Calamity

by Gail McCormick

  He removed a candle from the carton carefully. It was less than a half inch long. “Unbelievable,” he said. “What you’ve achieved after all that hardship is simply amazing.”

  She shrugged. “Isn’t the old saying that what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger? For years I thought I must have done something wrong to make him leave. Misplaced feelings of guilt. Isn’t that what shrinks say? Eventually I decided he was either slime like Trotford and had run off with some bimbo or was a poor soul who was too weak to deal with taking care of a family. Either way, none of it left me with a good feeling about men. I guess I’ve been punishing them ever since.”

  “I get that.”

  She looked startled. “Gosh, I’ve never told anyone about all of this.”

  He handed her the glass she hadn’t touched. “Here’s to sharing. It can help.” He reached over and clicked his glass to hers.

  “I’m still leery of men,” she warned him.

  “Well, that’s going to change.” When she didn’t respond, he continued, “you’ll have a chance to meet my uncle soon. All the rest of the family in fact. Oh, and I do have some good news about Laura. A colleague out in Arizona has a place where she and her entourage can stay if the fire gets too close. It’ll probably be a while before you’ll get to meet them though. In the meantime, I don’t like any of what has been happening one bit. I’ll stick around, take you to the station and bring you back.”

  “No need.”

  “Yes, need.”

  “Okay, well,” she said reluctantly. “I’m sure you can pour over some report while you’re waiting. Won’t bother me a lick unlike your hedge fund lady.”

  “I can finish arranging our trip to Siberia. I certainly won’t be checking out the latest report I got from the Harker think tank. It was done by a so-called climate scientist who’s actually an astronomer. He argues the planet is really cooling because of the weird stars’ alignment. His data has been proven to be so flawed that it’s not even worth considering. But since that think tank like some others is funded by fossil fuel corporations, it will undoubtedly keep on putting out garbage.”

  “Cattawampus.”

  “Sorry, I certainly don’t need to preach to you.”

  “Yep. But it would indeed be devotion above and beyond the call of duty even for you if you were zealous enough to scan such things. That would mean your elevator isn’t going all the way up to the top floor.”

  He laughed. “You do have a great way of making a point. You just about outdid yourself today.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  CAMELLIA’s TOWNHOUSE

  IN FRONT

  FORTUNATELY THE PREVIOUS ATTACK MADE CAMELLIA MORE AWARE OF HER SURROUNDINGS. At 8 a.m. she locked her front door and came down the steps in long pants, a short-sleeved shirt, the boots she wore on the last trip and a bag over her shoulder. She carried a suitcase and jacket, hailed a cab, and it pulled up. As she was about to go over to get in, a big black SUV charged at her. She saw it just in time to drop the suitcase and flip over the hood, landing on her hands and feet. The SUV screamed off.

  Camellia straightened up, felt the scrapes on her face and hands, and wiped off some blood. She wiggled her scraped arm to make sure it wasn’t broken. The bag was still on her shoulder. She picked up her suitcase and jacket, brushed it off and got into the cab. It drove off. The SUV was long gone.

  It still seemed most likely to her that the attack on Dan Lowell was unrelated.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  SAME DAY

  ON THE PLANE TO SIBERIA

  FIRST LEG

  CAMELLIA’S INJURED RIGHT ARM WAS KILLING HER, but she ignored it. She worked her way carefully down the aisle, trying to avoid bumping into anything. Kyle and the others were already seated. This was the first of two flights. The plane was an Aeroflat Airbus A320 and full of passengers stowing carry-on luggage and getting settled.

  The seat next to Kyle was vacant. He was studying a map spread out on most of the tray table in front of him and didn’t immediately look up at Camellia when she asked, “This seat taken?”

  “It’s yours. You’re late. Thank god you’re here. Darned near missed the plane.” When she didn’t respond, he did look up. “What in blazes happened to you?!”

