Chapter 62
Free Fall
The fisherman in the small boat hears the train rumbling across the trestle. Moments later the loud splash not more than 20 yards ahead startles him. He presses the electronic start on the small 10-horsepower outboard engine and puts it into forward gear. Approaching the splash area he sees her lifeless body face down in the water. He slows to a crawl, and once near the body he kills the engine.
Wrapping one arm around her upper torso and the other around her waist, he pulls her face-down into the boat. Quickly turning her over, he searches for her pulse, but doesn’t feel it. He listens close to her nose and mouth for any air movement. None. He begins vigorous chest compressions.
Whoosh.
* * *
White light. Brighter and brighter. Then I see him. He touches my hand. I stare into his eyes - they look so happy. Then his hand lets go, he shakes his head no, and floats up and away from me.
* * *
Whoosh.
* * *
Whoosh.
* * *
A small burst of water suddenly erupts out of the girl’s mouth and onto her neck and bloody arm. Seconds later, the fisherman talks to someone on his cell phone.
"Yeah. Get rescue personnel to the dock on the west side near the trestle. I pulled her from the water and she’s been resuscitated."
"I just saw him. He touched my hand."
"Who are you talking about?"
"Kent. My boyfriend. He…he was just there. I just saw him."
"I'm not sure who he is or what you think you saw, but I just revived you. You’re one lucky girl.”
"You don't understand."
Amanda stretches out on the aluminum floor of the boat with her head against the hard wooden seat.
“I'm going to get you checked by the rescue squad,” he says, directing the small boat toward the dock.
Chapter 63
Rescued
While en route, Andy receives a cell phone call from Loudoun County Emergency Rescue Services. The dispatcher relays the news that Amanda was rescued by a fisherman and is stable. He quickly calls Charlyne and gives her the great news, but explains he doesn’t know her exact condition.
He follows a narrow two-lane road to the river level and sees the medical rescue van. The rear doors are open and two rescue personnel are standing near a gurney tending to a girl with her back to him. As he trots toward her, the EMTs back off a few feet. The older of the two speaks first.
“She’s going to be okay.”
Andy wants to give her a huge bear hug, but he stops himself because he’s unsure of her injuries. He delicately places his hands on her shoulders.
“Are you okay?”
Short, intermittent sobs come out of her mouth.
“What happened? What were you doing on the bridge?” he asks.
“I don’t know,” she says.
“Are you hurt?”
“Not really, just my right arm. It’s fine, I’m fine. I’m really fine.”
“What were you doing up there? Were you trying to die?”
“No. I didn’t want to die…just almost die.”
“Huh? What’s that mean?”
“I wanted to know what it would feel like ‘cause I don’t remember before the crash, but I do remember some of the stuff when I was dead and then when I came back. Does that make any sense to you?”
“Not really, actually not at all. You dodged a train. Why would you do that?”
“I wanted to see Kent again.”
“So you were trying to kill yourself.”
“To tell you the truth, something told me I wouldn’t die. I think I jumped but I don’t know. I really don’t remember. The point is I remember what happened after, when I almost died. I saw Kent again and now it’s alright, Uncle Andy. I think I’m good now. Really, I mean it.”
Andy turns from her and walks over to the nearest rescue squad worker.
“Should I take her to the hospital?”
“Frankly, the only problem we found was superficial wounds along her arm, and the bleeding was minor. We ran all of her vitals and conducted all our normal testing, so it’s your call.”
Andy walks back over to Amanda and touches her shoulder. “We should take you to the hospital.”
“I don’t want to. Can you take me to the cemetery where Kent’s buried? He’s at Springbranch Church, off of Route 7. Do you know where that is?”
Chapter 64
Home Visit
Andy finds Peter Lucent's phone number on his cell phone.
"Dr. Lucent, sorry to bother you, but Amanda has been in an accident and I'm hoping you might be able to see her."
"Why don't you just take her to the ER?"
"Under the circumstances, I really don't want a record of the situation."
"Why?"
"She just fell off a railroad bridge. There's a lot more to it, but I’d rather tell you in person."
"Fell off a bridge?"
"She doesn’t appear to be injured, but I want to be sure. Could you please see her at your home?"
"As long as you understand I'm not an ER doctor. I live at 101 Fox Lair Court in Reston. How long do you think it will take for you to get here?"
Andy considers his location for a moment. "Maybe 20 minutes."
Andy walks over to Amanda.
"Let's get out of here. I'm going to have Dr. Lucent examine you, then I will take you by Springbranch. I promise." He helps her over to his car. As she gets in she's already asking questions.
"Dr. Lucent? Why did you call him?"
"We don't want a medical record of this because it would raise questions about your competency. Got it?"
"Okay, whatever.”
Peter Lucent opens the front door and ushers Andy and Amanda inside.
"Young lady, I understand you've had a bit of an accident. Let's go talk privately."
Lucent leads Amanda into his home office. He is carrying what looks to be a first aid kit.
