Heart Stopper

by R J Samuel

  “Well, James knew, but that was when I told him after my house was searched. Some people at the clinic thought I had a thing going with Daniel so maybe they thought he had shared information during our pillow talk. Except Tara, she knew there was nothing going between us. And Valerie and Gerry might have known, but they also knew Daniel was very security-conscious and any information I was given by the Research Company was restricted to what I needed to know to help with the coding and clinical side.”

  Reyna started to pace again. She said, “We have got to work it out before they decide to come after you even when we are here. And I can’t call off the use of the Controller in every clinic, not physically, and I have to speak to James and Gerry and Valerie. Which I’m going to have to do first thing tomorrow.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at it. “Blasted signal!” She threw the phone on the armchair.

  Reyna looked at Priya and said quietly, “I think the safest thing would be to go to the cops. Tell them everything. Get them to protect you while they investigate.”

  Priya said, “Why would they believe me? They’ll probably think I killed Daniel as well as Michael. Surely I would be a prime suspect considering my background. That we were in some kind of abusive relationship that I got my revenge, and then with my mum dying, I went crazy and killed Michael. I mean I know I didn’t, but looking at everything that happened I’m beginning to wonder myself.” Priya continued in a quieter voice, “You know, all I did for years was try and remain on the sidelines, private. I didn’t want anyone to know anything about me. And now, everything about my life plastered over the news. And in the worst possible way, as a killer, a crazy woman. And I can’t even get angry about that because I feel crazy now, I feel like I could kill.”

  Catherine turned off the TV. She said, “I’ve always been a pacifist, but if I find out that Daniel was killed…” Her face twisted up and then relaxed and she asked, “We can’t hide out here for much longer though. I think you’re both right. We need more to protect Priya, more proof. But we also need to make contact with the police. Try to find out what they are thinking. Have you found anything?”

  Priya said, “I’ve highlighted all the dips in voltages and I’m putting them together with the low battery readings.”

  She sat back and thought.

  What would cause the lithium battery in the pacemaker to kick into action?

  If the main source of energy dried up.

  The main source of energy was the electrical activity around the natural pacemaker. Actually, it was the electrical activity from the heart cells that self-fired. The voltage readings were low from some patients between 2003 and 2006. But those had been blips in the vast sea of readings.

  She needed to see the battery readings from the patients who were undergoing the checks when the technicians had died or had a heart attack. If they were low…

  She said, “The figures in my Excel sheets didn’t have times and dates, but the figures Daniel gave me on the Controller II and the ones he sent you on the Controller I do have dates and times. From the figures, it looks like there were more incidents than there should have been. The problem is that there are so many readings. And the battery ones don’t show up as low until they go below 95%. But obviously, in some patients the unexpected reduction in electrical activity which would have been used to power the pacemaker led to the utilization of the lithium battery.”

  She pointed at the sheets of notes on the coding and said, “The algorithms I wrote seem to have been used in the development of the software patch. I can’t be certain because I had to leave the copies in the clinic; I’m just going on my notes. If they were used, it would have been to provide a shield of some sort against stray frequency patterns, as a kind of jamming signal. It makes sense that my algorithms were used, they were obviously needed otherwise I wouldn’t have been requested to write them. However, the specification I got wasn’t clear about the application just the frequencies.”

  Both Reyna and Catherine looked confused.

  Priya said, “I was handed a detailed spec that basically said ‘if a frequency pattern emitted within a certain distance by a transmitter is detected then transmit a jamming signal’. That’s a real simplification. I wrote the code, but it was complicated by the type of signal, the pattern of frequencies and distance. And Gerry kept pushing me to go further and try different things. It was actually quite inspiring.” She looked embarrassed for a moment. “For me, anyway. It was a challenge and I guess I thrived on it. Gerry is incredibly smart and had been trained in the States and had all that experience and the fact that he couldn’t code that bit and I could, well, it was a sort of validation.”

  Priya smiled, but there was a look of loss in her eyes. She shook her head. “I guess I’m a prime example of the heart screwing up the head. Anyway, I wrote the code and if it was used as a software patch for the Controller II and if the attacks stopped after that, then…” Priya chewed her lip as she thought.

  “What?” Reyna leant forward.

  Priya spoke slowly as she drew it out on her notepad. “It means that the Controller I and II emitted some kind of stray frequency pattern that caused heart attacks in people on certain occasions. Actually, it caused the attacks in people who were within a certain distance at the time. And the software patch based on my work was applied in 2008 to jam that frequency pattern.”

  Reyna said, “So, both the patient and the technician were subjected to this frequency thing? Why didn’t the patient have a heart attack?”

  Priya said, with a note of excitement, “Because they had a pacemaker. So it has to be some kind of damage to the heart and that damage must be able to be circumvented by the pacemaker. The pacemaker keeps the heart rhythm going in the patient while the technician, or Liam, suffers a heart attack brought on by loss of the pacing, by a loss of electrical activity.”

