Lethal Discoveries

by Erica Pensini

  She looked around into the rear mirrors and from the windows.

  “Maybe. Or maybe he is going to catch up with us later”, she replied

  “But would he follow a policeman? That’s pushing the risks”, Jack wondered

  “Sure it is, but he is following you, he needs to know when you and I meet to predict the next move”

  I nodded

  “And I will do the same with him”, she continued

  I looked at her questioningly

  “We need to know who he works for”, she explained, looking into the mirrors as she drove

  “But do you think he knows you’re a policeman?”, I asked, and realized my question was naïve as soon as I formulated it

  Instead of answering it Avery said, “Look at that car on the right lane, the grey Chevy. Look carefully”

  “Yes”, I said, but the reflection from the glass concealed the face of the driver

  “I cannot see too well”

  “I think it’s him”, Jack confirmed

  “I can’t see”, I reiterated

  Avery kept driving without changing her speed, and the Chevy did the same.

  “There’s an exit in few hundred meters, I am going to take it”, said Avery

  The memory of the car crash flashed back into my mind and I told myself, this is it. I won’t make it this time. I felt almost a sense of relief giving up the fight. But then I saw the exit sign and Avery shifted to the right lane, and I was tense again. I was sitting on the back and couldn’t see Jack’s face, I wished I could. Please not now, please tell me it will be fine, I prayed in silence, although I am not a believer.

  The Chevy was behind us now and the exit just few meters away. I turned around quickly and saw him. Ronny. At this point I was sure he knew I knew it was him. I stopped breathing. We took the exit and the Chevy kept going straight. All of a sudden I felt the urge to release my bowels. We followed the curved ramp leading us out of the highway and drove till we reached a residential area where low wooden houses lay in perfect stillness on the two sides of a reassuringly empty road.

  “It was Ronny”, I said then

  Avery nodded, and kept driving without talking till we got to my home.

  “I’ll wait outside, I want to keep an eye on what happens around your house. Don’t rush, but don’t take too long either. We need to move fast, sorry”, she said, speaking with tense curtness

  We said all right, and went inside to give our abraded bodies and mind a clean-up before the next round.

  Chapter 78

  I had been away for only few days, but it felt like it had been centuries since I had last seen home. The dim light in the rooms, the old squeaky floor, the stillness of the air conferred to the place the atmosphere of a dream. Or so it seemed to me. Things were moving too fast and reality had lost meaning.

  We were walking around the house in our underwear, unpacking quickly and getting ready for a shower when Jack stopped, and stood there looking at the room as if he was seeing it for the first time.

  “What are you thinking?”, I asked, stopping too

  “When will this story ever end? Have you ever thought of going somewhere else and blowing all of this away?”, Jack asked me

  “Yes, yes…but they followed us all the way to Italy…”, I begun

  “Only because they knew what we were there for”, he objected

  “You think that if we moved to some desert island just to lie on the beach all day they will respect our good times?”, I asked, laughing sadly

  But Jack was serious.

  “Not necessarily in an island, in any small place where we could make a living by making bread. Or something else, anything”, he said

  “I don’t know Jack. It feels like I’ve entered a tunnel from which there is no way out. As if this will never end until I die”

  I was about to say until we die, but didn’t have the guts to.

  “I am with you in the tunnel, and you bet I am going to find a way out. We’ll walk out of the tunnel, trust me”

  I looked at Jack’s clear eyes and athletic body, and for a moment a rush of hopeful joy made me smile.

  “Do you think this is really possible?”, I asked

  “Of course”

  Of course. If Jack thought so, maybe it was possible after all?

  “But now Avery is waiting downstairs”, I said, reality tight on me again and yet a bit less anguishing

  He shrugged.

  “We’ve got to stop running around and take some time to think”, he told me, but then added, ok let’s go, and in less than 15 minutes we were in Avery’s car, freshly washed and wearing clean clothing.

