“Yeah, I suppose so.”
The pair chatted for a few more hours until Debra finally fell asleep. Johansen wasn’t asleep, but he had pretended to be until Debra dozed off. Then he quietly dressed and slipped out the door to disappear once again.
The next morning, Debra awoke refreshed and in a better mood than she had been in since the harassment began. She was not surprised to find Johansen gone. That was what she figured would happen. In her mind, Debra kept mulling over the facts. She worked and reworked all of the angles. She simply couldn’t figure out what this guy’s deal was.
The picture just didn’t fit together in her head. To her heart, if she would ever stop and listen, there was nothing odd about it at all. Some guy had fallen head-over-heels in love with her. She saw it all the time with the way she looked. But this time something was different.
When she looked into Johansen’s eyes, she could tell he wasn’t like the others. When others said, they fell in love they really meant lust. However, when she looked into Johansen’s eyes when he said love she knew he meant it.
Debra got ready for work after her usual run. She pulled the card from the camera she had trained on the couch. She was still telling herself that she was going to arrest Johansen. Eventually. She just needed to gather more evidence to make the case against him rock-solid.
Debra pulled in and parked. She took the elevator up to the squad room. Kane and Meacham weren’t in Frazier’s office for once. Debra uploaded the card and began to look at the images one frame at a time, to find the best angle of Johansen to run through the facial recognition software.
At last, she found the one she wanted. She copied the digital image to her computer. The facial recognition software analyzed all the tiny unique angles of the face and ran it through every available database.
Debra began tapping her fingers as she stared at the screen. Finally, it found a match, but not from any database related to the criminal justice system. It hit on a newspaper article.
The computer brought up a picture taken at the trial between Alexander Valentine and Global Coverage One, a huge insurance company. Debra drew in closer to the screen as the Doc Robber’s true identity unraveled before her eyes.
There he was—Johansen Davenport. About a decade younger and ten pounds lighter but it was definitely him, or rather, Alexander Valentine. There was no question in Debra’s mind as she studied the picture.
Then she read the accompanying article. The story was about Alexander Valentine suing Global One for causing the death of his son Henry. Nine years ago, Suzanna Valentine was driving along state highway fifty-seven when a drunk driver veered into her lane forcing her off the road and head-on into a guardrail.
Suzanna died on impact but their son, Henry, survived the initial accident. He ended up needing an emergency liver transplant, but never got one. Global One had been Suzanna’s insurance company. Since she had been dead a full week before the claim was filed, Global One asserted they had no responsibility in the matter.
So a court battle ensued, Henry died while they fiddle-fucked around, and Alexander was left utterly devastated. His career as a struggling actor-slash-stuntman didn’t provide any insurance so Alex ended up blaming himself for not being a good enough father to be able to save his son.
And then the courts decided in favor of Global One. To Alex the complete failure of the criminal justice system was the last straw. Alex began to wander aimlessly after that. He moved to Europe and his plan to take revenge on the doctors and insurance companies that had killed his son slowly crystallized.
He’d started doing second-story jobs in Europe but a narrow escape forced him to return to the United States. That was how he came to be in Miami.
Chapter 15
One month earlier
Andrew drove up to Saddle Brook to visit Bernie. With her locked away he had no way of conducting the next set of tests on the formula. He pulled into the parking lot and practically jumped from his car. His stride was nearly a run as he marched up to the mansion.
“Hi, my name is Andrew McGee. I’m here to visit Bernadette O’Malley.” Andrew tapped his foot and fidgeted as he spoke.
“All right. Please have a seat for a moment.” Nurse Jennings got up from her desk and went down the hall, disappearing around a corner into the maze of the sanitarium.
Andrew paced back and forth across the reception area. He’d already narrowed down the loss of consciousness to a few possible causes. Moreover, he was ready to test the first.
“Excuse me,” the nurse said, startling Andrew.
