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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Disclaimer: See Part 1
Alicin Wonderland by Lizz Part 15 The Evil Men Do
=====
Day 2
SL-23 ===== In the hall outside Raines' office, Patrice had to steady herself several times with a hand on the wall as she hurried to the elevators. She stepped into an empty car and pressed the number that would take her back to the Infirmary level. She was fighting for breath. Her insides were quaking and she prayed to God that her legs would be able to carry her as far as her office when she arrived. A wave of nausea passed through her and it wasn't from the motion of the elevator. She was reeling from the pages she had read from the file she was holding. How could they? How dare they? For God's sake, who were they? How the Centre could be involved in such under-. The car lofted and the soft ping heralding her return sounded outside. She quickly straightened her posture and wiped the perspiration from her face with one hand.
When the doors slid open, the doctor strode past her staff at the duty desk with a perfunctory greeting and rounded the corner, heading for the restrooms. Once inside, she pushed open the door to the nearest stall and gave up her breakfast along with tears of anguish. When the spasms subsided, she emerged to rinse her mouth and splash cool water on her face at the sink. Her personal and professional foundations had just been shaken when she suddenly realized that she was a part of an organization that on the one hand pursued medical research for the public good and on the other was perverting the results of that research in order to play God. "What now?" she asked the woman who stared back at her from the mirror above the sink, "What do I do now?"
Rounding the corner near her office, she greeted Naomi, Earl and Sam at the duty desk and learned that Joanna and Elinore were on morning rounds. Opening the door, she found the floor of her office awash in warm, infrared light from the heat lamps that were evaporating the last moisture from the carpeting around her desk. That meant that Maintenance had repaired the underlying waterline.
After locking the door, she slipped off her shoes and kicked them into the sitting area. Then she threw Alicin's medical file on the ottoman and herself onto a sofa where, in the dimness of the room, Patrice pulled a fringed throw pillow over her face and wept into it. Her body shook with sobs and moans torn loose from the very bottom of her soul. She was part of something monstrous, had been for some time. Why hadn't she seen it before? Had she been so absorbed in her own work that she had failed to see what was going on around her? Or was Alicin's case simply an aberration, an exception to the rule? In her heart, she knew the answer to that one, and her heart was the one voice she could trust to be right. But the original question remained: What now? The question echoed in her mind until, out of tears and exhausted from shedding them, she fell into fitful sleep. =====
Next door, Alicin was back in her bed, sleeping off the sedative from her terrible outburst with Angelo several hours before. As she began to wake up, she also began to realize that she had been drugged and grew increasingly alarmed. The last time she'd been injected, she had awakened in a new cell and been visited by Mr. Raines, to whom she instantly had taken a disliking. But for right now, she was fighting for consciousness and hoping that her situation had not taken a turn for the worse.
Cross-legged at the foot of the bed sat Angelo. He was sore all over and a dark red bruise had formed high on his right cheekbone where Alicin had butted him with her head. He was sore on the inside, too; aching for what his friend had endured at the hands of a man named Jerry Wurth. While Alicin was sleeping, Angelo had slipped into the shower and scrubbed his skin nearly raw with a fingernail brush in an attempt to rid himself of the man's presence. He was only partially successful. If only he had known that she was back in the Centre. If only he could have been watching over her like before. If only he had been there. If only-.
"Oooh. Hmmm. Nooo." Alicin was rising to the surface of consciousness, but Angelo did not move. "Nnno. Nnno." Her keening cries were soft yet tinged with protest. "Sorry, Timmy.mmm.sorry.Timmy.don't go.don't.go." The rest was lost in quiet mutterings.
