The Chemist

Chapter 24

April 28th, 3:00 p.m. The Upper West Side, New York City

Danny walked to the Starbucks on Broadway and West 81st to meet Javi. Several days had passed since the two men last saw one another.

He thought of why Kate was different from any other woman he had been assigned to. She was the smartest by a mile. Her drug addiction didn't seem to affect her ability to do her work. Rather, it got her through each day. Kate's self-medication and shyness masked a yearning for meaningful contact, all that more apparent once she shed her glasses.

Already seated, Javi raised his hand to get Danny's attention. The place was packed. One long line had formed almost out the door, and all the comfortable seats had been taken by people with laptops, or smartly dressed sales reps making a pitch to prospective clients.

Danny had to laugh inside about the incongruity of two rough and tumble Delta Force veterans sipping cappuccinos in a bouj-ee café.

"I met with Joanne today." He grabbed the cup of latte Javi had ordered for him.

"Did she tell you to focus?"

Danny smirked, then raised his arms up from the table, palms facing in. "She even accused me of being in love with her."

"So, are you?" Javi asked. His question stilled the air for a few tense seconds.

Danny shifted in his seat, as if he had been charged with unspeakable crimes. "No. All I said to her was that Katelyn Carrie's no murderer. It's clear to me, so why not to everybody else?"

They took healthy gulps of their watered-down lattes in silence amidst the din of mid-day customers.

Javi looked up at him and spoke, his words heavy with gravity. "I never told you about what happened."

"No."

"I think it's time you knew."

Knowing Javi was the last person to see Kelly alive, he said, "I don't."

"Hey, no one ever dropped a bomb on you." Javi was assigned to her platoon as one of three trained medics—and also one of three troops to survive the ordeal.

"Okay, so maybe I was in my own head about it, dealing with my own problems. You were in the middle of that shit show." Danny caught himself as his parched throat made him fight to clear it.

Without holding back, Javi said, "She was brave all the way." Javi had been the one who administered first aid to Kelly in those final moments. "She was doing the job she'd been assigned to do right when it happened."

Danny resisted the urge to reach across the table and slug him as Javi picked at an ugly scab. "They never found out who was responsible," he said, despondently at first, then the emotions lashed out, "But it makes no sense!" Javi's eyes darted around to see if anyone else had heard the outburst, but the din of the place was enough to mask his reaction.

"We both know that report was bullshit," Javi said, referring to the Army's rushed investigation of the Fratricide incident.

Javi leaned forward and dropped his head into his palms. "There wasn't any indication..." His voice broke before he could finish.

"Central Command knew something, but was either too afraid—or too embarrassed—to disclose what really went down. But no one knows why." "There were issues, like tension between the American and British forces, even though they were in it together, publicly at least."

"Yeah, I remember that came up on my European assignments too."

"But not just with the armed forces. It was also the PMCs. They were out for themselves. Fat contracts with upfront money from Uncle Sam. Same with the British."

"You really think British PMCs were backstabbing the coalition's efforts in the field?"

"No doubt. I'm serious. Things we'd witnessed on the way up to the village and testified about before the committee that never made it into the official report. Like the shotty workmanship on the culvert grating. Any hostile could've put an IED in there if they'd wanted to. Like that any PMCs had been anywhere near the village at all. The committee blew it off as if they didn't want certain facts to come out."

"I want to hear what happened, just not in this place." He wanted to hear every word. "I need to check on her," he said.

"You mean your mark, don't you?" Javi said with an informal wink.

He ignored the harmless intimation. "It's crazy with her, like the same thing that drove her to create the toxin makes her so unstable."

"Geniuses are like that, man. No one can stand 'em."

"You mean they're misunderstood, Javi."

* * *

Danny returned to the apartment and saw the upended contents of Kate's purse on the floor. An envelope from the Rhode Island Department of Health was folded like an accordion. When he picked it up, he noticed that it was empty.

When he heard the sound of running water from the master bathroom, he called out to her. With no response, he bolted for the bedroom. He found her huddled in the shower, fully clothed and completely drenched.

He cringed at the sight, knowing he'd have to tread lightly. "What are you doing?"

"Just go away, please."

He stooped down to meet her level. Danny had noticed the thin red line running across the front of her neck. "I can't help you if you don't tell me what happened."

"It was a man. He came from behind," she answered, still trembling.

He took his fingers and lightly brushed the back of his hand against her wet cheek. Kate shuddered and he quickly recoiled.

"How'd you get away?"

"I don't know. He...I blacked out. When I woke up, he was gone."

Danny knew that story was preposterous. He couldn't understand why a man who could have easily have strangled her to death suddenly would have had a change of heart. Then, if he believed she was dead, why nothing was stolen.

"I'll call the police."

Kate stood up, indignation plastered on her face. "No, don't. Just forget it, okay?"

He didn't know what to say that could breach the barrier she'd put up.

Kate finally regained some modicum of composure. "Just...I need to be alone. Please," she said, resolute.

"I'll check to see if the guy dropped anything on the way out."

He found nothing, so he decided to leave the apartment and maybe do some food shopping to give her the space she wanted. When he returned, Kate had dried out and was sitting in the living room sofa with knees folded into her chest with both arms wrapped around them as she stared at the flat screen, oblivious to all else around her.

Copyright © 2016 by Alan Field. All Rights Reserved.