  Camellia eased herself onto the seat next to him. “Guess maybe I should have paid closer attention to the death threat. I think someone just tried to kill me.” She thought about the near miss when she stepped into the street for a taxi after leaving Owen. “It could actually have been an additional attempt.”

  “What?” Horrified, he reached over, gathered her in and crushed her in his arms.

  “You don’t like displays of affection on planes,” she said, remembering his comment about Owen.

  “I’ve changed my mind.” He touched her face gently below the scratch that had stopped bleeding. Then he moved the map and dipped a paper napkin into a cup of water sitting on the tray and carefully wiped the dried blood off her face. “Let me see that arm.” She shifted so that he could reach the scratch and clean the blood off it. “If I’d had any idea that this would happen, I wouldn’t have let you out of my sight,” he said. “I shouldn’t have let you send me home last night. So utterly thoughtless of me to complain about dead rats and horse manure.”

  “Hey, I’m a big girl. Besides, with my martial arts training I’ve learned to move fast, roll with the punches and land softly. Nothing broken. That’s all that matters.” She winced as she got back up and reached to put her duffle bag in the overhead compartment. “Don’t tell me you’re going soppy on me.”

  “I’ve grown accustomed to your face, as the old song goes. You ‘almost make the day begin’.”

  Camellia sat down beside him. “You certainly do show up a lot, if not in the morning yet. That’s a peculiar compliment. If it is actually a compliment. And really corny. Not worthy of your astronomical I.Q.”

  “Well, I do like your feisty Southern attitude. It doesn’t hurt that you’re pretty as a peach, especially in sweat pants and bare feet. Cute as a button to borrow a phrase or two.”

  Camellia laughed. “Well, slap my head and call me silly! Beating me at my own game. And three compliments at one time. Watch out wise guy or I’ll start to think you’re a nutty romantic with a head full of stump water.”

  “Wouldn’t be far off the mark, stump water or not.” He ran his hand through his hair. “What is stump water anyhow?”

  “Oh, it’s simply water that happens to be retained in a hollow stump after a heavy rain. Don’t tell me you want to learn to speak Southern?”

  “Clearly I’m going to need to,” he replied. Then he put his elbow on the arm rest and propped his chin on his hand. “Why on earth would anyone want to kill you and Barbara, if indeed she was a target at all?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that. I suspect I’m the one who was targeted, and Barbara was collateral damage. I was so close to her on the stairs that it was easy to hit her by mistake. Pour soul.” She leaned back against her seat and sighed. “I’ve had stalkers, although not lately except the one I told you about. The police brought my current stalker in again, but he was in Maine with his sister for a couple of weeks. I really don’t think it’s a stalker.” She flexed her arm, leaned forward and propped it on her tray table to see if that would make it more comfortable. It didn’t help.

  “I hate to see you in pain. Is there anything I can do?”

  “Not that I can think of, but thanks. There is the guy who’s been making the threatening calls and dumped the garbage and left the dead rat. He’s obviously pretty far gone, and at this point I am going to have to report him again. Too bad I threw out his notes. Unfortunately, he’s used disposable phones to call. There was another skirmish with someone else that I didn’t mention but it wasn’t a big deal. Speaking of phones, I forgot to tell you that when Trotford collapsed, I picked up his cell and put it in my desk drawer. I did check his calls first to f
ind the person we should contact about his dog. He’s so dim-witted that if he had an idea, it would die of loneliness. So it wasn’t too hard to figure out his password. I tried 1234567 first, then 7654321 and then when those didn’t work, simply oil. Bingo. That was it. There were a whole bunch of calls to someone in Russia.

  “That’s odd.”

