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Chance and I spent a quiet night in our room eating delivery pizza and trying to regain some traction on our plans for the museum and the changes we want to make to Chance's guide business. Chance is good with all the technology stuff so he'd stored copies of our important files on cloud storage so he was able to pull down a lot of what we needed and get it loaded onto our new tablets.
Chance lost all track of time while he was sick, so we pulled up the calendar and took care of what was needed to get things lined up for the next few weeks.
XXX
"Are you ready for this?" Cassie asked.
"I supposed," I said. "I'm really tired of being poked and prodded. Sadly, I'm getting used to it though."
"We'll meet you at the doctor's office," Chance said.
The concierge hailed a cab for us, and Cassie and I headed off to the appointments Mr. Meecham had arranged.
The doctor's office was in a very upscale setting. It was a small facility with no signage other than the address posted on the door. Cassie pushed the intercom button that was mounted next to the door. "I'm Cassie Dickenson. I'm here with Everly Mason for our appointments." The door buzzed, and we walked into what looked like a small very nicely furnished living room. The lighting was dim and the furniture plush. There was no reception desk. Cassie and I looked at each other wondering what we were expected to do.
An interior door opened before we reached a decision. A young woman in a well-tailored business suit, stepped into the room. "Which of you is Mrs. Dickenson?"
Cassie stepped up to the woman. "If you'll come with me, we'll get started. Ms. Mason, I'll be back to get you in just a couple of minutes. Please make yourself comfortable."
I wandered around the room while I waited. There were none of the usual signs about payments or privacy. There were no outdated magazines. Other than a large arrangement of fresh flowers, the office was bare of any decoration.
When the young woman returned, I was led into a comfortably plush office. "Normally, this is the part where I would ask you a lot of questions about your medical history. We've been specifically asked not to do that in your case." She asked me my age, address, and phone number. That was it. "Unlike the medical offices you're probably used to, Dr. G will be handling all aspects of your exam himself with the assistance of his nurse. Unfortunately, that means, you'll have to wait until he finishes with his previous patient."
"That's fine." While I was waiting I walked behind the desk to get a closer look at a series of photographs. Each showed an older gentleman I suspected might be Dr. G. In each framed photo he was shaking hands with someone who was out of frame. All you could see of the other person, was their hand and forearm.
It was definitely the strangest medical experience I've had. I never learned the doctor's name. He said to refer to him only as Dr. G. He explained that he'd been directed not to gather our medical history, as Mr. Meecham wanted a completely unbiased assessment.
"We're finished. When I get the results of the tests, I'll prepare a report and mail it to the address you provided. Here's my card. Should you or your personal physician have any questions about the report you receive, you can call me at this number, and we'll schedule a time to discuss it. I did want to tell you that Mr. Meecham will not receive a copy of the report or your test results. He's an old friend, but his only part in this was to make the arrangements and handle payment."
"I have to ask, what's with the photos in your office? The one's with you shaking hands."
"I treat a lot of famous people, but I take their privacy very seriously. That's just my strange sense of humor."
When I walked out into the waiting room, I found Cassie, Jared, and Chance waiting for me. "Is everything OK?"
"As far as I know. Are we ready to hit the road?"
"Your chariot awaits," Chance said. "I stocked up on roadtrip snacks and got you a jug of sweet tea. We should be good to go."
We had decided to take separate cars to Arkansas in case we wanted to leave at different times. I was glad to have hours of windshield time alone with Chance.
After escaping the traffic of the big city, we settled into the drive. Even though we hadn't made it home to Wilkins' Gap yet, things felt more normal.
"How was the medical stuff?"
"Strange but not in a bad way," I said and proceeded to describe my morning in detail. "It'll be good to find out if Dr. G finds the same abnormality in your blood that Wainwright got so excited about. I can't see why he would have made that up, but I think we need to question everything he told us. I wonder if Wainwright was even his real name.”
I pulled out my pad and wrote Arkansas across the top.
"Glad to see you getting back to normal," Chance said, glancing over at the pad and resting his hand on my thigh. "I'm sorry about what happened with Wainwright. None of us saw any reason not to trust him. That's what bothers me most. I should have realized something was off about the guy."
I put my hand over his. "None of us saw it. I think I'm most surprised that Mr. Meecham was taken in by the guy."
When we made a stop for gas and snacks, I caught up with Cassie in the convenience store. "I was thinking maybe we should stop at the bank and take a look at what's in the safe deposit box again. We can get a hotel in the city, go to the bank in the morning, and make a grocery stop on our way to the cabin."
"Great idea," Cassie said. "When we get back on the road, I'll find us a hotel."
I climbed back in the car and filled Chance in on the plans as we drove. "Tell me again, what did you guys find when you went to the bank before?"
"So much has happened since then, it's really hard to remember the particulars. Besides what was covered in the will, she left a letter for each of us. I think mine is still at the cabin. We read them at the lawyer's office. They said she was leaving us the things in the safe deposit box because we'd know they were important or something like that. Cassie might remember more."
"Do you remember what was in the box?"
"All I remember is a small cardboard box of microscope slides. I think there were some small plastic bags too."
"Sounds like evidence maybe. Hard to know if its cryptid evidence or evidence of what was going on at the lab. Either way, we need to check it out and find the right people to evaluate it."
I started a list for our stop in Little Rock on one page and a grocery list on another. Once I'd captured the things I'd thought of, I leaned my head back against the seat and closed my eyes. "Chance, what do you think we'll find out from Renee's journal?"
"I'm hoping there might be information about who was behind the experiments. Was Mark really the connection? Was he the only one?"
"You think other's in DHS could be involved?"
"It's possible."
"Fudge. Do you think Agent Driscoll could be involved? Maybe he's being nice to Gracie Layne to try to manipulate her."
Chance chuckled. "I'm pretty sure that's true."
"Then how could you let him drive her back to Tennessee?" I had pulled out my phone and was about to call Gracie Layne, when Chance pushed the hand holding my phone down into my lap. "I'm sure he's trying to manipulate her, but I'm pretty sure it's got nothing to do with bigfoot."