  Priya was pulling out sheets of paper as she spoke. Her voice was strong, with the occasional tremble of agitation. “That’s why Jacintha’s battery readings are low now! Her lithium battery is kicking in because she must have no self-firing electrical activity to run the main battery. It must have started being utilized since December, which would correlate with the current reading now. Damn! If we could match up the exact times and dates of the low voltage and battery readings in patients to frequency emissions we could be sure. I’d say the patients who were undergoing their checks at the times when the frequency was emitted are the ones whose readings are low. Looking at the numbers of low readings, the frequency emission happened on rare enough occasions and there are only three incidents, no, four, that we know of since 2003 where it caused heart attacks in technicians or bystanders... So it doesn’t happen in every routine check therefore either it occurs as a very rare and completely random thing or it happens when a specific function is being carried out. And it makes sense that it only affects the person without the pacemaker who is within a certain distance, like John Landon and Liam, really close.”

  Reyna asked, “Close to the pacemaker or to the Controller?”

  Priya sat back, her forehead furrowed, then nodded. “You’re right. I assumed it was the Controllers, but it could be the pacemaker.”

  Catherine asked, “Would the technicians have followed the same procedure? What else is similar between what happened when John and Liam had their attacks?”

  Priya found the descriptions of the checks and compared them.

  She pointed to a line in Tara’s handwritten description. Tara had finished the routine check and just started a programmer test when she had been interrupted. Priya examined the email printout from John Landon. She found the line where it stated that John had commenced the programmer test when the patient had complained of discomfort and John had leaned over her with the wand in his hand and over her chest.

  “The programmer test.” Reyna and Priya spoke at the same time.

  Priya said, “There are a few test routines on the controllers. Though they are not used very often, som
e I’ve never even used. A stray frequency pattern might have been generated on the very rare occasions that these tests were used. It would explain the rarity of the attacks considering the number of pacemaker checks that are carried out every day in clinics around the world.”

  The three women were silent for a few minutes. Priya started to gather up the sheaves of paper that she had scattered around her on the floor. The rush of discovery had washed through her and her arms now felt like they were made of lead.

  Priya said, “You know that this points to somebody at TechMed Devices or the Research Company. Whatever I may think of Valerie, and I have a deep admiration for Gerry, I can’t see them being involved, not knowingly.” She shook her head. “They’re like Daniel; they worked all their lives to find better ways of helping people. Not killing them.”

  “People change when money is involved.” Reyna’s voice was harsh.

  Priya said, “Gerry was never motivated by money. I spent a lot of time with him. He had no interest in cars or houses or the trappings. He really did live for his work. And for Valerie.” She paused. “Who did enjoy the trappings. And she enjoyed playing games with people.”

  Priya smacked her palm against her forehead. “And someone else… Tara was talking about Aidan being a toy boy. For an older woman who would have a problem with them getting together. Aidan came back from London where he wasn’t doing very well at all. That’s what Tara said. And she couldn’t figure out how he could afford the very expensive car and watch and other stuff. We all assumed Aidan got his job at the clinic because he was Gerry’s brother, but what if it was Valerie all along. And Aidan was there that night at Massimo and saw you putting me into your car. He didn’t know at the time who you were, but he might have told Valerie and she could have put two and two together.”

  Catherine leant forward on the couch and asked Priya. “Are you sure you’re not letting your history with Valerie cloud your judgment?” Her voice was gentle.

  Reyna said thoughtfully, “It’s possible. Looking at their financials, they made a lot of money and then they seem to have had quite a dip in the last two years. Didn’t Gerry say they’d bought at the height of the boom and now they were struggling? They did seem a bit stressed at dinner. I really wanted to see where they lived and get an idea of their lifestyle, but Gerry said he had to work late.”

  Priya suddenly remembered where Reyna had been Saturday evening. And where she had been. The images clamored for her attention again and she closed her eyes and forced them away.

  Priya said, “Valerie came on to me just after I solved their coding problem which we think is what prevented further attacks. I was on such a high and she provided such a validation for me. She played me and obviously played Kathy as well. Whatever happened between them drove Kathy to kill herself sending me off the rails and far away from the work I was doing. I can’t say for sure she knew what she was doing when this happened. And I don’t know if it was deliberate when she flirted with Daniel in front of me the night of my birthday. I thought that her hold on me was gone, after what happened with Kathy and I had not seen Valerie after that till the night of my birthday. I was so disappointed with myself that she could still affect me. I still hadn’t dealt with the guilt around Kathy, I had just got news of my mum, I was trying to use drink to wipe out feelings and I’m terrible with alcohol. All added up to one hell of a bad decision that night to try to stop her and Daniel getting together. It wasn’t Daniel, I didn’t want Valerie, well…I didn’t want to want her, a huge part of me hated her, but she had this power…” Priya stopped and held her head in her hands.

  Reyna said, “Catherine told me what Valerie did with Kathy. Valerie almost pushed you off the edge again when she told you about it, which was just after we asked her about the deaths. And then she gets you suspended, or at least, she may have pushed for it. TechMed stands to lose the most, along with Valerie. Valerie wasn’t the one who killed Michael. We know the American man killed Michael and has been looking for you and your PhD papers. They could be linked through TechMed.”