  “Yes, I thought it strange, but I didn’t check them out, forgot about it in fact, and the phone too for that matter, until I was rummaging in the drawer for something else and ran across it. I’d even forgotten that a staffer had told me Trotford called when he got out of the hospital and asked if anyone had his phone. He was informed that I’d found it. When I pieced the time together, I realized it was the day my desk was rifled. And later the same day my condo was ransacked.” She paused to feel her face. “Sure will take some makeup to cover this. Anyhow, I’d actually had his phone in my bag for a while, and I returned it a day later, then thought no more about it. Maybe there’s no connection, and it’s just a coincidence. But I do wonder about it even if it doesn’t make sense. I simply can’t think of anything else other than those possibilities.”

  “Did you get a look at your attacker?”

  “No. The SUV windows had a dark tint. I couldn’t see in.”

  “And I gather you didn’t report your questions to the police”.

  “Nope. I figured they would think I was crazy and would keep me from joining this gang.” She winced again as she shifted in her seat. “Maybe I could use some aspirin.”

  “Here. Good thing we brought along emergency supplies.” He reached under the seat, pulled out a small duffle bag and took out a bottle of aspirin. “I still have some water left.” He handed her the water and a couple of pills which she immediately swallowed.

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re going to have to talk to the FBI when we get back.” He reached over, took the empty glass from her, put it back on the tray and then took both her hands in his. “And you can be sure I’m not letting you out of my sight again until this is over. Period.”

  When Camellia flinched, he turned her hands over and saw the palms were smattered with residues of dried blood on top of rough scratches. The napkin he’d used before was still damp, so he used that to clean her hands carefully.

  “We’ll see about that,” she said. “Why the FBI and not the local police?

  “If there’s a chance Trotford is involved, they would be the ones to tackle it.”

  “Oh, of course. But honestly, I am scared for the very first time in my life. As it happens, a knight in armor or better yet, Kevlar, might not be such a terrible idea. You might just qualify for the job even if you can be as aggravating as a rock.”

  “Well, I don’t have a black belt in Krav Maga, but I do lift weights and run New York’s half marathon. Make pretty good time too, if I do say so myself.”

  “Thirteen miles. Not bad. But with the rock-solid determination I’ve begun to recognize in you, I’m certain you could run the whole thing.” She knew him well enough at this point not to argue. “Okay. But I have Frank’s funeral first. Then I’ll go to the FBI. Speaking of funerals, how did it go when you talked to Barbara’s parents?”

  Kyle let go of her hands and shook his head sadly. “Horrible, absolutely horrible. They were devastated. She was an only child. I simply can’t imagine how awful it would be to lose your only daughter. And it took me back to my brother-in-law’s death. He was an only child too. I had to tell them about Gerry because my sister was so broken hearted, she couldn’t do it.”

  “I feel guilty about being mean to Barbara at the restaurant. My response about clothing was uncalled for, and now it’s too late to apologize,” Camellia said. “The world is too sexist already. For us to have fallen into that trap is inexcusable. And it’s my guess you never even realized how much she cared about you.”

  Kyle was surprised. “Gosh, no. How could I when all I could think about was you? I did forget to tell you she asked me to apologize to you for the way she treated you, so I guess it’s even. I’m going to fly out to Colorado to see her parents after this is all over.”

  “I’ll go with you if that would help.”

  “Thanks. I’m one who doesn’t turn down support. At least not your support.”

  An attendant came down the aisle. “Buckle up, we’re about to take off, and it looks like it could be a bumpy trip.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  NEXT DAY

  SIBERIA

  SAME LOCATION AS PREVIOUS TRIP

  THE TOYOTA 4RUNNER SLAMMED INTO A GAPING POTHOLE in the road. They would have been thrown off their seats if they hadn’t been strapped in securely. There were deeper ruts than last time with the road buckled in more places. They parked the four-wheel drive vehicle and headed toward the area where they had found the bone. Kyle led the way. There were five of them, and they were on the same path as before. The Siberian landscape seemed more fragile now. It was a cloudless day with a bright blue sky. Even fewer patches of snow dotted the landscape, and there were more peculiar lumps of ground along with large craters filled with water. Some sinkholes were big enough to be deemed ponds or small lakes.

