I took that as an invitation to try some passwords, which I did. There were thirty things on our list, which took about ten minutes to run through. None of them worked. I was relieved, but I’m not sure why.
There were so many blue slips the next two days that I never made it to the security office at all. I didn’t have any passwords to attempt anyway, so it didn’t matter. I was hoping Friday was going to be like that, too, but a call from Carol after school changed that.
“I’ve got the password,” she said as soon as I answered my phone.
“Carol?”
“Yeah.”
“Text me the list. I’m driving.”
“It’s not a list. It’s the password.” She waited. I could hear her smiling.
“How do you know?”
“Mom called this afternoon, so I told her what we were up to. I thought she’d have an idea we didn’t think of.”
“And she knew the password,” I assumed out loud.
“Nope. But she knew who would. She told me to go ahead and call Alice Dietrich.”
We had thought of calling either Mrs. Dietrich or Arlene, but we decided it might upset them, so we didn’t.
“It’s ‘poindexter.’”
“‘Dexpoinder,’” I repeated.
“‘Poindexter,’” she corrected me. “It’s the name Alice’s family called Dr. Dietrich behind his back. It’s because he was such a science brainiac.” She laughed, “You know, like Wally.”
* * *
I was done with all the errands by 5:15 that afternoon. All the security guys were there when I got there.
“Come in, come in,” said Duncan Maddox when I peeked around the corner.
Quinn Weylin waved at me to come sit on the other end of the couch he was occupying.
They were dressed in white T-shirts, blue jeans, and dress shoes—all except Gavin Lee and Malcolm Fergus, who had on their usual European-style dark suits.
“Off you go,” Aiden told Gavin and Malcolm with a single nod of his head.
“Let’s go do our rounds,” Gavin said, slapping Malcolm on the shoulder.
Malcolm stood up and followed Gavin out. “Have a good run,” he said over his shoulder.
“How is your schooling?” Aiden asked.
“Okay,” I said.
“Oak-ay,” repeated Duncan. “Is oak-ay acceptable?”
“Okay is not a bad,” Aiden told him, “but it is not good as well, is it, Jazz-barr?”
“It is not,” I answered.
He stood so close to me that I had to look up at him. I hated that he did that. “Tomorrow maybe is a better day for schooling. We are going for a little run. Would you enjoy to come with us?”
They were all standing around me by then.
“Five miles,” Quinn told me.
“No thanks,” I said.
Aiden tipped his head toward the door. Quinn was the first to leave. As soon as he was out of sight, Duncan smiled at me. “Jazz-barr,” he said and followed Quinn out.
I looked back up at Aiden. He was staring down at me. There was the trace of a smile on his face, but his eyes were intense. At first I thought he was searching for something as he stared, but as I got used to it, his gaze felt strangely reassuring.
“I must run,” he said as he followed the others out.
I waited a couple of minutes before sitting down in front of the laptop. I typed “poindexter” in the way Carol had texted me it was spelled. The fan rattled a little, but the screen came alive almost right away.
It took me a few minutes to understand what I was looking at on the screen. It was the last still frame of a movie: a hand reaching toward a keyboard. I presume it was to stop the recording. I couldn’t tell whose hand it was because whoever it was, was too close.
I saved the movie as “last movie,” and then I started it at the beginning. The movie was of an argument between Dr. Dietrich and someone else. I couldn’t tell who he was arguing with because he was standing on the other side of the computer. I think the argument had gone on for a while before Dr. Dietrich decided to record it.
“You’re a fool,” said the other man. While I didn’t know who it was, I could hear the hatred in his voice.
Dr. Dietrich kind of pursed his lips together. “Maybe so, but this has to be pursued.”
“Need I remind you that you work for Lion Pharmaceuticals?”
“No. You do not. William Lyons is my employer, not my owner. And you, sir, are not involved at all. I am the director of research, and I do not answer to you.”