Angelo moved to her side, sitting on the edge of the bed where he could hold her hand, and tucked the covers around her the way he used to when she was a frightened little girl in the Children's Wing. Even then he'd known that she was special. Not just for her genius but-well-'her'. She was amusing without even trying but could be comical on purpose. She had been fearless on their field trips to the nether parts of the Centre, her curiosity fueling her courage. There had been that brief moment at the swimming pool when she had tried to bolt, but he had been able to talk her down and she ended up making the trip a night to remember for all of them. She had also been insightful beyond her tender years and was the only one who had treated him like a real person after Mr. Raines had altered his life forever in the name of science. Images of his life with Alicin streaked across his consciousness like a shower of meteors on a crisp autumn night, each one recalling a memory that touched his soul. 'Go?' he thought, 'Why? How could I?' For the last hour he had been trying to imagine life without her again and couldn't.
Suddenly his hand was empty and Alicin was trying to disappear under the covers. "Hey!" he protested softly.
"How can you stand to be in the same room with me after what I did to you?" she whispered, peering over the edge of the sheet that was pulled up to her eyes.
"Alicin hurt so much here." He pointed to his heart. "And here." He was pointing to his head. "Angelo sees. Feels too. Someone hurt Alicin. Bad man hurt Alicin. No more hurt. No more bad man hurts."
"Oh, no!" she groaned weakly. "You could feel it, too." Regret registered in her tired face. "I am so sorry, Timmy." She cuddled his cheek in her hand, "I am so very sorry. You're my best friend in my whole life and look what I've done to you."
"Alicin?" he said, placing his hand over hers.
"What?"
"Angelo is Alicin's friend, only and always."
Alicin smiled upon hearing the familiar words. "Only and always?"
"Yes. For Alicin." When she reached for him, happy tears in her eyes, he smiled and held her close and made gentle shushing noises in her ear. He was pleased, knowing that they shared the memory of 'only and always'. =====
It had happened on one of the group's field trips. They had been visiting the various employee lounges and raiding the refrigerators. On the doors of those refrigerators were pictures, jokes, messages, all held in place with cute little magnets shaped like flowers, insects and the like. Unbeknownst to the other raiders, little Alicin was collecting one magnet from each room, two when she couldn't make up her mind, which was often. When it was time to return to their cells, the little girl's pocket was stuffed with magnetic flora and fauna. She kept falling behind the other explorers and when Timmy had stopped the group for the third time to wait for her, Jarod and Eddie were already frustrated. When she finally came around the corner of the service conduit, one hand was stuffed inside her pocket to secure the contents, forcing her to crawl on two knees and only one arm.
"No wonder she can't keep up," Eddie griped. "Look at her!"
Alicin stuck her tongue out at him and kept crawling toward the boys.
"What's in your pocket?" Jarod smiled, knowing the little girl had been up to something.
"Nuffin," was her wide-eyed reply.
"Aw, c'mon, pipsqueak, let's see it!" Eddie ordered as he advanced on the little girl and reached for her arm.
"Nooo!" she cried. "They're not for you! Let go! Let go!" She ducked and scrabbled past him until she reached Timmy. "You can't have 'em! They're not for you. They're for Timmy! They're only an' always for Timmy!" With that she pulled the treasure from her pocket and offered them in a double handful to the best friend in her whole life. "See? These are for you, Timmy. Ya like 'em?"
She was blinking those big green eyes at him again. His heart was full of wonderful feelings when she looked at him like that. "Yeah, I like 'em a lot, Alicin. Thanks." Then he did something that he would probably never live down. He placed a little kiss on her forehead.
Jarod thought it was a rather nice gesture, recalling his own encounter with Miss Parker.
"Eww!" Eddie groaned. "Ya kissed the pipsqueak!"
Alicin stuck her tongue out at him again. =====
"Why are you putting up with me?" She was smiling again.
"Because Alicin is.Alicin," he said matter of factly and smiled the smile she liked best. "Good for Angelo always. Good in here," and he touched a finger to the middle of her chest, over her heart.
"I keep you in here, too," she replied and curled her hand around his.
"Angelo has them!" he said in a conspiratorial whisper, losing Alicin in the sudden change of topic. "Magnets! Only and always? At Alicin's old room. No one knows."
"Sounds like a field trip to me," she commented, her face brightening a little. "Can we go?"
