Bliss (12 page)

Now, as the gleaming, white jet neared the Midwestern United States, Grovel felt a growing unease.
I should have never trusted him.

Blinded by greed, and anxious to pull his company’s stock out of a two-year slump, Vetter had convinced Grovel that Bliss would be the biggest drug since penicillin. The ploy was a brilliant one. Vetter had been singing the virtues of Bliss through every pharmaceutical journal there was. Setting up accounts, preparing for the drug’s release. Keeping the stockholders anxious for the day it hit the market. Speculators would sink billions into it. But Vetter had created the whole illusion solely to get his hand in the cookie jar. Bliss was a real drug all right. But what it really did to the user would send shockwaves through the medical community and beyond. Of course to make the whole thing seem authentic, Vetter had used several scientists, he’d apparently bought off or controlled through intimidation.

The way Grovel saw it; he had no choice but to go to Imec and force Vetter to abandon his plans.

A terrifying thought gripped Hans Grovel.

What if I’m too late?

“You want to explain what
you’re doing snooping around on private property? Now turn around, slowly.”

Lindsey Walsh turned and found she was looking into the beam of a large flashlight. She held up her arm against the blinding light and could see a uniformed security guard holding it.

“I’m looking for one of your residents. Now you wanna turn that thing off, please?”

“Jesus, lady, what happened to you?”

“It’s a long story. Can you tell me where Katherine Blair lives?”

The guard turned off his light and stuck it in his belt.

“Ms. Blair lives in one-fourteen. That’s two doors down. But I’ll have to take you there and verify your story. Otherwise, I’ll have to call the police.”

Lindsey’s anger was beginning to boil over. The night had gotten progressively worse and now that she’d finally found Katherine’s house, Barney of Mayberry had to play cop.

Lindsey took a deep breath to calm herself. “Fine–take me there–please.”

Stephen Vetter felt the weight
of the night pressing down on him. He’d left the handling of Teresa Hagen’s body to Frank Deldeo, and Vetter was now racing out of the Imec complex like a bat out of hell. He knew the police would be around soon with questions about the Booths, and he was in no mood to answer questions this evening. A murder-suicide doesn’t go uninvestigated.

But the police will be clueless about the true motive.

When the truth finally did get out, it would hit the world like a meteor storm and have the same explosive impact.

Right now though, Vetter had a more immediate worry. An hour earlier, he had taken a phone call from Zurich Switzerland. Hans Grovel, Zern’s CEO was
enroute
to Phoenix. The caller expected Grovel to arrive at ten o’clock that night at a private airfield near Scottsdale aboard the company jet. The caller never identified himself, and stated Grovel seemed highly agitated when he’d left.

Grovel was the only man Vetter feared. He knew Grovel could shut down Imec in the blink of an eye. Vetter also knew Grovel wouldn’t fly eight hours just for a social call. Something was going on and Stephen Vetter’s dream that had been long in the planning was now in jeopardy.

I can’t let that happen.

He turned off the highway and headed toward Canyon Airport. Grovel would be arriving there soon.

So would Vetter.

Katherine Blair stood in her
doorway and stared down at Lindsey Walsh.

“So you know this lady, Ms. Blair?” the security guard asked.

“Yes, of course. It’s fine. Thank you.”

The guard left slowly, as if he expected a tip. When he was gone, Lindsey looked back at Katherine. “What an asshole.”

“Lindsey, what in God’s name,” Katherine said as if she was looking at an apparition.

For an extended moment they locked their eyes on each other.

“Can I come in?” Lindsey finally asked.

“Of course,” Katherine said, embarrassed that she’d not invited her in sooner. She stepped to the side.

“I hope I’m not bothering you,” Lindsey said. “I realize this is unexpected. I didn’t know who else to turn to.”

“It’s no bother at all. Are you all right? What happened to you? You look like you just fought with a badger.”

“Katherine, you’d better sit, cause this is gonna take a while.”

“Can I get you some hot tea, some dry clothes, food, anything?”

“All those things would be great eventually, but right now I have to tell you why I came here.”

