Amanda was very disappointed. It was such a good chance! And it slipped right through her fingers! She should have entered Moore’s office with Brian and made a speech about why he should issue that damn pass!
“What’s done is done”, she thought, “now I’m driving to my parents’ to discuss the situation”.
****
Luis and Margaret were expecting her in the living room.
“Hello, we’ve been waiting for you since the early morning”, Luis said, hugging his daughter.
“I arrived at the precinct only at 9 am, I couldn’t have come faster even if I wanted to”.
“That’s okay, the most important thing is that you are here. So, what can you tell us?”
Just yesterday she was interrogating witnesses, now she is on the other side. What a twist of fate. Amanda got ready to tell her tale.
“...So they uncovered the secret behind the tattoos and found out how exactly the victims were killed, but the formula is unknown”.
“Do you think they could be lying?”, Margaret asked, thoughtfully.
“I’m not sure, Emma seemed like an honest woman, however, if it was Henry’s order…”
“He’s not stupid, I knew he wouldn’t trust us from the beginning”, Luis said, taking a cigar, “Charlie has told me many times that he was a sly fox, that one”.
“But he definitely wants what’s best for our town. Even if his methods may be… unconventional from our point of view”, Amanda remarked.
“How did you find Davis, Amanda?”, Margaret asked suddenly.
“His profile was almost accurate apart from “level headed” part. He blows up like an explosive. It took me a while to adjust to him and understand how to treat him right. I’m not positive I succeeded, though”.
“The night’s still young. You will get to his heart, I’m sure”, Margaret laughed.
Amanda smiled. She really liked to be able to guess how to get under people’s skin, but not in the way her mother meant. She loved finding buttons which she could push to get what she wanted. On the contrary, Margaret thought this skill useful only in the context of making her own puppets.
“So what’s your next step?”
“I’ll wait for Brian’s call. He promised to get in touch if he finds anything interesting”.
“Don’t you trust him too soon?”
“I don’t trust him to tell me the whole truth, but I do trust him to not outright lie. He’s one of those people who always fail to lie to those they care about. So he will only omit some things. I’ll be able to find out the rest if I need”.
“So you think he cares about you?”
“Not like that, Mother. It’s obviously difficult for him to connect with others, but if I manage to bypass his walls, he will let me in for some juicy details”.
“I see. You may be so ruthless, dear. Should we fear you?”, Luis laughed, putting his cigar in the ashtray.
“Father, our family’s sigil is a cassowary. How can you expect your heiress to be white and fluffy? Anyway, I’m a bit tired.can I use my old bedroom to have some time for myself?”
“Of course, dear. the maids keep it in order”.
“Thank you. I’ll go now”.
She went out to the hall. Margaret’s words about her being ruthless affected her. Was she really so unemotional and cold-blooded? She didn’t want to be an ice queen. Brian… He still is a jerk, but her opinion about him changed for the better. He was capable of apologizing sincerely, she saw deep regret in his eyes. Amanda didn’t want to hurt him. “He said that I have my faults but they are not as horrible as he meant. I think I can say the same about him. Overall, he is a good man. It’s just he speaks first, and thinks later.”
****
Her old room had a queen size bed, walk-in wardrobe and a vanity table. There was also a luxurious carpet. Amanda took off her shoes and walked on it with her bare feet. It was still so soft… She closed her eyes and jumped on the bed. She needed to think. Something was amiss in the whole situation… She remembered Brian’s apology, Emma’s explanation, Henry’s anger…Suddenly she jumped up. Their faces! When they were walking to the laboratory, brian couldn’t look her in the face. At that time, she thought that it was because he wasn’t used to saying sorry and he was trying to process it. Then they went inside and Emma showed her the body. He looked away again! And Emma… When Amanda asked her whether they know the formula or not, she pursed her lips and touched her nose! How could she have missed that! They were hiding something! They probably know the formula already but why hide it? Because she is a Capiano? That must be it, Henry is terrified of her father and Davis hates all Capianos with passion. But what if her parents have a hand at what’s going on right now? What if…? No, no, that can’t be… Her father wouldn’t so publicly…
“No, I will keep my thoughts and second-guesses to myself for now”, Amanda thought, “no reason to spread panic.The last thing they need is for them to kill each other. I’ll come back to my original plan. Listen to whatever Davis will manage to find.