He’d been deep in his own little world of obsessive rumination over the success of his formula.
“Sir, she’s ready to see you now.” The nurse guided Andrew down the hall and around a corner to a wing of private rooms. Bernie was in the third one down. Judy was next door in Room Two. The nurse unlocked the door and Bernie came out to sit at a table in the common room.
“Hey, Bernie.” Andrew lit up when he hugged his long-time friend. “Man. How I’m missing you.” He held Bernie’s hand after they sat down at a table.
“Don’t worry, Andrew. We’ll keep working on your formula. But this has thrown a wrench in the works.”
“Yeah.” Andrew looked around at his surroundings acting like it was the first time he noticed them. And with Andrew it might well have been.
“Andrew, this is what I need you to do. When you have the new formula ready, I need you to prepare it for Judy this time.” Bernie discreetly slid a plastic container over to Andrew.
“What’s this?”
“It’s Judy’s spit. So you can calibrate the formula to work for her.”
“But why? I don’t understand why you—”
“Stop and think about it. If I take it in here and you’re out there you’ll only have visiting hours to observe me. Is that what you had in mind?” Bernie looked determined, the way she did when she was fighting to get something through Andrew’s thick skull.
“Look, you prepare the syringe and the antidote as usual. Then give it to your mom so she can sneak it in to us. Then Judy will slip it into her psychiatrist’s coffee mug during her next session. If it works, we’ll ask him to sign the paperwork for our release. Then once we’re free, we’ll give him the antidote and he can go back to feeling about us the way he does right now.” The last part was a dig at Andrew, which he missed of course. Bernie was expecting him to ask why his mom needed to deliver it. Luckily he didn’t. Bernie could only imagine what Andrew attempting to ‘act’ might look like.
“Oh I see. And since you’re in here with her, you can observe her and save the test results.”
“Exactly,” Bernie piped up.
Andrew reacted as if the weight of the world was suddenly lifted from his shoulders. His whole body relaxed. He took a deep, refreshing breath. “Oh, thank God! You’ve saved me as usual. I was just beginning to skitter off the track a bit. But you’ve saved me again.”
Andrew beamed with relieved happiness, and then got a wistful, faraway look in his eyes.
He was thinking about Heidi again. And Bernie knew it. Whatever may come of this test aside, she was determined to keep the juggling act going until she could finally get through to Andrew.
“Okay. I’ll do it. I’ll get it ready and have it to my mom before the end of the day.” Andrew got up and gave Bernie a final hug. Bernie hung on when he was ready to let go. Andrew struggled a bit, but then looked in Bernie’s eyes to see what it was about.
“You know Andrew, even if your formula never works right you can still find love.” Bernie fluttered her eyelashes at him.
“Thank you, Bernie, I know.” He thought she was just trying to be supportive as usual. Bernie glared daggers into the back of his head as he disappeared out the door. He was in his hell-bent-for-leather mode, and Berni
e was powerless to manage him through it the way she had for the past fourteen years. She hoped his mother could manage him. Now that Joanna understood who Heidi really was, she was behind Bernie one-hundred percent. Now, that she knew Bernie loved Andrew.
Andrew hurried the saliva sample over to the lab and busied himself mixing it with his third trial elixir. “Well let’s hope the third time’s the charm,” Andrew muttered as he loaded the two syringes into his carrying case and snapped it shut. He drove straight to his parents’ house to deliver it to his mom.
“Now, Andrew, you have to calm down and be patient. Everything is going to work out as it should,” Joanna reassured her son. With nothing left to do, he got in his car and went over to Alexander’s for lunch. This was just the sort of thing Bernie worried Andrew would do without her there to guide him.
And her fears were well founded. Andrew parked in the lot. In all the years he had been coming here, he’d never arrived by car. He always walked with Bernie. This time he was here alone. Parking his own car made him feel strangely powerful.
