Lethal Discoveries

by Erica Pensini

  “That would be great, thank you. This is actually what we came for, I’m sorry we didn’t phone you in advance”, I said, catching up.

  “I’m Alice by the way”, said Alice tending her hand

  “I’m working with Iris and Brad on this project, so they thought I could come along”

  “Good to meet you”, said Wilhelm, smiling again.

  I noticed he was smiling more than he had last time, and wondered if his smiles were a way to cover up something or if was in a genuinely good mood.

  “I see you haven’t had your lunch yet…”, continued Alice

  “Don’t worry about it, my lunch gets interrupted all the time and showing you the results won’t take too long anyways”, interrupted Wilhelm, looking at Alice with open interest

  Did he find Alice attractive? I wondered if the explanation of the change in his manners was as simple as that.

  “Do you want to go upstairs to the lab for the results?”, he said after a moment, taking a step towards the elevator.

  “Sure”, said Brad, speaking for the first time since we met Wilhelm

  As we waited for the elevator in silence, I mentally debated if I should ask him for Sandeep. Why hadn’t he asked if we spoke with him? After all Sandeep was the one who had introduced us first, so the question would have been legitimate and expected.

  “We should have phoned Sandeep, but we were swamped these days. You know how it gets hectic at times…”, Brad dropped casually, as if reading my thoughts

  Wilhelm didn’t reply, and I added, “The receptionist told us he is sick, I was sorry to hear that”

  Wilhelm looked confused for a moment.

  “It’s no problem for me to show you the results”, he finally said

  When we entered the lab it felt larger than it had the previous time, and the colour of the walls seemed tinged with a hideous shade of grey I hadn’t noticed when I was there earlier. My mind floundered in twisted elucubrations of how moods can affect the way we view places, and I leafed through past recollections of cases when known places had seemed suddenly different and unfamiliar. I wondered how I would feel going back through the town where I was born and raised before moving to NY. The short tune announcing that the computer had started awakened me to reality. Focus, I told myself.

  Wilhelm looked at the screen, looking perplexed.

  “I remember your folder was on the desktop”, he said

  He opened windows explorer, “Unless it was moved somewhere else…”

  I observed him, reading the names of the folders as he browsed. There were acronyms, and user names, and few clear labels “Leukocytes”, “Protein_Analyses_John”, “Modified_Starch”, but not our folder. Wilhelm frowned.

  “I have no clue, I don’t understand where your data are”, he said

  He stared at the screen a while longer, then repeated, “I don’t understand where your data are”

  Brad, Alice and I sat silently, waiting for Wilhelm to make the next move.

  “Sorry”, he said at last

  We looked at him, and I hoped he would say something like, “I’ll call Sandeep to ask him if he knows”. That would have been a normal reaction, since who else would have moved our folder?

  “I’ll try to find out and let you know once I know something”, he said instead

  “Do you have our contact information?”, asked Alice

  “I think I do, but why don’t you give it to me again, just in case…”

  We did, and Wilhelm accompanied us to the elevators apologizing once more and reiterated he would phone us back.

  “Quite odd”, I said once the doors of the elevator closed

  “Very”, said Alice, marking her words

  “I should have listened to you earlier”, Brad told me

  I shrugged.

  “Let’s go buy our well-deserved greasy pizza slice and think with a full stomach”, I said.

  I wasn’t hungry and I don’t think Alice and Brad were either, but we all agreed cheerfully in a collective attempt of calm and normality.

  Chapter 48

  The Greaser was at the corner between 105 Ave and 106 Street, and whenever the traffic light turned red I would glance at the people waiting to roll again: impatient ladies nibbling on their nails, afros moving at the rhythm of the songs pumping from their stereos, men in their suits, windows up and AC on, and easy going boys in second hand cars, some happy some worried. Sometimes I would get noticed looking, and I would lower my eyes, or perhaps smile.

