The Chemist

Chapter 13

April 19th, 2:30 p.m. The Upper West Side, New York City

This chapter is dedicated to follower and author Lucas Carlson, whose posted novel, Term Sheet,  is an excellent action thriller.

Kate knew Vanessa would have Gunther come after her once they discovered the vials were missing. Creeping guilt led to buyer's remorse before she remembered their last encounter. Her resolve firmed.

After ruminating in her unkempt apartment for four hours, watching another block of Castle episodes, Kate decided to solve her little dilemma by hiding the vials. Maybe they deserved a proper, decent burial somewhere. She walked eastward to Central Park, which she knew well, having spent her teen years in the City.

The perfect place dawned on her. The Ramble.

It lay in the Park's southern midsection, bordered by 73rd Street in the South to 79th Street in the north, a heavily forested area with several rock formations that remained untouched since the park was developed in the nineteenth century. A park within a park, The Ramble was a perennial favorite of birdwatchers, but also was known for private, homosexual encounters. Straight couples could join in the fun, too, of course. It was not uncommon to find used condoms lying around on the dirt or in the brush.

Kate knew the precise spot, but she'd left out one minor detail. She had no shovel and she wasn't about to dirty her hands and clothes in the mud. In Manhattan, no one had reason to buy them and the few hardware stores that sold them were sparse. A quick search on her cell phone revealed one on 72nd Street. Hey, who knew?

Gartner's was only two blocks away but she sauntered there. Out of breath, she asked the clerk if he could help her pick out a shovel, which he did. Kate eyed a large one she liked, even though he had tried to sell her a smaller, 'lady-sized' shovel, as he liked to call it.

"No, this one's fine," she snapped at him, as if he had just tried to make a pass at her. "Thank you." Walking to the cashier and realized after the fact how rude she must have sounded.

In the Park, Kate steered clear of the 72nd Street entrance and instead entered at 77th Street, and then walked eastward toward BelvedereCastle. When she crossed south on a bridge overlooking the 79th Street Traverse with the sound of moving traffic below, she found it—a rock adjacent to the fence overlooking the Traverse in the shadow of the castle. After finding the short winding dirt path that led to a rock face in an ensconced clearing, she dropped to her knees and started digging a hole against the base of the rock. When she thought it was deep enough, she placed the case in the hole and covered it over with dirt, patting it down with the shovel.

* * *

Kate was emboldened to give her gym a go, a place she hadn't attended in well over a month. She had taken to jogging while in college and graduate school, before the heroin took hold. As her drug intake skyrocketed, her stamina went south.

She wore long sleeved workout shirts and sweatpants to cover the unseemly black and blue tracks marring her skin. It didn't take but five minutes on the treadmill before her labored breathing made her give up the ghost, the techno pop music pulsating through the room and through her own head in an uncomfortable way. She took a huge swig from her water bottle and limped off.

So much for getting back on that horse.

"Are you okay?" asked an unfamiliar voice. When she looked up, she saw before her a handsome figure in long rust colored hair and blue eyes wearing a tank top and guy shorts, who could have passed for the Son of God as far as she was concerned.