CHAPTER 22
Sally and Anderson exchanged a look I couldn’t read.
“Tell us about that, Tess,” Sally said. “And again, step by step. Walk us through everything.”
So I told them Mimi walked me to work that morning after I finished breakfast. We made our plans to go see Jasper later in the day. She promised me everything would work out fine. We’d have our proof before the day was out. Then she said she was going back to her hotel until it was time to go over to the biogenetics building.
Once I got to work, I went about my preopening rituals. I looked at the log from the previous night’s closing team and built my to-do list. Then, without reading Brian’s scribbled demands, I peeled off four Post-it notes that he had stuck on my computer screen and logged into my library account. The blessed routine of it all helped me regain a bit of my internal footing.
A familiar coded knock sounded at the front door. Three long, two short, three long. I pulled my hands away from my keyboard and listened in silence. John Rappaport knocked again, this time more gently but with the same convention. I sat still. A few moments later I heard the metallic rattle of the night deposit box followed by the thud of books dropping. I sat, hands in my lap, second-guessing myself until I was sure he’d be well past the wide windows of the library. Then I forced the memory of his rumpled good looks out of my mind and went back to work.
Rosie came in to start her shift an hour after I opened the doors for business.
“Is he here?” she whispered, and stepped behind the circulation desk as I was checking out two cookbooks to a middle-aged woman who had applied for her first library card.
“If you mean Brian, I haven’t seen him.” I handed the woman her books and waved the next person in line forward. It was Connie Millaley, a longtime regular checking out the latest from her favorite romance author. I processed her and wished her a good day.
“He’s getting on everybody’s last nerve, Tess.” Rosie started loading a cart with the books in the night deposit box. I saw her pick up the two John brought back that morning. I didn’t see any note attached to either and felt a flicker of disappointment. “It’s like he’s bucking for Librarian of the Year one minute, all sweetness and Can I help you? The next he’s a crew boss on a prison chain gang, pointing out our mistakes and warning us any monkey could do our job so we better shape up or get ready to file unemployment papers. Can’t you get rid of him? At least during my shift? I mean, isn’t there a board member somewhere he could be sucking up to and leaving us alone?”
I didn’t bother to tell her I was numero uno on Brian’s hit list. Maybe I’d have a job here next week, maybe I wouldn’t. On that particular morning it didn’t seem to matter.
“Innocent and Agnes are due in at eleven. I’ve got their project all set up on the side table. Afternoon crew checks in at four. You okay if I take my lunch break away from the library?”
Rosie’s smile filled with conspiracy. “You and John meeting somewhere? A little al fresco flirting over sandwiches and chips?”
“No.” I realized my tone was more severe than necessary when her smile vanished. “It’s something personal. On campus. Is that okay?”
If Rosie was concerned about my harsh response, she didn’t let on. “Sure. Innocent and Agnes can operate on their own. Clifford’s coming in. He’s got sixteen more hours to work off, and he wants them done before school starts. I thought I’d keep him busy repainting the backdrop for story hour. It’ll put his artistic skills to better use than spray-painting cop cars.”
I thanked her and got on about the morning. Brian didn’t make an appearance. I figured he was either meeting with Mildred or back to his old no-show habits. It didn’t seem important at the time, so I didn’t dwell on it. Shortly before noon I said good-bye to Rosie, Innocent, and Agnes and headed to campus. Mimi and I had planned to meet outside the biogenetics building. We didn’t have an appointment. If the great Phillip Jasper was, indeed, somehow aware of our mother’s three-decade-old secret, we didn’t want to give him time to come up with a cover story. As I hurried to meet Mimi, I was so focused on what we were determined to do I nearly plowed into Carl Crittens, my former classmate turned local pharmacist.
“Whoa there, Tess.” He laid a hand on my shoulder to keep me from barreling into him. “What’s got your mind in outer space today?”
“I’m sorry, Carl. I didn’t see you there.”
His chuckle hadn’t changed since he was twelve. Shrill, but laced with enough humor to keep it from irritating. “That I can see. How’s the world treating you?”