Angelo smiled. "Soon. Not now. Alicin rest. "
"Aw, Tim-"
"No!" he chided.
She narrowed her eyes, feigning anger, "Meany!"
"Yep," he grinned proudly. "Alicin rest in dark now." Then he placed a little kiss on her forehead and turned out the light.
Alicin sat there blinking at him in the slice of noon on the equator that shone under the door. "Stay with me?" she asked suddenly.
"Sure!" He pulled the bedside chair closer.
"No, up here." She patted the covers beside her on the bed.
Angelo let go of the chair. "Sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure, silly!" she smiled warmly. Then her face grew serious. "I need you here, Timmy. You make me feel safe and, well, I just sleep better when you're near. Please?" Her eyes were full of desperate hope, as she waited for his answer.
"Sure." He always had been a goner when she looked at him like that.
When Naomi made rounds later, she found the two of them sleeping spoon fashioned, Alicin under the covers and Angelo on top of them. Quietly closing the door, she smiled sadly and wondered just what the future would hold for the pair, because she realized all too well that their lives were not their own.
============ Early Evening ============ Patrice was jarred awake and alarmed by the sudden sound of a male voice in her office. She froze on the sofa cushions, searching for him in the dim light of the heat lamps. "Who's there!" she challenged, once she had gathered the courage to speak.
"You have mail!" came the cheery digital reply from her desk.
"Oh, for god sakes, Patrice!" she grumbled to herself as she rose and crossed the room. "Get a grip."
With a single keystroke the monitor came to life with an image of her hometown in Italy. She marveled at the depth of color and the clarity of detail that came from a device that was no thicker than her grandmother's bread board. Mr. Broots had called it a 'plasma' screen. Not on the public market yet, it was being tested at the Centre for performance and ergonomics. So far, Patrice was pleased with the screen's presentation of her daily work and the familiar scene now before her looked as if she could step into it and arrive at her grandfather's inn in time for supper.
A few more taps on the keyboard and she was into her e-mail, checking messages: convention, lab report, lab report, joke of the day, picture of the day, search results. Search results, what search results? She hadn't ordered a search so, naturally, she opened that one first.
There were none of the usual inscriptions at the top of the message detailing who had sent it or how it had been routed to her, so there was no way she could trace it. The body of the message was brief: "The parties you seek are in the gym at 4 pm daily." There was an attachment. A tap on the track pad and she was looking at two Centre security badges identifying the men pictured as sweepers Jerry Wurth and Donald Gleason. Patrice sat back, propped an elbow on the armrest of her chair and rested her chin on her hand. Her gaze shifted from one face to the other. This is Saturday, she noted. She looked at her watch. It was just after five. Too late? Were they even working today? One way to find out. She pushed another key and waited for the printer to finish. The single sheet of paper she carried out of her office was still warm. "I'll be back in a half-hour, Joanna," she said without further explanation to the woman at the duty desk. "Page me if you need me." Patrice didn't wait for her assistant's reply. Her heart pounded in her chest as she approached the elevators. Pushing the button that would take her to the level that housed the Centre's employee health and fitness facility, she wasn't sure what she would do if they were there.
On the pretense of wanting to develop a training program for herself, Patrice allowed one of the trainers to give her a tour of the facility during which she dropped the sweepers' names and learned that neither was present. She thanked the nicely tanned young woman for her time and headed back to her office. Opening her cell phone on the way, Patrice pressed in a number and waited.
========== Main Level ==========
"Keep your voice down, will ya! This can't get out or we're all screwed!" Sam had Earl by the arm and was hustling him around the corner to a secondary, and so less noticed and guarded, exit from the building.
"Okay, okay!" Earl said softly. "What've you got?"
"Our guy's name is Jerry Wurth," Sam began in a voice just above a whisper. "I checked his file. He's been here about sixteen months, working for Raines the whole time. Police academy standout three years before that. On his first hire he's up on charges for sexually harassing a female officer. Nothing's been filed since he came to the Centre, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's clean. Comes to work on time. Alone. Never leaves early. I'll know more after I talk to Ma-"
"No names!" Earl jumped in.
