“So, you won’t go visit him in prison?”
“I never want to see him again.”
She decides to tell her. “I saw him last week.” She sees Sue visibly stiffen. “I just had to see if he had some explanation. To try to kill a child, well…I wanted to confront him, to shake him and make him tell me what on earth would make a person do such a thing.”
“Did you shake him?”
Safia holds her gaze. “No, but he shook me up a little.”
“Yeah, he’s crazy.”
“No, I don’t think he is. That’s the problem. Sue, did he ever indicate to you that he thought there was something…unique about Olivia, something that concerned him greatly?”
She thinks for a moment. “He never said as much, no. But I would catch him staring at her a lot. Watching her like he was studying her. He would smile sadly when I brought it to his attention and say that he just felt like he had missed so much of her growing up, that he wished he had been there to see how she became the person she was. I thought he loved her that much.”
“I think he did…does. He asked me to tell her he does love her.”
“Bastard,” she cries, pushing her plate away. “Then why did he try to take her away from me?”
Safia shakes her head. “I don’t know. But, Sue…I think there is something special about Olivia. Something that he knows.” Her expression turns serious as she decides it’s time to tell her why she came here. “I need your permission for one more set of DNA tests. I know,” she holds up her hand when she sees the protest coming. “I really do understand that she’s gone through enough and she’s got the surgery coming up. You have to know by now I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t believe we were missing something terribly important.”
“You think there’s something else wrong with her?”
Safia’s eyes fall to the table and then she lifts them to meet Sue’s fear head-on. “Yes. I’m sorry.”
Tears begin to stream down her face. “Oh, please…please don’t tell me it’s something serious. I don’t think she could take any more.” She picks up her napkin and wipes at her eyes. “I don’t think I can take any more.”
“Let’s not worry yet, okay. Let’s run this one last test and just make sure it’s not serious. Okay?”
“But, what makes you think another DNA test is going to come out differently? What are you looking for?”
Safia takes a long swallow from her wine glass and sets it down slowly. If Sue is going to trust her, she knows she has to be honest with her. “I’m going to tell you a story about my own family, Sue, and I need you to keep an open mind, okay?”
“Okay,” she nods.
“Before my mother had me and my sister, she was recruited for this Human Energy Research project. She has this gift of being able to reach the delta cycle—brainwaves cycling at three per second—during meditation very quickly. During her involvement, the test group was taught how to direct their brain waves and bring them into phase with other types of energy…like sound waves. The project turned out to be more sinister than anyone involved knew, but that’s a story for another day. The reason I’m telling you this is I share this gift of my mother’s, this falling into a meditative state quickly. So, as a child she recognized this and worked with me, showing me how to bring my thoughts into resonance with the energy in things around me. Our thoughts are energy as well, you see?”
“Sounds a bit like new age stuff.” She is fiddling nervously with the stem of her empty wine glass. “I don’t understand. What does that have to do with Olivia?”
“My real job at the hospital is using this gift. I see the energy as patterns and I see when a pattern is not within…normal range.”
“And you’ve seen this in Olivia?”
“Yes.”
“You think she’s got something else bad wrong with her?”
“That’s what I’d like to find out.”
Sue stares at her for a long time, her green eyes flashing in the candlelight. Safia holds her gaze, hoping she did the right thing by being honest with her. Finally Sue nods and she sees her doubt soften.
“Okay. I trust you, Safia. I know you’ll do right by my little girl.”
Chapter 8
Sunday night, Kat and Reuben arrive at her apartment for dinner. Their friend, Robert Huxley, a vet from Scarsdale, trots in behind them.Safia’s smile tightens. It’s obvious they’re trying to set her up but she takes the daisies he gives her, thanks him politely and then barely acknowledges him the rest of the evening. Kat keeps shooting her mean little glances and finally corners her in the kitchen after the guys retreat with their Scotch into the living room and flip on the TV.
“You’re being rude,” she whispers.
“I am not,” Safia smirks, pouring more wine into their drained glasses. “I’m being uninterested.”
“You’re not even giving him a chance. He’s a great guy. Caring, good looking…he’s a vet, Sis…what else do you want?”
“Maybe I don’t want anything. Maybe I don’t especially want to be involved with somebody from your secret A.R.N. group.” She turns and faces her little sister with a mixture of confusion and frustration. “Why do you care so much anyway?”
Kat shrugs. “I don’t care. Mom’s sending four tickets for Winterhaven. You’re going with somebody. She worries about you being alone.” With that she stomps off and joins Reuben on the sofa.
Safia shakes her head. She will never understand her sister. As she wipes up a spot of spilled wine from the counter, her thoughts drift back to the first real relationship she had, the one her sister sabotaged.
Trey Bentworth was their school’s science geek. He was also handsome and rich and Safia’s first serious boyfriend. She hadn’t really thought about him when she applied to Florida State or what that would mean to their relationship. She was mildly pleased that he asked her not to date anyone else and swore that he wouldn’t either. They talked on the phone once a week and after the end of her first semester, Safia flew home to surprise him. No one answered the door when she knocked but Trey’s BMW was in the driveway, so she tried the door. It was open.
