by ANDREA SMITH
“A formula?”
“Yeah. It was something from Banion Pharmaceuticals. Probably nothing, but you know how anal my stepfather can be.”
“Yeah,” he said, “Well, it goes with the job, I suppose. Do you still have the paper?”
“Yeah, it’s around here somewhere.”
“Do you have plans this afternoon?”
I’m meeting Darcy for lunch at Applebee’s around two. It’s the one that’s just off the by-pass.”
“Do you care if I drive up to see you? I just feel so lonely and hate the idea of going back to that apartment and being alone.”
“Well, Kyzer, I’m seeing Taz at seven, so you know—”
“I’ll head out before then. Hey, bring the paper with the formula equation to Applebee’s with you. I guarantee you I’ll decipher it before I leave, and then you can impress your stepfather. I just need some company.”
How could I possibly refuse him? Hadn’t he been there for me when my family needed help?
“Okay, sure,” I reluctantly agreed. I knew Taz would not be pleased. I didn’t plan on telling him, though. Why start a war?
“Okay, then, I’ll see you in a bit at Applebee’s.”
“See you then.”
I let Donna know I was meeting a friend at Applebee’s and would be back between 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. I wasn’t sure how long Kyzer planned on sticking around. She said she would let Mom know when she woke up.
Darcy and I spent an hour catching up on everything: her relationship with Darin, my relationship with Taz, and Jill’s relationship with Gabe. I told her about my mother’s out of character behavior regarding Taz.
“You know, her hormones are probably all out of whack, plus with the stress and everything, I wouldn’t worry too much. She’ll get with the program. This has to be pretty tough on you, too. Are you keeping up okay with your online classes?”
“It’s been going okay. Speaking of that, Kyzer Stanfield should be here any time. He called earlier. His father passed away and he wanted to drive up to talk. He’s lonely.”
“You mean creepy,” Darcy replied.
I was taken aback by her comment.
“Since when do you think he is creepy?”
“Since forever,” she replied, stuffing a fried mushroom into her mouth.
“Why haven’t you said anything before now?”
“Hon, you were trying to get laid. Who cares if some “Norman Bates” type is the one to get your cherry? It doesn’t mean I thought you’d ever have a real romance with him. You’re too smart for that.”
“Geez, it’s nice knowing you have my best interest at heart.”
“Whatever,” she said, waving her hand at me. “Speak of the devil, Norman’s here.”
I turned and saw Kyzer looking around. I raised my hand up, waving to him. He smiled, immediately making his way over to us.
Darcy wasted no time in finishing up her fried mushrooms and getting her bill. She claimed she had to hit the road back to Charlottesville to study for an exam.
Yeah, right.
We said our goodbyes as she fled.
Kyzer and I sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments. The waitress came over and cleared off the empty dishes. He ordered an iced tea; I ordered a refill of Diet Coke.
“Kyzer, again, I’m so very sorry for your loss. Do you want to talk about it?”
“There’s really not much to say. It was imminent. It was just a matter of time, I knew that. But still, when it does happen, it takes you by surprise. If it hadn’t been for Sue Ellen being with him those last few hours, he would have only had a nurse. I was driving like mad, but didn’t make it back in time. Sue Ellen is inconsolable.”
“I’ll bet,” I replied. “What are her plans?”
“She’ll just continue running the businesses until I graduate. My father left 75% of his total estate to me and 25% to her. I don’t see a problem with continuing to let her draw a salary as CEO over Stanfield Group until I graduate. She will then assume a post at whatever entity she wishes. She has proven herself to me.”
“Well, at least there’s no squabbling or animosity. That must be a blessing.”
“It is. Have you heard anything from your father?”
“Nope.”
“How’s your mother doing?”
“She’s doing well. Still confined to bed rest, but coming along nicely.”
“Hey, did you bring that paper with the formula on it? I promised to crack that for you, remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said, laughing. “You know, I actually left the house without it? I’m sorry,” I lied.
After the comments that Darcy had just made, I had second thoughts about having Kyzer help interpret the formula. It just didn’t feel right.
“Well, no matter, I guess,” he said with a shrug.
“Hey, I’m going to make a trip to the restroom. I’ll be back in a couple. If the waitress comes by, will you ask her for my check?”
“Sure thing,” he said, scanning the menu.
When I returned to the table, our table had been cleared of everything but our drinks. I took a sip of my Diet Coke.
“So, are you going back to classes tomorrow?”
“No,” he replied with a smile. “There are some business complications that have arisen. I promised to help my step-mother with them, so it will be a few more days before I return to classes. I’d rather talk about what’s been going on with you, anyway.”
I filled him in on my recent problems with Physics. He assured me he would help me with the current units we were covering. He expected to be caught up by next week.
He asked me about Taz, which frankly surprised me.
“We’re doing, okay,” I said, “taking things slowly. How about you? Are there any girls on the horizon?”
“Not since you,” he replied with a shrug.
I finished my Diet Coke, suddenly aware of an overwhelming feeling of sleepiness seeping in. I yawned.
“Am I boring you, Lindsey?”