"Okay. Anyhow, he hits the Blue Lady 'gentleman's club' after work most days for a few beers and a lap dance before heading home to his live-in girlfriend. The police have been called to his place twice, but no complaints were filed. Works out on the fitness level after his shift and sometimes comes in on Saturdays. I see him there when I'm lifting with Sydney's pretender."
"Anything else?"
"As a matter of fact, the police thing made me look for priors."
"And?"
"Jerry's been a very busy-very bad-boy. "And he's gotten away with it eleven times, starting in high school."
"How?" Earl was incredulous.
"Intimidation and rich parents, from what I've heard so far. Of the eleven complaints filed, two made it as far as discovery before they were withdrawn. Four never made it past choosing up attorneys, and the other five either left school, quit their jobs or moved out of state.
Earl was silent and his face was set like flint when he spoke again. "We'll just have to make sure his parents don't get a chance to interfere this time. Any ideas?"
"A few," Sam said with a deadly smile. "And none of them involves the Delaware courts. But I'd like to poll the others first. After all, we're in this together. In the meantime, let's keep digging. We need as much background on this slug as we can get so no one will miss him until it's too late."
"The stories I'm hearing make me wanna dust him now and be done with it," Earl complained.
"Not a chance! He has to give up his accomplice and then we let them know that they haven't gotten away with anything." At that moment an electronic chirp sounded and both men reached for their pagers. "It's yours," Sam laughed, satisfied that he wasn't being summoned.
"It's the boss, Sam. Gotta go. Keep me posted." The two parted company, Sam waiting a full five minutes before exiting the corridor to the main lobby.
=========== Trauma One ===========
Earl entered the doctor's office after knocking four times as per the message on his pager. "Doctor Patrice?"
"Come in, Earl, and have a seat," she said. "Can I interest you in a ginger ale?" The ice cubes chimed inside the tall crystal drinking glass, followed by the crisp hiss of the amber soda.
"No, thanks," he replied as his boss took a seat across from him and downed a large mouthful of the icy beverage before speaking to him.
"First off, I want to thank you for getting Alicin set up next door so quickly. It's important for her to feel comfortable while she's recovering and you've made that happen. And secondly, I need to know if you were serious yesterday about your offer to work behind the scenes on Alicin's behalf."
Earl looked at her, wondering why she was asking. "Yes, I was," he replied slowly, trying to guess what he was about to get himself into.
Patrice sighed and handed him the printed likenesses of Alicin's attackers. She missed the brief flash of recognition and surprise that passed over his face as a new piece of the puzzle fell into place for him. "These are the men who attacked Alicin. I want them found and arrested so I can watch the wheels of justice turn." Her voice was low and ominous, unlike the woman Earl had worked for all these years. It made him uneasy. "Will you help me find them?" She held his attention with a piercing look.
The orderly took a deep breath and leaned back, suddenly aware that he had literally been sitting on the edge of his seat with his shoulders hunched up around his ears. As he shifted his shoulders to relax, he was also considering whether or not to tell the good doctor that he already knew about Jerry Wurth. Or that what he, personally, had in mind was to throw the bastard and his accomplice under the wheels of justice. He waited to answer and when he did, it was brief. "Yes."
Patrice pointed to the page he was holding. "I want a daily report on those two, routines, schedules, habits. If one of them goes outside to kick the fuzz off a dandelion, I want to know about it. Look for any and every possible opportunity to grab them. I know I don't have to tell you to be discreet, but I will anyway. If they cut and run, we'll never see them again. So keep a low profile and let me know when we have something to take to the state police. Okay?"
Earl nodded as he stood and folded the photo page, placing it in a pants pocket. "I'll do my best. I want them in custody as much as you do. Until tomorrow then." He headed for the door.