  “Why do you stare people down?”, asked Brad

  I shrugged, “I don’t stare them down on purpose, we are facing the window and these guys are just there in front of us…”

  “So what do we do now?”, Alice interrupted

  “Let me call Mariam Avery, I should go see her tonight and fill her in on the last events”

  “I made an appointment with her, why don’t you tag along?”

  “When did you make it?”, I asked

  “I called her after we spoke in the cafeteria, you remember?”, Brad told me

  “I know, what I meant is when are you going to see her”

  “Oh, at 7 tonight”

  “Perhaps I could tag along along?”, asked Alice

  “Why not? I don’t know what Avery is going to think about the fact that she’ll see three people show up when she expected only me, but…”, said Brad shrugging

  “I’ll come”, said Alice

  I was taking another bite of my pizza when the traffic light went red. A white Audi stopped, and I looked at the car before noticing its passengers.

  “Nice car”, I said

  “Better than my Hyundai”, Brad commented

  “Guys…”, Alice whispered

  “What?”, I asked looking at her

  “Did you see who’s in that car?”

  “McMurrich”, said Brad, his pizza slice suspended halfway in the air

  “McMurrich and Mark”, I said, my eyes magnetized to the couple in the car

  “Don’t stare Iris”, Brad said

  “Who’s Mark?”, Alice asked, looking at me

  “We went to the DNA center to run some analyses on our samples, McMurrich put us in contact with Mark and he helped us with that”

  I glanced out the window and saw McMurrich lean towards Mark, just slightly, and smile a sly flirtatious smile I had never seen on her before.

  “Do you think they have an affair?”, I asked

  “I think so…”, Alice said, taking a quick glance at the two

  The light turned green and the Audi started. It was already past the traffic light when I saw McMurrich turn for a brief second and look in our direction, and I wondered if she saw us.

  “Let’s hope not”, Brad said shaking his head when I asked

  “Let’s go back guys, there’s work to do”, Alice said, getting up

  “It seems like you have an idea in mind”, I replied, collecting my carton and napkins

  “McMurrich asked me to order a bunch of different types of cells, antibodies and proteins to test what the polymer does to them. I don’t know what this will lead to, but I must do it since the boss asked”

  “And I will try to do some more research before leaving for Milan”

  “Leaving for Milan?”, Alice exclaimed, eyes wide and eyebrows arched

  “Let’s go, I’ll tell you on our way back”

  Chapter 49

  “So what did McMurrich say?”, Alice asked after I finished telling her about my decision to fly out to Milan

  “She wasn’t happy but she agreed…she had no choice, I told her my relative was dying”

  “Did you?”, Alice laughed

  “Well yes…”

  “Cool strategy!”

  “Yeah, but I will have to inform her about the exact day I am leaving. I booked my flight for Thursday night, which really means that I can only work until Thursday morning…”

  “So you are leaving in three days…WOW!”

&
nbsp; “I know, I can’t decide if I am excited or scared”

  “You’ll be fine Iris”, said Brad, taking his eyes off the road for a moment to smile at me

  “Thanks buddy”, I smiled back

  Brad shifted his eyes back to the road and turned on the radio. A reggae tune was playing and we all began moving to the rhythm of the music. We were singing along with Bob Marley when Brad checked the rearview mirror and frowned.

  “What’s wrong?”, I asked

  “Look on the right lane”

  “The white car?”

  “No, the black ford behind it”

  “What about it?”, said Alice

  “Look at the woman driving it, doesn’t she look like the cleaning lady we met in the cafeteria?”, Brad said, looking at me

  “The same cleaning lady who was digging in your files?”, asked Alice, her voice faint

  “Yes”, I nodded

  “I think she has been following us all along”, said Brad

  “Did you see her car before?”

  “I noticed it when we left the Greaser, but I hadn’t realized who was driving it”, he told me

  “There’s an exit in 300 meters, take it”, said Alice from the back seat, leaning her head between Brad’s and mine.