  “So, who is the person we should identify?”, I asked on our way to the police station

  “Mark Gill. You met him before, right?”

  “Yes. Did I tell you?”, I asked, wondering for a moment if Avery had investigated on me too

  “You told me”, she confirmed

  Right, I had, and now I remembered.

  “So you think he is the one who sent people to follow us”, I asked

  “That’s possible. I have strong reasons to believe he killed McMurrich”

  “He killed McMurrich?!”

  I was stunned

  “Did McMurrich ever tell you about her relationship with Mark Gill?”

  “No. McMurrich never told me anything personal”

  Avery nodded, and was silent for a moment, formulating some thought hidden behind a frown I could see from the mirror.

  “So what was their relationship?”, I asked after a moment

  “They were lovers”

  “Lovers?”, I asked.

  So we had been right to think so when we saw them from the window of “The Greaser”, driving together. And it made sense too, they looked like a good match. Both cold, both unfriendly and authoritative.

  “So why do you think he killed her?”, Jack asked

  “His fingerprints were all over her place, which makes sense because they were lovers. But there were fresh traces of his tires in front of her house the night she died and her neighbours think they saw him leave McMurrich’s house late that day. We don’t have any evidence that pins Gill down unequivocally, but my fifth sense tell me the man is involved”

  I processed the information for a moment.

  “How did he kill her?”, I asked at last

  “He ran her over with his car”, Avery said

  “But the man looked like the coolest control freak to me, otherwise, well, his relationship with McMurrich would be hard to conceive”

  Jack was sitting on the front, he turned around for a moment and looked at me with an expression I couldn’t fully decipher, perhaps reproachfully

  Get over your hatred, she’s dead, I imagined him think

  “Maybe he lost control for once in his life. Maybe it wasn’t planned”, Avery said

  I shrugged. I couldn’t get myself to ponder the possibilities of life, I was tired and didn’t really care anymore if McMurrich had died, and why. I didn’t care to identify Mark Gill. I didn’t even care about myself.

  “So what will we be doing there?”, I asked, leaning back

  “You told me you brought the polymer to this guy for some analyses”, Avery said

  “I did”, I confirmed, remembering just then that I had told Avery

  “I want to understand if there is any link between the murder and the polymer”, Avery said

  She was speaking quietly now, almost to herself, as if she was trying to put some order in her thoughts while speaking to me

  “A link between the murder and the polymer”, I repeated, trying to make sense of the concept

  “Was Gill trying to get to use the polymer for his own purposes and did he kill McMurrich because she had found out?”, Avery asked herself out loud

  “How can I know?”, I replied, as if she were addressing me

  I was starting to feel annoyed more than I was scared. I just wanted to go back home


  “You cannot know. We are trying to find out. I will be asking Gill some questions and you will be listening to the answers behind a magic glass. I want you to listen to his answers and tell me your impressions”, Avery explained

  I looked out the window, closed my eyes, perhaps for few seconds, perhaps for longer. When I opened them I saw that Avery was looking at me from the mirror, waiting for my answer.

  “Ok”, I agreed

  “It will take about an hour. I’ll have someone drive you home when we finish. I’ll also have patrols around your place overnight. You guys sleep in the same place?”

  “We usually do”, Jack replied for me

  “If you do things will be easier for us, we’ll have to patrol only one place at a time”

  “Sure”, Jack said

  Avery slowed down her car, and pulled in the parking lot of the police station. She stopped the car, Jack opened the door but I didn’t move.

  “Come on Iris, help me sort this out and I’ll help you go back to your old life”, Avery said, turning around

  “Come on”, she repeated, and smiled

  “Ok. But you know I’ll never go back to my previous life. Anyways ok, ok…”, I babbled, half talking to myself, half to her

  “Good. Let’s go", Avery said opening the door.

  And this time I followed her.