"Thank you, Earl. Good evening." was all she said. ===== TBC End Part 15 Desperately seeking feedback: lizzkirsch@hotmail.com
Alicin Wonderland by Lizz Part 15 The Evil Men Do
=====
Day 2
SL-23 ===== In the hall outside Raines' office, Patrice had to steady herself several times with a hand on the wall as she hurried to the elevators. She stepped into an empty car and pressed the number that would take her back to the Infirmary level. She was fighting for breath. Her insides were quaking and she prayed to God that her legs would be able to carry her as far as her office when she arrived. A wave of nausea passed through her and it wasn't from the motion of the elevator. She was reeling from the pages she had read from the file she was holding. How could they? How dare they? For God's sake, who were they? How the Centre could be involved in such under-. The car lofted and the soft ping heralding her return sounded outside. She quickly straightened her posture and wiped the perspiration from her face with one hand.
When the doors slid open, the doctor strode past her staff at the duty desk with a perfunctory greeting and rounded the corner, heading for the restrooms. Once inside, she pushed open the door to the nearest stall and gave up her breakfast along with tears of anguish. When the spasms subsided, she emerged to rinse her mouth and splash cool water on her face at the sink. Her personal and professional foundations had just been shaken when she suddenly realized that she was a part of an organization that on the one hand pursued medical research for the public good and on the other was perverting the results of that research in order to play God. "What now?" she asked the woman who stared back at her from the mirror above the sink, "What do I do now?"
Rounding the corner near her office, she greeted Naomi, Earl and Sam at the duty desk and learned that Joanna and Elinore were on morning rounds. Opening the door, she found the floor of her office awash in warm, infrared light from the heat lamps that were evaporating the last moisture from the carpeting around her desk. That meant that Maintenance had repaired the underlying waterline.
After locking the door, she slipped off her shoes and kicked them into the sitting area. Then she threw Alicin's medical file on the ottoman and herself onto a sofa where, in the dimness of the room, Patrice pulled a fringed throw pillow over her face and wept into it. Her body shook with sobs and moans torn loose from the very bottom of her soul. She was part of something monstrous, had been for some time. Why hadn't she seen it before? Had she been so absorbed in her own work that she had failed to see what was going on around her? Or was Alicin's case simply an aberration, an exception to the rule? In her heart, she knew the answer to that one, and her heart was the one voice she could trust to be right. But the original question remained: What now? The question echoed in her mind until, out of tears and exhausted from shedding them, she fell into fitful sleep. =====
Next door, Alicin was back in her bed, sleeping off the sedative from her terrible outburst with Angelo several hours before. As she began to wake up, she also began to realize that she had been drugged and grew increasingly alarmed. The last time she'd been injected, she had awakened in a new cell and been visited by Mr. Raines, to whom she instantly had taken a disliking. But for right now, she was fighting for consciousness and hoping that her situation had not taken a turn for the worse.
Cross-legged at the foot of the bed sat Angelo. He was sore all over and a dark red bruise had formed high on his right cheekbone where Alicin had butted him with her head. He was sore on the inside, too; aching for what his friend had endured at the hands of a man named Jerry Wurth. While Alicin was sleeping, Angelo had slipped into the shower and scrubbed his skin nearly raw with a fingernail brush in an attempt to rid himself of the man's presence. He was only partially successful. If only he had known that she was back in the Centre. If only he could have been watching over her like before. If only he had been there. If only-.
"Oooh. Hmmm. Nooo." Alicin was rising to the surface of consciousness, but Angelo did not move. "Nnno. Nnno." Her keening cries were soft yet tinged with protest. "Sorry, Timmy.mmm.sorry.Timmy.don't go.don't.go." The rest was lost in quiet mutterings.
