Blind Eye; Silent Waters; Janus Effect

by Jan Coffey

  “Back up,” he said.

  Mark threw his weight against the door and it opened a few inches. Putting his shoulder to it, he pushed, feeling it move again. He could hear her pulling at the furniture, trying to help him from the inside.

  And then the door was open.

  At first, Mark didn’t recognize the battered shape that limped toward him. Dried blood, dirt, drawn eyes, chapped and bloodied lips.

  “You waited,” she said through her tears.

  He gathered her into his arms. He knew who she was.

  “Too long. I’ve been waiting for you way too long.”

  CHAPTER 83

  Gaylord Hospital, Wallingford, Connecticut

  Ten Days later

  “I just came from speech therapy and she’s not there yet,” Sid said accusingly to the nurse on the floor where Amelia was situated.

  He didn’t have to mention the patient by name. They all knew who he was and why he came here seven days a week. The study that Sid and his partners from UCONN were doing was a topic of interest to everyone. But of more interest to the staff was the fact that they all believed there was a romance blooming between a certain patient and a certain doctor.

  “She has a very special visitor today” the nurse told him with a smile. “I thought it would be more important for the family to spend some time together. Don’t you agree?”

  “Family?” Sid asked, just as he saw Mark come out of Amelia’s room.

  He forgot about the nurse and went to the other man, shaking his hand happily.

  “I didn’t expect you back on the East Coast until tomorrow.”

  “They couldn’t keep Marion in the hospital for another day. She was threatening the doctors and nurses with violence.”

  Sid had been talking to Mark every day. They had hospitalized Marion because of the bullet that was still lodged in her skull and because of the radiation she’d been exposed to while working in the lab during the last hours before being rescued. Mark seemed happy for now to stay with Marion. As far as what he planned to do for future, he’d told Sid that it all depended on which part of the country Marion ended up settling in. Because of her involvement in the research in New Mexico, she would have options, that was for sure.

  “How is she doing, physically?”

  “Good, for now. As you know, she’s being operated on here in New Haven next week to get that bullet out, but the doctors that we talked to yesterday sound confident that they’ll have no problem with it. Recovery will take a while, but they all say she’ll mend just fine. She couldn’t wait to come East and see Amelia.”

  And see their mother in the bargain, Sid thought.

  Kim Brown was far from perfect, but he had to give her credit, she was trying hard. He could see a dramatic change in Amelia, knowing that Kim was there and that she cared. What he couldn’t understand was the friendship that had sprung up between Kim and Jennifer Sullivan, who’d stopped in almost every day to check on Amelia.

  “Where are they now?” Sid asked.

  “I think I heard something about a solarium? Some place Kim said Amelia likes to be taken to?”

  Sid knew exactly where that was. He’d already spent many hours there with Amelia. And he was happy to say that the two of them had no problem communicating.

  As far as Amelia’s memory, there were gaps in what she could remember. She had no memory at all of being dumped on a highway on a winter night. Sid hoped that whenever the time came that she remembered that, he’d be there with her and help her through it.

  Amelia’s rate of recovery was something for the record books. She’d already given up the feeding tube. Her speech was progressing. She could sit upright in the wheel chair and had much greater range of motion with her arms. The physical therapists were now working on building her leg strength. Mark knew all of this, however, as Sid had been giving a daily report over the phone to Marion.

  The two men started for the solarium.

  “Any more news about the investigation?” Sid asked.

  “That’s why I stayed behind just now. I was on the phone with the FBI in Albuquerque.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Apparently, they’re tracking a number of criminal activities across the country that all seem to be related. They think there’s a single figure behind it all, and they have a good idea who it is, but they’ve been frustrated about nailing him.”

  “They have no leads?” Sid asked.

  “Leads?” Mark repeated. “They have leads…like the secretary to the director of R&D at New Mexico Power being found dead in her apartment the same night that Marion was found. She had packed suitcases next to her body. She was obviously going somewhere, but hadn’t given any notice of it to her employer. Also, that same night she’d spoken to a member of the company’s board of directors on the phone. Now, that guy claims that he’d been speaking with Nellie Johnson regularly because of the reshuffling of staff at the company.”

  They went through a set of double doors.

  “And that’s not the end of it,” Mark continued. “The assistant to this same board member was killed that same night in his apartment building in Washington DC, the victim of an apparent robbery. It’s just too coincidental that the two homicides, Nellie Johnson and Joseph Ricker, were in contact with each other almost constantly during the days just before their deaths.”

  “So the suspect is the board member.” Sid said.

  “Suspect, yes. But they have nothing solid on him,” Mark said. “I’m glad that I am not working on the investigation. These guys feel like they’re chasing their tails.”