  Priya swallowed back the image of Michael. And thought of Daniel, lying slumped against the bed, bare-chested.

  She whispered, “The way he was lying there with just his trousers on. Like he had been sitting on the bed and when he had his heart attack, he just slid off. So, if someone had been there with him, Daniel was obviously comfortable with the person.” Not like Michael. The knife sticking out of his chest. The men had used one of Michael’s kitchen knives. To implicate her. No fake heart attacks here.

  Fake heart attacks.

  The battery readings. The voltage readings. They showed a pattern of failure. Failure of the natural pacemaker in the heart.

  Priya had a feeling of horror growing in her mind. She became aware of someone saying her name and she looked up to see Catherine staring at her.

  Priya said, “Fake heart attack. Daniel’s fake heart attack. What if that stray frequency pattern that killed the technicians could be generated by some thing at will. It would stop his natural pacemaker. And if Daniel had been with a woman that evening like Catherine thought all along, and he was seeing a researcher like he told Reyna and that person was Valerie, and afterwards he’s sitting with her, and she uses this thing to kill him…”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  They sat in silence for a long time, each trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together in their minds. And whichever way they looked at it, the pieces fit and the answer was Valerie. The darkness outside finally came and found the three women sitting in the trembling light of the fire.

  Catherine said, “We need to go to the police with this.”

  Reyna gestured at the papers. Her hair was loose and scattered around her shoulders from dragging her fingers through. “We have no proof. These are all great theories.”

  Priya nodded, “And someone could still make a case for me being the one responsible. I mean, we worked it out for Valerie, but I was the one who worked with the code, I guess if my code was the basis for this thing, this device that could kill then, if I put my mind to it, I could design it. If I had all the details. And I had been hurt by Daniel and nothing was done. I lost my partner to suicide, my mother just died recently. So I could have designed the thing, killed Daniel, gone crazy and killed Michael. And I ran from both.” She looked at the two women and exclaimed, “God! Even I think that sounds plausible. Why wouldn’t the Guards believe that, over some theory that a well-respected researcher, and she’s a doctor too, is in cahoots with a hugely successful medical device manufacturer in the States and could do all those cold and calculating things, for money. I mean no-one knows that side of Valerie, she’s very good at games, at hiding what she’s really like. How many people have fallen for it?”

  Priya looked at Reyna as she asked the last question, but Reyna was staring at the fire, a grim look on her face.

  Reyna said, “I am going to go in to the Research Company in the morning.”

  She ignored the protests from Catherine and Priya and continued, “I don’t seem to be a target at the moment, and everyone will assume I am as shocked about what happened on Saturday. In fact, I’ll encourage that. I’ll make them think I think you went off the rails and killed Michael, and that it is all down to you being unstable after Kathy and your mother and then Daniel dying completely pushed you over the edge because you were seeing him as the rumors suggested.”

  She turned to Priya. “Hopefully I’ll be able to find out something that can get you out of the even bigger hole that I’ll be digging for you.”

  Priya said, “I don’t care about that. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  Priya watched the flames reflected in Reyna’s eyes and wished she could stop the world as it hurtled over a cliff.

  Catherine got up from the couch and put another load of turf on the fire. She knelt and placed her hand on Reyna’s shoulder.

  “I don’t want to lose you too. I couldn’t bear it. You’re all I have left
.”

  Reyna hugged her mother.

  “You need to stay here with Priya. It wouldn’t make sense if you came in with me. It has to be just another day, a normal day. Trust me. All the attention will be focused on Priya. No one is going to know she came here, especially when I go in and pretend I don’t even know what happened on Saturday. I have every reason to go in and talk to Valerie; she said she would keep searching. She’ll probably come up with some half-baked theory about the deaths of the technicians to put me off. I have to find a way to get some proof though…”

  Catherine stayed in the hug. Her silver hair glowed against Reyna’s dark sweater. Then she sighed and rubbed Reyna’s back and got up.

  “I’m going to try and sleep. I’ll be awake when you leave in the morning.” She gave Priya a tired smile and wandered out of the living room and they heard her slow tread upstairs to her room.

  ∞

  Priya felt a wave of tiredness crash over her. But she couldn’t leave the room. And Reyna didn’t move either. They sat in the silence without looking at each other. A spark from a loose turf fiber flew out and spiraled to rest on the rug between them. They both reached over to touch out the tiny flame, Priya’s fingers landing first. She felt the brief heat of the burning fiber and then the warmth of Reyna’s hand on hers. Reyna left her hand there and Priya watched their fingers entwine on the shadow blue rug.

  Priya couldn’t speak. The fear was overwhelming, the losses of the last three years screaming at her to stop Reyna walking into the lion’s den. For her.

  Reyna murmured, “I wish I could explain. You deserve to know. But I can’t risk losing what I’ve fought for years to get.” She lifted Priya’s chin with her fingers and looked into her eyes. “I just need you to know that if I could have given it up, you would be the person I’d have given it up for. I just can’t give up. I told you things were complicated. I don’t know how long it will take to work it out, but whether I win or lose, I’ll come back when it is over. If you will have me.”