Katherine sat on the white plush sofa that wrapped around the corner of her living room. She slid back against the cushions and exhaled silently. “Okay, tell me what happened.”

Lindsey studied Katherine’s face. She wanted to trust her had to trust her–there was no one else. Still, Katherine’s relationship with Vetter gave cause for doubt. One moment Katherine impressed Lindsey with her presence of mind and intelligence, the next she wondered how stable Katherine really was.

“Three people died tonight at Indian Springs,” Lindsey said.

Katherine’s jaw dropped.

“What! Who died, Lindsey? What happened?”

She looked directly into Katherine’s eyes.

“Bob Booth shot his wife to death, then killed himself. An hour later, Teresa Hagen came into my home and attacked me... tried to kill me. Then blood flew... oh God, it was awful–“ Lindsey began to weep uncontrollably, shaking. Katherine came over and wrapped an afghan around her and held her. She sat in stunned silence as Lindsey explained the events of the evening from the videocassette from Meyer’s wife, Booth’s tragic death, Teresa Hagen’s collapse, and the storm that nearly killed her.

“Everything is all right now,” Katherine said.

Lindsey’s expression hardened. “It’s not all right. Something is going on at Imec! Something very bad. People are going to keep dying if we don’t stop it.”

Katherine rose from her seat gazed out the window. “Tell me, Lindsey, was Teresa acting strange before today”

“Very. And now that you mention it, a lot of the people at Indian Springs have been acting strange lately. They keep late hours, they seem to be on a short fuse, and they’re not at all friendly like they were when I moved in. And Teresa Hagen looked like a walking corpse.”

The color seemed to have drained from Katherine’s face.

“Lindsey, there are some things I haven’t told you about the Bliss project. Things that Stephen Vetter lied to me about. I didn’t realize it till now, but after what you’ve told me, I’m afraid my worst fears have come true.”

Lindsey bore down on Katherine. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying Stephen Vetter hasn’t been honest with me about this project. I had my suspicion from the start, but he manipulated me, like he does everyone. There’s more, too.” Katherine gazed back out the window. “I’m sure you were aware that he and I were more than just business associates.”

Lindsey nodded.

“I was on my way to tell him tonight that it’s over. The only reason I’m still here is that storm. Now, I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. I need to get as close to him as possible if we are going to find out what is going on.”

Lindsey rubbed her palms against the sofa cushions. “Well since we’re having a revelation here, I have another problem, too. There‘s a man at Vetter’s party. A short Italian guy, bad complexion, mean looking.”

Katherine’s eyebrows gathered. “I think I know who you’re talking about. I don’t know who he is, though. I’ve seen him in the office a few times.”

“That man... that monster... killed my father two years ago in New York.”

Katherine was speechless.

“I realize it’s hard to believe, but I would know his face anywhere. And his clubfoot gives him a certain limp. He’s supposed to be in jail. Why he’s not, I have no idea. And I think he knows I’m in Phoenix. You should have seen the look on his face when he saw me. He recognized me. I’m sure of it.”

“Listen, Lindsey, I think it’s best if you stay here until I can get a handle on things. If what you say is true, you could be in serious danger. And that goes for your fiancé, too. I wouldn’t put anything past Stephen Vetter. I’m going to act as if nothing happened, the usual routine. You can stay here.”

“What if Vetter comes here?”

Katherine shook her head. “He never comes here.”

“Tell me,” Lindsey said, “where would they have taken the Booth’s bodies to?”

“The closet medical examiner is in downtown Phoenix. It serves the whole area.”

Lindsey stood up. “After what I saw tonight, I would be curious to see their toxicology reports. Don’t you think they could have overdosed on some kind of drug? And Teresa Hagen, too.”

“Well, it would explain the clinical situation,” Katherine said, “but we don’t know what kind of drug we’re talking about here.”

There was a lull in the conversation then Lindsey suddenly looked up.

“There is one more twist to this story,” she said. She then went on to tell Katherine about Jason coming down ill after staying at her house for the week.

“Do you think there is an association?” Katherine asked.

Lindsey shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine, but it’s a curious coincidence.” She fell silent.