“No, not all. I’m just so sleepy all of a sudden.”
“Well, maybe you should head home and take a nap before your date with Taz.”
That was kind of an odd thing for him to say. I nodded.
“I paid your bill while you were in the restroom,” he advised. “We can go any time.”
“You didn’t need to do that,” I said, yawning again.
“Come on,” he said, “let’s get you to your car before you doze off. I seem to have that effect on women.”
By the time we got outside into the parking lot, Kyzer was practically holding me up.
“Did you drink alcohol in there before I arrived?”
“No,” I said, sleepily.
“Well, I’m driving you home. I’m not allowing you behind the wheel in your condition.”
I was in no state to argue as he opened the passenger side door of a car I didn’t recognize.
“Where’s your Benz?”
“Back in Georgia. I’m driving a rental.”
A rental? Why would he be driving a rental?
Kyzer got me fastened into the passenger seat, then circled around and got in, buckling his seat belt.
“I’m going to have to give you directions,” I slurred.
What the hell?
“Not necessary,” he replied, sounding as if he were miles away instead of just inches. My head flopped back against the headrest of the seat, my eyes closed. Right before I sunk into total blackness, I thought I heard him mumble, “Sweet dreams you lying, little bitch.”
chapter 40
~ TAZ ~
Lindsey’s text message had come in right before 5:00 p.m. It had simply said:
Not feeling very well. Gonna lie down for a while. I’ll call you when I wake up. Sorry
I’d already started the preparations for our dinner, so I went ahead and finished, eating by myself. She’d probably gotten shit
-faced with Darcy this afternoon, and was sleeping it off. I doubted very much if she would call me tonight.
I was stretched out on my bed going over the notes that Slate had composed after his meeting with Davey earlier. The chemist actually had the balls to try and negotiate with Slate to have his time shortened for providing him the interpretation of the chemical formula equation.
Slate told him the lab could give him what he needed to know and got up to leave. Davey had told him any chemist could translate what was on the paper, but it was only partially there.
Slate questioned him as to what was missing.
“One key ingredient,” he’d told him. “It resides right here.” Davey had pointed to his head.
“Why would you have done that?”
“It was a matter of trust,” Davey told him. “I trusted no one, and with good reason it seems.”
Slate finally sealed the deal, telling Davey he didn’t have the authority to reduce his sentence. However, he did have enough clout to see that the rest of his sentence was served in a cell with a new roommate named “Bubba.”
After describing “Bubba,” along with his sexual idiosyncrasies and showing him a photo of a current inmate fitting that description, the small-framed, lightweight chemist was amenable to assisting.
The formula, minus the key ingredient, had been concocted and successfully tested as an “organelle” to develop a hybrid for Khat, a plant that’s legal to harvest in places like Kenya, Somali, and Ethiopia.
Apparently, the leaves of the Khat plant contain cathinone, a potent amphetamine which is illegal in the U.S. When the leaves of the plant are picked, they dry within 48 hours, and the decomposition quickly reduces the potency of cathinone to cathine. The Khat plant takes seven to eight years to reach full height and potential. The plants can be harvested four times a year.
According to Davey, the organelle that was developed allowed a mutation to occur during cross-pollination with the host Khat plant. The hybrid, or prototype, allowed the leaves to stay at max potency for thirty days or longer, which of course, made the value increase a hundred-fold.
Davey said that it was Susan who had approached him on the development, and provided him with the initial composition research conducted by another individual. Davey couldn’t recall the name of that individual. He claimed that Jack had not been part of this scheme initially, and that in fact, Susan had implicitly told him to involve no one else.
Somehow, right before the bust had taken place, Jack had gotten wind of it. It had caused a major argument between Jack and Susan that Davey had witnessed.
Susan had promised Davey some major bucks if the prototype was a success. He scoffed while sitting there talking to Slate about it.
He asked Slate when that bitch was going to get her just desserts. Slate told him he may have to be satisfied with karma as no one had a clue where she was.
“At least I know that nothing can come of that formula,” Davey had spat. “And there’s no way in hell I’m giving up the missing ingredient.”
Slate didn’t care about the missing ingredient. He only wanted to find the perps who had commissioned the development.
When Slate returned from the interview, he and I discussed the cathine. That was the powdery substance that had been on the roses. What the fuck? My money said Susan and Jack were back in the country.
I turned the basketball game on, putting the notes aside for now. I’d spent enough time for one day learning about cathine, organelles, and slimy criminals that had slipped through the cracks. The clock said it was going on ten. Yep, she was sleeping it off.
I dozed off at some point. I was sleeping deeply when my cell phone roused me. I felt my hand groping for it on the night stand.
Shit, it was after midnight.
Fine time to be feeling better, Lindsey.
I saw that it was Slate. “Yeah,” I answered, running my fingers through my hair.
“Hey, Taz, sorry to be calling you so late,” he apologized. “I don’t get a lot done until the rug rat is down, and tonight he was raring to go until after ten. Anyway, don’t know if you saw the data Kim pulled and sent to us from those manifests?”