  Sid forgot what they were talking about the moment they came around a corner into a sitting area where large glass windows let in golden shafts of warm afternoon sunlight. Sitting in a wheelchair facing him was Amelia. Her gaze immediately lit up when she saw him. She smiled and he felt that familiar tightening in his chest that he’d been getting lately.

  The two women sitting with Amelia stood up.

  Sid said hello to Kim before turning to Marion.

  “Finally, we meet in person,” the young woman said, taking his hand warmly in hers.

  The resemblance between the two sisters was astounding. He could now better understand Mark’s reaction the first time he walked into Amelia’s room.

  “I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done for my sister,” Marion said.

  Sid smiled at Amelia and put his hand on the arm of the wheelchair. “I didn’t do a thing. It was the two of you, working together.”

  “We needed a lot of help,” Marion corrected him.

  “They couldn’t have done it if you hadn’t been able to decode what Amelia was trying to tell everyone,” Kim told him.

  “Dr. Future Hot Shot,” Mark teased him. “Take the credit.”

  They all knew he hated to take credit for anything this special. Sid believed the bond between the two sisters would triumph over any difficulty.

  Thankfully, the conversation moved on, and Kim started saying something about how incredible it was to have both her daughters here, together. She also told them that how next week, the girl’s grandfather was flying to Connecticut to see them. Dr. Baer, Amelia’s physician in Waterbury, had even arranged for the older man to get outpatient therapy at Gaylord while he was here.

  Sid felt Amelia’s fingers move over his. He took her hand and looked down. Her lips were moving. He brought his ear down to her lips and heard the slight murmur.

  “Thanks,” she whispered, pressing her lips lightly against his cheek.

  CHAPTER 84

  Rancho Bernardo, California

  Three Weeks Later

  “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Shawn asked.

  Sitting in the passenger seat of her fiancée’s car, Cynthia looked up at her condo. This was the first time she was coming back here since the day of her accident. She’d been released from the hospital last week and had moved to Shawn’s apartment. She was selling the condo. The
real estate agents were supposed to go through next week. Shawn had already spoken to a moving company that was going to take care of what she was taking. She was leaving behind some of the big furniture.

  The police had found Helen’s body in a dumpster behind a grocery store twenty miles away. The reports confirmed that she’d been taken by force from the condo. She was strangled, they told her.

  Cynthia had lost both her parents in a matter of weeks. Both of them murdered. The report on Fred’s death had been changed to murder, as well. Everything was related. The death of the scientists in the research lab, the plane crash, her parent’s homicides. It went on and on.

  The authorities knew that the destruction of the platform in the Gulf had been a cover-up for the killing of the researchers, but there were still so many unanswered questions. They still didn’t know who was responsible for it all.

  Cynthia knew the answer lay with the report she’d held in her hands the day of the accident. The same report that her neighbor had handed to Helen the morning her mother was taken from here and killed. The same report that undoubtedly was destroyed.

  “Honey?”

  Cynthia realized Shawn was waiting for an answer.

  “I’m ready. I really want to go through this place one last time before I get rid of it.”

  He came around the car and helped her get out. She would be on crutches for another three weeks, at least. Shawn opened the front door and helped her in. She knew the condo had been dusted for prints after her mother’s body was found. Shawn had told her that the police had done a clean job. There had been no damage to her personal things at all.

  At this point, Cynthia didn’t care. What was important to her was gone. Her parents were gone.

  It was a challenge to climb the steps, but—as he’d been the entire time—Shawn was an angel, helping her along.

  In the kitchen she had to sit down to catch her breath. One of the injuries she’d sustained in the accident was a perforated lung. The doctors said she would eventually get back to normal. For now, though, she was easily winded.

  “I called Karen Newman this afternoon and told her we’d pick up Shadow tonight. Do you want me to go get her?”

  Cynthia nodded. She’d been so grateful that her neighbors had held onto her cat for all this time. She missed the little monster.

  “I’ll be right back,” Shawn said, trotting down the stairs.

  Sitting on the chair, Cynthia looked around the place. From the police reports, she knew this was where her mother had been taken from. Her eyes burned with tears as she imagined Helen’s horror during the last minutes of her life.

  For once, Cynthia hoped that her mother had been completely drunk.

  Pushing herself to her feet, she walked toward the cabinet where she kept her liquor. In a way, it was ridiculous to even look, but she needed to know. Perhaps, knowing for sure would somehow lessen the guilt she was feeling.

  Cynthia leaned against the counter, reached up, and opened the cabinet doors. She moved one of the bottles of wine and smiled.

  The vodka was gone.

  Looking up at the bottles of wine, she thought that now was as good a time as any to take them to Shawn’s. As she dragged down the first bottle, however, the corner of a sheet of paper appeared. Curious, she reached for it.

  “What are you doing?” Shawn asked, startling her.