  Brad slowed down and the Ford slowed down too. He slowed further, swerved to the right lane and to the exit, while an angry gang of horns yelled behind us. The focus swerved too, and took the exit. Brad accelerated but the menacing black profile tagged us closely.

  “Oh my god”, whispered Alice

  “Hold on, I’ll try to leave them behind”

  We were running on a side street now, with nobody in sight. I wondered how long we could go before the cleaning lady and her partner reached us.

  A red spy began to blink.

  “The car is overheating now?!”, Brad yelled

  “Don’t worry, just keep going”, I said as calmly as I could, but I was shaking

  There was a loud bang, and the car swayed. I covered my head.

  “What the hell!!!”, Brad shouted

  “They are shooting at us!”, yelled Alice

  Brad raced our car through a curve, clinging on the steering wheel, his neck craned forward. We heard the sound of a siren, which mingled to Bob Marley’s relaxed voice singing “cheer you up” on the background and the hoarse sound of the motor, which was now smoking.

  Alice looked around frantically, “Where’s the police?”

  And when Alice said it, “Where’s the police?”, I realized the obvious move, I pulled out my cell and punched 911, my hands shaking.

  “Please help, we are…”, I started, but I couldn’t finish because there was another bang and we swerved off the road, the tires blowing dust off the dried skin of California.

  A sound resonated in my skull. There was a moment of pain on my forehead and a voice buzzing on the background

  “Hello, can you hear me?”

  “Hello?”

  I wanted to reply but I couldn’t, and then there was nothing but blackness.

  Chapter 50

  The cathedral was shining in its white embroidered beauty on a blue sky.

  “This is magnificent”, I heard Jack say

  I turned around and smiled in surprise, “You’re here!”

  “What do you mean?”, Jack said arching his brows

  “When did you get here?”, I asked

  “I’ve always been here. Are you all right?”

  I burst out laughing and grasping Jack’s hand I tugged him to the cathedral

  “Let’s go see what’s inside!”, I exclaimed

  But the doors were closed

  “So?”, asked Jack

  “So, what about gelato? My mouth is watering already”

  He smiled and humored me, following me along to an ice cream shop. I couldn’t see the inside, because the glasses on the front were satin, with some transparent stylized flowers as decorations. When I walked in the place was white and grey, like FoodTech labs I thought. I turned around towards Jack, wondering if we should pick a better spot. But before I could ask the man at the counter addressed me

  “Hello Iris”, he said smiling

  He was a middle aged man, austerely handsome.

  “How do you know me?”, I asked, pondering his outfit while he smiled a moment longer before answering.

  He was wearing a lab coat on top of a button up shirt and suit pants, and when the thought he couldn’t be an ice cream man dawned on me I looked down at where the ice cream trays should have been and saw Petri dishes with bacterial cultures instead.

  “I am Mauro Mori, good to meet you”, he said, coming on the other side of the desk to greet me

  A cleaning lady walked out the back and eyed me

  “Who is she?”, Jack asked

  “I don’t know…I can’t remember”, I said. I felt the anguish foam within me without knowing why

  Mori looked at her, bugging his eyes, while she kept at her task, wiping the same spot on the floor as if it was soiled by a terribly persistent stain, her eyes low on the floor now.

  Mori considered her for a while longer, and then a flash of recognition crossed his face, he frowned and tapped his hand on the desk hard and I gasped in scared surprise

  “Enough!”, he yelled, and then again, “Enough!”

  But the cleaning lady continued wiping the invisible stain, and fear crossed Mori’s face too. He was silent for a moment, his forehead corrugated by a flow of thoughts

  “Run!”, he said at last, with a great urgency in his tone

  “Where?”, I asked, inexplicably calm now

  “Run!”, he iterated

  Jack took my hand and said, “Let’s go”

  We were running against the wind, all of a sudden strong now, so that no matter how hard we tried, it was hard to move. Tears were running from our eyes and I was about to bail out when the wind changed its direction and began blowing on our backs. We ran fast and faster, with the air pushing us beyond our own steps, and finally we were in the air, floating few meters from the asphalt, then above the rooftops, and higher still, till we poked the clouds and were out in the pureness of the blue. The sun was bright, and as we were propelled upwards its light became blinding

  “Jack?”, I called

  I saw a fleck of his smile, till the sound of the wind and the ignited ball of the sun and the beat of my heart melt in a white, motionless, immensity.