****
It had been 4 hours since Brian started looking through the data in the archives. This job was very tedious and monotonous but it was necessary if he wanted to dig out the truth. He has revised about 100 cases starting from last year. And so far he found nothing! Nothing! His patience was wearing thin but he collected himself and continued.
After another hour one case caught his eye: Mark Chilvers, 25 years old, was found dead at the outskirts. Cause of death: head injury. The murder had happened a week before Nocturnal Phoenix started his dark deeds. Brian looked more closely at the photo of the body: the guy had a black dragon tattoo on his arm. The officer pondered. Now that he was sure that Nocturnal Phoenix wasn’t some random psycho, the question of motive arose. Suddenly a light bulb went off in his head - the murders could have been a cover! The killer wanted to hide his crime among the other bodies! And this Mark could very well be the original victim! Brian’s heart started beating faster.
But the evidence? Can they find more? The case was closed as an accident. He got lost in the outskirts, it was dark and he lost his footing. Easy-peasy. If you don’t want to do your job properly, just make everything look like an accident. A person can get lost, stumble somewhere on something, fall asleep while driving etc No corpus delicti. The most favourite phrase of lazy policemen. Brian winced. It was neither a place nor time for such thoughts.
“Back to business…”, Brian searched the computer base again, “They should have taken his blood samples. He died of head injury but the procedure is the same for everyone. Here they are…”, the faint hope fluttered in his chest.
The analysis was clean. Mark was fit as a fiddle. Frustrated, Brian ran his hand through his hair. Maybe they could run additional tests? He could persuade Henry to issue a warrant… Davis looked at the screen again. His hope shuddered again. Mark’s body was cremated. Nothing could be extracted anymore. Brian groaned. The last thread got broken off. The officer started to nervously walk around the room.
“Wait, what about his relatives?”, he almost ran back to the computer, “so Mark has only an uncle, Evan Chilvers, an ex-military. Sounds promising… I’ll pay him a visit tomorrow. And perhaps Amanda will want to tag along. Her input can turn out to be useful. She is not as dumb as I thought”.
Brian loathed to admit that he stopped putting his guard up around Amanda. Maybe he even wanted to spend time with her for real. Since he saw her big surprised eyes at the parking lot, she didn’t seem as pretentious as before. She has become more… gentle.
“Maybe we could even communicate like normal human beings, after all…”
Having made his plan, Davis took his things and left the archives. He needed a break. His eyes hurt, his back ached and he still had to make it through the rest of the day. “Well, I guess I’ll rest when I’m dead”, he smirked to himself, “I will call Amanda during my well-deserved break”.
****
My name is Mark Chilvers, I’m a quarterback. An ex-quarterback. After my leg injury those bastards from the sports committee rejected me, as if I am defective! If only I could continue taking those drugs, they were administered to athletes anyway! They weren’t prohibited! They enhanced my strength and endurance, my injury would be nothing! But they rejected me as if I was some sack with rotten fruit!
Now I have to work as a loader in a grocery store. Dragging these boxes from here to there. Oh, how much I hate it! But recently I discovered something exciting, something new that adds some colour to my miserable life. Wrestling fights! Sure, they may be illegal but they bring me money. Real money that I can spend however I like.
In one of those fights I met someone who promised to give me a second chance at my sports career! The only thing I should do was to take part in some experiment.
…This is amazing! I feel so rejuvenated and energetic! Last time I felt like this was when I got my first trophy at 10.
Today, I’m going there again. A little bit more and I’ll get my career back! I can’t believe it turned out to be so easy! Just you wait, my triumphant return will outshine everything and everyone in our sport community!
I’m so excited that I don’t notice a figure coming at me from behind. I turn my head to look at them but then I feel a needle pricking my neck. I start feeling dizzy… And dizzy… And dizzier… The last thing I see is the white ceramic floor tile.