  He was standing at the top of the steps, trying to hold the squirming animal. Cynthia immediately reached out, and as Shawn came closer, Shadow jumped right into her arms.

  “I thought we could bring some of this wine to your house,” she said.

  “But you couldn’t wait for me to get it, I see.”

  She smiled and hugged her pet as she sat down. She looked up at the triangle of white paper peeking out from the cabinet.

  “There’s a piece of paper up there. I don’t know, maybe it’s an IOU from my mother,” she said, trying to sound cheerful. “Could you get it for me?”

  Shadow was snuggling in against her, lifting her chin to be stroked. Cynthia thought this was the most warmth Shadow had ever shown in seeing her.

  Shawn reached up for the piece of paper and took it down. As he glanced at it, his expression grew serious.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “It’s a page from a New Mexico Power Company classified document.” He shook his head in disbelief. “It’s from the file that your father sent you. He has a note written in the margin.”

  Helen must have put the sheet up there. No one else could have done it.

  “What did he write?” Cynthia asked.

  Shawn stared at it for a long time before looking at her.

  “He’s written the name of the person who arranged for the change of test facilities. It was Martin Durr.”

  Thank you for taking time to read the Blind Eye. If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends or posting a short review. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend and much appreciated.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  There are so many people that we are grateful to for helping us research this book.

  Dr. Steve Holland of St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut. Steve, your help and research with information on area trauma centers and Title 19 patients fed our imagination and opened the flood gates. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

  Gobakwe Montshiwa, the new member of our family from Botswana. Thank you, GK, for expanding our knowledge of a beautiful culture and a beautiful part of the world. Thank you for being the loving and affectionate you.

  Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford, Connecticut. One of the best long-term acute care hospitals in the nation. Our knowledge of the facility comes from a good friend’s stay there. Thank you to the doctors and staff for your dedication.

  Once again, we can’t finish a book without thanking our sons, Cyrus and Sam, for their support and collaboration. We are waiting for your books to hit the bookstores!

  As always, we love hearing from our readers:

  Jan Coffey

  JanCoffey@JanCoffey.com

  www.JanCoffey.com

  Table of Contents

  Blind Eye

  Silent Waters

  Janus Effect

  Silent Waters

  by

  Jan Coffey

  Copyright © 2013 by Nikoo K. and James A. McGoldrick

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher: May McGoldrick Books, PO Box 665, Watertown, CT 06795.

  First Published by Mira books, 2006

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  To our Taft ’05 Sons—

  Arrin Alexander, Spencer Clark, Ryan Cleary, Patrick Coleman,

  Bruno Daniel, Matthew Davis, Camden Flath, Javier Garcia,

  Freddy Gonzalez, Jake Hammer, Wesley Hung, Minkailu Jalloh,

  Patrick Joseph, Will Karnasiewicz, Cory Keeling, Christopher Lacaria,

  Jason Lam, Seth Lentz, Mike Negron, Sean O’Mealia, Cameron Picton,

  Will Sealy, Jeremy Tretiak, Thomas Wopat-Moreau, Joel Yu

  and

  Cyrus McGoldrick

  May your day be filled with blessings

  Like the sun that lights the sky,

  And may you always have the courage

  To spread your wings and fly!

  Chapter 1

  Electric Boat Shipyard

  Groton, Connecticut

  Monday, November 3rd

  3:50 a.m.

  They emerged from the black water of the river thirty feet from w
here the rain swept the shore. Like primordial beasts rising from the deep, the divers turned their heads to take in the surroundings.

  The wind whipped across the dark waters, the swells rising up to meet the rain and the night. The leader looked at the huge steel doors of the shipyard’s North Yard Ways. Then, silently, they moved as one behind him toward the building.

  Close to the doors, the leader’s feet touched the sloping concrete on the river’s bottom. To his right, he could see the submarine tied to the far side of the wide, flat concrete pier. USS Hartford glistened in the floodlights and the icy rain. A single crewman stood on top of the curved hull, huddled against the black sail.

  Together, the group waded without making a sound beneath the huge doors overhanging the water. The rain beat against the steel walls, pellets of water ricocheting off hollow tin.

  Inside, the shipyard’s cavernous building was dark and empty. The metal skids emerging from the water disappeared up the incline into the darkness, reappearing a hundred yards up, beneath dim amber floodlights.

  Before the intruders had a chance to leave the black water, a door opened halfway up the Ways. Two security guards entered, silhouetted by the amber light in the distance.

  “Jeez, do you think it could rain any fucking harder?” one of them said as he unsnapped his orange rain gear and shook the water off.

  The other guard muttered something and reached inside his coat for a smoke.

  The group standing in the shallows halted. When the two men turned their backs, the leader slowly lowered himself back into the water. The rest followed suit. He looked at his watch— 3:53.