  Chapter 51

  I opened my eyes slightly, feeling my eyelids unglue with effort and itch, and a smudged whiteness appeared between the debris fogging my view.

  I tried to lift my hand but I couldn’t, although something moved, a finger maybe. A great heaviness held me down, but I felt peaceful.

  “Iris”, I heard, feeling a reassuring hand on mine

  “Iris”, I heard again, and this time I knew it was Jack.

  I tried to smile, but my lips were glued too. I felt a wisp of moisture wet them and then a faint taste of salt. I licked them, my taste was numbed but I guessed my lips had cracked, and were bleeding now.

  “Hello”, I said, and was surprised at the sound of my own voice

  “Hello”, jack said, tears pooling in his eyes

  I twitched my partially unglued lips in a tentative smile, “I am happy”

  “I am happy too”, Jack said, wiping his tears

  I looked around the room, and it was only after inspecting it that I fully realized I was in a hospital. The machine at the side of my bed recorded the acceleration of my heart, and a nurse – I hadn’t noticed her – took my arm, a syringe at hand.

  “Why?”, I asked

  “You have to rest”

  Her features blurred into the face of the cleaning lady, and I gasped, pulling away my arm. She stopped, and when I looked at her again the cleaning lady was gone.

  “Where are Alice and Brad?”, I asked, turning to Jack

  “They are fine”

  “Are they here too?”

/>   “Brad is at home already, Alice is conscious but she is under observation in another hospital. Brad came here to see you and he told me”

  I nodded and gave my arm to the nurse. “What are you giving me?”

  “A tranquillizer”

  “I am calm already, I don’t want it”

  “As you wish”, she said, capping the syringe and placing it on the tray at the side of my bed

  “How long have I been unconscious?”

  “The accident happened yesterday after lunch and it’s 10 am now”, Brad explained

  “Let me know if you need anything, I will drop by later to see how you are doing. You can probably leave tomorrow, but you must make sure you rest”, the nurse said, excusing herself

  I nodded, and waited for her to leave. When I heard the door clack close behind her I turned to Jack, and looked at him for a moment.

  “I need to fly to Italy on Friday”, I said at last, feeling my thoughts accelerate and my mind pace faster each second.

  “What?!”, he exclaimed

  “I need to see Mori, I must understand what the polymer can cause and why if I want to confine the damages it is producing”

  “You are not in the condition to travel”

  “I must go”

  “But you have been knocked unconscious and are still in a hospital bed!”

  “Will you come with me?”

  “I will come with you all the way to the moon, but not before you shape up. Anyways, why Friday?”

  “Because I booked the ticket already, and told my boss that I was leaving for a family emergency”

  “When did you decide all this?”

  “Yesterday morning”, I said, and explained what happened till our car crashed and I blanked out

  “Will you come? I dreamed you were with me…”

  Jack observed me, and transfixed his eyes into mine, as to find the root of the intuition that made me want to walk out of this bed to an airport, bringing him along. I held his gaze, till I saw a breach open within him and a smile crack the worried look on his face.

  “I don’t know why I am letting you talk me into this craziness”, he said at last, shaking his head

  “Because you love me, and deep down you know that if you were me you’d act exactly like I am doing now”

  “Sure”, Jack laughed

  “Let me go home to buy the ticket, it won’t be easy to find one to leave in two days”

  “Go on Foodtech’s website, login with my credentials and open my emails to find my reservation. Book a seat on my same flight, I’m sure you’ll find a spot”, I said

  He frowned, tilting his head slightly, his mouth bent in a questioning smile

  “My user is icelati and my password is jacko1…”

  “Jacko1?”