“What isn’t? Up, I mean.” Kelly smiled, aware of the chemistry growing between them. They’d been colleagues and good friends for years, and it was clear he was interested in her. But he was fresh off a divorce and Kelly didn’t want to rush into anything just yet.
“Oh, now you’ve piqued my curiosity. What brings you down to the depths of despair?”
“Curiosity.”
“Oh, yeah?
About what?” He crossed his arms and leaned back against the desk, eyebrows raised.
“You received a patient down here in the past hour. Lupe Salazar?”
“I did. I haven’t had a chance to process her yet. Ty is prepping the body. I’m backlogged though. It’s been a crazy week.” He paused, tapping his fingers on the desk. “Why the interest in this girl?” He stood and walked over to his coffee machine and held up a cup. “Want some? I splurged and picked up one of those instant espresso machines. Delicious.”
“Yes, thanks. Some liquid fuel would help right now, I think.”
He fiddled with buttons and after 30 seconds of hissing, a freshly brewed cup of espresso streamed into a waiting cup. Jake deftly scooped a heaping spoonful of sugar into it, stirred, and then handed it over. She studied him for a second.
“You wondering how I knew how you liked your coffee?” She didn’t respond. “Because I pay attention, Kel. We’ve had coffee together a few times. When you like someone, you notice things, file them away for future use.” He smiled and raised his cup to her.
Kelly felt heat rise to her cheeks.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
She smiled and took a careful sip of her piping hot, and perfectly sweetened, espresso. “No. Not at all. We’re friends.”
“Yes we are. So before I dig myself in any deeper, let’s talk about this patient.”
“She delivered one of my babies.”
“Tough stuff, I take it?” He took another sip from the small cup.
“Yeah.
Strange. She came in here not even three hours ago, and now she’s dead. No family that we can locate. No boyfriend. Nothing. Of course, I start with the stereotypical train of thought, and I’m thinking she’s a runaway caught up in some bad things. Brightman was the attending, and he gets on the scene and tries to go chief on me. We were losing the girl, and the baby’s time was running out. I had no idea what we were dealing with since it all happened so fast the labs hadn’t even come back yet. My gut was telling me she’s addicted, got something running through her veins. It was the only thing that made sense.”
“You’re skilled, Kelly. If that was your guess, I’m sure it was a good one.”
“I know. But I’m watching this girl, looking into her eyes, and all I can think is something is off. Lupe wasn’t strung out, Jake. It would have made sense based on the way she was acting, but she wasn’t. So the girl seizes, codes, and dies. Nothing was going to save her. I’ve never seen anything like this. From everything I can tell, we were dealing with a healthy teenager. Anyway, baby was failing. I had to get her out. We couldn’t bring the mom back. She was gone, so I took over and did a C-section. I’ve got the baby now in NICU with all sorts of problems. I don’t know what to make of any of this. I need that autopsy. Something is wrong here.”
“What are you saying?” Jake asked.
“So far all her labs have come back inconclusive for drugs, which makes me wonder if there is something new on the streets we don’t know about. She had no alcohol present either.”
Jake’s eyes widened. His left hand jerked suddenly, nearly spilling his coffee. He walked around to the back of his desk and sat down.
“Are you all right?” Kelly asked.
“Yeah, yeah.
I’m fine. It’s just what you’re telling me sounds, well, unusual.”
“Tell me about it,” she replied.
“I’m not sure what I can do. I won’t have a report ready on this girl for at least forty-eight hours, maybe longer. And you know how long tox can take.” He absentmindedly picked up the photo of his daughter.
“Rumor has it this girl isn’t the only one. In the last week, two other women came in, delivered, coded, and died. Both had stillborns. The baby I have upstairs is the only one to survive so far. I haven’t had a chance to look into the mothers’ backgrounds or anything, so I’m only going off what I’ve been hearing in the hallways. I need your help here, Jake. Did you find anything in the autopsies on those other women? It might help the baby in the NICU.”
For a moment, Jake didn’t say anything. He turned his head to the side as if trying to figure out how to respond. He brought his fist up under his nose and looked at her. His eyes closed for a second and then he sighed. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t think I can help in any way.”
