by Karen Randau
“I’ve been too busy. I have information on him though.”
He plodded toward the bed, holding the footboard as he walked. “I have to sleep. You look like you need rest, too. Tell me what happened to you.”
I helped him into bed while I described my ordeals of the past few days. “It’s almost light outside. I need to sleep a few hours, and then I’ll learn more about Haddad.”
17
Hearing a knock on the bedroom door, I slit open my eyes to see Taylor enter the room with an amber pharmaceutical bottle, a tablespoon, and a glass of water.
“What time is it?” I propped myself on my elbow to look at my phone’s clock. “Noon? Why didn’t you wake me?”
She felt Cliff’s forehead and gave a satisfied smile. “You needed the sleep. I’m here to give Cliff his medicine. I already gave Travis his.”
I rolled out of bed, wincing as my sore muscles resisted my efforts to move them. “How is Travis doing?”
“He seems a little better,” she said. “You should make them a light breakfast that includes the grapefruit I asked Katy to buy. Keep them hydrated with the coconut water, lemonade, and cranberry juice in the fridge. Give them their medicine with breakfast and lunch. Wash your hands a lot. I should be back for dinner.”
“Where are you going?” Cliff raised his hand toward me, still too weak to sit up.
“I have to investigate an attack on our town, remember?” I squeezed his hand and kissed his cheek. “Taylor is here to give you medicine.”
“I’m so glad to be home.” He gestured for me to hug him.
Taylor waited in the sitting area as I sat next to Cliff and held him for an extended embrace. “I’ve missed you horribly,” I whispered into his ear. His warmth filled me with a longing to spend the day in bed beside him, watching to make sure he was getting better.
“I thought I would die in that awful place.” His voice wobbled. “I wanted to pass away peacefully in your arms, not alone in a stinky hospital where the staff were too busy to notice.”
I tightened my grip on him. “You’re home now, and we’ll make sure you get better.”
He nestled his face onto my neck, kissing it. “This is a dangerous investigation,” he said. He grasped my arms and pushed me away to lock eyes with me. “You need to cover your tracks, and make no rookie mistakes like when you hacked into the Senate database and got arrested.”
I smiled, remembering my shame and fear while sitting in the first jail cell I’d ever seen outside of a movie theater or on a television screen. “Your police resources come in handy now, and we’ve improved our privacy setup since then. They help me roam around undetected. That won’t happen again.”
Regret filled me when I had to walk away from him. I gathered my clothes and towel, slipped on flip flops, and headed outside to freshen up for the day.
Mary sat in her camping chair singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” as I approached. When she saw me, she stood and checked my swollen eye before allowing me to enter the shower area and pull the curtain closed.
When I opened it again after bathing and dressing, Mary was still standing next to her camp chair.
“I was thinking,” she said in a voice so clear I hardly recognized her. “Before I got sick, my brother introduced me to a Muslim man who worked at the water treatment plant. David said the guy was really pious. He had an app on his phone to remind him when it was time to pray twice during the workday. He refused to work on Fridays and prayed in Phoenix with other Muslim men.”
I stared at her with my mouth gaping. “What has Taylor been giving you? It’s like you’re a different person.”
“I don’t know.” She picked up a pharmaceutical bottle like the one Taylor brought into our bedroom. “The only ingredients I remember are garlic and vinegar. She also said a word that reminded me of camouflage. There’s even gold and silver in here, along with another thing that sounds like an insurance company.” She handed me the bottle, but it had no markings. I turned it over twice, watching the clear liquid.
“Smells like garlic,” I said as I handed it back, smiling at her descriptions of Taylor’s unfamiliar herbal remedies.
“Tastes like garlic and salt.”
“You mentioned a Muslim man. What was his name?”
“Jacob Haddad. Once, David and I left Emma with a babysitter to go hiking with Jacob. He was a nice guy, but he had some interesting ideas. He said the government should take over child care because too many American women worked. When we told him that I was a military nurse and David helped me take care of my daughter, he looked at me as if he considered me trash. He kept his back to me and never spoke to me again. He avoided David at work. I don’t know if he’s still at the plant, but David could tell you. Do you think he got radicalized during those Phoenix trips and did this to teach us a lesson? Or was it a practice for something bigger?”
Still unable to fathom the transformation, I pulled her into an embrace. “It’s a miracle. I’m so happy for you.”
“Yes. This cocktail Taylor gave me has started clearing my mind. I can form coherent thoughts again. Before, every time I tried to reason, I’d lapse into a flashback of the explosion in Afghanistan and Brandish’s leg flying toward me. Because of Taylor, it doesn’t happen as often. I have hope I can hold my daughter again.” She finished packing and gave me a final peck on the cheek. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but I’m going home today. That’s why I was practicing singing nursery rhymes.” Her smile brightened, and she turned to pack her shopping cart. “I hope Emma hasn’t gotten too old to enjoy them with me.”
