SLuT9 pt 8

CHAPTER EIGHT
“Dr. Olivia Barrett”

Tuesday, December 19th
Dave was about to go out to lunch with some co-workers when his telephone rang.

“Dave Bernard speaking.”

“Mr. Bernard, please don’t hang up on me. Give me a chance to say what I have to say and at least think about it.”

“Why would I hang up on you?”

“I have something to discuss with you. I would prefer to do it face-to-face and privately. Would you be agreeable to that?”

“You’ll have to tell me who you are first.”

“My name is Dr. Olivia Barrett. I am a friend and former student of Dr. Jan Casey.”

“I’m sorry, I think you have the wrong person. I don’t know you or this Dr. Casey.”

“No, Mr. Bernard, we’ve never met but we do have a connection. You have a letter and a package that was sent to you from Dr. Casey. I believe it was sent anonymously.”

Dave wondered how this woman knew about that but decided to play it safe.

“I’m sorry. I don’t have foggiest idea of what you’re talking about.”

“I know you have it, Mr. Bernard. Dr. Casey told me he sent it to you. I must speak to you, privately and in person. Will you meet me?”

“Dr. Barrett, is it?”

“You may call me Olivia.”

“Okay, Olivia. I’m telling you, I don’t have this package.”

“Will you meet me, Mr. Bernard?”

“I don’t have it!”

“You may deny it until the sun explodes, Mr. Bernard. I don’t care. All I’m asking is that you meet me. This could very well be a matter of life and death.”

“Who do you work for?”

“Who I work for isn’t important.”

“If you work for the government it is.”

There was a pause.

“Of course. Dr. Casey said he warned you he felt the government was after him. Mr. Bernard, I hate to speak ill of the dead, but Dr. Casey was an old man. He had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and paranoid schizophrenia. Nobody, except you, me and the late Dr. Casey know what he invented. The man was a brilliant biochemist but in recent years his mind had slipped.”

“Isn’t that a bit of an oxymoron? His mind was slipping but he was a brilliant chemist.”

“Dr. Casey’s mental issues aside, he had been working on his discovery for decades. Since even before I met him. I aided him in some of the research that led to him using Luckicite.”

“What is Luckicite?”

“Mr. Bernard, that is one of those things I would like to discuss with you, in person. Will you meet me?”

Dave paused for a long moment and then made his decision.

“When and where?”

“It must be today. I don’t care when. I came into town just to meet with you so my time is entirely yours. Name the time and place.”

“I’m working right now. I get off at two. Where are you staying?”

“I’m at the Day’s Inn, just off the freeway.”

“Fine. There’s a Denny’s about two blocks up, just past the on-ramp and the underpass. Can you find it?”

“I’ll find it.”

“Meet me there. Four o’clock.”

“I’ll be there. Thank you, Mr. Bernard. You won’t regret this.”

Dave hung up and suddenly couldn’t help but wonder if he, or his children, were in danger because of the damned SLuT9.

Dave backed out of lunch with his co-workers. Instead he spent his lunch hour locked up in his office trying very hard to figure out what to do. He wondered if he should meet with this Dr. Barrett. He wondered if he should trash the SLuT9 so no one else could get it. He wondered if he should call and warn Emily that she and Hayley might be in danger.

He did come to one decision. Checking the time, he pulled his cell phone out and used speed dial.

“Hello, Daddy,” Emily said when she answered.

“You at lunch, baby?”

“Yep. Good timing by the way.”

“It wasn’t luck. I wanted to talk to you and figured you’d turn your cell on as soon as lunch was called.”

“What did you need?”

“I called to let you know not to send another girl over to my apartment tonight. I have a meeting that I can not get out of at four this evening. I have no idea what time I’ll be home.”

“Daddy?”

“Em, I promise I am not lying about this. If you send a girl over, I’m just going to send her home.”

“Promise me, Daddy, that you really have a meeting.”

“Emily Jean, I promise you. I have a meeting.”

“Okay. I’ll tell Heather not to come. Don’t expect me to do this a lot though.”

“Yes, dear. I love you. Talk to you later.”

“Love you too, Daddy.”

