Jake put on a solid black hoodie. “I’m going to go wander the streets while there’s nothing to look at and nobody to notice me.” He left, closing the door firmly behind him.
Neither of them spoke. Ellie felt miserable. Daniel shut off the TV and muttered, “He’s sure in a rotten mood.”
“He feels totally alone in the world,” Ellie said. “Who wouldn’t be in a rotten mood in his shoes?”
“True.” Daniel let out a sigh of frustration. “I’ll try to be nicer to him. It’s just that Jake’s always been so . . . self-righteous. He still is. Drives me crazy.”
Ellie agreed with Daniel; neither of them should feel guilty about not liking someone who’d mistreated them and acted like a jerk. But she couldn’t help but feel bad for Jake, even so. Daniel and she had forged an allegiance from the moment she’d arrived. Part of their bond was their common dislike for Jake, which had to feel terrible from Jake’s perspective. Another part of the equation, though, was that Daniel was so amazing to help her out like this. His charm and his movie-star looks certainly didn’t hurt, either. On the other hand, some of his phone conversations sounded sketchy at best; not all of his business dealings were legit, or at least, an unusual percentage occurred after normal business hours and paid in cash. “What’s the history between you and Jake?” she asked.
Daniel smirked. “Our history? As in: why does he hate my guts?”
Ellie was surprised that he’d singularized this; Jake had told her that their hatred was mutual. “You started out as friends, right?” she prompted.
He nodded. “We grew up together in Chicago. Our houses were just two blocks away. And we were both in the same child-prodigy track. By high school, he was already working on this wild theory that he could digitize brain waves. So he wanted to make a ton of money so that he could fund his own research. I had a vision for the next great dot-com company and needed startup money.”
“How old were you guys?”
“Fifteen. When we started our business venture, that is. Sixteen by the time we were in debt to our elbows. Jake was already at Johns Hopkins by then, and I was a junior in high school. Partnering myself with a budding genius who’d already caught the eye of some hedge-fund execs was a great way to help convince investors to throw in with me. And he trusted me.” Daniel shrugged. “Unfortunately, I made some financial promises I couldn’t fulfill. Next thing I knew, I was in over my head and was essentially running a Ponzi scheme to keep us afloat . . . all the while making Jake look responsible.”
Ellie was stunned. “So . . . you framed him?”
He nodded. “Not to mention using up the money his parents intended for his college fund. They’d told him if he got an academic scholarship, the money was his to keep. Which he did, by the way. Neither of our families are still speaking to one another. Anyway. The guy’s got every right to hate me.”
Thinking that Daniel’s last statement was accurate, Ellie was temporarily speechless; Jake had shown considerable restraint not to badmouth Daniel to her at his every opportunity. She wanted to be on Daniel’s side, not Jake’s. Which was less forgivable—framing someone for a white-collar crime to save yourself from juvenile detention, or killing a comatose girl to save someone else’s life? “That was more than four years ago, though, right?”
Daniel snorted. “Yeah, but nearly getting sent to juvenile prison by your best friend isn’t the kind of thing a person tends to forgive and forget.”
Ellie couldn’t argue with that statement. “Did you get jail time?”
He shook his head. “I got off with the proverbial slap-on-the-wrist. Community service. My dad’s a hotshot lawyer. And, in spite of my father advising me to keep my mouth shut, I eventually stepped up and told the SEC the truth . . . that it was all my doing. And I paid his parents back. They told me they donated it to Alzheimer’s research. On Jake’s request.”
“You were just a kid, though. It isn’t like you could go back and change the past. You tried to make up for what you’d done as best you could.”
“Yeah,” he snorted. “I was a real prince.”
#
An hour or two later, Jake returned to the apartment. Judging by his stony expression, his mood hadn’t improved. By then, Daniel was in his bedroom, chatting on his cellphone—undoubtedly with some girl. Ellie didn’t want to simply blurt out an apology for judging Jake so harshly. She smiled at him, but he wouldn’t meet her gaze. “Is it warming up any outside?”
“No, it’s nighttime,” Jake grumbled. “Once the sun’s out it’ll warm up.”