“Fine. But I’m in a bit of a rush. You know how it goes. Places to go, things to do . . .”
“People to see,” he said in unison with me. “This doesn’t have anything to do with your mystery, does it?”
He suddenly had my full attention. “My mystery, Carl?”
He lowered his voice and looked up and down the street, as if he wanted to make sure the folks hurrying to complete their lunch hour errands weren’t eavesdropping. “The DNA kit. The one you picked up last week. I remember thinking when I rang you up, What’s good old Tess doing tracing her roots? She’s Madison way back. Ask anybody in town and they’ll tell you who she is from first breath. I wanted to ask you what you were up to at the time, but you were moving faster than a tornado in May. Kind of like now, to tell you the truth.” He gave me another one of his chuckles.
Mimi! I thought. She didn’t buy that kit in Boston.
“It’s no mystery at all.” My irritation fueled an instant lie. “It’s for a show-and-tell down at the library. We’re thinking about doing a display on all the recent advances brought about by the human genome project. You know, get the kids interested in science by appealing to their own self-involvement.”
Carl pursed his lips and nodded, as though he was thinking a great thought. “You know, I might be able to offer some assistance. As a medical professional I’m up-to-date on the latest literature. You know, I’ve subscribed to Popular Science for years now. Maybe I can buy you a cup of coffee real soon and we can work together on this project. What d’ya say?”
I say I’ve got to get to Mimi fast. If I don’t wring her neck for yet another instance of posing as me, we’ve got a busy couple of hours ahead of us.
“Let me think about that, Carl.” I forced a smile and pointed in front of me. “But right now I’ve got to be somewhere. It was great running into you.”
Again with the chuckle. “Ah! I stopped you before you could, didn’t I?”
* * *
“You okay?” Mimi was right where she said she’d be. I was impressed at how fast she was getting used to the sprawling campus. “You look like seven miles of bad road.”
I stopped midstep. My father often used those same words when he was describing someone who had seen better days. It startled me for a moment to hear it come out of Mimi’s mouth.
It must be my mother’s phrase. She probably taught it to both my father and her Florida daughter.
“I’ve been better.” I wanted to let her have it about lying about the DNA kit, but our time was limited and we had things to do. “You?”
“I’m fine. Excited a little, even. I spent the morning wandering around all these buildings. And of course I had to step into the history building to see where my office is going to be. Was that a dumb thing to do, you think?”
If she noticed my irritation she didn’t react. Still, it kept me from any small talk. “Let’s get going. The sooner we start, the sooner we’ll have our answers.”
“You remember our plan?”
I told her I did. Mimi was one step behind me as I headed into the glass and stone biogenetics building.
The reception lobby was as sleek and polished as an intergalactic spaceship. People walked in every direction across shiny tile floors. Most were casually dressed. A few wore white lab coats. One woman wearing a smartly tailored suit pulled a wheeled carryall as she clicked her high heels across the cavernous space. I figured her for some kind of sales rep . . . pharmaceuticals. . . books . . . lab equipment . . . I had no idea of the particulars. But she looked like someone who was focused on where she needed to be. Like her time was money. It was different with the others milling about. None of them seemed to be in a hurry to be anywhere else. Like this imperial hall dedicated to future-changing science was the one and only place they ever wanted to be. They looked ready to think great thoughts, test new ideas, earn their Nobels, and reshape the world.
Mimi and I crossed to the information desk. A pretty young woman greeted us with perfect teeth gleaming from behind shiny pink lips. She asked how she could help us.
“We’re here to see Phillip Jasper,” I said.
The woman’s big blue eyes blinked a startled staccato. She looked to her right and left, as though hoping someone would ride in on a wheeled office chair to rescue her from two people who obviously didn’t belong there.
“Dr. Jasper?” she asked. “That Phillip Jasper?”
“If you’ve got more than one, I’m here to see the guy who built this place.” I think my irritation with Mimi was spilling over to this poor woman. “The one who’s been on the cover of Time at least three times. You know the guy I’m talking about?”