****
Margaret Capiano spent quite a while in her office perusing the documents from their labs. Capianos owned all laboratories in Moon Chasm but there was only one that conducted the experiments. As a chemist herself, Margaret oversaw all the processes happening there. This is why after Amanda’s report, she started to suspect a leak. But who could be the mole? Her first suspicion was on Nathan Clark, the head of their main pharmaceutical company. She wouldn’t call him a prodigy scientist but he was knowledgeable, had several degrees and awards in his field and knew how to keep secrets. Especially if incited with a certain percentage.
“Luis?”, she called her husband, “I want to go to the lab”.
“You wanna visit dear old Nathan?”
“How accurate of you. Yes, you’ve hit the nail straight on the head”.
“Well, sure, let’s go”.
The Capiano Pharmaceuticals, or, as they called it, CapiPhar, was situated uptown, about an hour from their mansion, away from the bustle of the city. That choice was obvious - it would be stupid to conduct any experiments risking the whole town and its people if something doesn’t go according to plan.
“Margaret, I suppose there’s no need to remind you that the info we got from Amanda is purely confidential. To Nathan, our visit will be just a scheduled inspection”.
“Of course, I’m not a fool”.
“By the way, have you heard from Darrell? How’s your preparation for that press-conference going?”
“It’s going on. I have already reached an agreement with several magazines. They will ask only the questions I want. The last thing left is for Darrell to write his speech. Then he will send it to me for revision”.
Margaret smiled at her thought and looked out of the window. She really enjoyed the feeling of control over that power-hungry idiot. Truthfully, he wasn’t an idiot, but quite a seasoned politician. His speeches were indeed always perfect for calming people down. He also solved the problem of unemployment. Well, only with Capianos’ resources but still it was his own achievement. However, his ambition always got the better of him. And Margaret skillfully used it.
Finally, they arrived. The tall white building of the lab greeted them with silence. The laboratory had many departments, each of them having its own building. All of them were faceless, sleek. Noone could ever guess what the scientists actually worked on there. The tall building mentioned above was Nathan’s headquarters. That’s where Luis and Margaret headed.
Seeing his superiors, Nathan Clark quickly got up from his seat.
“Mr Capiano, Mrs Capiano, what a surprise! I didn’t expect to see you here at this time”.
“It’s only 7 pm”, Luis remarked.
“I know, it’s just my employees always leave around this time, so I…”
“But you are here. We’re not interested in your subordinates for now”. Margaret said firmly.
“Right. So I understand that you want to see what we’re currently working on?”
“For starters, yes”.
“Okay, let’s see. Gregory Winsley and Olivia Carter are working on painkillers, Lenny Brown and Sierra Marell are trying to figure out how to get rid of fatigue effect after taking antihistamines, Isabella Lawrence is experimenting on the endurance drug…”
“I see, give me these folders, I want to have a look myself”, Margaret said, holding out a commanding hand”.
“Of course, Mrs Capiano, everything is recorded here”.
“And what are you working on, Nathan?”, Luis asked.
“Me? Oh, I’m researching the influence of weed on human psyche.”
“Human psyche? But you’re a chemist, not a doctor.”
“I wrote my PhD on hallucinations caused by certain plants”, Nathan replied, a bit offended, “it may be not exactly my area of expertise but I’m well-versed in this particular subject”.
“Okay, okay, I see your point. So what have you learnt?”
“I started a couple of weeks ago and so far I learnt that sativa is known for its energizing effect but it may cause a deep depression, and also…”
“Nathan, for this type of research you probably need volunteers. I doubt mice can help even if they wanted to”.
“Certainly”, the scientist ran up to the bookshelf, “here is the data on each of them. I have 23 individuals”.
“Hmmm. How much do you pay them?”
“Everything is according to the protocol. And if…”, Nathan stuttered, “if any of them wants to stop or feels bad, they are free to go”.
“Very well. I learnt everything I needed, we can go, Luis. Goodbye, Nathan”.
After the door closed, Nathan exhaled and slid down the wall. He was emotionally exhausted. He knew what he was getting in but still had nervous breakdowns from time to time. He put his hand in his pocket. It was here. This small thing could ruin or save his life. Everything depended on how he would use it. But he didn’t know which way was right and which one was wrong. And it was killing him. He was tired of waiting.
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