I followed her and held the security gate open as she wheeled her cart onto the street. “Wait,” I yelled. “I need to give you my phone number.” I ran into the house and jotted the number on a paper I kept in the kitchen for writing grocery lists. When I returned to Mary, she was singing “I’m a Little Teapot.” As she tried to raise an arm and tip sideways to imitate a teapot, she stumbled and had to catch herself with the cart.
“Guess I need to get my strength back,” she said before accepting the phone number. “I’ll call you from David’s phone, so you have mine. I’ll also ask him about Jacob Haddad.”
“No,” I said. “Let’s wait until I finish investigating Haddad. I don’t want to compromise anything. I’ll talk to David about him later. You enjoy holding Emma. And playing with her.”
She shuffled away singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”
Taylor joined me as I watched Mary.
“Do you think her recovery is permanent?” I turned toward Taylor in her green paramedic uniform.
“Her mind might stay clear if she keeps taking the medicine I gave her, but I haven’t figured out why she has no balance and shuffles when she walks.” She ambled to her car under the basketball hoop. “I have to go to work.” She got in and drove away.
I returned to the house and checked on both Travis and Cliff, deciding to allow them to continue sleeping before making them breakfast. I picked up Cliff’s file of information on Jacob and David, set my alarm for one hour, and took my place at my office desk.
Inside the folder, Cliff had assembled surface-level research on both men. I remembered that the local police chief had said the incident was being investigated as terrorism. I prayed David wasn’t involved as I updated my privacy software before visiting any websites. I started with hacking into their social media accounts.
Jacob’s Facebook page showed a happy family that took part in town activities. His daughter attended the public school, and there were lots of pictures of the family at school events. With no mosque in Rim Vista, his limited association with other Muslims was his Friday trips to Phoenix to pray.
His wife seemed more secular in her behavior, and no photos showed her with a head scarf like I’d seen other Muslim women wearing. Seeing her on the street, I wouldn’t have guessed her religion. She often volunteered as a chaperone for school outings and helped create props for school plays.
/> I researched the mosque where Jacob prayed and saw no complaints of violence or suspicion of radicalization happening inside there.
Remembering that someone said Jacob suddenly had enough money to take his family to Iraq, I tracked a ten thousand dollar deposit to a life insurance payment he received after the death of his father, who was a retired engineer, American citizen, and widower who had led a quiet life in a middle-class Phoenix neighborhood.
Until now, Jacob had never traveled outside the United States.
But he had told Mary that the government needed to have more control. That bothered me. I wrote a note to give it more scrutiny later and turned my attention to investigating David.
Again, I assembled the profile of a man who led a peaceful and quiet life devoted to his niece Emma. He dated occasionally, but he didn’t seem to have room in his life for a serious relationship.
Then a group photo David had posted on Facebook caught my attention. A fun time was had by all at the Rim Vista employee Christmas party, David had written.
The eyes of a frumpy woman with frizzy hair in the front row told a different story. She glared at the blond standing beside her, whose adoring gaze fell on David.
Was she the blond woman I saw the first time Mary visited her daughter and brother at their house? And what caused the tension between her and the drab lady in the front row?
At their sides, David and the adoring blond angled their hands toward one another. The woman’s index finger touched the back of David’s hand.
I needed to find out who those two women were.
18
My phone alarm reminded me it was time to make breakfast for Travis and Cliff. I closed the computer, moved to the bedroom, and watched Cliff sleep. Dropping a kiss onto his forehead, I headed to the kitchen and flinched when I saw Travis sitting at the table holding a glass of cranberry juice.
He lifted groggy eyes, his lips raising into a smile. “Katy and Neri woke me with a call. I was hungry. That must mean I’m better.”
“You look better.” I kissed his forehead, a mother’s way of checking for fever. Why did he feel warm if he was better?
I served him the meal Taylor had instructed, but the act of sitting up to eat seemed to sap his energy. He meandered back to his room as I took a tray of food to Cliff.
While he nibbled, I told him about my research on Jacob Haddad and David Zagby.
“Your boss told me the attack on our water system is being investigated as terrorism, but the only things about Jacob that fit the profile of a terrorist are his nationality and his last name. He isn’t angry, his family contributes to our community, and I saw nothing that resembled radical ideas on his social media. He wants the government to have more of an influence in our lives, which bothers me. I’ve met others with the same belief, and they aren’t considered radical.”
When I described the group photo of the town’s Christmas party, he said, “You should visit Mary. Knowing you, you could find out everything there is about the two women who sparked your interest in that photo.”
“It’s Saturday. David might be at home. Good idea.”
I helped him nestle into bed, cleaned up the breakfast dishes, and continued my research until it was time to feed my guys lunch. This time, Travis was too tired to get out of bed and said he wasn’t hungry. I fretted first with him and then with Cliff while they picked at their food.
In need of a diversion and fresh air, I gave them their medicine, tucked them into bed, and strolled toward the Zagby home.
When I knocked on their door, a laughing Mary answered, followed by five little girls wearing pointed birthday hats.
“Emma’s turning four today.” Mary looked so happy, but for the first time, her head quivered. I didn’t notice that before.
One girl blew a noisemaker, prompting giggles as they ran to the back of the house screaming.