Angelo moved to her side, sitting on the edge of the bed where he could hold her hand, and tucked the covers around her the way he used to when she was a frightened little girl in the Children's Wing. Even then he'd known that she was special. Not just for her genius but-well-'her'. She was amusing without even trying but could be comical on purpose. She had been fearless on their field trips to the nether parts of the Centre, her curiosity fueling her courage. There had been that brief moment at the swimming pool when she had tried to bolt, but he had been able to talk her down and she ended up making the trip a night to remember for all of them. She had also been insightful beyond her tender years and was the only one who had treated him like a real person after Mr. Raines had altered his life forever in the name of science. Images of his life with Alicin streaked across his consciousness like a shower of meteors on a crisp autumn night, each one recalling a memory that touched his soul. 'Go?' he thought, 'Why? How could I?' For the last hour he had been trying to imagine life without her again and couldn't.
Suddenly his hand was empty and Alicin was trying to disappear under the covers. "Hey!" he protested softly.
"How can you stand to be in the same room with me after what I did to you?" she whispered, peering over the edge of the sheet that was pulled up to her eyes.
"Alicin hurt so much here." He pointed to his heart. "And here." He was pointing to his head. "Angelo sees. Feels too. Someone hurt Alicin. Bad man hurt Alicin. No more hurt. No more bad man hurts."
"Oh, no!" she groaned weakly. "You could feel it, too." Regret registered in her tired face. "I am so sorry, Timmy." She cuddled his cheek in her hand, "I am so very sorry. You're my best friend in my whole life and look what I've done to you."
"Alicin?" he said, placing his hand over hers.
"What?"
"Angelo is Alicin's friend, only and always."
Alicin smiled upon hearing the familiar words. "Only and always?"
"Yes. For Alicin." When she reached for him, happy tears in her eyes, he smiled and held her close and made gentle shushing noises in her ear. He was pleased, knowing that they shared the memory of 'only and always'. =====
It had happened on one of the group's field trips. They had been visiting the various employee lounges and raiding the refrigerators. On the doors of those refrigerators were pictures, jokes, messages, all held in place with cute little magnets shaped like flowers, insects and the like. Unbeknownst to the other raiders, little Alicin was collecting one magnet from each room, two when she couldn't make up her mind, which was often. When it was time to return to their cells, the little girl's pocket was stuffed with magnetic flora and fauna. She kept falling behind the other explorers and when Timmy had stopped the group for the third time to wait for her, Jarod and Eddie were already frustrated. When she finally came around the corner of the service conduit, one hand was stuffed inside her pocket to secure the contents, forcing her to crawl on two knees and only one arm.
"No wonder she can't keep up," Eddie griped. "Look at her!"
Alicin stuck her tongue out at him and kept crawling toward the boys.
"What's in your pocket?" Jarod smiled, knowing the little girl had been up to something.
"Nuffin," was her wide-eyed reply.
"Aw, c'mon, pipsqueak, let's see it!" Eddie ordered as he advanced on the little girl and reached for her arm.
"Nooo!" she cried. "They're not for you! Let go! Let go!" She ducked and scrabbled past him until she reached Timmy. "You can't have 'em! They're not for you. They're for Timmy! They're only an' always for Timmy!" With that she pulled the treasure from her pocket and offered them in a double handful to the best friend in her whole life. "See? These are for you, Timmy. Ya like 'em?"
She was blinking those big green eyes at him again. His heart was full of wonderful feelings when she looked at him like that. "Yeah, I like 'em a lot, Alicin. Thanks." Then he did something that he would probably never live down. He placed a little kiss on her forehead.
Jarod thought it was a rather nice gesture, recalling his own encounter with Miss Parker.
"Eww!" Eddie groaned. "Ya kissed the pipsqueak!"
Alicin stuck her tongue out at him again. =====
"Why are you putting up with me?" She was smiling again.
"Because Alicin is.Alicin," he said matter of factly and smiled the smile she liked best. "Good for Angelo always. Good in here," and he touched a finger to the middle of her chest, over her heart.
"I keep you in here, too," she replied and curled her hand around his.
"Angelo has them!" he said in a conspiratorial whisper, losing Alicin in the sudden change of topic. "Magnets! Only and always? At Alicin's old room. No one knows."
"Sounds like a field trip to me," she commented, her face brightening a little. "Can we go?"
