell phone from her purse and her food from the meal bag. She took a seat on a cushioned chair in front of the small desk and dialed Parker’s number. As she waited for someone to answer, she took the first bite of her macaroni and cheese.

  * * *

  “Where are you?” Parker questioned. “I’m sending a patrol car.”

  “We’re fine, big brother. You just needed to know what happened. I also took the bumper off some guy’s car, I think. You’ll handle that for me, too, right?”

  “If they knew Paul was at that restaurant, they’re probably tracking his cell phone. They may even be tracking yours.”

  “We thought that, too, so we tossed the sim card in his phone and powered it off. I’m us
ing my other phone. The one that’s in mom’s name. My primary phone was dead, so I left it at the house on the charger.”

  “You need to come in, Simone. Until we figure out who shot at you, we can’t trust that either of you is safe.”

  “We can’t, Parker. Paul truly believes this company is killing patients and he’s determined to stop them. If we come in, we might lose our window of opportunity to prove his theory.”

  “I wasn’t asking, Simone. That was an order.”

  “I stopped taking orders from you when I was ten.”

  “Then I’m calling Mom and Dad.”

  “Don’t you dare! I just need you to trust me.”

  Parker yelled, “You don’t know what the hell you’re doing! Neither of you has a clue what you’ve gotten yourselves into! Now, where are you?”

  Simone sighed. “I love you. And I’ll be okay. I promise.”

  “Don’t you dare hang...”

  Simone disconnected the call abruptly. She took another bite of macaroni and sat in reflection as she polished off the last of her meal. She didn’t have the words to explain to her brother what she was feeling or why they were suddenly acting like fugitives. She honestly wasn’t sure what the hell they were doing. But they were together and she instinctively wanted to do whatever necessary to support Paul. He needed her and it had been forever since she’d felt like she added value to his life. Wanting each other had never been the problem between them. Needing each other, and admitting to it, had been a whole other animal neither had been willing to claim. But now necessity had put them together, if for nothing more than to hold on to each other for emotional support, and Simone had no intentions of failing him.

  Paul was now snoring loudly, and she instinctively knew that it had been days since he’d last rested well. She was reminded of those days after medical school, during his residency, when his shifts at the hospital seemed to last for days before he was able to come home and fall out from exhaustion.