"What happened?”
He has taken several of the items from the first aid kit and placed them on the table. He examines her arm, looking at the various cuts and bruises.
"I dunno. I went back to this railroad bridge I visited with Kent. And I walked out on it and…"
Lucent interrupts, "Why would you walk out on a railroad bridge?"
"I dunno. I just wanted to experience what I had with him. I can't give you a better explanation than that. I know it’s stupid, but I don't care."
"And what happened after that?"
"A train came. I don't remember much after that. Some fisherman fished me out of the water. The rescue squad came to the boat ramp and treated me there. Come to think of it, I never got to thank that fisherman, I wonder if I’ll ever find him again.”
"Amanda, were you trying to get hit?" he asks sincerely in a low whisper.
"I really don't know. Kent told me about two friends of his who got killed out on that trestle. It was a girl and a boy from the neighborhood where he grew up."
"What about that? Why do you mention it?”
"It was just something I had been thinking about."
Amanda looks down at the first aid kit materials on the table and sees sharp scissors.
"Doctor Lucent, I don't bleed like I should."
"You don't bleed like you should? I'm not sure I…"
Before he can do anything she picks up the scissors, flips them open and slashes one of the razor-sharp edges against her wrist until blood starts spurting out all over her arm, the table, and the floor. She drops the now bloody scissors onto the desk.
"Amanda! What are you doing?" Lucent shouts, searching his first aid kit for gauze, a bandage, anything to stop the blood.
Andy hears the commotion from the adjacent room and runs in to find blood everywhere.
"What happened? What happened? My God!"
Dr. Lucent finally locates a bandage and tape. He rips open the bandage, but as he starts to press it to Amanda'
s wrist, she pulls it away and refuses to let him cover the wound. She holds her hand palm up in front of them both.
"Look. This is what I mean."
The blood has already coagulated and sealed the wound shut. Lucent is speechless. Andy doesn't know what happened but he stares at the wound too.
"What happened?" Andy asks.
"Your niece just slashed her own wrist. She's claiming that for some reason her wounds heal much faster than normal. So she was making a point."
"I knew it for sure when the rescue squad was treating me today, but I also kinda knew before that."
Andy looks at Lucent. "Is there any medical condition that she could have developed that would do that after a serious accident?"
"Nothing that comes to mind. What’s even more amazing, her medical history shows she was previously diagnosed with Von Willebrand Disease, or vWD, which is marked by excessive bleeding. She has signs of the complete opposite now."
Lucent covers the wound with the bandage and secures it with tape.
"Well Andy, I think your niece is fine as long as she doesn't slash herself again anytime soon," Lucent says, eyeing Amanda.
Chapter 65
Springbranch
The church, built more than 100 years ago, has a red brick exterior, oversized front doors and a high steeple. The cemetery sprawls over a hillock immediately adjacent to it. Amanda makes it clear that she does not want Andy to come with her, and he figures he’ll just let this play out.
Amanda enters through one of the front doors of the church, and Andy texts Barb and Charlyne, assuring them that Amanda is safe and sound. A few minutes later a priest walks down the steps with Amanda and ushers her around the side of the building. His outstretched arm points to a certain area where there are lines of headstones. Amanda begins walking in that direction.
Andy decides to follow Amanda at a distance, just to keep an eye on her. As she walks through a series of gravesites, he walks just close enough so that he can still see her. He sees her looking around on the gravel roadway and picking up several stones.
Placing small stones on a headstone is a Jewish tradition. One explanation for placing the stones is to ensure that souls remain where they belong. Keep the soul down, don’t allow it to wander back into the land of the living. But this is a Christian cemetery, Andy thinks to himself. I guess the deceased really don’t mind what religion you are, and they certainly can’t complain.
Finally, Amanda stands before a headstone and places two, maybe three, small stones on top of the polished headstone.
They’re back on Route 7 driving toward Barbara’s house.
“I want you to take me to Crossroads.”
“Amanda, you can’t keep going there. You’ve got to stay with your Aunt Barbara, and you’ve got to go back to school.”
“I know you may hate me for it, but I just don’t know if I can do it. I’m not sure I can walk back into M.A. again,” Amanda says, looking right at him.
“What is it? I know terrible things have happened. But have you lost the drive to enjoy life? You’re only 18, Amanda! I’m not telling you how to feel, but…”
“I’m moving on. I feel better now. And I have a plan. It’s a plan that I really just figured out.”
“What kind of plan?”
The white picket fences of the horse farms pass on both sides of the road. Amanda stares up at the huge trees, watching their branches move in the wind. She outlines her new plan as Andy listens incredulously.
“I’ll have to talk about it with your Aunt Barbara. Then I’ll look into a few things and we’ll talk about it again,” Andy responds.
“You guys can talk, but it won’t change my mind. Are you taking me to the farm now?”
Andy thinks about his options. He knows that Amanda, at least before everything happened with the crash, had a good head on her shoulders. And he desperately wants to believe she has bottomed out.