Angelo smiled. "Soon. Not now. Alicin rest. "
"Aw, Tim-"
"No!" he chided.
She narrowed her eyes, feigning anger, "Meany!"
"Yep," he grinned proudly. "Alicin rest in dark now." Then he placed a little kiss on her forehead and turned out the light.
Alicin sat there blinking at him in the slice of noon on the equator that shone under the door. "Stay with me?" she asked suddenly.
"Sure!" He pulled the bedside chair closer.
"No, up here." She patted the covers beside her on the bed.
Angelo let go of the chair. "Sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure, silly!" she smiled warmly. Then her face grew serious. "I need you here, Timmy. You make me feel safe and, well, I just sleep better when you're near. Please?" Her eyes were full of desperate hope, as she waited for his answer.
"Sure." He always had been a goner when she looked at him like that.
When Naomi made rounds later, she found the two of them sleeping spoon fashioned, Alicin under the covers and Angelo on top of them. Quietly closing the door, she smiled sadly and wondered just what the future would hold for the pair, because she realized all too well that their lives were not their own.
============ Early Evening ============ Patrice was jarred awake and alarmed by the sudden sound of a male voice in her office. She froze on the sofa cushions, searching for him in the dim light of the heat lamps. "Who's there!" she challenged, once she had gathered the courage to speak.
"You have mail!" came the cheery digital reply from her desk.
"Oh, for god sakes, Patrice!" she grumbled to herself as she rose and crossed the room. "Get a grip."
With a single keystroke the monitor came to life with an image of her hometown in Italy. She marveled at the depth of color and the clarity of detail that came from a device that was no thicker than her grandmother's bread board. Mr. Broots had called it a 'plasma' screen. Not on the public market yet, it was being tested at the Centre for performance and ergonomics. So far, Patrice was pleased with the screen's presentation of her daily work and the familiar scene now before her looked as if she could step into it and arrive at her grandfather's inn in time for supper.
A few more taps on the keyboard and she was into her e-mail, checking messages: convention, lab report, lab report, joke of the day, picture of the day, search results. Search results, what search results? She hadn't ordered a search so, naturally, she opened that one first.
There were none of the usual inscriptions at the top of the message detailing who had sent it or how it had been routed to her, so there was no way she could trace it. The body of the message was brief: "The parties you seek are in the gym at 4 pm daily." There was an attachment. A tap on the track pad and she was looking at two Centre security badges identifying the men pictured as sweepers Jerry Wurth and Donald Gleason. Patrice sat back, propped an elbow on the armrest of her chair and rested her chin on her hand. Her gaze shifted from one face to the other. This is Saturday, she noted. She looked at her watch. It was just after five. Too late? Were they even working today? One way to find out. She pushed another key and waited for the printer to finish. The single sheet of paper she carried out of her office was still warm. "I'll be back in a half-hour, Joanna," she said without further explanation to the woman at the duty desk. "Page me if you need me." Patrice didn't wait for her assistant's reply. Her heart pounded in her chest as she approached the elevators. Pushing the button that would take her to the level that housed the Centre's employee health and fitness facility, she wasn't sure what she would do if they were there.
On the pretense of wanting to develop a training program for herself, Patrice allowed one of the trainers to give her a tour of the facility during which she dropped the sweepers' names and learned that neither was present. She thanked the nicely tanned young woman for her time and headed back to her office. Opening her cell phone on the way, Patrice pressed in a number and waited.
========== Main Level ==========
"Keep your voice down, will ya! This can't get out or we're all screwed!" Sam had Earl by the arm and was hustling him around the corner to a secondary, and so less noticed and guarded, exit from the building.
"Okay, okay!" Earl said softly. "What've you got?"
"Our guy's name is Jerry Wurth," Sam began in a voice just above a whisper. "I checked his file. He's been here about sixteen months, working for Raines the whole time. Police academy standout three years before that. On his first hire he's up on charges for sexually harassing a female officer. Nothing's been filed since he came to the Centre, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's clean. Comes to work on time. Alone. Never leaves early. I'll know more after I talk to Ma-"
"No names!" Earl jumped in.