“Actually, no. I haven’t been on my computer for the last couple of hours.”
“Well, it just came in. She has narrowed the importers of record for the particular shipments from Ethiopia which are the likely candidates for the illegal cargo down to two.”
“Yeah?”
“One’s located in Newark, New Jersey. It’s called “Happy Time Beverages.” The portfolio indicates it’s a processing plant of various international teas and coffees. Maybe that’s not all this place processes.”
“Yeah,” I replied, “being in Newark alone makes that place suspect. What’s the other one?”
“Just one of those alphabet companies with not much available detail. It’s called “SKS Enterprises.” It’s a Limited Liability Corporation in Georgia. Kim said she’d dig further tomorrow during business hours with the Secretary of State’s office. I just wanted to make sure you were updated.”
“Georgia,” I said, “I think Stanfield Group has a subsidiary in Georgia.”
“Well, I’ll see if Kim can tie it in when she gets with the office in Atlanta tomorrow.”
“Yeah, right. So, is that it then?”
“Uh, yeah, I just need to know what time Lindsey plans on being home in the morning. I can’t leave until she gets here.”
“What? Lindsey isn’t here.”
“Where is she?”
“She should be there. She texted me earlier saying she didn’t feel well and was going to lie down.”
“Hold on,” he said.
I waited while Slate went to check, my pulse was quickening; a feeling of uneasiness crept in.
He was back in a couple of moments.
“She’s not here, neither is her car.”
Holy fuck.
“I need to get online and check the GPS in her car. Call her cell and track it. If you get nothing, call Darcy.”
I went in to agent mode just like that. I fired my laptop up and pulled the GPS screen up. Her car was sitting in the parking lot of Applebee’s on the loop. I did a “Bird’s Eye View” and zoomed in. There it was.
Instinctively, I pulled up the GPS on Kyzer Stanfield’s car. I breathed a sigh of relief. It was several hundred miles away in Marietta, Georgia. My relief was short-lived. Slate called back.
“Yeah?”
“Her phone’s disabled. Darcy said when she left Applebee’s Kyzer Stanfield had just come in to meet with Lindsey. She was expecting him.”
Double mother-fucking shit!
“We need to get to Marietta, Georgia, Slate.”
“What?”
“I put GPS on the mother-fucker’s car. That’s where it is. I just checked. Lindsey’s car is still parked at Applebee’s. I just verified that.”
“Calm down. We have to follow protocol, here.”
“What the fuck are you saying, Slate?”
“I’m saying we follow procedure. We don’t know that any crime has been committed, so we follow the process.”
“Fuck that,” I said. “I’m leaving for Marietta. That psycho has her.”
“Taz,” he bellowed, “listen to me. I’ll get the locals to check her vehicle, okay? Let’s make sure we cover that angle. I’ll have them question the people at the restaurant, workers, regulars, anyone that might have been there. I’ll file a missing person’s report. You need to calm down, though. You can’t go off half-cocked.”
I nodded, covering my face with my free hand. I knew he was right. I needed to put my emotions aside and follow the evidence.
“Okay. Sit tight while I contact the authorities. I’ll phone you back in just a few.”
The few minutes that it took for Slate to put the investigation in motion seemed like hours. All I could think about was that Lindsey had been abducted, and I knew who h
ad done it.
When he called a few minutes later, he advised me that the local authorities were on it. The car was being towed to impound. There was no visual sign of foul play. They would be contacting the employees that had been on that shift first thing in the morning.
In the meantime, Slate had contacted the authorities in Charlottesville to question Kyzer Stanfield.
“He’s not in Charlottesville,” I said, getting impatient.
“You don’t know that for sure. Maybe he doesn’t have that particular car at school. The family’s wealthy, right? We have to close out the obvious first.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I snapped, wanting to put my fist through the phone. Time was precious. Lindsey was precious. Then I thought of Sammie.
“Slate,” my voice cracked for some reason, “what are you going to tell Sammie?”
“God, I don’t know,” he replied. “I’ve got to get Donna scheduled in for the morning. Try and sleep. There’s nothing we can do until we get updates from the locals here and in Charlottesville.”
I knew he was right. We had nothing that would support a warrant. Besides, Stanfield knew that he’d be the first person suspected since Darcy knew he’d been there with Lindsey when she left. He wasn’t stupid.
chapter 41
My eyelids were still heavy. It felt like sand had been poured into my eyes. My mouth was dry like cotton. I kept opening and closing my eyelids to drive the sand out.
The room was dark. There was a window, but the sun-filtering blinds were closed tight. I had no clue where I was. My mind was fuzzy…worse than any hangover fuzzy.
I figured out I was on a bed. My arms were up over my head. I was wearing only my bra and panties. I tried to move my arms and couldn’t. My wrists were tied to something. I jerked harder. All that did was to cause the ropes to dig into my skin. I realized my hands were tied to a spindled headboard that slammed against the wall when I tugged at my restraints.
My ankles were tied together too, I soon realized.
What the hell is going on?
I tried to stop the panic momentarily. I needed to think. What was the last thing I remembered?
