Fatal Dose

by K. J. Janssen

  Ten minutes later she joined him in the kitchen. Her hair was wrapped in a towel and she wore one of his robes that hung off her slim shapely frame. She opened the robe wide and asked, “Are you sure you don’t want some more of this? I’m squeaky clean and I smell real good.”

  He looked at her for a moment. “Believe me, I’m tempted. You look just ravishing, but not tonight. Help yourself to some snacks while I shower. Then we’ll relax for awhile with some drinks before I take you to your car.”

  “Why can’t I spend the night with you? We could go get my car and come back here.”

  “I’ve got to say no for the same reasons I won’t shower with you. I’ve got some work to do. I’ll take a rain check, though,” he said as he headed off to the bathroom.

  He was still naked. As he left the room Sarah marveled at what a great physical specimen he was. His arms, back and chest were heavily muscled. She also noticed the massive erection. It will be a cold shower for him tonight, she thought. I wonder if he works out. He would almost have to, to be in such great shape at his age. His body wasn’t very hairy. She wondered whether he shaved in some spots. She liked it when he held her close. A small patch of hair on his chest tickled her nipples and sent a shiver through her body. She sighed. It’s a real shame to waste a boner like that. They met under such odd circumstances. Three hours ago, she would have never imagined she’d be feeling like this. None of that mattered; she was living in the now. She began to wonder about what he wanted her to do at work. Does he want me to spy on my boss for him? I’m okay with that, I guess. I don’t see any harm in it

  When Marco came back to the kitchen he was wearing a pair of light blue boxer shorts and a white t-shirt. He shaved and splashed on some cologne.

  Sarah rushed over and kissed him gently on the cheek.

  “You’re sure smell nice. Is that for me?”

  “Well, after that workout I smelled a little gamey. I thought I owed you something better than that. It’s French cologne. I don’t remember the name offhand. I’m glad you like it. I’ll make sure to always keep some around.”

  “I do like it, and these hors d’oeuvres are delicious, too, but I’d love to have some of that scotch you promised.”

  Marco went into the living room and opened the door on an end table. He removed a new bottle of eighteen-year-old Glenlivet scotch and brought it out to the kitchen. He removed two glasses from a cabinet, got cubes from the icemaker and poured their drinks.

  Sarah looked admiringly at the label. “I’m impressed. You really meant it when you said top shelf.”

  “I always try to get the best. There are more expensive brands on the market, but they just don’t please my palate as much as the Glenlivit does.”

  “You’re a man of such discriminating tastes.”

  “In all areas of my life,” he replied, looking her up and down slowly. He repeated, “In all areas of my life.”

  Sarah’s face reddened. “Thank you for saying that.”

  “Why don’t we go inside and relax? I do need to discuss one thing with you.”

  They moved into the living room and sat down next to each other on the modern couch.

  Sarah asked, “What can I do for you?”

  “Sarah, you know by now that I don’t have a problem with your past. Shit, I’ve done quite a few things myself that I’m not too proud of. Fortunately nobody knows anything about them. Anyway, I’m just glad it brought us together.”

  She put her drink down on the coffee table and listened intently to what he was saying.

  “I found out about your background purely by accident. After what just happened in there, I’m sure glad I did. It seems that the FBI came up with your name as part of some investigation they are conducting. I found out that they were looking at all Atronen employees. Your file was one of three that they flagged for further study. I have no idea what their next step is.”

  “Why is the FBI investigating Atronen and why me?”

  “Pharmaceutical companies and their employees are always under scrutiny. I’m not sure what they are specifically looking for right now. Maybe it’s because you work for the president of the company.”

  “What can they do to me? I paid my debt to society.”

  “I know, but they will probably threaten to divulge your past to Atronen if you don’t cooperate with them. They may ask you to spy on Turner or on some other employee. Who knows, maybe even me. Just don’t fall for any of their tricks. They won’t squeal on you. They don’t operate that way. Cops sometimes do, but not the FBI. They talk it, but they don’t walk it.”

  “What should I do if they contact me?”

  “There is not a lot you can do. They have known about you for several days now, so it’s quite possible they don’t feel that you can be of much help to them. In that case, you have nothing to worry about. If they do contact you, stall them. Give me a call and we’ll work out a plan together. Most of all, don’t panic. You have me looking out for you.”

  She slid over to him and gave him a big hug. “I won’t worry then. By the way, is either of the other two files a woman? I’d hate to think that I have competition.”

  “They aren’t, but you would have nothing to worry about in that department. Nobody could possibly stack up to you.” As he spoke he fondled her breasts, teasing her nipples with his thumbs.”

  “While we’re talking about it, I want you to know that I think what we have here is special. I promise that I’ll save myself for you alone and I’d like to think that you feel the same way.”

  “I do, darlin’. I promise that I won’t be with any other woman as long as we’re together.”

  They kissed, did a bit more groping and went back to the subject at hand.

  “How did you find out the FBI was conducting an investigation?”

  “I have some contacts at the FBI. That’s how I got your file. If anything is going to happen, I’ll know about it ahead of time, but you’ll have to be on guard, all the same.”