“You answer to me now,” said the other man very slowly. This was the moment I realized I was listening to Arlene’s father’s murderer.
Dr. Dietrich stood up, so I could no longer see his face. I could hear him as he said, “Please leave.” There was a pause. All I could see was his white lab coat. Then he said, “What do you think you’re doing?”
He turned to his right. “I demand that you—” That’s all he said before I heard a sickening thump and he fell backward.
I still couldn’t see the other man’s face, but I watched as he sat a small, corked bottle of purplish liquid on the table right in front of the computer. Then he took the cork out and stuck the tip of a hypodermic needle in. I think I was holding my breath as he filled the needle with the purple liquid. I knew what was going to happen next. I didn’t want to watch it, but I couldn’t move.
The man held the needle up where I couldn’t see it anymore, then he stepped to his left and bent over Dr. Dietrich. I still couldn’t see his face. He stood up again and sat the needle back on the table in front of the computer. I watched as he took a handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped both the needle and the bottle. When he was done with that, he picked up the needle again, this time with the hankie, and bent back over Dr. Dietrich. I knew what he was doing. He was making it look like a suicide.
When he stood back up, he wasn’t holding the needle anymore. He laughed. It was an evil laugh. I knew if I ever heard it again I’d recognize it. His laughing stopped as fast as it started as he put both hands on the table and leaned forward. I think he must have just noticed he was being filmed. That’s the moment his hand reached out to the keyboard. It was the final frame of the movie that I had first seen.
I sat there frozen in front of the still of that hand reaching out. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t cry, although I could feel the tears growing behind my face.
I was numb. Nothing seemed real. I turned it off. I forgot that I was supposed to look for Dr. Dietrich’s research files. I forgot that I was supposed to send them to Wally. After I turned it off and shut the lid, I left the security office, forgetting my backpack. I unhooked the power cord and tucked that laptop under my arm and made my way through the maze and into the hallway.
Everything around me seemed hazy and out of focus as I turned a corner. I never saw Gavin Lee until I walked into him.
Malcolm Fergus was standing next to him. “Where is it that you go, Jazz-barr?”
I stepped back. They stood next to each other across the hallway, effectively blocking any attempt to get past them. When I say they blocked any attempt, I mean that if I had the strength and speed of an NFL running back they had it blocked. For me, they blocked even the consideration of an attempt.
I felt the laptop being pulled from behind me. It slid easily out of my grasp.
“Thank you,” said Aiden.
I turned to face him and watched as he handed the laptop to Quinn Weylin. He wasn’t smiling. I reached for the wolf’s tooth. It’s what I did if I was scared enough.
“What have we here?” It was James Benjamin. He was approaching us from behind Gavin and Malcolm. He glanced around at everyone but me. “I’d say the hallway is secure enough, wouldn’t you?” He alone laughed.
“Yes, sir,” said Aiden. He nodded at Gavin and Malcolm, who turned around and walked back in the direction they had come from.
“We were just returned from a run,” Aiden e
xplained.
Mr. Benjamin stared at Quinn. “A run, with a laptop. Wouldn’t a stopwatch be more efficient?” He laughed again. This time he was joined by Aiden, although Aiden’s laugh was put on.
“That is a good joke,” Aiden said to Mr. Benjamin before tipping his head at Quinn Weylin.
Quinn put on a laugh, too. Then he took the laptop back to the security office.
Mr. Benjamin never took his eyes off Quinn until he was out of sight.
“How might we serve you?” Aiden asked him.
“Why don’t you head on home?” said Mr. Benjamin. He was still looking at Aiden while he spoke to me.
I took a quick glance around the hall, but no one was paying attention to me, so I did as I was told and headed home. I tried to be as quiet as I could as I walked.
If anyone had told me that I’d ever be relieved to see James Benjamin, I wouldn’t have believed it, but he had just come to my rescue. He may not have known that he did, but he did rescue me. What from, I don’t know.
