For the next few minutes, Holly brooded over the emptiness of her life. Gradually that phase passed into gratitude that she still had a life. She’d believed that when she fled Midland the night someone had been in her room at the Green and White, she could leave all that behind, come home, and be safe.
But they’d followed her.
And if the cops hadn’t caught her abductors by now, they were still out there, waiting for another chance. Suppose they were caught. Whoever had hired them could send someone else.
It was like her leukemia, when her bone marrow was pouring out assassins. But this malignancy was dispatching its killers from Midland, Wisconsin. And the only way to treat it, for her to be safe, was to do just what her doctors had done to her marrow: destroy it.
With that decision made, her mind sharpened. Maybe it was the two jolts of electricity she’d received to subdue her. Whatever the explanation, the events that had taken place during her three-day visit to Midland stood at attention for inspection, so that she was able to recall her conversation at the Lucy II in minute detail. They’d talked about the cows, how the new owners had replaced the whole herd, and how the new animals didn’t seem to be better than the old. Of course the workers didn’t know that the new cows were carrying human genes.
She ran through the rest of that conversation and moved on to being forced off the road . . . the hospital, the attempt to add something to her IV, taking pictures of the cows, following the transport to the abandoned warehouse.
The transport that carried nothing.
Her mind flashed back to her conversation with the workers at the Lucy II: The cows are divided into groups.
When had she arrived in Midland?
She thought back. It was a Wednesday. So she saw the transport on Thursday. And the dairy workers had said that the transport always arrived to take the calves away three days after.
Which Thursday of the month was that?
She went to her study and looked at the calendar. Of course, it was the third Thursday of the month. Which meant that the next cycle . . . she ran her finger down the calendar and flipped the page . . . would be this coming Monday.
That didn’t give her much time.
She located her emergency Visa card and sat down at her computer. A short while later, her flight arrangements made, she put a few things in a handbag she didn’t like nearly as much as the one she’d lost, and left the building.
STILL WET, BILLY trudged up the foot of Union Avenue, intent on finding a cab. He’d spent the night in a grove of riverbank willows in his mother’s arms. But he couldn’t be there and look for a cab too, so he was now cold and miserable.
If stopped by any cops, he’d show them one of his fake IDs and tell them he was a copier machine salesman in town to drum up some business and that he’d gone down to look at the paddle-wheel riverboats and had fallen in the river. Sure, it was risky, but it was the best he could do short of riding that driftwood to Natchez.
Like most cities, the other pedestrians on the street were so accustomed to bums and misfits among them that no one paid Billy any attention. He was pretty sure he’d find a cab at the historic Peabody Hotel near the baseball park, and he did, reaching it without either of the two patrol cars that passed even slowing down. The cabbie, though, wasn’t as blasé as the rest of the city about Billy’s appearance, and was reluctant to take him anywhere until he saw some money.
Billy and Bobby were sharing a room at a twenty-nine-dollar-a-night motel on the other side of the expressway. On the way there, Billy had the cabbie make a detour past a McDonald’s takeout window, where he bought a cup of coffee and an Egg McMuffin that drove the river from his bones and filled the hollow in his stomach.
Upon reaching the motel, Billy had the driver cruise the parking lot so he could get a feel for the situation. Then he saw something he couldn’t believe. The van. Bobby hadn’t even bothered to ditch it. And the car Billy had rented before Bobby had arrived in town was there too.
Were the vehicles just bait? Were the cops waiting in the room? Without his gun he couldn’t even defend himself.
After emerging from the river and discovering that his cell phone had been ruined by water and mud, he’d thrown it into the bushes. And of course, now he needed it. He tapped the front seat. “Any pay phones around here?”
“Only one I know of is at the gas station on the corner,” the cabbie replied.
“Take me there.”
The cabbie drove to a large Exxon station half a block away. With the cab waiting, Billy went inside for some change. He came back and called the motel, letting information dial the number.
“Room two thirty-one, please.”
It rang just once and Bobby answered.
“You should have dumped the van,” Billy said.
“Billy, are you okay? Man, I’m glad to hear your voice. I was really worried, you know? Hope you’re not mad. I dunno what happened back there at the river. I just lost it.”
“I’m not mad. Are you alone?”
“Yeah, of course. Who else would be here? Where are you?”
Billy surveyed his surroundings. “I want you to leave the room and walk down to the Xpert Tune shop. It’s about two blocks to your left as you leave the motel. Wait for me there.”
Billy hung up and got back in the cab.
“Where to now?” the cabbie asked.
“Nowhere. We’re just going to sit here for a few minutes.”
Soon, Billy saw Bobby come down the sidewalk from the motel and cross the street. He walked to the Xpert Tune and waited out front.
Over the next five minutes, Billy saw no sign that Bobby had been followed or that there were any cars hanging around that might contain cops also watching Bobby.
Billy tapped the front seat. “See that guy standing across the street? Let’s pick him up.”
“I’ll have to go around the block.”
“So do it.”