  “I’m so lucky to have you looking out for me.”

  They sat back and enjoyed the scotch.

  Two hours later, Marco was back alone in his apartment, having dropped Sarah off by her car in the Slip-In Saloon parking lot. It was time for some thinking and serious drinking. As he saw it, he was a step ahead of the FBI, and regardless of what their plans were, he intended to stay there.

  Marco knew that he had to put more pressure on his other contact. That wasn’t going to be easy, but he needed to know what the FBI was up to so he could keep ahead of their plans. Marcia could provide only limited information. His other informant was a Special Agent and in a better position to know the big picture.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Sarah Egbert’s checkered past began as a teenager. She was raised in a Midwestern mining town.

  Home was a one-bedroom shack. Her mother died when she was thirteen. She lived with her step-father Abraham Egbert and stepbrother Ben, who was two years older than she.

  Abraham lived by his own interpretation of the Old Testament. He believed that idle hands were the devil’s playthings and decided that the sins of the children needed to be cleansed, often. Every Sunday morning at exactly nine o’clock, rather than attend a church, he meted out a punishment on them in the form of six lashes from his belt on their bare behinds one for each day of the week, excluding his Sabbath. Any crying brought an additional five lashes.

  On Ben’s sixteenth birthday, Abraham decided to give him a special present. He announced to the children that it was time for them to be instructed about sex so that they would be prepared when they eventually left home to make their way in the world. The children shared a bed. As they grew up they made the usual contact with each other as they slept and had equally as many opportunities to view each other’s bodies as they bathed and dressed, but nothing ever happened between them; any interest was just that of normal sibling curiosity. They did not have a television set or any books or magazines to learn anything about their
bodies or how to use them.

  That was about to change. Abraham was going to teach them about what to do. The instruction that daddy had in mind was going to be the real thing. His own deep religious convictions, based on his understanding of Old Testament stories, forbade him from personal participation in the lessons, but since the children were not blood siblings he felt that it would be proper for them to learn the “facts of life” from each other; under his careful tutelage, of course.

  “You two strip to your skivvies,” he ordered. They obediently removed their garments.

  “Now, Ben, today you’re going to learn how to have sex with a woman. Sarah is going to help you because she needs to learn how to please a man. The Good Book says that that’s what the Good Lord put women on the earth for.”

  During the next ten minutes he instructed Ben on how to approach a woman with tenderness and yet with firmness. Dutifully, Ben undressed Sarah first, then himself. Neither seemed to be surprised nor embarrassed by the other’s nakedness. He told Ben how to put on a condom and how to enter Sarah. Then he sat back in his lounging chair, covered himself with a blanket and watched the spectacle.

  Sarah observed her father while the lesson was going on. There was a lot of movement under the blanket while she and Ben were doing it. It wasn’t until years later that she realized that he was getting-off while they performed. She wondered where in the Good Book, masturbating while watching one’s children having sex together, was sanctioned.

  The training sessions occurred three more times over the next week. Love was never discussed, nor was foreplay. Sex was simply to be a man’s release from the tensions of life or to make children. A woman was to be there to facilitate the practice.

  When he was satisfied that he had done his duty in educating his children properly about the subject of sex, the lessons ended abruptly. “I think you two have learned enough for now.” He warned them that they were always to use the missionary position; any other position was an abomination to the Almighty.

  While the formal lessons may have stopped, Ben and Sarah had experienced something wonderful and they continued to enjoy each other’s bodies while he was at work. Against his orders, they experimented with different positions doggie style, oral and even anal sex. This continued for several years at least twice a week.

  Neither was sexually active outside their special union. Ben discovered that he could buy condoms from a machine at the local gas station and became a steady customer.

  One day Abraham arrived home unexpectedly and found his children in bed having oral sex. “Stop that this instant,” he shouted at them. They looked up in shock, both quickly pulling the blanket up over their naked bodies. They cowered against the wall, in dread fear.

  “What are you doing? How could you bring such shame down on our house? God will bring eternal damnation on your heads.”

  He removed his belt and lashed out at both, leaving deep red welts on their naked bodies. He beat them savagely for several minutes, finally falling to his knees, thoroughly exhausted.

  They cried out in pain and shame. “We’re sorry Daddy,” they chimed in together, tears streaming down their faces. “We won’t ever do it again.”

  “It’s too late for that. You must leave this house, immediately. I never want to set eyes on your sinful faces again. I don’t have children, no more.” Abraham removed twenty dollars from his wallet and threw it on the table. “Take the bus out of town and don’t ever come back.” He turned and walked out the door, tears flowing down cheeks.

  They dressed quickly, fearing that he might come back and beat them some more. They packed whatever clothes they had into four shopping bags, picked up the twenty dollar bill, added it to what little money they managed to save up, put on their coats and left the house. They walked to the corner store where the Greyhound buses stopped. Ben and Sarah hugged each other for the last time and went their separate ways he to Denver and she to Dayton, Ohio.

  She heard years later that Ben hanged himself in a Baptist church in Boise. Her father died of lung cancer a year after they left home.