Okay, Ellie thought. Goes to show that, contrary to what grade-school teachers like to say, there is such a thing as a stupid question.
Jake started to head into his office-cum-bedroom, but hesitated. “I did try to look for . . . my host body, as it were, in missing-person sites. I think they altered my face.”
“Ethan and Jennifer did, you mean?” Stupid question number two, Ellie thought.
“Yeah. Jennifer McGavin switched from plastic surgery into neurosurgery early in her career.” He pointed at small, still-pink scars on his chin and both cheeks. “Ethan told me when I woke up that the stitches on my face were necessary from injuries that this unidentified coma patient had sustained during a motorbike accident.”
It did seem suspicious that accidental scars were so symmetrical. “Did Ethan ever tell you what happened to your actual body? How you wound up in a new body?”
“Yeah, actually. Back when they were trying to coax an accurate IQ test out of me. Ethan claimed the moment he’d heard from the police that I was in a serious accident, he’d rushed to the hospital and was told my internal injuries were so substantial, I wasn’t going to make it through the night. He took it upon himself to use my invention to save my neural signals. He told me that it was the first time they’d ever performed the full procedure. That was a crock. They’re mass murderers, and I have no freaking idea how to stop them. Daniel can’t seem to hack through their security systems, and I don’t know which staff members, if any, are in on the McGavins’ scheme.”
“That’s where I’ll come in,” Ellie said with a confidence she didn’t feel. “I’ll get to know the Alzheimer’s patients, nurses, and the peons on the staff. And I’ll try to make inroads with the staff of the brain-trauma division.”
He snorted. “You’re a glorified Candy Striper. I worked there for two years without suspecting a thing.”
“But that was before you had any reason to be suspicious of the McGavins. And they do let information slip sometimes. They allowed you to overhear their plans for using me as a test case. They’re so busy assuming they’re too smart to get caught, they’re susceptible to being too lax during private conversations. Once I’ve planted those state-of-the-art bugs Daniel got for us, we’ll get the evidence we need. We’ll be like David taking down Goliath.”
“More like a mouse biting Goliath’s toe.”
“Maybe so, but mice can carry rabies.”
Jake snorted. “So the three of us together amount to one rabid mouse.” He opened his door. “Thanks for the pep talk, Ellie,” he said. “I feel so much better.”
Chapter 16
After school the next day, Ellie felt as if she were jumping out of her skin. She was sitting at a table in the otherwise-empty break room at ABTC, studying the memory test she was supposed to administer, and waiting for someone named Natalie Stein to take her on a tour of the Alzheimer’s in-patients’ wing.
This seemed to be a likely place for employees to gather casually, so she’d already planted a bug underneath the cabinet, near the coffee pot. During the ten or eleven minutes since she’d entered, she’d introduced herself to six employees, who’d been pleasant, if uninterested in chatting with her. Although she knew it wasn’t rational, she kept imagining that the remaining two bugs in the oversized pockets of her khakis were suddenly going to start emitting a shrill alarm signal.
Try as she might, she couldn’t focus on anything except how precari
ous her situation was. She was pretending to be a girl who’d never existed, all the while occupying another girl’s body, and trying to surreptitiously gather evidence against the monstrous people who’d done this to her. There was no cavalry or SWAT team to rush to her aid if something went wrong.
Ethan McGavin started to walk past the doorway, but did a rubber-neck at the half-full coffee pot. Ellie’s heart started to pound. He surely didn’t need to drink coffee this late in the afternoon. Couldn’t she just get through this first day without talking to him or his wife? He pivoted and entered the room. He poured himself a cup and said over his shoulder, “Elizabeth, right?”
“Yes.” She forced herself to smile as he faced her. “Hello, Dr. McGavin.”
“My wife mentioned you were starting work today. Glad to have you on board.”
“Glad to be on board.” I hope to sink your ship.
He took a sip of coffee and grimaced. “Egad, but that’s awful! You’d think somebody here could learn the recipe for coffee, or that I would learn to quit drinking the stuff.”
To Ellie’s ear, the words struck her as the same aw-shucks phony banter that his wife had used while removing her shoes during her pseudo interview.