“Jake?”
He was quiet for a moment. “There was nothing odd about the autopsies. I mean, no strange chemicals or anything. I don’t know. I wish I could help, but…”
“But what?
You’re telling me you don’t know how those girls died? Come on. Of course you know. Were the mothers healthy or not, Jake? That’s all I’m asking.”
“I can’t…I don’t…”
Kelly didn’t like the evasive tone in his voice. “Jesus, Jake. What is it? What the hell is wrong? You’re freaking me out.” She’d asked him a simple question, what was the big deal?
He reached across the desk and grabbed her by the hand. Out of instinct she pulled back. He held on tighter and pulled her close, lowering his voice to a whisper. “You have to drop this. Leave this alone, Kel.”
She pulled back again, and this time he let go. “Jake, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”
He put his hand to his forehead. He was visibly perspiring. “I can’t talk to you about these cases. They’re classified.”
“Classified? Classified?! I’ve got a baby in my unit with a slim chance of surviving, but I certainly can’t help her if I don’t know what I’m up against. If you know something, you need to tell me. I
will
take this to the chief and the board if I have to.”
He shook his head. “No. You can’t do that. Please. I’m begging you to drop this. You could get hurt.”
“What?” She was furious. And confused. And beyond disappointed. What the hell was wrong with him? He knew damn well she needed information from the autopsies in order to help the baby. It was his
duty
to tell her. This conspiratorial attitude of his was ridiculous. Not in a million years would she ever have imagined Jake acting this way. “This is insane, Jake. I’m going to save that baby’s life, and you’re going to help me do it. You know that’s the right thing to do, rules or no rules.”
He paused, breathing deeply. “Okay. I’ll tell you what I know. But not here. It’s too dangerous.”
Now Kelly held his stare. She saw genuine fear in his eyes.
Oh my God. He’s really serious.
There was something going on here, and it obviously involved the death of three pregnant women. But clearly she wasn’t going to get any more information out of him here.
His assistant, Ty, tapped on the door. “Dr. Hamilton, I need a hand.”
“Sure. Be right there.” He looked at Kelly. “Tuscany’s at seven-thirty. I really wish you would drop this. Trust me.”
“I’ll be there. And you should know me better than that.” She walked out of his office toward the elevator, baffled by what had just taken place. Jake wasn’t just afraid, he was terrified.
CHAPTER FIVE
After another sleepless night, Ryan decided to get up at 5:00 a.m. and head to the lab. If they were watching, they’d see how dedicated he was. And most importantly, they’d hopefully assume the brain washing had worked and he—good, all-American white boy—had truly joined their ranks.
He’d been watching his back. He had to. If The Brotherhood knew his background and his true feelings, Ryan knew what they could do. He had to act as if he had been converted.
How he hated these men and what they stood for. How he hated himself.
And they knew everything. They had him by the short hairs. Ryan sighed heavily with memories of his old life pervasive in his head. He pulled into the garage at Frauen Pharmaceuticals—a privately owned company based in Germany with headquarters in Los Angeles. Frauen had some very influential investors, and was an up and comer in the women’s pharmaceuticals market. They produced pills for menopause, anxiety, depression; they were even working on a Viagra-like pill that would heighten sexuality for women. But Ryan didn’t develop any of those drugs. Not by a long shot.
He parked the Audi and got out his card key. After getting through security, he went up to his office, and then into the lab where he stopped in his tracks.
“Good morning, Ryan.”
It was Peter Redding. Redding was the CEO of Frauen Pharmaceuticals. He was also much, much more.
“Good morning, Mr. Redding. I didn’t know you were flying in.”
A crooked smiled spread across Redding’s face. His blue eyes held an unpleasant light. Ryan was pretty certain the man was Satan himself. He was handsome, by most people’s standards. Peter was of average height, but well built. He obviously spent a lot of time in the gym. Redding was probably closer to fifty than forty, but it didn’t show. His salt and pepper hair sparkled under the fluorescent lights. “I came to see you. Only you. Come with me.”
Ryan’s stomach sank. They had found out. They knew about the e-mail.
“What’s this about, sir?”