“Dr. Jasper usually greets his guests personally.” The receptionist looked me up and down. Her face suggested I wasn’t in the same league as the people who typically came to visit the big boss. “I didn’t get a list from his people today. Do you have an appointment?”
The woman’s eyebrow arched when I said we didn’t.
“I’m not even sure he’s in the building,” she said. “Dr. Jasper is a very, very busy man.”
“He’s here.” I don’t know where that assurance came from, but somehow I was certain Jasper was in his office, doing whatever it was very, very busy men do. Likewise, I don’t know where I got the moxie to press the issue. Maybe it was the fatigue. Or desperation. Perhaps it was Mimi standing at my elbow. Whatever the reason, I plowed on. “He’ll want to see us. Call his office and let him know we’re here.”
The receptionist again looked around for backup. I felt a little sorry for her. She couldn’t have been more than nineteen or twenty. But I didn’t feel sorry enough to let her keep us from getting where we needed to get. So I put on my best don’t-mess-with-me voice when she told us she didn’t think it was wise to call upstairs.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“I’m the receptionist.”
“What’s your name?”
She looked like someone struggling to remember the level of security clearance a person might need in order to receive the sort of information I was requesting.
“How about your first name,” I asked. “What’s that?”
“Skylar.” She bit her bottom lip.
I turned toward Mimi. “There can’t be more than one Skylar behind the desk, right? I’m sure when Phil hears we were turned away by someone named Skylar his people will be able to figure out right away who denied us entry to his inner sanctum.” I shifted my attention back to the girl. “You like working here, Skylar?”
Skylar directed her gaze across the wide lobby toward the security guard explaining a building site map to a trio of Japanese girls in dark blue uniforms. I realized I must have frightened her and softened my tone.
“You don’t need security. We come in peace. I promise you, Dr. Jasper will be glad to see us. Call up to his office and tell him we’re here. You’ll see.”
She looked unsure, but no one was coming to her assistance, and I’m certain she understood we weren’t going anywhere. She lowered the microphone on her headset to lip level, entered three numbers into her keyboard, and waited for someone on the other end to answer.
“I have someone here to see Dr. Jasper.” Skylar glanced up at me as she spoke. “No. No appointment.” She nodded as though the person she heard through her earpiece was verifying what she had already told us: The great man did not see anyone without an appointment. “That’s what I thought . . . Um-hm . . . Um-hm . . . Thanks, Vicki. Sorry to bother you.”
Skylar pressed a button on her keyboard before turning to us with a smug just-as-I-thought look.
“Dr. Jasper sends his regrets. He asks that I relay his gratitude for you stopping by today, but his schedule is tight and he has no room for drop-ins.”
“We’re not drop-ins, dammit.” Mimi’s voice was shrill. I shot her a look. We’d get nowhere if both of us ganged up on the poor girl.
“Listen, Skylar,” I said. “It’s really important we see Dr. Jasper. Like, so important I don’t even have the words to tell you. Understand?”
“I understand Dr. Jasper has many people who’d like to meet him. But we have procedures here.” She reached toward a tray on her desk, then pulled out a trifold brochure and a green sheet of paper. She laid them both on the counter in front of me. “This brochure gives an overview of what we do here in Biogenetics. Teaching, research, community outreach. Stuff like that.” She pointed to the green sheet. “And this is the schedule for this month’s public lectures. Times, topics, and presenters are listed. There’s no fee. You should come check ’em out. They’re really kind of interesting.”
“We don’t want to hear a lecture.” I struggled to keep the impatience out of my voice. “We want to see Dr. Jasper.”
“For that you’ll need an appointment.”
I sighed and looked at Mimi. It was obvious she understood what I did. There was no way we were getting past Skylar.
“Fine,” I said. “How do we get on his calendar?”
“You call his appointment secretary.”
“May I have the number of his appointment secretary? Please?”
Skylar dialed her smug level up several notches. “If Dr. Jasper wanted you to have an appointment, his people would have provided you with that number. Now, it’s time for you to leave. You gonna be cool with that? Or do I call security?”