When they pulled up in front of Bobby a few minutes later, Billy threw the door open. “Get in and don’t say anything.”
Wearing a puzzled expression, his complexion paler than usual, Bobby did as he was told.
“Take us to the Blue Monkey,” Billy said to the cabbie, naming the restaurant where he and Bobby had eaten lunch yesterday. While the driver headed that way, Billy frisked Bobby for a wire.
“What are you doin’?”
“Making sure it’s just you and me in here,” Billy said. “Don’t talk.”
Having verified that Bobby was clean, Billy watched all the way to the restaurant to see if they were being followed. Seeing no evidence of that, when they reached the restaurant, Billy asked the cabbie to take them back to the motel, where dry clothes, and hopefully no surprises, were waiting.
Billy paid for the ride with a soggy twenty and a ten, and he and Bobby went up the motel’s metal staircase to the second floor. As Bobby unlocked the door to their room, all Billy’s instincts told him it was probably safe. But the slight margin of doubt made his heart beat faster.
Bobby opened the door and went inside.
Hesitating for only a fraction of a second, Billy followed.
The room was a mess: the bed unmade, Bobby’s clothes thrown on the chairs, a bag and some greasy papers from the nearby Tops Bar-B-Q littering the table with the phone. But there were no cops.
“What are we gonna do now?” Bobby said. “I mean about the woman?”
“Nothing we can do, at least not for awhile. She’s very spooked at the moment and will be extremely alert. We’ll have to wait until she calms down.”
Bobby reached out and ran his hand down the sleeve of Billy’s jacket. “I’m real glad you’re not mad at me. I was afraid you would be. I knew right away when I left you at the river that what I did was wrong, but by then it was
too late.” His expression brightened. “But I did wait for you. That counts for somethin’, doesn’t it?”
“Of course.” Billy hit Bobby affectionately on the shoulder. “We all occasionally do things in the heat of the moment that we regret later.” Billy gestured to his suitcase. “Now, how about getting me some dry clothes?”
“Sure thing,” Bobby said, grinning.
Happy that Billy was so understanding, Bobby put Billy’s suitcase on the bed and reached for the zipper to the main compartment. As he did, Billy stepped up behind him, his hand reaching in his pocket for something he hadn’t lost in the river.
AFRAID THAT HER kidnappers might be following her, Holly kept one eye on the rearview mirror all the way to the medical center. Even though she saw nothing suspicious, she remained watchful even inside the parking garage, moving quickly from her car to the walkway connecting the garage and the medical building concourse.
She reached the office without mishap and turned on the computer that had the appointment calendar in it. When it was booted up, she set about contacting every patient she was scheduled to see on Monday or Tuesday, apologizing to them and asking them to call the office on Monday to reschedule. Finished with office business, she put down that phone and went to the one on her desk, where she soon had Richard Heflin on the line.
“I was just about to call you,” he said before she could say anything. “The health department couldn’t care less about what we discovered. And a few hours after I talked to them, someone called me and threatened to hurt my daughter if I didn’t forget about the dairy. They gave me seventy-two hours to put my house up for sale.”
“It’s getting rough here too. Last night, someone tried to kill me.”
“Oh my God. What have we stumbled onto? Are you okay?”
“I was very lucky to get out of it with only a few scratches and bruises. Some duck hunters rescued me. We can’t let this continue.”
“How do we end it?”
“Do you still want to be involved?”
“Of course,” Richard insisted.
“What about your daughter?”
“For the time being, she’s safe. You sound as though you have an idea.”
“Remember me telling you about that transport truck I followed from the dairy, the one that was supposed to be taking calves away?”
“Only it was empty.”
“I have the strong feeling that if we knew what that was all about, we’d understand everything.”
“And you’re proposing what?”
“The dairy workers I spoke to said that the herd is divided into groups in which the delivery dates are controlled by artificial insemination and drug-induced labor . . . if that’s the right term for cows. It’s arranged so that a group is induced every other Monday. One of them supposedly delivered the week I was there, which means the next is scheduled for this coming Monday.”
“So you want to—”
“It’s all done at night. There should be some way to get a look at what’s going on. There are cornfields all around the dairy. We can use them as cover, get to the fence, and cut an access with a bolt cutter.”
“How would we know where to go if we did get in?”
“When I was in the manager’s office the day I first came to Midland, I saw an aerial photograph of the place with labels on all the buildings. I know where the calving area is.”
“Holly, this could be dangerous.”
“We’re already in danger. I’ve booked a flight to Madison on Monday, but I won’t get there until six-fifteen in the evening. That’s later than I wanted, but I didn’t have any choice. It should be okay though.”
“You’re sure you want to do this?”
“We have to. And remember, not a word to Christianson, not to anybody.”
“That’s not good. If we get jammed up, what are we going to do?”
“We’ll have our phones. We get in trouble, call the state police.”
“I don’t know if that’s good enough.”
“Do you own a gun?”
“Yes.”
“Bring that too.”
“Holly, I don’t know—”
“Think about it. Will you meet me at the airport?”
