Chapter 8

 

As he left his house heading toward his Miata, Fred glanced at Schultz. For the first time he realized that an out of shape, pudgy 6’5” man, with most of his fat concentrated in his lower belly, would have a hard, if not impossible, time fitting into Fred’s tiny Miata. 

“Let’s take your car, George,” Fred said. “I’ll drive!”

Schultz wasn’t used to taking commands from anyone; he still retained the same massive ego that Fred had witnessed the first time he entered AU’s doors. But he liked Fred and appreciated the urgency of the circumstances so he reluctantly said, “Okay, but for God’s sake be extra careful; the damn car is brand new without a scratch on it.”

Fred jumped into George’s’ new Cadillac SRX, reaching for the clutch out of habit from his years of driving his five speed manual Miata. Already in the passenger seat, Schultz witnessed Fred’s unfamiliarity with his car and mumbled, “Hell, damn novice.”

 After Fred studied the driving mechanisms of the big car more carefully, he started it, and gunned the engine, spinning the front wheels to the pungent smell of burnt rubber as he flew out of his driveway. 

Schultz yelled, “For Christ’s sake, take it easy.” Fred accelerated even more. eHe exceeded seventy as he entered the busy intersection of Tamiami Trail directly across from the sprawling Ringling Museum grounds. Unfortunately, Fred’s vision was distorted; he hadn’t adjusted the driver’s seat to allow for the difference between a 6’5” man and one that was barely 5’7”. The only clear vision he had was that of the tops of Sarasota’s buildings flying by. As he turned left spinning onto the drive, Fred recognized two Sarasota police cars, sirens screaming, LED blue lights blazing, speeding from the opposite direction. 

Damn it, if they tried, they couldn’t do more to signal their arrival to Donna, Fred thought. But then he realized it didn’t matter, Donna would surely have guessed they would have been called and fully anticipated their arrival shortly after she vacated his house. He was positive that she was long gone.

Then Fred wondered why Donna didn’t get up when she fell into the kitchen, and return to the dining room with her gun blazing. She obviously held the momentary advantage. In retrospect, he thought that after she had invaded a house with a bunch of cops, she would have known that it wouldn’t take long for them to retrieve their weapons and set off after her. But, Fred figured that her first goal had been to retrieve the monolith, and she had already successfully accomplished that. She can always kill me anytime, Fred thought grimly. 

Fred was relieved that Donna no longer had her paranormal aid; because if she did, she would have probed our minds and would have known that our weapons were not in the immediate area, and that she had the perfect opportunity to kill us all. All the more reason I have to get that monolith back quickly, he reasoned. He knew Dr. Anderson would be the key. He said to Schultz, “Call your security guard and make sure he’s waiting for us and lets us enter your company just as soon as we get there. We have to move quickly.” 

Schultz complied, and they arrived at the AU in less than ten minutes. Fred glanced at the big man sitting beside him as he started to leave the car. Schultz was sweating profusely even thought Sarasota’s nighttime temperature had dropped unnaturally low for this time of the year.

“Not used to seeing this baby driven that fast, huh, George?”

Schultz said nothing, but preceded Fred to the building and pounded on the glass front door. Don, the security guard, recognizing Schultz, immediately opened it.

The huge security guard was the same one Fred had worked with when he was in pursuit of the Sarasota mass murderer. His company nickname, “the living tower,” was well deserved. Even Schultz looked small standing next to him. 

Although they had established a good relationship, Fred did not expect the vigorous handshake of the over-sized man as Fred’s hand completely vanished under his. Fred could almost hear his hand bones shatter as the big man suddenly realized his emotion had gotten control of him and his normal self-imposed constraint of his great strength had been forgotten in the heat of the moment. The guard’s face was flushed, “I’m terribly sorry,” he said. 

Fred said, “It’s Okay, Don; I was worried about breaking your hand as well.” Since Fred was almost a foot shorter and carrying at least 200 pounds less weight, the guard responded with a broad smile to Fred’s retort. 

Schultz and Fred walked briskly toward the medical operating room. Fred was thinking that he hadn’t been injured on the job in the four years since he had solved the mass murder case. But now he was experiencing severe pain in his throbbing hand. With the re-arrival of Donna, his streak of bad luck was starting to happen all over again. 

The AU medical operating room was housed in the rear of the Science Division. A single metal door at the back of the Science Division provided its only entry point. As Fred was proceeding, Schultz grabbed Fred by the arm stopping him in his tracks.

“Look, Fred! there’s a light under the door! It’s almost ten o’clock; no one should be here at this time of night!”