“Trey?” she called out as she slipped into the sprawling entranceway and began to climb the stairs. “Are you upstairs?” No answer. She kept going, climbing the stairs, then making her way down the hall to the last door on the left. “Trey?” she called as she pushed the door opened slowly. A lot of shuffling and giggling added to the confusion as Safia stared at a nude Trey clumsily trying to slip into his jeans while her sister, Kat, lazily pulled the covers up to her chin.
“Oh my God, Safia…I’m so sorry. I can explain,” Trey was saying as he moved towards her. But the words were lost in the background noise of her mind as the only thing she could concentrate on was the glint of victory and the smirk on her sister’s face. Why? The word formed in her mind and she pushed it past her lips. “Why?”
“I don’t know, Safia, please forgive me,” Trey continued, the anguish in his voice real, but Safia was only focused on her sister. She asked again. “Why?”
There would be no answer. She never spoke to Trey again and was somewhat amused by the fact she never missed him or thought about him much after that.She eventually forgave her sister, but she would never forget. She would also never let her sister see her interested in someone again.
Safia slides into a chair, leaving the empty space on the sofa by Robert just that…empty. She hears Reuben chuckle before he slaps Robert on the knee and says “sorry man.” She ignores them both.
“Hey, turn that up,” Robert says, suddenly leaning forward toward the screen. The news is on. “That’s…” he is shaking his finger at the TV. “That’s Crowley!”
Reuben sits up and leans forward, too. “Bill?”
Safia’s heart jumps. “You know him?”
“Bill Crowley? Jesus, it is…what’d he do?”
“He tried to kill a little girl,” Safia offers, staring at the two men. They both jerk their heads towa
rd her.
“What?!” Reuben cries.
They look at each other and then back at the screen.
“A jury has been selected and the trial is set to begin,” the anchorwoman finishes. The news goes to weather and Safia turns it off.
“You’re friends with this guy?” She studies the three of them. They look pale and her sister is staring at the floor. “You all know him?” And then it dawns on her. “Oh, let me guess, you know him from A.R.N. right? He’s a member?”
“You don’t understand, Safia,” Robert says, his voice hoarse with emotion. “We looked up to him. He was part of the inner circle…the founding five.”
“He went on a top secret assignment over a year ago and no one has heard from him since. There’s been rumors, but none of us could say where he was.”
“No one but the other founders. Why are you so interested?” Kat asks suddenly
“I’m helping to treat the little girl he tried to kill.”
They all sink back into the couch in silence.
“This is impossible,” Reuben says. “They must have the wrong guy. Bill wouldn’t hurt an animal, let alone a child.”
“Sorry, whatever you think you know of him is wrong then. The mom caught him red handed trying to smother her daughter.”
“What the hell is going on?” Robert asks no one in particular. He takes a large swig of Scotch and shakes his head. “Doesn’t make any sense.”
“A.R.N. did call an emergency meeting for next Friday night. Maybe this is what it’s about,” Reuben says.
“Could be.”
“So, none of you know why he would do this?”
They all shake their heads. She believes them. Whatever he thinks is wrong with Olivia is his private secret then. She thinks about the new DNA tests she will have ordered on Wednesday. Maybe not a secret for long. His words haunt her. She must be destroyed. If what they are saying is true and Bill Crowley is a man that wouldn’t hurt an animal let alone a human being…then why did he want this little girl dead? Why did he say he loved Olivia but she must be destroyed? Nothing about this makes any sense.
“I’d like to come,” Safia says.
They all look at her. “To the meeting Friday night.”
Their confusion turns to suspicion.
“I don’t think so,” Kat scoffs. “You don’t have any interest in A.R.N.”
“Kat, you’ve been trying to get me to come to a meeting for months now. Give me one good reason why you would change your mind now. Just because it’s my idea this time?”
“Oh, let her come,” Reuben chimes in. “Maybe she’ll learn something.”
Safia smiles sweetly at Reuben, but her eyes blaze for a moment. “Thank you, Reuben.”
He nods, smirking to himself.
Her head is beginning to pound. Luckily, the lightness has been sucked out of the evening for everyone and Kat, Reuben and Robert decide to go shortly after that.
*******
The next day she finds herself in Dr. Ackers office, feeling uneasy about this whole situation.
“Dr. Tolly is set to perform the surgery Wednesday morning. Sue Barnes has given her consent, so we’ll take the skin samples at that time. I can’t imagine any results that would prevent her from needing the tumor removed, can you?” Dr. Ackers asks.
“No,” Safia answers quietly. She can tell he still considers the new tests unnecessary but he’s going to do it to appease her anyway. No matter what the results are, Olivia still needs the tumor removed. “That will be fine. Thank you.” She gets up to leave and wants to express how much she appreciates him doing the new tests, and then a tiny gnawing doubt creeps into her mind. What if she is wrong? What if there is nothing there? Will he ever trust her again? Will he be joining the small circle of doctors and nurses that think what she does is akin to magic or voodoo? She leaves his office without a word.