“Yeah, I’ll take you there. But I want to talk to Kyle Perless again. We need to make sure it’s okay.”
“He’ll let me stay there as long as I want and you know it.”
Chapter 66
The Catacombs
Andy has trouble focusing on the long list of emails on his screen. His mind keeps mulling over the circumstances outlined by Perry Carson, a couple conversations he had with Amanda about Kent, and the newest revelation from David that Amanda’s hospital room had been professionally bugged.
Andy decides there is one person who may be able to offer more insight. He texts, Hi, Alex. Any chance you could meet me for a drink after work today? Thx, Andy.
A few minutes later, Alex confirms, and they set a time and place.
Andy enters the Catacombs a few minutes early and takes the staircase down to the dark, basement-level bar, a place he partied in many times during college. It is an institution for Hoya students and Georgetown alumni, well-hidden a few blocks off Wisconsin Avenue. He notices the musty beer smell as he scans the bar. Satisfying himself that Alex has not arrived, Andy slides onto a hardwood bench in one of the booths. “Yellow” by Coldplay is pumping through the speakers. Within a couple minutes he sees Alex walking down the steps. Andy holds his hand up to get his attention and Alex strolls over.
They exchange a quick hug before sliding into the booth opposite each other.
"Thanks for meeting me with such short notice. I know it was a hassle to come back into the city at rush hour." Andy says.
"No problem. I wanted to talk to you too." Alex responds.
"Oh yeah? About what?"
Before he can respond a young waitress, probably a GU student, asks for their drink order. Andy orders a Sam Adams, and Alex requests the same.
Once she leaves, Alex re-starts.
"It's finally kind of sunk in that your brother is no longer here and I’m having trouble dealing with that. I’m so sorry for you and the family."
"I just keep marching forward one step at a time myself. Because I'm representing so many of the other families, I can't let myself get down."
The waitress drops off the beers. “Having dinner, guys?” she asks, but they both decline.
"Okay,” Andy starts, “I've got some really disturbing stuff that I need to ask you about. Someone bugged Amanda’s hospital room. At first I thought it was the press, but now I think that theory was misdirected."
“That seems preposterous.”
"Didn’t you and Ron have a security clearance at your job?"
"Yeah, I still have one. Why?"
"I'm just wondering if there could be any connection between Ron's death and his research. Did you guys work together?"
"We didn’t really work together, but he worked on blood biology research like I do, in micro-fluidics."
"Micro-fluidics? Never heard of it. What did he actually do?"
"Remember, BBS is a big company and I didn’t work in his unit. Also, some of the classified stuff I can’t talk about. Micro-fluidics is a big new area. It’s taking a tiny tube, or a channel, and using technology to separate the blood components. It can also be used to monitor for bad stuff in the blood. Instead of needing big machines, a tiny channel and some high-tech engineering can do major diagnostics on blood."
"I know he patented one blood screening process before he even started at BBS. What about that research?"
"What about it? He assigned his first patent rights to BBS and I know they paid him for that. Everything developed at work is considered company intellectual property. So if you work on anything that's even partly related to the research at the lab the company's lawyers see to it that the new process or invention is patented through the company. You are listed as an inventor, sure, but the company owns and controls any patents and resulting income. That's pretty typical…”
Andy interrupts him. "How about the research he did at home for years? He mentioned it in passing, but he never told me what he was doing. Do you know?”
"Whatever he did at home, I'm not surprised he kept it to hims
elf. If it had anything to do with work, he knew it would be assigned to the company and he would get little credit for it. The company could claim the basis of the idea came from work, even if he’d come up with something at home.”
“Are you avoiding my questions?”
“I told you we didn’t work closely together.”
“You’re holding back on me, Bro. I know you too well. And this is my brother, dammit!” Andy pounds the near-empty mug on the tabletop.
"Alex, a few years ago he went all the way down to Easter Island for two weeks and he told me it was a company business trip. Did you go down there also?"
"Yeah. We had a whole bunch of scientists on that trip. It was very cool."
"Why did your company send a bunch of biologists to Easter Island?"
"Easter Island is rich with biodiversity and all kinds of strange species. We were looking at biology relating to unique species located there. I really can't say anything more. If I disclosed things that were classified, I could get in some serious trouble. I know you understand."
"So the company sends a bunch of the biologists all the way out into the South Pacific Ocean, but you can’t tell me why?"
"The company’s always investigating new techniques, that’s all I can say.”
Andy stares into Alex's eyes and then back down at his own beer mug, deep in thought.
"Let me throw something else at you. Amanda befriended a young kid who was volunteering at the hospital. He was in his early 20s, and they became fast friends. This kid, her new friend, was found dead in his car a few days ago. There were drugs in his pocket, prescription Fentanyl patches, but he had no script for any of it. No suicide note. Cops think it was an accidental overdose, not foul play.
Taming the Telomeres, a Thriller Page 21