Forty-Two
Benjamin Calls
I was halfway home when my cell phone rang.
“Hello.”
“Mr. Lilla. Is that you?”
“Yes,” I answered. “Who’s this?”
“James Benjamin. Are you alright?”
“I think so.”
“Are you sure? You looked pretty shaken up when I last saw you. Were you in some kind of trouble with those security guys?”
I didn’t answer. The question threw me.
“I think there’s a problem with those guys,” Benjamin said. “We need to talk, but I don’t know if our phones are secure. I need you to meet me at the Rock Table. You know where that is, don’t you?”
The Rock Table was in a small clearing on the northwestern corner of the Lion Pharmaceuticals property. There was a small shelter with four picnic tables and a stone fire pit that had been filled in with cement so that no one would be tempted to start a fire there. It looked like a rock table, but people still started fires there anyway. They just did it on top.
“I’m on my way home,” I told him.
“This is important.”
“Can it wait until tomorrow?”
“I’m afraid not. How far away are you?”
“Five minutes, I guess.”
“Good. I’ll meet you there in five.” He hung up.
* * *
I got to the Rock Table first. It had rained that afternoon, so the smell of pine was especially strong. As I sat on one of the tables debating whether to tell Mr. Benjamin about Dr. Dietrich, I kept my ears open. The gravel area where I parked was out of view through the trees, but I was sure I’d be able to hear when a car came.
I had just about decided that I wouldn’t tell him what I’d seen until I first talked to my family. He had stepped in when those weirdo security guys were on me, but he had mostly been a jerk up until then. Then I thought about my mom and how she had been right all along. I could picture the look on her face when I told her I knew for sure that Dr. Dietrich didn’t commit suicide. She’d nod her head once, tell me I did good, and then she’d go off somewhere to call Mrs. Dietrich.
Once I thought about telling Mrs. Dietrich, I got nervous all over again. Sooner or later I was going to be asked for proof. What was I supposed to do then? I could hear Carol ask where the computer was. I could hear Wally ask where the research was. What I didn’t hear was Mr. Benjamin coming from behind me on foot.
“That’s a longer walk than I remember,” he said as he sat down next to me. He was breathing hard, holding a brown leather backpack in his lap.
Finally he took a deep breath and put the backpack on the ground between us. “How well do you know Aiden and the rest of those security guys?”
“I don’t know them at all,” I claimed. It was the truth.
“You’re in their office, aren’t you?”
“Just for the past couple of weeks.”
“Well,” he said in a snotty voice, “have you noticed anything strange about them?”
The question made me laugh—but I only laughed a couple of times because instead of laughing, Mr. Benjamin stared at me with his forehead all scrunched together. I don’t know how he didn’t laugh at that question. Of course, I had noticed how strange those guys were. How could I not? How could anyone not? They dressed strange. They talked strange. They even smelled strange.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes. “I mean, did you notice how that one was holding a laptop.”
“No,” I lied.
“Well, he looked like he was trying to hide it.”
“Why would he do that?”
“That’s what I’m asking you to help with, Mr. Lilla. Do you mind if I call you ‘Jasper’?”
I shrugged.
“Jasper, we have a problem. And I’m hoping you can help me solve it. You see, I think that computer was stolen from my office. I was doing some research on it, and then one day it was switched. Someone took it and replaced it with another computer.” He smirked at me. “I think it was security.”
“Why would someone switch the computers?” I asked.
“To hide the fact that they had taken the one I was working on.” He smacked his lips.
“Even if the computers looked alike, wouldn’t you know right away when you opened it?”
His scowl only lasted a second, but he definitely scowled. He went into one of his phony smiles. “You got me, Jasper. I’m a novice when it comes to computers. I was just trying to sound like I know more than I do. You see,” he lowered his voice, “that computer belongs to Dr. Lyons. We were making long-range business plans on it. I think we’re the victims of industrial espionage.”
