Shadows of Lancaster County (19 page)

Next stop for me was the laboratory where Bobby worked. The whole suspension thing was very disconcerting, especially considering how hard he tried to hide it from his wife. My brother was such a good worker, a smart guy, and an agreeable person that I couldn’t imagine what he might have done to get himself in such big trouble in the work-place. I was determined to find out, however, even if that information was confidential.

It had been a long time since I pulled into the parking lot of the Wynn Industries Research Extension—or as it was locally known, the WIRE. The headquarters in Hidden Springs was huge, but their branch office out here in Dreiheit wasn’t all that impressive. The building it was housed in was so rectangular and unremarkable that it had always reminded me of a grocery store from the outside. The inside, however, was another story. I had only seen the interior offices a few times, but they were impressive indeed, filled with all sorts of strange and fascinating machinery as well as men and women in white lab coats bending over microscopes or working with test tubes and beakers. Many years ago, before the fire, Bobby had dreamed of becoming a doctor and working in a place just like this. To this day he still said that the summer he spent working here as an intern was the most professionally fulfilling period of his life. After the fire, once he
gave up his biggest dreams, he had still managed to carve out a good life for himself, one that kept him in the medical field by working as a phlebotomist, collecting Amish blood samples for the lab’s genetic research.

Located just a few blocks from downtown Dreiheit, the building sat back from the road and was flanked on one side by an insurance company and the other by an auto repair shop. I pulled into the half empty parking lot and went in through the main entrance. At the reception desk in the lobby, I asked for the office manager but was told she was already gone for the day. I then asked for Dr. Updyke but was told that he would be leaving soon and wouldn’t have time to see me.

“Is there anyone in authority here I could speak with?” I asked, my voice catching the attention of another woman who was walking past. She hesitated, turning to look at me.

“I’m sorry. You’ll have to come back tomorrow,” the receptionist said.

Behind her, the other woman gave me a pointed look and gestured with her head toward the door.

“Okay, then. I’ll do that,” I replied, turning to go out the way I had come in.

Outside, I sat in my car and watched the building until that other woman emerged from a side door, bundled up in a coat. Again, she caught my eye, and then she started walking toward the auto repair shop. I waited a beat before getting out of the car and following her.

“It was the hair,” she said when I caught up with her. “I didn’t recognize you at first because of the hair. How are you doing, Annalise?” At my questioning expression she added, “You probably don’t remember me, but I worked the front desk back when your brother was just an intern here.”

“Oh, right,” I said, the memory vaguely coming back to me.

“I guess that’s why you’ve come? To ask about your brother’s suspension? Rumor has it Lydia didn’t even know.”

“What can you tell me about it?”

A few snowflakes started to fall as we walked toward the end of the block. She explained that Bobby’s suspension had come as a shock to everyone. Prior to that, he had been a model employee, never in a bit of trouble, and extremely popular with both the doctors and the staff. She
said they weren’t told what happened or why he had been suspended, only that the word had come down from Dr. Updyke himself, and it seemed to be over some issue between the two of them.

“Does Bobby work closely with the doctor?” I asked. I knew he liked the man and respected his work, but my impression was that Bobby’s job was primarily done with patients.

“Not really. Bobby handles all the blood draws, both inpatient and outpatient, so his work usually keeps him in the small front lab or on the road. Still, he and the doctor have what I guess you would call a friendship. Bobby likes to pick his brain, talk medicine and research and all that stuff. I have no idea what happened, but from what I understand he’s supposed to come back to work on Monday. Of course, now that he is missing, I guess that’s not likely to happen.”

“What’s the gossip about his suspension?”

“People are saying everything from an OSHA violation to a problem with paperwork. Personally, the only thing I can think of that might have landed him in this much trouble would be some sort of mix-up with the blood samples. It’s anybody’s guess really, and Dr. Updyke isn’t talking.”

We reached the corner at the end of the block, and my companion turned around and began walking back toward the office. I knew I didn’t have much time left to ask all the questions running through my mind. Before I could think of what to ask next, she spoke.

“How’s Lydia?” They said she called here today looking for him, and that was the first she had heard of it.”

Rather than give her an answer, I responded with another question.

“Would it have been unusual for him not to tell her something like that?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Have you ever sensed that Bobby was the kind of person to keep secrets from Lydia?” Thinking of the mystery person who made the ATM withdrawal in Las Vegas, what I really wanted to know was if she thought he could have been having an affair. I didn’t want to plant that idea in her head, however, so I didn’t ask my questions outright.

“Are you kidding? Honey, that man is the perfect husband. He was
probably just too embarrassed to tell her, not to mention he didn’t want her to worry about the lack of a paycheck.”

“That makes sense.”

As we neared the parking lot she hesitated, pointing to a black Cadillac that was pulling around from the back of the building. “That’s Dr. Updyke. I’d better go. I don’t want to get in trouble.”

Before the car had even made it halfway to the front of the building, she was off, trotting toward the door and out of sight.