  Chapter 79

  I had forgotten how the police station looked like, and there seemed to be a mismatch between the place I was seeing now and the waiting room where Jack and I had sat not too long ago. And how long ago was it anyways? Time had begun to loose meaning. Avery was already walking along the hallway, when I turned around and stopped a moment longer and stared at the room.

  “Is everything all right?”, Jack asked, reading the confusion on my expression

  “Yeah…but doesn’t it seem to you like this place is not the same as it was last time?”

  “Not sure, I wasn’t paying too much attention last time”

  “Let’s go guys”, Avery urged us from the end of the hallway.

  She was very tense, and although she managed to appear calm on the surface there were flashes in her expression, in her movements and tone of voice that betrayed her worries. I felt she knew or doubted something she hadn’t told us, and I wondered what it was. Or was it something else? Was she thinking about her daughter at home, with a new nanny after her previous one had died in the lake? The lake and the girl. I had to shake my head to chase away the image.

  “Come on guys”, Avery repeated

  I caught up with her and said, “You know Mariam, I think my polymer killed your daughter’s babysitter and that it will probably kill me. And Jack. And who know whoever else. Everything is blurring in my mind, I don’t know what to do anymore. I am sorry, and…”

  “Iris”, Avery said cutting off my words and gripping my arms, “Do not break down now, I need you. What happened is not your fault and I will not let you die. Am I getting through to you?”.

  She pronounced the last two sentences slowly, marking every syllable. I had never felt so close to Mariam Avery as I did then. It wasn’t so much the exchange of words, but the eye contact, a subtle flow of feelings, and perhaps the physical contact. Her grip on my arm.

  I nodded and she said, “good”. She led Jack and me to a room with a glass on one side. We could see Mark Gill sitting alone in front of a long table.

  “He can’t see or hear what you say. You’ll be able to hear Gill’s answers to my questions, I want you to tell me what you think about them after I’m done with him, ok?”

  “Ok”, I agreed

  Avery patted me on the shoulder and nodded at Jack, then left closing the door behind her.

  Chapter 80

  Gill was sitting at the table facing the glass, his hands were laced in front of him, he was pale and looked tense. I have a strangely acute memory of that moment, and closing my eyes I can recreate it as if the scene were evolving in front of me at this very instant…

  Avery: Good morning Mr. Gill

  Gill nods and says, “Good morning”

  Avery: I am here to ask you few questions regarding the death of Janna McMurrich

  Gill does not move, he just sits there waiting for the question.

  Avery: On Wednesday night Janna McMurrich was found dead by her neighbours. One of them was awake and she heard some voices in the middle of the night. When she looked out the window she saw a car driving away quickly, she could not fully identify it because of the dark. But we could. There were marks on the ground, the marks coincide with those of your tires.

  Gill: If I were the only one using a certain make of tires the company that sells them would have to shut down.

  Avery nods, ignoring the irony of the comment.

  Avery: What is the make of your tires Mr. Gill?

  Gill shrugs

  Gill: Pirelli

  Avery: Pirelli, that’s a good brand. You weren’t happy with your Goodyear tires?

  Gill: What do you mean?

  Avery: You recently got new tires although yours were fairly new, and I wonder why

  Gill is silent for a moment, then he says, “Why do you say I changed my tires? I never did”

  Avery: Mr. Gill, I think you are an intelligent man. You must understand that if you don’t cooperate things will be much harder for you.

  Gill: I did change my tires because I wasn’t happy with the other ones. Since when changing tires is a crime?

  Avery: It isn’t. Why did you lie about your tires a moment ago?

  Gill: Why were you asking about my tires?

  Avery: Where were you between Wednesday, 7 pm and 3 am of the next day?

  Gill: I don’t remember, this is a very busy time for me. Things slip my mind unless I write them on my calendar

  Avery: Let me help you. Did you go visit Janna McMurrich on Wednesday?

  Gill: I don’t think so

  Avery: You don’t think so or you’re sure you didn’t go?

  Gill: Wednesday you said?