“Espionage?” I questioned.
“Yes. Drug research is extremely vulnerable to industrial espionage,” he said. “Surely you’ve noticed the degree of security measures we go through, haven’t you? There are things we’re working on that another company would pay dearly for.”
“Like Dr. Dietrich’s cancer research,” I said. That was a mistake, and I knew it right away. How big a mistake I was about to discover.
“I’m thirsty,” Benjamin said. Then he bent over his backpack and retrieved two plastic bottles of grape soda. He opened one and handed it to me, then he opened the other and took a long drink. “I’m hot,” he said, then he tipped his bottle toward the bottle in my hand and said, “Drink up.”
It felt off to me even before I smelled it. We had only been talking a minute, and out of nowhere he shoves a grape soda in my hand. It didn’t make sense. I lifted the bottle enough to smell what was inside. It was the purplish liquid Wally had been having me smell, and I presumed it was the same purplish liquid I had just seen poison Dr. Dietrich. My head flinched back, and at the same time I held the bottle as far away from my face as I could reach.
“You’re just too smart, aren’t you?” He was standing in front of me, holding a gun.
The sight scared me so much that I dropped the grape soda bottle.
“You did that on purpose, you little snot.”
It would have been the smart thing for me to do, but the truth is that I was just scared.
“You knew I was lying,” he said, calmer than before. “I was watching you. When I said it was Lyons’s computer, you looked up.” He waved the gun back and forth. He was enjoying that he had been clever, and apparently he wanted me to be impressed.
“You know whose computer it really is, don’t you?”
I didn’t answer.
He lunged at me and screamed into my face, “Don’t you?”
I nodded that I did. I shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t help it.
“They’re trying to break the password, aren’t they?”
I shrugged. I didn’t want to tell him anything. He had just tried to poison me. It’s odd, now that I think about it, but while he pointed that gun at me, all I thought about was how much that was going to hurt. You’d think I would have th
ought about the possibility of getting killed, but that didn’t occur to me.
“I said,” he screamed again, “they’re trying to break the password, aren’t they?”
“I guess,” I answered.
“They haven’t gotten it yet, though, have they?”
That’s the moment I remembered my wolf’s-tooth necklace. I was already holding it in my fingertips, but that’s the moment I thought of it. I willed for the wolves to come. I even looked around as best I could, hoping, almost expecting them to appear.
“What are you looking for, Jasper?” mocked Benjamin.
“Nothing.”
He laughed. It was the same sickening laugh I had heard on the movie. That’s when I threw my body at him. He was too much larger and stronger than me for my body slam to do anything but surprise him, but it bought me enough time to run.
I’m sure I’ve never run as fast as I did right then. That includes the time when the Dobermans were chasing me. I expected to hear a gunshot, but I didn’t. The path, the one he had come down, had a bunch of turns in it, so I thought I had gotten far enough away from him that he couldn’t see me. I kept moving, but I looked over my shoulder to see how far ahead I was. I never learned how far ahead I was, because as I turned my head I tripped. I was moving so fast that I flew forward. I got my hands in front of me to break my fall, but when I hit the ground my face still bounced off the path.
The next thing I knew, Benjamin was turning me over, laughing at me while he did it. “You’re helpless,” he said.
I spit dirt up at his face.
“Good for you,” he mocked me again. “I doubted you had any fight in you.” He twisted my shirt around his left fist and held me down as he repositioned his right knee in the middle of my chest and bounced. I heard something pop. It felt like my heart was being squeezed in a vice.
He leaned over me, which rolled his knee over my chest, making me scream. I wanted to cry, but I was in too much pain.
“I think you saw the movie.”
I started to whimper.
He bounced his knee on my chest again. “Didn’t you?”
I screamed out again. The scream was cut short as screaming created a different pain around the edges of my chest.
Jasper Lilla and The Wolves of Banner Elk Page 14