It was the adrenaline from the experiment. He didn’t realize it, because Bernie had always been there on the highest state of alert to watch over him, whenever got this way.
Andrew walked in as usual. This was the first time he’d ever been inside alone. He set his eyes on Heidi and a strange prickly cockiness came over him. Andrew walked up and sat down at the bar. He was going to eat his lunch there today since he was alone.
The reaction from Heidi was instantaneous as soon as she saw him. Her inquisitive eyes scanned him in one quick sweep. She knew something was going on with the gullible geek scientist.
“Hi. Can I bring you a beer?” Heidi wanted to fuck with him and see how long he could take it. “Ah . . . no. Just water please,” Andrew stammered, idiotically.
Heidi laughed out loud right in his face. Anger boiled inside him. He may have been an odd duck but he was still a man with feelings and an ego.
Heidi went and took another person’s order. “Have you made up your mind yet, lover boy?” She asked impatiently when she returned.
Mustering his resolve, Andrew managed to look right at her and say, “Just give me the usual.”
“Sure thing, Sugar. I’ve never seen you sit at the bar before. And alone to boot. Where’s Little Miss Rocket Scientist?”
“Uh, oh she’s not feeling well.” Andrew stammered nervously.
Heidi pulled away from the conversation to go ring up a customer. She brought him his steak when it came up. Then she got swamped by the lunch rush. When she found time to go over and collect Andrew’s dirty plate he blurted, “I could have you as my girlfriend anytime I want you know.”
Heidi’s eyes lit up. She cracked a huge grin. She set the plate back down and reared back with a fist on each hip. Obviously, on the verge of laughing, she asked, “Really?”
Andrew stammered again and made a face like a kid swallowing medicine. “Yes, that’s right. I’ve invented a formula. An elixir. It bonds to the subject’s DNA. And when it gets carried to the brain the subject falls madly in love with the DNA donor. I’m going to be very rich.” Those last six words were all he really was trying to get across to her. Heidi’s eyes narrowed to little slits, like a snake’s, momentarily. He could almost see the wheels in Heidi’s head turning.
“Wow, is that right? That sounds interesting. Does this stuff wear off?”
“No, but there’s an antidote.”
“An antidote. Great. I’ll tell you what. You bring your love potion in here and give it to me. If it works, you can throw away the antidote.” Her eyes were radiating pure sensual heat.
He sat there stupefied. Heidi had agreed.
“So, are you going to say something or was that your allotment of grown-up words for the day?” Heidi teased.
That was when he realized she was messing with him. He threw a twenty-dollar bill down on the check.
“You’ll see. I’ll bring it down here, you’ll see. And then we’ll see if you stand by your bet.” Andrew sneered and turned to go.
As the door closed behind him, Heidi walked to the dark end of the bar.
“So what do ya’ think?” Heidi asked her boyfriend, Rick Tooms. “Sounds like a load of crap to me.”
“I don’t know. I’ve heard bits and pieces from those two. They really are scientists. Research scientists I think. Yeah, that’s it. They do some sort of brain chemical research.” Rick smirked with half his smile and shook his head at Heidi skeptically.
“Are you serious?”
“Well, what if it’s true? What if that dweeb goes on to make millions? And we had him right here in our sights.” Heidi leaned over the bar and gave Rick a quick kiss. She had to be careful.
The owner really disliked seeing her kiss Rick in his bar. He let her believe it was general policy for anyone working there, but it wasn’t. He just couldn’t stand having this asshole in his bar. Rick looked like a biker with his shaved head and tattoos all over the place. He worried that Rick would try to turn his bar into a hangout for his buddies.
“Shhh,” Rick whispered to Heidi, as the owner stepped out of the office behind her. Her shift ended and they left as soon as the boss was out of visual range.
Rick looked over at Heidi as they drove along in his metallic black Chevy Camero. “Okay, so just what in the hell would we do with the stuff if it does work?” he asked.
