by Grady, D. R.
“Do you think Helena is safe with him?” Maks asked Emerson.
“Yes. I think there is little he wouldn’t do for her.”
“What do you mean by that?” Aleksi asked before Maks did.
“Didn’t you get the impression when we were younger that Vladimir seemed to have a certain affection or something for Helena?”
Aleksi thought about that and some of his tension eased. “He did glare at any other man who talked to her.”
“He kept her separated, too.” Emerson tapped out a beat on the desk.
“Do you think he left home to give her time to grow up?” Maks asked.
“I received the impression that he was biding his time for her, but that there was no doubt in his mind as to the woman he wanted.” Emerson shook his head at Nadia again.
She stopped doing whatever she’d been doing, and Aleksi didn’t bother looking down to see what damage she caused to his suit. This was one of his favorite nieces. She could do whatever she wanted. The suit could be cleaned.
“He never acted that way with Karis,” Maks said.
“Good for him,” Emerson said, with spirit. And lots of possessiveness. Aleksi was heartened to hear that. He wasn’t the only one worried about losing his woman to the black sheep of Rurikstan.
Some memories popped into Aleksi’s mind. “The only woman he ever growled about was Helena. She couldn’t even talk to other men, remember? He told her off several times.”
Maks stirred in his chair. “Didn’t she have a study group where they had a big project due? And he didn’t like her speaking to the males in the group. She snapped and finally told him off.”
“Yes.” Aleksi grinned. He remembered that day well. “She didn’t mince words did she?”
“No. He left soon after that.” Maks’ voice was quiet.
Emerson nodded. “That’s right. Do you think he realized he had to go figure out how to ease the anger?”
“He did have a lot of anger,” Maks agreed.
“Ever find out why?” Aleksi asked Maks.
Who shook his head. “I’m not sure Mother and Father even know.”
“Maria knows everything. Just like Emerson.”
Maks frowned and shook his head. “Not this time.”
“I always thought your dad did know,” Emerson inserted quietly, staring at Maks.
Nadia wriggled off Aleksi’s lap and ran to the play set in the corner. She was familiar with all the pieces there, so they left her to play. Aleksi thought about what her father had just revealed.
“What makes you say that?” Aleksi asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe a feeling I get whenever we talk about Vlad in front of Graham.”
“He never says much about Vlad,” Maks said, and stared at the ceiling.
“I noticed he seems to be the family secret,” Emerson said. “What I don’t understand is why?”
“Do you believe Vlad knows something we don’t?” Aleksi asked, since there seemed to be a lot of that going around.
“What could he know we don’t?” Maks sounded confused.
“Maybe he knows about a thirty-six year old secret?” Aleksi threw it out there, in the hopes that if one of them, like Emerson, were aware of whatever his mother might be hiding, then he’d spill the secret.
“Is there a thirty-six year old secret?” Emerson sounded interested, but not all-knowing, which was unusual for him.
“I don’t know,” Aleksi answered truthfully.
“What could Vlad have possibly heard that would make him turn against his family?” Maks asked.
He and Emerson both shrugged, but inside, Aleksi realized that if that secret had anything to do with his mother and potentially him, it would be enough. Enough to turn a confused teenager against his family for all these years? Yes, definitely.
What did his mother know that he didn’t?
What would the knowledge do to him, and more importantly, to his relationship with Tia? His spine stiffened as an icy finger teased the length. Not now. His courtship of Tia was moving along perfectly.
Did his mother know something that could create more havoc than their well problem?
***
Tia stared at the gloomy, malodorous room, her heart sinking. This area could very well be the cause of well twenty-six’s contamination, but it didn’t explain the other problems. They might be on the verge of some answers but not enough.
“You think there is problem, here, in my basement?” The janitor asked for about the fifth time. Tia turned to Graham. The man wasn’t listening to her; maybe he’d listen to the hospital director.
“Yes, Anson, we believe the reason why our well is making our people sick is because of this room.”
“But why?”
Ah, that’s why he kept asking. He didn’t understand how the basement area could be the cause of contamination.
“Anson, that is why we’re here. We need to know if there’s a crack in the wall or floor, especially around the autoclave area,” she said. “You see, we think some bacteria leaked through the floor or wall in this room and into the well. It then contaminated the water. That is what has been making the people sick.”
The Frenchman stared at her for a moment before saying, “I think there iz crack in autoclave wall, here.” He pointed to an area beside the autoclave, and directed her behind the sterilization oven.
“I don’t see anything,” Tia said after a careful inspection.
“No, I don’t either. But I hear loud bang, and I look, but I no see.” Anson all but wrung his hands. He was definitely agitated, as Graham explained his English became creative when he was nervous. Yet Anson not only spoke English, but his native French, Russian, and Rurikstani. And he was the janitor. An impressive lot, Europeans.
“When did you hear this bang?” Maria asked.
Tia wondered if Anson was sweet on Maria, because the little Frenchman appeared to go all flustered when she asked the question. Plus, his eyes kept darting to her, even when she didn’t speak. “Over month ago,” he finally said.