He dumped the contents of his cup down the drain. “Other than our coffee, I predict you’ll like it here.” A cellphone buzzed. He reached into his jacket pocket and shut it off. “I’m late for a meeting. Like always. Jennifer says I’ll find a way to be late for my own funeral.”
Yeah, by stealing someone else’s body, Ellie thought, struggling to maintain her smile.
“We’ll have to chat sometime. Maybe over a cup of real coffee.”
“I’d like that,” Ellie lied.
As he stepped into the hallway, he said, “Hello there, er, Natalie.”
“Hello, Dr. McGavin,” came the reply. Natalie’s voice sounded really young. A moment later, a slightly chunky girl with wavy brown hair entered the room. She looked vaguely familiar. She gave Ellie a big smile. “Hi. I’ve seen you at school. I’m Natalie Stein.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Elizabeth Peterson.”
“Yeah.” She had an infectious grin. “I know who you are. You’re the new kid at school. With the super-hot half brother.”
“Wow,” Ellie said. “Daniel was in the building for all of five minutes yesterday. Word gets around Mason High School pretty fast.”
“Well, sure.” Natalie plopped down in the chair at Ellie’s table. “It does when some incredibly cute guy hangs out with you in the office.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Is he single?”
Taking the question as rhetorical, Ellie chuckled a little and changed subjects. “Your mother is a nurse here, right?”
“Yes. And she’s single, too. Divorced, actually. But your brother’s way too young for her. Whereas I, on the other hand, can be wise beyond my years.” She held out her hands in a “Ta-dah” gesture, and Ellie had to laugh.
“My brother’s got no shortage of girlfriends, judging by the time he spends yakking with women on his cellphone. And I’m afraid there’s no chance he’d be interested in dating girls from my high school.” She grinned. “Regardless of their wisdom.”
“Ah, well. Maybe he’ll still be single in another two-and-a-half years when I’m finally out of high school.”
Inwardly, Ellie recoiled, Natalie’s words reminding her that she’d been demoted to high-school-sophomore status.
“So.” Natalie leaned across the table toward Ellie. “Who are we grilling today?”
“Grilling?”
“Which patients, I mean. And that’s ‘grilling’ in terms of testing their memory, not as in barbequing burgers.”
“Oh, right,” Ellie muttered. It had actually been Natalie saying “we” that had caught her off-guard; Ellie didn’t want anyone to overhear her when she asked the patients and their families about the McGavins. “I have a list of three.” She handed Natalie the list of patient names. “Does ABTC want us to pair up?”
“Just for today.”
Good. This is just a temporary setback.
“They don’t want a new-hire to be asking inappropriate questions, like: ‘When was the last time you had sex,’ or whatever.”
“I definitely wouldn’t want to ask that of someone my grandmother’s age,” Ellie replied.
“Me, neither.” She tapped a name on the list. “But I can guarantee you that Roger Culpepper’s going to tell us all about his sex life anyway.”
“Eww.”
Natalie made a comical grimace. “I think he gets a kick out of trying to shock me and makes it all up. Either that or he’s still quite the player at the nursing home. Or he used to be a ladies’ man, rather. His Alzheimer’s has gotten so bad that he had to be switched to in-patient status a couple of months ago.” She sighed as she returned her attention to the short list of names. “So are the two women. They’re fading even faster than Culpepper is, unfortunately.”
Natalie rose, and Ellie stood up as well, concerned, now, that Jake might be right; she wasn’t going to gain useful information about the McGavins from the patients. “The patients’ family members will be there, too, right? So that we can assess the accuracy of the patients’ memories?”
“Nope. The doctors are the ones who measure the accuracy. Our job is just to ask the questions on the forms and write down the responses. I’d say, four out of five times, the patients are alone.” Ellie must have grimaced without realizing it, because Natalie gave her a decidedly reassuring smile. “Want to put off Culpepper till last?”
“No, I’d just as soon get him out of the way first.”