  When they got to the spot where they’d found the bone, Kyle turned to Owen. “Take some pictures here. Close ups.”

  Camellia stayed back to avoid disturbing the ground, but leaned over far enough to have a good view. “You can see the ground is barely disturbed. That should settle the false planting claim, shouldn’t it?

  “I hope so. Robert did a good job of digging straight down for what we brought back. And we can now collect even more of bones that could provide a better take on its size and what it was.” He turned to Robert Barnes who was behind Camellia wearing a full body protective suit this time. “Scoop up as many bones as you can, but be really careful. We don’t want to take chances even though you’re shielded.” He turned to Owen again. “Let’s film more of the thawing permafrost, especially any of the mounds where methane might escape or holes where it’s actually escaped and see what else we can find.”

  Camellia scanned the opposite side of the path. “How about this?” She pointed to a few bones sticking out of the swampy ground. “Looks to me like pictures I’ve seen of saber-toothed cat bones. Could be thousands of years old.”

  Kyle studied the bones she referenced. “It’s possible. That ought to give the Senate something to think about.” He turned to Robert again. “Can you pack these up too?”

  “Sure.” He moved forward, and David Harrison, Kyle’s grad student, handed him a large air-tight container.

  “We can use the bones and anything else we find to show Congress there are other potential risks up here. They might have either the disease Senator Trotford picked up or others never seen before, not to mention ones we already know are lethal, so let’s get them to the doctors who checked him out. And let’s see what else we can find.”

  They moved on.

  “Am I seeing more mounds over there?” Camellia asked, pointing to the right.

  “Looks like it,” Kyle agreed.

  They headed in that direction and stopped.

  “Wow,” Owen exclaimed. “The holes near these mounds are much bigger than the ones we saw last time, and there are a lot more of them. Looks like some are filled with water.”

  “This mound might be worth checking,” Kyle said as they came to one about a foot and a half in diameter. “Stand back everyone. See if you can get this on film, Owen.”

  He used the shovel he’d been carrying to dig into the mushy mound. The explosion this time was larger than the last time. Kyle lit a match, and a flame shot up in a plume of gas. They jumped farther back.

  Owen managed to catch it on film, and they moved on. “I’ve been reading up on these holes,” he said as they continued on the path. “I gather that over two years ago two mysterious gaping holes emerged somewhere in Siberia. Apparently they were preceded by a loud explosion and a towering plume
of smoke and fire with huge chunks of soil blasting out.”

  “Yes,” Kyle said. “I experienced that myself three years ago when I was a little farther east than we are now.” He ran his fingers over the scar above his right eyebrow. “I’d taken up Anatoly’s offer to check out the mounds he was worried about. He’d seen satellite images showing a giant hole ringed by 20 much smaller craters filled with water.” They moved on again. “Previously only three large craters about 80 feet across and 15 stories deep were known about in northern Russia. It seemed likely that unusually high temperatures helped lead to a huge release of gas hydrates, causing the holes. Although they’re not absolutely sure if that’s what caused them. They think there could be many more not yet discovered, not to mention the possibility of more developing.”

  They came to a mound almost two feet wide.

  “This could be worth checking?” Owen asked.

  “I can feel the ground wobbling,” the way it did last time,” Camellia said.

  Kyle had to lean farther in to be able to jam his shovel into the mound. All except Owen backed way off. He continued to film. The resulting explosion was even larger than the first one with a wider plume of gas shooting skyward and some debris landing on the group.

  “Here’s the problem,” Kyle said as he brushed himself off, and they got back on the path, heading on. “Methane is flammable. Explosions could cause serious damage to drilling rigs, oil and gas fields and offshore pipelines, not to mention people living in the area. But my biggest concern is that methane released in these eruptions adds to global warming, and if the eruptions continue or even increase it could be very bad news.”

  “Wiping out fossil fuel infrastructure might not be considered unfortunate by some,” Camellia offered. “But it certainly wouldn’t go down well with Trotford and his crowd.”