Tia nodded. “That fits. But you haven’t been able to locate the crack?”
“No.” He darted another look at Maria, his cheeks reddening. “That’s why I not say anything.”
“There has to be a crack then,” Jorge said, and squeezed into the space behind the autoclave. “But I don’t see one.”
“No, I either.”
“What about on the floor?” Helena contributed.
Tia frowned. “It would make sense if there was a problem on the floor.” She glanced around the room. “Anson, where do you store the biohazard bags before you autoclave them?”
“Here,” he said and pointed to a row of shelves a few feet away from the sterilizers.
She stared at the metal shelves and shook her head. “This doesn’t make sense.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Graham said, and she heard frustration in his voice. Just like hers.
“We aren’t going to find anything here, are we?” Maria asked with a sigh after Anson demonstrated his entire procedure for them. The six of them took turns searching for the crack, but no one discovered anything new.
“Not today,” Tia said. She turned to Anson. “If you would be so good as to keep a careful watch on the walls and floor?”
“Of course,” he promised and Tia felt he would.
The weight of no answers made her shoulders ache as she trailed up the stairs with the others. Her frustration roiled between the five of them. Anson had stayed behind to sterilize some of the waste from the racks.
“What a fruitless hour,” Maria groused.
Tia nodded. “I don’t understand. It has to be that area that’s causing the problem.”
“Why?” Helena asked.
They all turned to stare at her.
She, in turn, stared at Graham. “This isn’t the only autoclave or waste disposal area, right?”
He hesitated. “No. A small area behind the main lab was just added.”
/> “We’d better check there, too,” Tia said. “Excellent idea, Helena.”
“Thank you.”
They walked briskly to the area Graham indicated and again the five of them searched the entire space. No one in the lab could remember seeing a crack. And after a thorough investigation, Tia had to conclude it was highly doubtful the contamination came from this room.
The area was sealed off properly and was several floors above the well, plus it was on the other side of the building. She made a note to have maintenance check for cracks in the piping, but otherwise felt this area wasn’t contributing to their problem.
She felt in her bones that Anson’s area was the problem. Tia added another note beside the first. Perhaps the crack was in the pipes, not the floor or walls in Anson’s area.
“Hmm,” she mused.
“What’s wrong?” Jorge asked.
“Do you think the problem could be burst or cracked pipes in Anson’s area?”
Graham paused and stared at her. “That’s a possibility.”
Jorge added, “That would explain why we didn’t find cracks in the floor or on the walls.”
“The crack in the piping wouldn’t need to be big,” Maria added.
“But wouldn’t it be sterile water going through those pipes?” Helena asked.
Tia’s shoulders drooped. “Yes, you’re right. It should be sterile water. So even if there is a crack—”
“It would still allow for buildup of nutrients, which would allow for growth,” Maria said.
“That’s true. But would the species we’ve seen in well twenty-six be that growth?” Tia challenged. She tapped a finger against her chin. “Too bad we don’t have a crystal ball.”
The others laughed. “That would help tremendously,” Maria said, while Helena grinned. But their smiles faded too quickly.
They needed answers, not more questions. Clarification so they could treat the well. If they didn’t know where the contamination came from, there was no sense in treating the well. It’d only become re-contaminated and the problem might explode out of proportion.
Tia forced herself to wait. Made herself be patient. They needed answers before they took action. Patience hadn’t really been a problem for her before. There was no reason for her to be impatient now. She was a scientist. She could outwait the slowest grower there was.
Could she outwait a certain prince? Her femme fatale split personality irrational side questioned.
Since Tia didn’t want to deal with that problem at the moment, she flicked the voice away. Why couldn’t her life be easier?
Chapter 17
When Maks and Emerson finally left, taking Nadia with them, Aleksi settled into the chair behind his desk and contemplated the stack of mail. Should he read mail, or work on correspondence? Should he check email, return phone calls, or push through the stack of folders on his desk first? None of it appealed to him. Not when he still wanted to kiss Tia senseless.
The phone rang.
Answer the phone. Easy decision.
“Aleksi?” His aunt Loletta, and she sounded odd.
“Yes, what’s wrong?” The tension in her voice didn’t sound familiar.
“We have the test results from your mother’s physical.”
“And?”
“They say she has lead poisoning.”
He sat forward in his chair so fast it almost sprung him out of the seat. “What? Lead poisoning?”
“Yes. I’ve been doing some research on the subject.”
“And you’ve discovered?” He tried to comprehend his mother suffering from lead poisoning.
“My research told me that some of the symptoms are as follows: lethargy, muscle cramps and weakness as well as headache, drowsiness, and confusion. The more severe symptoms are: seizures, dementia, personality changes, and eventually coma.”
Again, Aleksi nearly ejected himself from his chair. “Aunt Loletta, those final symptoms describe Father’s illness perfectly.”
“And your mother’s new personality as well.”