Heidi had been thinking about that since the instant Andrew opened his mouth.
“I was thinking we could take it to a perfume maker and demonstrate it for them. Once they realize what it is they’ll offer us a fortune for it.”
“Okay, but what about the eggheads? If they really have invented the stuff, when they see someone else come out with it, they’ll know it was stolen. It will lead right back to us.” Rick pulled in and parked in front of their apartment. It was a blue two-story building with pelicans in flowerpots out front. They went inside.
“Okay. So, we have to kill them. For this kind of scratch that’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Rick dug around in the closet while Heidi talked. He came out with an army munitions box. He heaved the heavy wooden crate up on the table.
“Hey, don’t collapse my coffee table!”
Rick ignored her and fished around on his key ring for the key. He unlocked the box and inside was all of the goodies Rick had managed to steal before being thrown out of the Army for smuggling and theft. Rick pulled out two bars of C-4 plastic explosive.
“Oh yeah, make it look like an accidental explosion.” Heidi’s eyes grew wide as she marveled at all of the other stuff in the box. There were two hand grenades, eight sticks of dynamite, and nitro gel-packs.
“Yeah, I can blow up the lab with them in it but the police won’t think it’s an accident. I mean they’ll figure it out quick enough. Explosives leave a residue.”
Heidi began to chew on her lower lip. She looked strained and pensive as she thought her plan through. “What does that mean exactly?”
“They’ll be able to trace it back to the batch it came from. So, they’ll know it was stolen from the munitions depot at Fort Bragg, when I was there.”
“Well, is there something else you could use? Or maybe something you could mix with the C-4 to hide its chemical signature.” Heidi walked over and began rubbing Rick’s shoulders.
“That’s not a bad idea. I’ll have to think about that and see what I can come up with.”
“In the meantime, let me show you what I came up with.” Heidi cracked a wide grin as she jumped up and started dancing around while she slowly unbuttoned her blouse. After button number four, she reached out and pulled Rick up off the couch. She danced him into the bedroom where she pushed him backward down on the bed.
She continued with her striptease, grinding and gyrating in little c
ircles as she wiggled her way out of her pants. She was down to her bra and panties when she danced her way onto the bed. Still swaying to a rhythm with her shoulders, she slowly unbuttoned Rick’s shirt.
She massaged his hairy muscular chest. A smile curled up the corners of his mouth. She pulled off the rest of his clothes and climbed on top of him. Her long straight platinum blonde hair spilled around his face tickling his ears. Heidi held Rick’s head in her two hands like a vise as her mouth worked over his. Heidi kissed him deeply. He ignited a fire in Heidi.
Rick rolled them over so he was on top. He kissed her sweet full lips and tickled her with his tongue. He cupped her warm excited breasts in his rough hands. With each squeeze, Heidi let out a soft moan. Rick began working his way down her neck, kissing every square inch of Heidi’s creamy smooth skin.
He then found his way to her ear. Rick’s hot breath made the tiny hairs stand up and quiver as his devilish tongue danced light circles around her ear lobe.
Rick massaged his way down to Heidi’s long luscious legs. He rubbed the inside of each as he pulled them apart. Rick kissed his way down the inside of Heidi’s left thigh. She began moaning louder. Thrashing her head from side-to-side, she buried her fingers in his hair and held on tight.
Rick’s tongue started at the bottom of her vagina and flickered its way up to her clitoris. He paused to kiss and gently nibble on it, driving Heidi to arch her back and grip his head between her legs. Heidi grabbed and clawed at his head as Rick drove his tongue deeper and deeper inside of her.
Heidi began to quiver as the first orgasm rolled through her. “Oh, God, Rick! Oh . . . shit. God, yes. Yes. Oh . . . oh . . . yes.” Heidi’s back arched once again. Her body twitched and convulsed as her powerful orgasm rocked her to her bones. Heidi’s sweet juice ran down Rick’s chin like a river.
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