“Of course.”
She gave him the flight number and the airline and said, “See you then.”
Holly had talked to Richard as if she were totally confident they could pull this off. In truth, she had no idea if they could even get on the dairy property. With her patients taken care of and Richard alerted to her plan, she turned her attention to getting a replacement driver’s license.
TEARS WELLING UP in his eyes, Billy arranged Bobby’s head on the pillow of the motel bed so he looked comfortable. He pulled the covers up to Bobby’s chin, hiding the ugly ligature mark on his neck. He’d miss Bobby. Except for that one mistake, he’d been a reliable ally and a good friend. Billy stood for a moment, taking a last look at the man he’d known for most of both their lives. Billy wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand, then placed his palm gently on Bobby’s head.
“Goodbye, old friend.”
It was time now to go home and tell Bruxton he still had a problem.
“SOME THINGS HAVE happened since we last talked,” Holly said, speaking by phone to Susan Morrison. “Richard Heflin’s daughter has been threatened because of his interest in the dairy, and someone tried to kill me here in Memphis. I’m sure that was related to the dairy too.”
“Were you hurt?” Susan asked.
“No. But these people have to be stopped. Before we can hope to do that, we have to know the whole story. I think there’s a good chance that if Richard and I are at the dairy tonight, we’ll understand everything, or at least be a lot closer to a full understanding.”
“Why’s that?”
Holly quickly explained her reasons for wanting to be present at the next calving and gave Susan a thumbnail portrait of her plan, which was sketchy at best. “As soon as I hang up, I’m leaving for the airport. I wanted you to know where I was going so if anything happens to me, at least you’ll know what I was doing. Wish me luck.”
“Gei zaigezunt un kum gezunt,” Susan said. “Go in health. And come back in health.”
32
RICHARD WAS WAITING at the Madison airport with an attractive brunette. Puzzled as to who this was, Holly went to meet them.
“Holly, this is my sister Jessie. She did the test proving that dairy animal was infectious. She’s going to help us tonight.”
Holly accepted Jessie’s extended hand. “It’s good to finally meet you,” Jessie said. “Richard told me what happened to you in Memphis. You’re a courageous woman.”
“They didn’t leave me any choice.” Believing that there wouldn’t be time to change before they’d have to be in position at the dairy, Holly was wearing black denim jeans, a black cotton canvas shirt, and charcoal hiking shoes. In her carry-on, in addition to a more feminine outfit, she had a black L.L. Bean three-season jacket she’d be wearing when she went through the dairy fence. Richard and Jessie were also dressed in rugged dark clothing, so as the three of them headed for the exit, they looked as though they all belonged to the same club—which, in a way, they did.
When they reached Richard’s car and were settled inside, Richard asked Holly if she was hungry.
“Not really. I don’t think we should stop for anything. It’s already dark, and I don’t exactly know what that dairy worker meant when he said the calving is done at night. Does that mean seven o’clock, midnight, two a. m.? I just don’t know. So we need to get there.”
“Exactly my feelings,” Richard said, starting the car.
WHEN THEY WERE through town, Holly said, “We should talk now about what we’re going to do when we get there. You brought the bolt
cutter?”
“It’s in the trunk. Jessie and I drove past the dairy yesterday and checked out a few things. I hate to tell you this, but the cornfields you were counting on to hide us have all been harvested.”
“That’s terrible. What are we going to do now?”
“The field on the dairy side of the fence must be some kind of experimental corn because it’s still a little green,” Jessie said. “That’ll provide cover on the inside.”
“It’s going to be a moonless night,” Holly replied. “Without the corn to hide us, how are we going to get close? I brought some flashlights, but we can’t use them if the fields are bare.”
“About two hundred yards from the dairy’s rear gate, there’s a good-sized woods where we can park,” Richard said. “Cutting through that woods is a ravine with a small creek in it. The ravine leads right to the dairy fence and continues on the other side, angling across a corner of the property and out the other side. The ravine is deep enough so that if we stay low and keep our flashlights directed at the ground, we can get there without being seen.”
“That sounds good.”
“Your feet are going to get wet.”
“I’ve been through worse.”
“We did a trial run to see if cell phones will work in the ravine and discovered that signals there are very weak,” Jessie said. “So we picked up a couple of handi-talkies at an electronics store. Richard thought that I should stay at the car with one of the talkies and my cell phone. If you and Richard get in trouble, he’ll call me on his talkie and I’ll contact the state police. I’m not crazy about being so far from the action, but I’ll do it.”
“In case you’re wondering, we also made sure the talkies work in the ravine,” Richard said.
“Boy, you two have been busy,” Holly said. She looked at Richard. “You brought a gun?”
“I’ve got it, but if it comes to the point where we need it, we’re going to be in deep trouble.”
They reached the dairy a little after seven, and Richard turned down the road that led to the rear entrance. They could see at the top of a distant hill on the property that the complex the aerial photograph identified as the calving area was awash in lights.
The Lethal Helix Page 27