“I will explain in my office.”
Ryan’s stomach twisted. Wished he’d gone in and kissed the twins’ cheeks goodbye that morning. Oh God. The twins. Jeanine! What if
they
were there now, with them? What if
they
were hurting his family? Killing them? The memory of Frederick Färber holding a gun to his head while he witnessed the torture and murders of The Petersens vividly flashed in his mind. What if that bastard Färber was in his home? Sweat slicked his back. He thought he might throw up.
Redding opened two wide Mahogany doors and Ryan followed him inside. “Sit down,” Redding pointed to a chair at the conference table and picked up a TV remote, turning on a screen in front of them.
Ryan closed his eyes for a second, knowing what was coming next. His stomach sank.
“Do you see this, Horner?”
Ryan opened in his eyes and a wave of relief hit. It was a baby hooked up to all sorts of IVs and monitors. He nodded and with trepidation answered, “Yes.”
“And how about this?”
A young woman—a girl really—Hispanic…dead on a slab.
“Yes.”
Redding turned off the TV. “This is not what I fucking want! This is not what
we
want, Horner! We want aborted fetuses, we want sterile women. Dead women alert people. They make people scratch their heads and wonder why, why, why?! This is fucked up! Do you understand what we are doing here? Do you?!”
“Yes, sir.”
He tried to keep his hands from shaking.
“I am not sure you do.” Redding turned the TV back on and now the screen showed his beautiful wife in their kitchen drinking coffee. Then it changed to show his five-year old daughters eating cereal in front of the TV in his family room.
“No,” he whispered.
“No what?”
They had cameras throughout his house. Why was he even surprised by this? “Please don’t hurt them.”
“I don’t want to, Ryan. I really don’t. You have a lovely wife. Cute kids. I like you. I heard you were the best. That’s why you got the job. And of course, Petersen turned it down.” He frowned and it was obviously forced. Redding paused a beat, then his frown turned upward into a wicked smile. “Yes. I like you and I am going to give you another chance to make things right. Fix it. Fix the problem. I have a fucking race to purify, and I can’t have people asking questions about dead girls. Isolate and fix the problem so you can continue to go home every night to your lovely wife and cute kids. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. You have two weeks. Start testing those fucking rats and monkeys of yours and get me the results I want.”
Ryan looked up at the TV as Redding turned it off. His wife. His daughters. Ryan would do whatever Redding wanted. He would find a way.
CHAPTER SIX
Jake glanced at his watch. He was running late to meet Kelly.
Shit.
Why was he so easy to read? He couldn’t lie to her. She was so damn on top of it. It was one of the things he liked about her, but at this moment, her intellect wasn’t making things easy. She was involved now whether she knew it or not, and he’d have to find a way to protect her.
Well, he could just not tell her the truth. That was one idea. But then what
would
he tell her? And how would he convince her he wasn’t lying? Her bullshit meter was too sensitive for that. It was an impossible situation. There was one thing Jake knew for sure, though: the people behind all of this were bad. Really, really bad. What choice did he have? Kelly would be relentless until she got the truth out of him. He knew that. Hell, maybe he even needed her help. Letting her in might be a good thing. Maybe there was a way the two of them could work together, figure out exactly who these people were.
Figuring out what to do about it once they knew, however, would be another story entirely.
Jake picked up the picture of his daughter again and traced the outline of her face with his fingertip. “Oh Beth, what have I gotten myself into?” He remembered a time when his little girl had complete and total faith in him—trusted him implicitly. Daddy could do no wrong. But if she knew how much danger he had put her in, she’d hate him. No. He could not tell Kelly. He would have to think of something. Send her down a dead-end path.
He set the photo down, determined to come up with a story to pacify Kelly. He took his coat from the back of the chair and pulled it on. He walked across the hall to shut the lights off in the morgue. Ty had already gone home for the day. Jake glanced around the room to make sure everything was status quo and flipped the switch. “My briefcase,” he said out loud. He couldn’t forget that. His mind was not working the way it usually did. He was too consumed by the mess he was in. He had to find a way out of it. Get back on track. This place and this situation were going to eat him alive.