*   *   *

Though her theory on Vetter was out there, and supported with little more than three explainable deaths, Katherine’s instincts were that Lindsey was on to something. But regardless of whether it actually happened as she said, it was clear that something convinced Lindsey of her story’s authenticity. Whether Vetter’s associate, had killed her father or not, she had lived with the reality that he did for two years. And now she had to deal with another reality–the knowledge that, quite likely, Lindsey’s attempt to start a new life with Imec had put her in mortal danger. So Katherine had to protect her. And the only way to do that was to keep the truth from her.
At least for now.

Katherine broke the silence. “You can still get out.”

Lindsey fixed her gaze on Katherine. “I have nowhere to go.”

“What about Jason?”

Lindsey shrunk back. “Don’t you need me? To find out what he’s hiding.”

“Yes. I do need you. There’s no doubt that my chances of succeeding are better with your help. But I told you already; I don’t want to see you get hurt. Besides, whatever’s happening, I’m partly responsible.”

Lindsey stared at Katherine, her blue eyes smoldering. “I’m not leaving. I’m going to get that son of a bitch Vetter. Then I’m going to get the man who killed my father. And if anyone gets in my way, I feel sorry for them.”

Hans Grovel drove out of
Canyon Airport in a rented Grand Marquis and turned onto the exit for Scottsdale Expressway. Although the flight from Zurich had been long and boring, his mind was now in overdrive. At just past ten thirty, the traffic from the small airfield was non-existent. That was the reason Grovel had chosen to land at Canyon to begin with. Phoenix International would have been a logjam on a Friday night. His previous trips to Phoenix had taught him that. Though Grovel was Swiss, he’d spent enough time in the United States to know what airports to avoid to save time. His compulsive punctuality required his pilot to know every airport where he could land a Lear 260.

As Grovel checked his watch and prepared to leave the exit ramp, he noticed a white van blocking the roadway ahead.

Great. Just what I need.

Grovel slowed and prepared to go around the van, but found the roadway too narrow on the left. He came to a stop and waited. After waiting two minutes, Grovel felt his patience waning. He opened his door, stepped out and advanced toward the van. He got about ten feet from the driver’s side when he stopped dead in his tracks.

In the next second, Grovel’s mind registered the familiar face of the man before him. Then he registered danger.

Unfortunately for Grovel, it was a minute too late.

He lived long enough to see the muzzle flash and hear a muffled burst.

Stephen Vetter almost never broke
a sweat. Even at the club–he could spend half an hour on the treadmill or stairclimber without misplacing a single hair or soiling one of his freshly laundered T-shirts. But the prospect facing him now had him wiping his brow and loosening his tie. This was as close as Stephen Vetter got to losing control and for Frank Deldeo it was especially unpleasant and unnerving.

Romwell, the night guard, had left an urgent message for Vetter on his office phone in the middle of the night.

Now, after arriving at his office Monday morning, and listening to it, Vetter had tracked down Romwell at home and summoned him in and was now laying into him.

“Why wasn’t I called at home?” he wanted to know. “You mean to tell me someone broke in here last night and I don’t find about it until this morning?”

“Well,” Romwell stammered, “nothing was stolen. I chased them off right away.”

“What do you mean
them?”

“Well there were two of them. I saw them on the monitor for just a minute, but when I got up to where they were I heard the emergency exit alarm go off. And then I saw them leave in a car.”

“Did you see what kind of car?”

“No sir, it was too dark on that side of the building.”

“You didn’t call the police did you?”

“No, I know better than that.”

“You are an ineffectual moron, Romwell, and if I had more help, I’d fire you. Don’t fuck up again, or you’ll regret it, I promise.”

Vetter looked over at Frank Deldeo, standing near the desk listening intently.

“Someone’s playing fucking games with me,” Vetter said.

Deldeo smirked. “I wonder who that is.”

“Find her. And bring her back here–in one piece.”

“Why can’t I jus–“

”No! I told you. Your past with her has nothing to do with me. It’s just an unfortunate coincidence. Unfucking believable, but true. Meanwhile, I need her. When I’m finished with her, I don’t care what you do. But I suggest until that time you don’t do anything stupid that will bring unwanted attention.”