“Will do.” Natalie started to lead the way down the hall. Ellie glanced at a security camera in the ceiling; there seemed to be one at every corner and in front of every exit door. They were heading toward Jennifer McGavin’s office, Ellie realized. The thought instantly reminded her of her priority today—getting the two other bugs planted in the McGavins’ offices.
“I met Dr. Jennifer yesterday,” Ellie said, trying to muster a breezy tone of voice. “She interviewed me in her office. It’s like a ritzy studio apartment in there.”
“Is it? I’ve barely set foot in it. Have you seen Dr. McGeezer’s office, though?”
She grinned at Natalie’s nickname for Ethan McGavin. “Not yet. Have you?”
Natalie nodded. “It’s huge. But it’s kind of like . . .square footage for the sake of square footage. Like he’s announcing: ‘I’m the Number One Big Shot, so I’ve got the biggest office to prove it.’ You half expect your voice to echo.”
“Where is it?”
“Opposite corner of the building. He’s in charge of the brain-trauma wing where my mom works; Jennifer runs the Alzheimer’s side. Though McGeezer’s getting the shakes, according to my mom, so he’s been demoted out of brain surgery. He’s been examining Alzheimer’s patients lately.” She hesitated and gave Ellie a sly grin. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t take our brand-new employee on a tour of the building, right?”
Ellie smiled back at her. “Right.” The nearest ceiling camera would have a view of Jennifer’s door, but not of the office interior, Ellie surmised. Whenever she managed to get inside that room, she would have to be fast and efficient.
“C’mon,” Natalie said. “Our illustrious head doctors are in their monthly meeting.” They happened to be nearing Jennifer’s office, and Natalie strayed from her path toward her doorway. “Now, he never locks his door, unlike Jennifer, who—” She grabbed the doorknob as she spoke. The knob turned. “Whoa. Unlocked.”
Natalie brazenly poked her head in the room. “The dragon-lady has left her lair unguarded.”
This, Ellie thought, steeling herself, could be her one and only chance to plant a bug in Jennifer’s office. She brushed past Natalie and entered the room. “My first day will be my last if she catches us in here.”
“Meh,” Natalie replied with a shrug, following Ellie inside the office. “There are other after-school jobs.”
&nb
sp; The listening devices were smaller than dimes, and she had the remaining two in a pocket in her khakis. While she walked toward the sofa, Ellie fidgeted with one of the little devices, pulling off its protective tape from its sticky surface and turning on its tiny switch. “It’s kind of cool how cozy this room is,” Ellie said. She hated the words that were coming out of her mouth. She was conning a really nice girl who hadn’t done a single thing to deserve being hoodwinked like this. Even so, Ellie kept up the ruse, eyeing the window straight ahead as if in fascination. “I love the lace curtains. What’s her view like?”
“I think it faces south, right?” Natalie said, taking a couple of steps.
The instant Natalie’s attention was diverted, Ellie dropped a pen, then gave the pen a swift kick to get it to roll under the sofa. As fluidly as she could, she stuck the bug on the underside of the sofa.
Natalie was looking at her with an odd expression when she stood back up, pen in hand. “Checking for dust bunnies?” Natalie asked pointedly.
“No, I—” She broke off, waggling her pen. Her cheeks warmed. She felt like a total jerk. Natalie ushered her out the door. At least she’d gotten one of the bugs planted. Now she just needed to get one in Ethan McGavin’s office.
Natalie closed the door behind them. “Let’s go upstairs and see if we can get Mr. Culpepper to talk to us.”
Ellie hesitated, looking down the hall where Natalie had said Ethan’s office was located.
“Unless you want to check out Dr. McGeezer’s office first, that is,” Natalie said.
She searched Natalie’s eyes. Ellie had to trust her instincts. She had to make as many friends as she could, as quickly as possible, or she was never going to learn a thing about ABTC’s top-secret practices. “Is that okay with you? I don’t want to get you into trouble.”
She snorted. “No worries.” She ushered Ellie toward Ethan’s office and said in a half whisper, “I’m sure they’ve been all sicky sweet to you. But they suck. My mom hates their guts. Between you and me, I kind of like this job, but I’m out of here as soon as my mom finds a better place to work.”
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