He sat back in his chair. “Lead poisoning. I thought they tested for lead poisoning? And where did she encounter lead?”
“They did test for it, but the tests came up negative. The doctors claim the source as being the water pipes. Your parents’ rooms are in the oldest section of the palace. You haven’t replaced the plumbing in that section yet, have you?”
“No.” His parents had been poisoned by the pipes? Their plumbing had killed his father? And caused drastic changes in his mother? The absurdness was nearly more than he could fathom.
“My suggestion is that you conduct a meeting with the palace plumbing staff and have them replace those old pipes immediately. Make certain they wear the proper protective clothing, but have them utterly replace the plumbing. Also suggest they look for leaks within the pipes, because the doctors suspect there’s more than just the pipes here.”
“Yes, of course. I’ll call a meeting as soon as we conclude our telephone conversation.” He couldn’t believe their home had caused his parents’ ailments. Ailments which had killed his father.
“Why did it kill Father, and not Mother?”
“I did ask that question. His heart was weak, and he was more susceptible to the condition.”
“So because Mother was healthier, she survived, and he didn’t?”
“She said she always drank bottled or filtered water in their bedchamber, because she didn’t care for the taste of the tap water. Your father didn’t mind the taste so he regularly drank water from those pipes.”
“So it only passed through Mother’s system via her skin. But Father died because he not only bathed in the water, but also drank it,” Aleksi concluded and closed his eyes, blinking back tears. But for a ridiculous, innocuous habit of his father’s, he’d succumbed to an illness that could have been prevented.
“Yes.” He heard his aunt sigh. Aleksi wanted to punch something. He wanted to start ripping those pipes out himself, with his bare hands. Through long practice he quelled that notion and instead asked a question. “What will happen with Mother?”
“They’ve explained the treatment for lead poisoning to both of us, and we’re planning to go through with that. It could be a bit uncomfortable, but your mother is willing for it.”
“What about her mental therapy?”
“We plan to also keep up with that. We’ll undergo the lead poisoning treatments as well as the therapy. But you not only need to discover where the lead pipes are throughout the palace, but also Rurikstan.”
Aleksi threaded a hand through his hair. This sounded like a massive undertaking. One that would consume him and not offer him any time with Tia.
Thinking about her made him wonder about the lead pipes and the wells and whether part of what she saw was caused by the lead pipes. At least that would give him an excuse to speak to her again. Provided he could locate her. He tried calling the lab when his friends left but received no answer. The lab was like a, what was that American term? A ghost town, yes that was it. If he visited again could he expect to see tumbleweed blowing through it, even though he had never seen tumbleweed? Except in some old John Wayne movies during his university days.
He wondered if Tia liked John Wayne movies?
“I’ll call you after we have a treatment, which should be either today or tomorrow.”
“Have you been tested, Loletta?”
“No, but I know my pipes aren’t lead. Our house is new, remember?”
“And you don’t live in Rurikstan.”
“Correct. The doctors suggested, rather strongly, that you and the palace staff all be retested.”
“Mother and Father’s bedchamber is in the oldest section of the palace. Most of the piping is new elsewhere,” Aleksi explained and rubbed a weary hand over his forehead.
“Yes, I understand. The testing would be a precaution.” He didn’t say anything so she continued. “Aleksi, there is an accepted treatment for this, if there’s a problem
. You need to make certain to test everyone. Also, some of those odd cases at the hospital need to be tested. You’d better alert Graham.”
“I’ll do that.”
“We have answers now, love. That’s something we didn’t have yesterday.”
“Yes,” he said tightly.
“By the time she returns home, your mother should be herself again. You’re getting your mother back.”
“I’m so relieved I don’t know what to say.” But he thought about his father. He had still lost someone precious. Because of the lousy pipes?
“I’d better ring off, love. Your mother says they’re planning to start her treatments today. If I can’t phone you this evening, I will in the morning.”
“Thank you, Aunt Loletta.”
“You’re welcome. Now go take care of all this.”
“I will,” he said, and they rang off.
He sat staring at the opposite wall. Wondering about pipes, and death. With no understanding of either, frustration and helplessness arose in a choke hold. How did he combat something he had no knowledge of?
With a sigh, Aleksi picked up the phone again.
This would prove to be a long day.
He wondered if he’d get a chance to even glimpse Tia. Because right now she was the only bright spot of his life. Without her, he’d have sunk into a depression he might not be able to escape.
His mother would get better, he reminded himself.
But his dad was still dead.
No matter how many new pipes he used to replace the old ones, he couldn’t bring his father back.
***
Tia peered around the doorway to Aleksi’s office, a little intimidated by the vastness of the space. And the utter elegance. She was certain there wasn’t a piece of furniture that wasn’t older than her, and solid wood. The silver pieces were likely real, as was the gold inlay and gems that decorated the various surfaces.
She thought about her office back home. The metal desk was banged up, chipped, and had seen at least five previous owners. It might have spent time in a frat house, too. There was an ominous stain she hadn’t wanted to inspect too closely.