Gone in a Flash

by Susan Rogers Cooper

  ‘Jeez, just to get a pill produced?’ I asked.

  ‘Produced and to market. Seems like it’s an expensive endeavor. But before market, there are the tests.’ She stopped to take a swig of her Shiner Bach.

  ‘And?’ I encouraged.

  ‘Well, there’s the rub. They found out during the testing phase that it might cure leukemia, but it also caused brain tumors in rats.’

  ‘Jeez,’ I said, sipping my white wine. I’m off beer because of my new and improved body. ‘But Andronikov had put all this money in—’

  ‘And wanted more money out. Selling the drug as a cure for childhood leukemia would have made him a fortune. He told them to go ahead and manufacture the drug. James said no way. He wasn’t going to be responsible for giving children brain tumors. Duh.’

  ‘Yeah, duh. But Andronikov—’

  ‘Cajoled and then threatened, then kidnapped Elizabeth. To give them both credit, when Andronikov called James and told him he had Elizabeth, when she was able to speak to him briefly—’

  ‘Proof of life?’

  ‘Right. She told him to take the flash drive with all their data on it and run. The formula for the drug, their research, and the tests. And he did.’

  ‘And that’s where we came in,’ I finished up. ‘I’ve told Willis a thousand times that baby-shit yellow truck of his was going to get him in trouble. I’m sure the color is the reason James Unger put the satchel in our truck!’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Luna said. ‘With Smith and Jones following him, I don’t think he had much time to think. Anyway, the flash drive is history. Elizabeth destroyed it so no one else as greedy as Andronikov can get their hands on it.’

  ‘Any word on Mr Jones?’ I asked.

  Luna shook her head. ‘I doubt if we’ll get him. And I’m not sure I want to. Let’s face it, he’s sort of the good guy in this thing.’

  ‘Yeah, he is,’ I agreed. ‘And if what he said about Mr Unger going off the roof being an accident is true—’

  Luna shook her head. ‘Death during the commission of a felony,’ she said. ‘But I’m not going to go looking for him.’

  I heard another car pull up and Willis went through the gate to the driveway and came back holding a cloth bag loaded with edible goodies, followed by Vera. Her arm was in a sling, but somehow she’d managed to get that heavy-looking bag from her house to her car. She’s a little spitfire, that woman.

  I got up and hugged her. She hates that. Which is why I do it, of course. ‘Hey,’ I said. ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘I’m fine. Hello, Elena. You gonna introduce me to this nice-looking young man?’

  And so she did, while I set out Vera’s offerings on the picnic table with the sides Luna and I had already made. Looking over the bounty, I figured if I had just a little bit of everything, I’d be OK. Maybe a little more of that strawberry pie – I mean, it was fruit, right? How bad could it be for me?

  Vera joined Elena and I on the deck, and I pulled up another chair. Vera sat down, her face a frown. ‘They finally found Rachael Donley’s body,’ she said. ‘He put her in a dumpster at a building site that had been shut down. It took the trash people a little longer to empty it because they couldn’t get into the site.’ I touched her hand. ‘He strangled her. Old man like that. Rachael was young and fit, I just don’t see how he managed it. According to my FBI friend, Roni Sanchez, Gerald – I mean, Thomas – had no idea who she was until the convention. She’d told him before that she knew him from somewhere, but could never place him. On the bus on our way to D.C. she must have figured it out. And she asked him to meet her in the mezzanine the following night, told him she knew who he was and begged him to turn himself in – or else she would. Instead, he choked her to death and hid her body in a closet on the mezzanine, then came back in the middle of the night and moved her, using the staff elevator.’ Vera shook her head. ‘Vicious, just vicious. And to think, all that time I thought he was helping me to find her. Mind you, I never did trust that man.’

  I decided to ignore that remark. ‘So how are your friends at church dealing with all this about Gerald?’ I asked.

  ‘Well, at first they were all aghast, but then something even worse – well, maybe not worse, but equally messy – came out.’

  ‘What?’ Luna and I both demanded.

  ‘I was right about Brother Joe. He’s a piss poor preacher for a good reason,’ she said, at which point she stopped for dramatic effect. Vera does like to enhance her stories just a bit.

  ‘And that would be …’ I prompted.

  ‘He’s not one!’ She grinned big. ‘He’s undercover DEA! Would you believe Angela Barrow and her husband Howard are great big meth dealers? It’s true! They run a whole ring or something—’

  ‘Why wasn’t I informed of this?’ Luna demanded.

  Vera shrugged. ‘Maybe because it was on a need to know basis, and you, my dear, didn’t need to know?’

  Luna stiffened, then relaxed. I’ve noticed she’d been a lot easier to get along with since Eddie’s been home. ‘Probably. Hell, there’s lots of things I don’t need to know.’

  ‘Y’all got your little problem all settled, the one that took you to Houston?’ Vera asked.

  Luna told her all about that. Finally, the meat was done to the satisfaction of our men, so we called the kids and all gathered at the picnic table.

  Somewhere during all the food shoveling into faces, Graham said, ‘Grandma, did Dad tell you about Alicia and me?’

  ‘Well, I think you’re both too young to be thinking the kinds of things y’all are thinking, that’s all I’m saying,’ Vera said.

  ‘Vera, how old were you when you got married?’ I asked with a grin.

  ‘Seventeen, but that’s not the point—’

  Graham’s hands were in the air in a surrender pose. ‘Whoa, now! No one’s said anything about marriage!’

  The look on Alicia’s face was enough to make me want to cry. Graham saw it, and recovered nicely. ‘I mean right now! We both have to finish school.’

  She nodded and went back to her consumption of mass quantities of food.

  Graham sighed. ‘So, did he ask you about me moving in with you?’

  ‘Of course. And the answer is yes. Wish you could move in now. I have a hard time with just one arm—’

  ‘Mama!’ Willis said. ‘Why didn’t you say so? Medicare has a day nurse thing, don’t they? If not, we’ll get you one.’

  ‘I don’t need a nurse—’

  ‘Nurse’s aide,’ I said.

  ‘I’ll think about it,’ she said. ‘Or I could stay here for a few days. I have a bag in my car.’

  Just when I start to like the woman …