“Please,” Mary said. “Come in. It’s so nice to hear my daughter playing again.”
I stepped inside and hugged her. “How are you?”
“I’m good. More tired than usual, but I’m sure that’s because of the excitement of seeing David and Emma again. And the party.”
David entered the room carrying an ice cream scoop. “Whoa! What happened to your eye?”
“I fell down a hill while changing a tire in the rain.” I laughed. “I’m okay now.”
“Mrs. Avery, thanks for all you’ve done to help Mary. Will you join us for cake and ice cream? This is our happiest celebration in a long time, and it’s because of you.”
I accepted, sitting with David and Mary in the living room while the birthday girls ate at the dinette between the kitchen and our sanctuary.
“It took a while, but I remembered how I met your family,” I said to David. “You’ve changed so much since you were in 4H with Travis, I didn’t recognize you at first. To catch up, I looked around social media. In the photo of your company Christmas party, a beautiful blond woman stood beside you. Was that your girlfriend?”
David blushed. “Not anymore. We broke up.”
“Who was that who broke my big brother’s heart?” Mary asked, her shaking head reminding me of someone I once knew who had Parkinson’s.
“You don’t know her,” he said. “Her name is Lena Kuznetsov.”
Mary nodded to confirm not knowing Lena, and I asked where he met her.
“We work together, but we realized we had similar interests because we kept seeing each other everywhere we went in town. We agreed it was destiny and we should date. She worked in accounting and wasn’t a direct report. That’s the company policy.”
“Doesn’t that still make things kind of tense since you’re the big boss?” I asked.
“No, it’s cool. Lena and I are still friends. She wasn’t ready for a serious relationship, especially with a man with a child. After accepting a job in Phoenix, she left the day before the attack. She said our lives would be better without her.” He turned to Mary. “She wanted me to take care of you.”
“David, I’m so sorry.” Mary set her plate on the coffee table, her eyebrows drawn into an anguished expression. “It’s my fault.”
“No.” The bitterness on David’s face suggested otherwise. “It’s the government’s fault, first for making you go to Afghanistan, and then by misdiagnosing you. If all it took was herbs to clear your mind, they should have known that.”
His anger walloped my heart. Could he be the one who sabotaged the water treatment plant? Would he do something so awful? As much as I didn’t want to, I had to explore that idea.
“Speaking of the government, I understand Jacob Haddad is a suspect in the damage done to our town,” I said.
“He had the skills as an engineer, but I don’t think he did it. He and his family left for Iraq two days before it happened. I told the feds that, but they said he could have given himself an alibi by setting it up to happen while he was away. I think they will meet him at the airport in Phoenix when the family comes home from Iraq next week. Did you hear they found a dead cow on the banks of the reservoir? There’s an avid conspiracy theorist at work, and she thinks the government is conducting an experiment on our town. She showed me an article that said the government once conducted biochemical warfare simulations on American citizens by spraying whooping cough and other diseases on towns to chart the long-term effects of the illnesses.”
I wanted to explore that idea because it fit my theory that the fresh produce I gave Cliff and Travis made them sick, but Mary gasped and grabbed her left arm as if she had a sudden pain.
“A cow?” Mary’s eyes flashed fear. “One of the town’s doctors finds me sometimes to ask how I feel and give me something to help me sleep. I wish I could see him now.” She leaned her hands on her knees and pulled in deep breaths.
“It wasn’t an exploding cow like the one that injured you.” David patted Mary’s knee. “Please don’t get upset.”
Too late. Mary held her temples and pinched her eyes shut, mouthing not
now. “My head is killing me. I have to go to the restroom. Excuse me.” She shuffled down the hall.
“Something isn’t right with her,” David said. “Her mind is better, but her physical health is declining. And she still has flashbacks.”
“I’ve noticed,” I said. “She talks of being sick. Besides PTSD, what’s been wrong with her?”
“She had food poisoning a few days after the explosion,” David said. “That turned into meningitis and caused her brain to swell, and they had to drain it. She developed a shuffle a week or two ago. I’ll call for an appointment with a Phoenix doctor tomorrow.”
“I’m a licensed private investigator now. I can research it if your physician needs help to identify whatever sprayed Mary in Afghanistan. Can you give me the dates and any details you have?”
“I keep all of that in one place and will give it to you before you leave today.” He looked down the hallway where Mary had gone, then back at me.
“They say it’s a designer strain of listeria that has everyone sick,” he said. “It’s antibiotic resistant. The CDC is working on a cure, but it’s coming too late for many people.” He looked down the hallway again. “I hope Travis and Cliff recover. Could you watch the girls for a minute? I should check on Mary.”
While I stood in the kitchen talking and laughing with the children, something crashed down the hall. David rushed into the room and gestured for me to follow him to the bathroom.
Mary laid on the floor, unconscious.
“You take care of the children, and I’ll call 9-1-1,” I said. “Don’t let Emma see this. Take them to the backyard.”
“They need to medevac her to Phoenix,” he said as he backed into the hallway. “I’ll get the name of the doctor who thinks he can help her.”