As the car slowly approached, I moved directly into its path, waving both hands in front of me until it pulled to a stop. Rather than step around to the driver’s side, I went to the passenger’s side and knocked on the window. I was determined to have this conversation no matter what it took.

“May I help you?” the man inside asked after lowering the window.

Quickly, I reached a hand in, flipped up the lock, and opened the door. Before he could stop me, I was sitting beside him, holding out my hand for a shake.

“Anna Jensen, sir. Bobby’s sister. I need to talk to you right away.”

“Apparently.”

“I’m sorry to be so pushy, but the situation is kind of desperate.”

“Well, I desperately have to pick up my son from swim practice in exactly ten minutes. But you’re welcome to ride along. I can drop you back here after we get him.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said, buckling my seat belt. As he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road, he asked if this had to do with Bobby’s suspension.

“Yes, sir. I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but two nights ago Bobby disappeared. I’m trying to find him, and I’m hoping you can tell me a little bit about what was going on with him here at work. That might give me some idea of where he may have gone.”

Dr. Updyke ran a hand over his wavy salt-and-pepper hair. I could tell he was carefully forming the words of his reply.

“I’m afraid the nature of his suspension is confidential, but I assure you it had nothing to do with his disappearance.”

He turned onto the main road and headed toward the high school. More snowflakes were falling now, and I couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the landscape. As we passed houses and farms, I fell into the old habit of looking for power lines and curtains, the two telltale signs for whether or not an Amish family lived there. If a home had neither—especially if there were dark green blinds or shades in the windows—then it was a good guess that the home was an Amish one.

“Dr. Updyke, may I be frank?”

“You already hijacked my car. I think frankness is a given.”

“I know that a lot of high-level, top secret research goes on at the WIRE. Is there any chance that Bobby could have been abducted because of something he was involved with at work? By any chance was he working on some project that would have endangered him that way?” I was only thinking out loud, but considering the high stakes of cutting-edge medicine, I thought it might be an avenue worth pursuing.

“I think you’ve seen too many movies, Ms. Jensen. It’s true that we have a state-of-the-art laboratory, and we are involved in some very exciting research, but trust me, none of us is in danger because of it.”

“There’s a lot of money to be made in the field of DNA.”

“There will be one day,” he replied. “For now, primarily, it’s still a big puzzle we’re all trying to figure out.”

I asked about the general nature of their work, and though he didn’t give specifics, Dr. Updyke did a pretty thorough job of explaining the goals of the lab and the possibilities that existed in the future both for Wynn industries and in the field of DNA research in general. By the time we reached the high school, I could see why Bobby was so fascinated by this man. When I was a teenager, I considered him as nothing more than a science geek; now, as an adult, though I didn’t understand everything he was saying, I was still impressed with the clarity of his goals and the compassion with which he described the more successful results.

As we pulled to a stop near the flagpole, a young man broke away from a huddle of teenagers and ran to the car, his breath making steam in the cold air. He opened the door to the backseat, tossed in his backpack, and plopped himself heavily inside, slamming the door.

“Hey, Pops, I got a one ten on the hundred meter breast!”

Dr. Updyke surprised me by swinging his arm over the back of the seat. I thought he was going to slap his son, but instead their hands met in a loud high five.

“That’s great, son. If you can repeat that on Saturday, you’ll be in good shape.”

“That’s what Coach said.”

With a nod to me, and not a hint of curiosity about who I was or why I was there, the boy pulled a pair of earbuds out of his front pocket, stuck them in his ears, and turned on an iPod. Smiling, I glanced at his father, who winked at me, beaming with parental pride.

“Sorry. I guess we need to teach Michael Phelps here a few manners.”

“That’s okay. I was his age once myself.”

“Oh, I remember,” the doctor said as he turned out of the high school and headed back up the road we had come down. “I think you were, what, seventeen when we met? At the lab, we used to call you and Haley Wynn the Giggle Twins.”

His mention of Haley made me think of Doug.

“Dr. Updyke, do you think there could be any connection between Bobby’s disappearance and Doug Brown’s death?”

“I’m sure I wouldn’t know. Given their connection, I suppose it’s possible.”

“Connection…of working for different branches of the same company? Of both having been in the Dreiheit Five?”

He shrugged.

“I just meant their connection of friendship. Who knows what might have happened to either of them?”

“I might be able to figure it out if you would tell me why Bobby was suspended.”

“No can do,” he said firmly.

We rode along uncomfortably for a minute until he turned off the main road and drove slowly up the block toward the lab. The snow was starting to stick now, and this less-traveled road had already turned a grayish-white.

“At the very least, can you describe the nature of Bobby’s offense?”

“Sorry.”

“Look, I can either get the truth from you, or I’ll just have to check out all the rumors about it that are floating around the office. Your choice.”

Dr. Updyke put on his blinker and turned into the parking lot, which held only a few cars at this point. Now that the sun had dipped below the horizon, the entire scene felt rather creepy.

We pulled to a stop directly behind my rental car, but I paused before getting out, one hand on the door handle. I looked at the doctor expectantly, and finally he spoke, glancing toward his son and then lowering his voice.