  Dayton wasn’t kind to Sarah. Three weeks after her arrival she was out of money and despondent. One day she was seated on a bench waiting for a homeless shelter to open when she was approached by Miles Everett. Within six months, Miles involved Sarah in a check kiting scheme and fraudulent sales of computers through the mail. She was arrested, convicted and imprisoned for the next three years while Everett somehow got off scot-free. Prior to her release, her case came to the attention of attorney Arnold Wellington III, who, as a part of his pro-bono work, introduced her to a work program at Atronen Pharmaceuticals’ home office. Her sponsor was Clifford Melbourne.

  Six months after she started her new job, Miles Everett began showing up at her office and apartment. Now that she had a chance to build a good life, she had no intention of returning to the life of crime he was offering, but he persisted, even threatened to expose her to her boss if she didn’t cooperate. Sarah sought help from Melbourne, who arranged for Everett to be visited by two thugs. Miles subsequently hospitalized with a concussion, six broken ribs, a broken leg and several severed fingers. He left town immediately upon his release from the hospital and she never heard from him again.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Clifford Melbourne sat in his penthouse above Essex Courts of Shaker Heights. It cost one million dollars when it was built; it was now worth over four million. The seven rooms were decorated almost exclusively in Swedish modern, with stainless steel appliances in the kitchen. He lived alone. On paper, Melbourne was the president and CEO of Heights Financial of Cleveland Heights, Ohio and a member of the Atronen Board of Directors. In shadier circles, he was the second-in-command titular head of a drug cartel covering eight Midwestern states.

  The phone interrupted his reverie. He was halfway through the first movement of Ravel’s “Bolero” He hit the pause button on the remote and reached for the handset. He was surprised when he saw the caller’s name.

  “Melbourne,” he announced.

  “Mister Melbourne, I’m sorry to be calling so late.”

  Melbourne glanced at the time. It was a few minutes past midnight.

  “That’s all right. What’s so urgent, Sarah?”

  “Marco Vennuti contacted me today. He found out about my time in jail and threatened to expose me to Mister Turner if I didn’t cooperate with him.”

  “What kind of cooperation was he after?”

  It got quiet on the other end. Cliff Melbourne knew instinctively what the answer was going to be.

  After a moment, Sarah said, “He wanted sex and for me to spy on Mister Turner. He also said that the FBI knew about me and if I didn’t cooperate with him I would be in big trouble. He claims to have spies at the FBI office that tell him everything that is going on. That’s how he got my FBI file. He says that he will be able to protect me if I do as he says.”

  “That’s interesting. How did you handle his demands?”

  “What do you think? I can’t have all that stuff coming out. I need my job and I couldn’t tell him about my connection to you. So I told him yes. We went back to his place and did some big time nasty.” She hesitated a minute and added, “Actually, it wasn’t all that bad. He is fantastic in bed. I think that, under the circumstances, I was really lucky that that is all he wanted; except, possibly, for providing information about Mister Turner.”

  It got quiet on the phone again, this time on Melbourne’s end. Finally, he said, “Look, Sarah, I understand that he put you on the spot and that you reacted out of necessity, but don’t let your hormones get out of control. He is a dangerous man. You know I will protect you if need be. There is a lot at stake here. Don’t let your emotions get in the way.” He hesitated for a moment, “Of course you can do whatever you want in your spare time, but don’t forget that, at the end of the day, you owe me big time.”

  Sarah didn’t like the tone of his voice. “Look, Mister Melbourne, I called you because my
loyalty is to you first. I can’t forget that you got rid of Miles Everett when he was harassing me and that it was you who got me the job at Atronen in the first place.”

  “I’m glad you remember that, Sarah. You know that I only have your best interests at heart. As for Marco Vennuti, I’ll want you to report any information you can on his activities. It’s in both our interests that I know what he’s up to. I really appreciate your call.”

  He hesitated for a minute and added, “Do me a favor. Tell Marco that two men in blue suits showed up to see your boss and that their appointment wasn’t on Mitchell Turner’s calendar. Tell him that you think that they might have been FBI agents, that they met for about an hour and left with a manila folder. Show some concern about it. Will you do that for me?”

  “Sure, whatever you need me to do.”

  “Thanks, Sarah. Have a good night.”

  Melbourne picked up the remote to restart “Bolero” but his mind was now in a different place than before. He was more certain than ever that Vennuti would have to be dealt with, maybe sooner rather than later. Marco moved from being an asset to a liability. Melbourne thought, Enjoy your sex while you can, Sarah, it’s not going to last much longer.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Under scrutiny, Paul Snyder’s marriage number one turned out to be a brief union when Paul was in his early twenties. Her name was Lucille. The marriage was annulled after six months. For some reason the public records of this union/disunion were never updated. There was nothing there that Mark could use.

  Family number two lived in Fairview, Pennsylvania, just over the northeast border of Ohio. Public records showed that the house on Pendleton Lane was jointly owned by Marge and Paul Snyder. It was purchased in 1980. The couple had one son, Paul Jr. who attends a community college two towns over. At fifty-three, Paul been separated from Marge for the past eight years. She, being a strict Roman Catholic, refused to give Paul a divorce.