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Fiona jotted down Dr. Taylor’s address in her GPS while Gregory, who sat next to her, was going through the document that Jennifer had provided. He complained after he had read just a sentence or two and threw his hands in the air.
“There is too much medical jargon. One thing is certain though, there are hundreds of recipients of the device.” Gregory continued leafing through the document, page after page. “This report is unreadable. I don’t know what cephalalgia or retrograde and anterograde memory is?” He was perplexed and ready to give up. He let the document rest on his lap. “I think I’m wasting my time.”
“Oh, come on. Just use your phone for every term you don’t recognize,” Fiona suggested.
“It will take me a year!” Nonetheless, he obeyed. “Are you kidding me?” he erupted.
“What’s up?”
“Cephalalgia is simply a headache. The fucking medical lexicon that derived from the fucking Greeks makes everything so much more complex.”
For the rest of the trip, Fiona retreated to her thoughts while Gregory went through the document. Fiona was worried, and her temper had worsened in the last hour because she was unable to reach either Sophie or Phil. She tried both their personal and work phones again with no luck. She rationalized their disappearance was work-related, but she knew deep inside that there was something wrong, something she hoped she could intercept before it became a reality. Her longing to hear Sophie’s voice was almost unbearable. She was approaching the danger state of ... of ... She couldn’t express her feelings, even now that the possibility of Sophie being in danger was real. She was once again denying the theory as old as humanity itself ... love at first sight.
“I think I found something. Hold on. Let me understand this before I articulate it.” Gregory took a few extra minutes going line by line and trying to decipher the hidden meaning.
“I believe this device has the capability of inserting ideas or instructions into people’s minds. I think this is a dangerous device regardless of how it’s currently being used. I’m surprised the FDA is considering approving it or maybe has already approved it. This information was well hidden at the end of the document.”
“Gregory, it’s called lobbying, bribing, and altering ... in short, corruption. I’m convinced that someone is behind this device and pumping it to no end. Perhaps it’s the developer, Dr. Taylor. They would do whatever were necessary to hide imperfections, and by the way, it’s already approved.”
Their exit was approaching, and the GPS came alive. Fiona remained in the left lane and exited as smoothly as possible, although the road was circular enough to make them both dizzy. There was no traffic on the secondary streets, and she glanced at the clock in her car. She had made her last attempt to call Sophie about thirty minutes ago. Phil Kaufman was carrying the device, which confirmed some type of mental disease. And yet, he appeared well, and his father had confirmed that he was healthy. She shouldn’t worry. Phil cared about Sophie.
“It’s coming up. It’s that big house to your right. Wow, this is enormous,” Gregory stated admiringly.
Fiona parked at the front of the circular driveway and rang the bell, gazing at her feet instead of looking forward toward the closed double doors.
“We are looking for Dr. Taylor.” Fiona presented her badge. “We are New York detectives.”
“I’m Mrs. Taylor, and I don’t know where my husband went. Perhaps to his lab in the city?”
“Could we come in for a second?” Fiona had detected relief on Mrs. Taylor’s face when she inquired about her husband. She had certainly behaved strangely for a split second.
She gestured them to enter and guided them to her husband’s office. She sat on the leather chair while the detectives quietly took a seat on the brownish sofa across from her. Fiona wanted to start a hard, unmerciful interrogation. Mrs. Taylor was hiding something. She avoided eye contact, played nervously with her hands, and was not happy having them in her home office.
“Mrs. Taylor, it’s imperative we learn where your husband is. He may be in danger. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with his research, but there is a connection between his invention and six homicides. Please, if you know anything that’ll help us ...” she implored. “Ma’am, I truly need your help,” Fiona continued, looking intensely into her eyes for more than a minute. There was an uncomfortable silence, and Fiona could hear her heart pumping blood to her veins.
“If I tell you what I know, could I get a deal?”
“I’ll talk to the DA and disclose that you fully co-operated.” Fiona was right. She was involved, but why would she give up so easily? What was her agenda?
Mrs. Taylor furnished all the details of her involvement and Peter’s, the scientist that wrote the code. She also gave up Aria Pharmaceuticals. Code? Fiona’s mind couldn’t grasp the meaning that singular word carried until Mrs. Taylor explained the code was instructions to all the recipients of the device to sacrificially kill someone they loved. Fuck! Sophie was in real danger! Fiona felt herself falling over a high mountain cliff, and she was falling at a speed that made her heart stop. She grabbed Gregory, and she didn’t look back to either thank or reassure the doctor’s wife. Fiona didn’t give a damn if she was kindly treated for assisting the police, and if something happened to her lover, she would make it her personal business to ensure that Mrs. Taylor got the punishment she truly deserved, because she was responsible. All of them were responsible even if they were not the actual killers: Aria Pharmaceuticals, Peter, Dr. Taylor and his wife, Dr. Kaufman, and perhaps there were others.
“He is in his lab,” Mrs. Taylor offered, looking at the ground. Was she regretful? Fiona walked away as a bitter taste reached her lips. People, she thought, are faulty and poisonous. There is no regret for their actions.
“Where to?” Gregory brought her back to now. She licked her lips. The bitter taste was still there.
“We have to find Phil. He has Sophie. They left the precinct less than two hours ago. Dr. Taylor has the code, and I’m pretty sure he’ll try to reverse the instructions and save his device, so us visiting his lab isn’t necessary right now. We have to find Phil!” her desperation was acute. Panic settled in as her mind was processing images that came and went rapidly. Her fear was dark and bloody.
“Why?” he questioned.
“Phil Kaufman carries the device that is reprogrammed with the command to kill, and I’ve always suspected that he was in love with Sophie.”
“Okay, got it.” It took a second to input the data into his phone. “He is home and lives in Queens.”
“How the fuck did you do that?” She was grateful, nonetheless. She began praying to all deities that ever existed, both in the past and the present. The mythological gods came to mind in all their glory. If she was late and couldn’t save Sophie, her life would not be worth living.
“I’m using an app that the government insisted on developing. It was intended for an entirely different reason though—to curb overtime since the economy hit rock bottom. It’s a newly developed app that only a handful of us have, and I’m one of the beta group, who has the capability of locating all the law enforcement agents within the perimeters of New York City because our badges carry a traceable chip.”
Fiona didn’t answer. She drove, pushing all ideas that crossed her mind aside to avoid screaming. The singular thought that she might lose Sophie savaged her soul.