Chapter 9
Safia stares out the window of a cab that smells like gym socks and peanut oil. Reuben and Kat are busy chatting beside her. The windshield wipers offer a steady beat that she tries to get lost in.
They have moved out of the city. The landscape has changed to rolling hills punctuated with an occasional colonial or old style farm house emerging once in a while from the fog. Offshoots of roads emerge also, strips of wet silver below the hills. Patches of fog clear occasionally, revealing the rusted skeleton of mobile homes and car graveyards. Her stomach is queasy from the ride and all she can think about is Olivia.
The six hour surgery on Wednesday was a success. Her DNA results should be in on Monday, the day she is slated to go home. She is beginning to feel crazy. What would ever make her put her reputation on the line like this? She presses her forehead against the cool glass and sighs.
“Feeling okay, Sis?”
“Fine,” she says, not looking up.
“Only about fifteen more minutes.”
“Thanks.” She doesn’t look at Reuben, instead she squeezes her eyes closed and watches white sparks dance in the darkness.
*******
“After you,” Reuben says, holding the door open for them. Safia follows Kat as they move from the large entryway, down a narrow hall and into what was originally meant to be a ballroom—with its hardwood floors and chandeliers dripping crystal above their heads—but is instead filled with seating. Couches, ottomans, rockers and stacks of fold out chairs populate the back wall. Looking around the room, she estimates about fifty people are already there.
She follows Kat to a tan sofa toward the front of the room and lowers herself into it. They sit, watching people filter in and take seats for the next twenty minutes or so before a hush falls over the crowd as a tall, pepper haired woman in a brown linen pant suit enters the room and stands in the middle of the expectant crowd.
“Dr. Margaret Mills,” Kat whispers to Safia. “One of the founding five.” Safia watches her with her arms and legs crossed. She is trying to shake the feeling that she’s going to be outed as an imposter at any moment.
The doctor’s voice quivers a bit with age as she begins to speak, but it still projects authority.“Hello, everyone and as always, I thank you for being here. I know you were looking forward to seeing Dr. Vogler and Shar being back in town today, but something has happened and they can not be with us…something that you will understand at a later time.”
A jolt of adrenelin made Safia sit up. Dr. Vogler and Shar? Sue’s doctor Vogler?
A small murmur moves through the crowd. She holds up a hand. “I can assure you, they’re fine.” She lowers her head. “The reason they wanted me to address you tonight is because of a situation that has come up with one of our brothers. I’m sure you all watch the news and have heard the mess Bill has gotten into.” She sighs, pressing her long hands together as if getting ready to pray.
“Yeah,” one of the men seated to Dr. Mill’s right speaks up. “Is this what he was sent to do…kill a little girl?”
“Did he really do what they are saying?” A woman shouts from the far corner of the room. Questions are being thrown at the doctor, voices high and nervous.
“Hold on, hold on, please,” Dr. Mills says. “Please, I can’t talk over all of you.” The crowd grows silent. Safia is glancing in the general direction of the door when a man strides through, his gait so fluid and controlled she is mesmerized. He walks along the left wall behind the chairs, stops and leans against it, his feet crossed at the ankles, his arms folded. She glances at Dr. Mills to see if she recognizes the man and watches them share a nod. Safia tries to make herself stop stealing glances at him but that only makes her more aware of him, of his confidence—the kind of confidence that alludes to danger. He has the calmness, the compressed energy of a coiled snake. She begins to shift uncomfortably in her chair.
“Anders Grey,” Kat whispers to her. Safia glances at her sister. She, too, is staring at the man, a genuine look of admiration moistening her eyes. The same look people give to celebrities and a look she has never seen on her s
ister’s face. “What’s he doing here?” This, she knows, is not a question meant for an audience.
Safia forces her attention back on the stately woman, who has once again taken command of the room.“Bill has betrayed not just the organization of Animal Rights Now and the core values of our family, but the very life that we have fought so hard to protect. He has been with us since A.R.N’s conception and birth. He is one of the founding fathers and so it grieves me greatly to declare him an outcast and to inform you that, yes, what he is being accused of is what he is guilty of.” A collective moan fills the room. Safia involuntary flicks her eyes back to the man against the wall. This time her heart jumps as he is staring back at her. She can feel the heat rising to her face and she tries to break contact, but she can’t get herself to move. His eyes are holding her. She can almost feel the questions surrounding his stare. She suddenly feels naked, like an intruder caught in a spotlight. With great effort, she forces her attention back on the doctor.
“How can you be sure?”
“Have you talked to him?”
“Has he confessed?”
These questions are being thrown at the doctor once again. She is staying composed, patient, but her mouth is set tight with the effort.
“Look, all I can tell you is that we know he is guilty of attempted murder. I haven’t talked to him personally…”
“My sister has,” Kat speaks up. Safia feels her heart begin to race. What the hell is she doing? “Go on, Safia, tell everyone about visiting Bill in prison.” Safia’s mouth dries out and her temple begins to pound with the beat of her heart. She wants to strangle Kat.
“Is this true?” Dr. Mills asks.
“Yes,” Safia answers after clearing her throat. “I spoke with him last week.”
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