Dave sat in his office planning until his coworkers returned from lunch. Once they did, he packed up and headed out.

“Susan, if anyone comes looking for me, tell them I’m taking the afternoon off for personal reasons,” he told his secretary. “If anything comes up, you can reach me on my cell.”

Dave left the office and got into his car. He drove over to the nearest rental car place and rented himself a conversion van. Leaving his car in the parking lot, he then drove the van back to his apartment.

Dave arrived at his apartment in record time compared to his usual forty-five minute commute. He parked, made sure to lock the van up, and then went upstairs. Dave showered quickly, changed clothes, grabbed the glove, a handful of alcohol swabs, and the SluT9. He burned the letter and left the apartment.

With the SLuT9, alcohol swabs, and the glove in the cargo pocket of his pants, he went back out to the van and drove away. Dave drove clear across town to a K-Mart and bought a package of thirty push pins almost identical to the one that was in the glove. He climbed into the van but didn’t get behind the wheel. Instead he moved into the back of the van.

He pulled the package of pins, the glove, the vial of SLuT9 and the alcohol swabs from his pocket and laid them out on the floor. He then sat down, Indian style, and pulled the pin free from the pocket of the glove.

He took the pin, cleaned it well with an alcohol swab, dunked it carefully into the SLuT9 solution and set it aside to dry. He then opened the package of push pins and followed the same routine with six more of the pins; cleaning them with an alcohol swab, dunking them in the SLuT9 and then setting them aside to dry.

With a total of seven pins now dunked, Dave closed up the SLuT9 bottle and returned it, the remaining alcohol swabs and the remaining push pins to his pocket. He then put one pin into the pocket of the glove. Not finding any way to safely store the remaining dunked pins, he went back into the store where he bought a thick oven mitt.

Once back at the van, Dave dropped the remaining dunked pins into the oven mitt and made sure it was thick enough that they wouldn’t accidentally poke him or someone else. He wrapped the oven mitt up and shoved it into his second cargo pocket. Dave then moved into the drivers seat and drove away.

He stopped quickly to fill the gas tank of the van and then headed to the meeting at the Denny’s. Dave kicked himself for not getting a cell phone number for Dr. Barrett but didn’t dwell on it as there was nothing to do about it now.

Dave sat in a parking lot of a nearby hotel for twenty minutes watching the front door of Denny’s. Dr. Barrett had said she had “come to town” just to speak with him. That meant she wasn’t from around here which meant she probably had a rental car. When Dave saw a car with a rental agency tag on it and then saw a woman of about thirty step out of the car, look around and then go into the Denny’s he was pretty sure he’d found Dr. Olivia Barrett. At ten minutes after four, Dave drove into the parking lot of the Denny’s and parked. He pulled the glove out from his pocket, carefully unwrapped it, and slipped it onto his right hand. He took a deep breath and went in.

“Good afternoon, sir,” one of the employee’s greeted him almost as soon as he walked in.

Dave had already spotted the woman sitting at the bar.

“I’m meeting someone. I think I see her.” He pointed and walked away from the employee. He went over to the woman at the bar.

“Are you Olivia Barrett?” he asked.

The woman turned, quickly looked him over and then nodded.

“Yes, I am. Are you David Bernard.”

A very pretty, young blond girl stepped up to them behind the counter. “Can I get you something ,sir?” she asked.

Dave noticed that Dr. Barrett had a drink in front of her but no food. “Yeah, she’ll need a to go cup and I’ll take a Coke to go.” Dave sat down on the stool beside Dr. Barrett.

“Are we leaving?”

“You said you wanted to talk privately. This isn’t private.”

Dr. Barrett nodded and they sat in silence until the waitress brought Dave’s Coke. She took Dr. Barrett’s iced tea and poured it into a to-go cup. Dave pulled a five dollar bill from his wallet and dropped it on the counter.

“Keep the change,” he told her.

Dave stood up, took hold of Dr. Barrett’s arm with his right hand, applying enough pressure to push the pin through her thin blouse and into her skin, helped her up and led Dr. Barrett out of the restaurant and to the van. She jerked only slightly as the pin stabbed her.