  Avery: That’s what I said

  Gill: Yes, now that I think about it I went to see Janna

  Avery: How long did you stay there?

  Gill: A couple of hours I would say. We chatted, had few drinks and then I left. As I said this is a busy time, I didn’t want to be home too late

  Avery: What was the nature of your relationship with Janna McMurrich?

  Gill: We were friends

  Avery: Did your relationship with Janna McMurrich go beyond friendship at any moment in time?

  Gill: This is a personal question

  Avery: You can choose not to answer my questions and wait for your lawyer, but I want to make you aware that cooperating will make your life easier. You help me, I help you

  Gill sits and does not reply

  Avery: Mr. Gill, can you tell me more about your relationship with Janna McMurrich? You met her at night at her place, was this a habit of yours?

  Gill: We would sometime see each other at her place

  Avery: Mr. Gill, was Janna McMurrich your lover?

  Gill lowers his head and does not answer

  Avery: Mr. Gill…

  Gill: Our relationship went beyond friendship, but it was more of an occasional relationship than a full time one

  Avery: Thank you for clarifying, Mr. Gill

  Avery: Did you have any work related interactions with Janna McMurrich?

  Gill: We had some exchange of opinions every now and then

  Avery: Can you be more specific?

  Gill: I am a scientist and so was she, we exchanged opinions regarding scientific facts

  Avery: Did Janna McMurrich ever discuss with you a polymer they were synthesizing at FoodTech labs?

  Gill: they synthesize many compounds, she might have

  Avery: What did she tell you about the polymer?

  Gill: I don’t recall any recent conversation about a polymer

  Avery: Mr. Gill, do you recall running some tests on a poly
mer synthesized at FoodTech labs?

  Gill: I have run some tests for FoodTech labs in the past, it is not impossible that I have tested a polymer for them

  Avery: Would you have this information in your records?

  Gill: I certainly would

  Avery: I can drive you to your office and verify it with you

  Gill: I can verify it and let you know about it

  Avery: I have no objection to this. I have few more questions for you.

  Gill: ok

  Avery: At which time did you visit Janna McMurrich on Wednesday night?

  Gill shrugs

  Gill: It could have been 8, I don’t know for sure

  Avery: And at which time did you leave?

  Gill: A couple of hour later I would say

  Avery: So you left around 10 pm

  Gill: Something like that, yes

  Avery: Not around 2 am?

  Gill: No, that would have been way too late

  Avery: Sure. And what did you do after you left?

  Gill: I went home

  Avery: Do you have any witnesses?

  Gill: No

  Avery: I have one last question for you Mr. Gill

  Gill: Yes

  Avery: Why was your car speeding on highway 102 at 2.15 am on Thursday?

  Gill’s face goes pale. “I want a lawyer”, he says.

  Chapter 81

  Avery walked out of the room and when a moment later she opened the door I looked at her with a blank face. I felt emptied.

  “So it’s over”, I said

  “Not really”, Avery said

  “But clearly the man is guilty”, Jack objected

  “Sure, he killed McMurrich, but I have reasons to believe the circle of people involved in this affair goes beyond Gill and the cleaning lady, who, by the way, is most likely getting ready for the next move”

  “She is still around…I think so and…”, I said leaving my sentences suspended in midair

  “And we need to find what the people at the Cross Cancer Institute have to do with your polymer, and if they are also involved in McMurrich’s murder, although my instinct says the aren’t”

  “Why?”, Jack asked

  “Because Mark Gill was McMurrich’s lover, while Sandeep Raman and Wilhelm Larson were strangers to her”

  “But Gill killed McMurrich because he had his own interests and placed them first”, I replied

  “Not necessarily. My experience tells me that whenever passion is involved the game is never as simple as it looks”, Avery replied

  I pondered what she said, perhaps she was right

  “And there is another piece involved in the game”, Mariam Avery continued

  “That is?”, I asked

  “I haven’t told you before, but now I need to ask you some questions about it”