Exponential

by JM Addison

  Chapter 22

  “What the hell happened?” It was chief Donaldson standing next to Dell’s hospital bed. Dell began to openly and honestly review the account of the last day that he could remember. He was hoping that the chief would begin to take this whole case a little more seriously now that someone had tried to murder one of his inspectors. His tongue miraculously escaped any serious damage during the encounter with Enrique, but his lower jaw sure hurt. The wounds were well dressed, stitched and disinfected and he would fully recover, but for now talking took considerable effort.

  He went over his secret efforts to help Mara in his belief that she was nothing but an innocent victim of some elaborate, appalling conspiracy. How they planned to work together to uncover who was behind it and try to gather evidence to form a convincing argument to begin a formal investigation.

  He related the attack by Enrique. How he was able to make it to the phone to call for help. How Enrique made off with Mara’s location. How Dell was now almost certain she would be dead. How it was the fault of the police for looking the other way when a citizen needed protection just because it was too political to be involved. How bitter he felt over the whole sickening thing!

  The Chief was slightly taken aback by the implication that this was all somehow his fault, but after considering Dell’s account of the situation, it was at least to some degree, indeed his fault. He let himself be guided by selfish preservation and politics. Of course, he didn’t think anyone was in any real danger at the time, but now he could see that he really only was a simple pawn in the grand scheme. It revolted him that he let himself be led like this. At the same time, he was rather irritated that one of his senior officers would ignore his direct orders and continue the investigation in secret.

  However, there was obviously something behind her story. He almost lost one of his best investigators by his foolishness, but now he knew better. Apparently there was a little more going on between Dell and Mara judging from Dell’s willingness to offer personal protection and putting his job on the line to help her.

  The chief really wasn’t sure how to proceed from here. Who could he go to for help? Wasn’t this really beyond the scope of a little police force like his? But if he was getting pressure from high up, would turning this over to the state police only result in the case getting shoved under the carpet again? What was it that was so important to go through this amount of trouble? How could there be so much influence at the state level? What were these people involved in? Had Dell turned up some of the answers to these questions?

  So many unknowns. He pressed Dell for more details in spite of the painful way in which he could verbally relate the incident. Dell filled in the details to paint the enormity of the situation. Imagine, someone being able to secretly decode secured data transmissions. Not only being able to, but apparently doing so with a profit motive. Mara had mentioned some big government contract that Viiradium was involved in. No doubt this would mean that government data and secrets could be (and probably would be) not really secrets.

  Yes, no doubt, killing a few innocent bystanders like Mara and her family was a small price to pay to protect the scheme from becoming exposed. The murders were really only a blip in the overall picture though. Image the havoc that could be created when secret data was simply sold to the highest bidder. Would they even sell out their own government to the enemy? The crime here was great indeed.

  The doctors came in to review Dell’s case. The injury to his side was a deep puncture wound. However, the weapon was left in until he arrived at the hospital which sealed the opening to prevent the collapse of a lung. He was pumped full of antibiotics to prevent infection and would be sore for a while, but the doctors felt there was really no need to keep him any longer. He could be discharged, but was given very direct orders to rest. Chief Donaldson wondered if Dell’s attacker would return, so he decided to play it safe and post an officer to keep watch. Sort of like a roommate until a clear path forward could be developed and put into effect.

  Dell had other ideas. He had had enough of feeling helpless and responsible. He was frantic with worry for Mara’s safety and wanted desperately to try to find her. If she still had a chance, she would need him. Who else could she go to? But in the back of his mind he wondered, even if she were alive, would she feel betrayed? The only person alive who knew where she could be found was staying was Dell. Would she think he was somehow responsible for revealing her location to ‘them’? He wished he had never made her give him that card. At least if he didn’t know where to find her, then neither would they. It was too late for that now, he was determined to see this through to the end.

  On the way back to his apartment, the chief and him had a long argument about Dell working the case. The chief stubbornly refused to let Dell work under strict doctor’s orders to rest. Dell stubbornly refused to sit around while Mara could be in real trouble – or worse. The case had to be worked before the trail turned cold. They compromised. As long as Dell only worked in the background with another officer, he could help out. Since this was obviously a very sensitive situation to a lot of powerful people, they agreed, the investigation would have to proceed carefully. Quiet inquiries. Careful record searches, but don’t stir up any trouble. Keep things casual. Keep things among themselves. Don’t engage other state law enforcement options.

  The chief waited while Dell carefully washed. He wasn’t allowed to take a full shower for another day or so and had to be careful around the stitches and dressing of his chin wounds. Dell’s car was still there so they drove to the station separately. They concluded that the best place to start was to find Mara. They put an APB on her and the car she was last using, the little sports car Dell loaned her. He really liked that car, but now it seemed insignificant compared to finding Mara. She did not have a replacement for her cell phone so they could not use that to geo-locate here.

  The Chief teamed Dell up with Randy and together they drove to the scene of the motel where Mara was staying. It was a quiet and tense ride for Dell. No one had known to go there until the chief was able to question Dell and hear the details of the events. Dell was the only one who knew where she was staying. Another pair of investigators were meeting Dell at the scene to help gather any evidence. At this point, no one knew if a crime had even been committed yet, but Dell assumed after dealing with a character like the skilled professional that attacked him and left him for dead just so he could find her that there was little hope of finding her there, at least not alive.

  He replayed some of the events over in his mind again and wondered what he could have done differently that would have insured that things would have turned out for the better. There wasn’t much, that is except one thing. He realized how much he was beginning to feel for this girl and he regretted that he didn’t let her know that he really cared for her before things had gone this far.