"Okay. Anyhow, he hits the Blue Lady 'gentleman's club' after work most days for a few beers and a lap dance before heading home to his live-in girlfriend. The police have been called to his place twice, but no complaints were filed. Works out on the fitness level after his shift and sometimes comes in on Saturdays. I see him there when I'm lifting with Sydney's pretender."
"Anything else?"
"As a matter of fact, the police thing made me look for priors."
"And?"
"Jerry's been a very busy-very bad-boy. "And he's gotten away with it eleven times, starting in high school."
"How?" Earl was incredulous.
"Intimidation and rich parents, from what I've heard so far. Of the eleven complaints filed, two made it as far as discovery before they were withdrawn. Four never made it past choosing up attorneys, and the other five either left school, quit their jobs or moved out of state.
Earl was silent and his face was set like flint when he spoke again. "We'll just have to make sure his parents don't get a chance to interfere this time. Any ideas?"
"A few," Sam said with a deadly smile. "And none of them involves the Delaware courts. But I'd like to poll the others first. After all, we're in this together. In the meantime, let's keep digging. We need as much background on this slug as we can get so no one will miss him until it's too late."
"The stories I'm hearing make me wanna dust him now and be done with it," Earl complained.
"Not a chance! He has to give up his accomplice and then we let them know that they haven't gotten away with anything." At that moment an electronic chirp sounded and both men reached for their pagers. "It's yours," Sam laughed, satisfied that he wasn't being summoned.
"It's the boss, Sam. Gotta go. Keep me posted." The two parted company, Sam waiting a full five minutes before exiting the corridor to the main lobby.
=========== Trauma One ===========
Earl entered the doctor's office after knocking four times as per the message on his pager. "Doctor Patrice?"
"Come in, Earl, and have a seat," she said. "Can I interest you in a ginger ale?" The ice cubes chimed inside the tall crystal drinking glass, followed by the crisp hiss of the amber soda.
"No, thanks," he replied as his boss took a seat across from him and downed a large mouthful of the icy beverage before speaking to him.
"First off, I want to thank you for getting Alicin set up next door so quickly. It's important for her to feel comfortable while she's recovering and you've made that happen. And secondly, I need to know if you were serious yesterday about your offer to work behind the scenes on Alicin's behalf."
Earl looked at her, wondering why she was asking. "Yes, I was," he replied slowly, trying to guess what he was about to get himself into.
Patrice sighed and handed him the printed likenesses of Alicin's attackers. She missed the brief flash of recognition and surprise that passed over his face as a new piece of the puzzle fell into place for him. "These are the men who attacked Alicin. I want them found and arrested so I can watch the wheels of justice turn." Her voice was low and ominous, unlike the woman Earl had worked for all these years. It made him uneasy. "Will you help me find them?" She held his attention with a piercing look.
The orderly took a deep breath and leaned back, suddenly aware that he had literally been sitting on the edge of his seat with his shoulders hunched up around his ears. As he shifted his shoulders to relax, he was also considering whether or not to tell the good doctor that he already knew about Jerry Wurth. Or that what he, personally, had in mind was to throw the bastard and his accomplice under the wheels of justice. He waited to answer and when he did, it was brief. "Yes."
Patrice pointed to the page he was holding. "I want a daily report on those two, routines, schedules, habits. If one of them goes outside to kick the fuzz off a dandelion, I want to know about it. Look for any and every possible opportunity to grab them. I know I don't have to tell you to be discreet, but I will anyway. If they cut and run, we'll never see them again. So keep a low profile and let me know when we have something to take to the state police. Okay?"
Earl nodded as he stood and folded the photo page, placing it in a pants pocket. "I'll do my best. I want them in custody as much as you do. Until tomorrow then." He headed for the door.
"Thank you, Earl. Good evening." was all she said. ===== TBC End Part 15 Desperately seeking feedback: lizzkirsch@hotmail.com
