Melissa nearly tumbled off her chair when the door handle turned. Her breathing was light and rapid, and her pulse throbbed in her ears. Immediately alert, she had only seconds before the door started to move. At the same instant, her mobile phone jangled to life.
Jumping again, Melissa’s breath caught in her throat. She checked the display of her phone. It was a private number.
She decided not to answer the call and let it go to message bank. Shivering, she shrugged on her jacket as a cleaner stepped through the door and then backed swiftly out, apologising for the intrusion. Melissa called after him, but he was gone. Within seconds her phone began to ring again. Another restricted number?
With shaking hands, she took the call, expecting it to be Professor Ramer. ‘Hello.’
‘Dr Melissa Hartfield?’
‘Yes ...?’
‘This is Detective Boyd from the Queensland Police. We believe you have a young man by the name of Blaine Colton in your care. And we have a warrant for his arrest.’
Melissa glanced up to find Eddie standing at her desk, opposite her. His eyes were dark and his jaw set. Arms folded, he was holding a piece of paper in his hand, waiting for her response.
‘I’m sorry, it’s late. Can I call you back?’
‘Dr Hartfield, it’s three o’clock in the morning. Can you please confirm whether or not you have Blaine Colton in your custody?’
Swallowing hard, Melissa tried to force herself to remain calm. But a flush of heat spread across her face. It was accompanied by an ice-cold wash through her stomach. ‘I’m sorry, Detective, but Blaine is under observation at the institute I work for. He is quite unstable and until his health condition is managed, we are unable to transport him anywhere. Goodbye.’ She ended the call.
Eddie shook his head and tossed the paper at her like a rectangular frisbee. ‘There’s your profile! And thanks for changing my access.’
The set of his jaw told Melissa she’d pushed it too far. She tensed, as if he might strike her. ‘I had to take precautions. That’s all.’ She chose to ignore his snort.
Taking the report, Melissa scanned the primary ingredients. There appeared to be only one compound of note. ‘Closest match seems to be some sort of synthetic compound. Similar properties to an artificial sweetener? You’ve obviously done it wrong!’
‘Or Mrs Colton didn’t actually give you Ramer’s Cure, just a placebo!’ He shrugged. ‘Dunno. I put it through the analyser, that’s what came out. Not really a chemist!’
Balling up the page, Melissa pelted the wad at Eddie and jumped up from her chair. ‘No! Not this close, only to fail! The Professor owes me this! If his guinea pig keels over on us now, I’ll hunt Ramer down and make him talk.’
‘I thought you knew exactly what Professor Ramer did? Could it be those reports you were so occupied with last month were failed milestone achievements? Sweet talking not working for you, Mel? Maybe you could take some Ramer’s Cure to sweeten you up. Then again, maybe our dear Mrs Colton isn’t such a loving mummy after all and wanted to dispose of her son in a rapid fashion. Or maybe she realised you were just a pretender with a fudged-up research history trying to claw your way to recognition through her child, and thought it would be amusing to see you declare the amazing cure to be synthetic sweetener.’
His glare fell away. Melissa forced herself to breathe. He seemed fixated by something on her desk. She followed his line of sight, understanding his intent seconds too late.
Eddie snatched up her access card and let it dangle from his fingers. ‘How careless, Mel.’
With a cry of rage, she lunged across her desk and took a swipe at him. As she fell hard against the desktop, her phone rang again. A restricted number, just as before.
‘You’d better answer that.’
She wanted to rip the smirk off Eddie’s face and shove it in a biohazard bag. Instead, she picked up the phone and took the call. ‘Dr Hartfield speaking.’
‘Dr Hartfield, this is Detective Boyd. If you continue to obstruct the course of justice, we’ll be forced to place charges against you.’
‘Ah ...’ Melissa dropped back onto her chair. ‘What ... what are the charges against Blaine? If this is to do with the South Brisbane incident—’ She stopped. ‘It’s not?’
She felt faint as she listened to multiple allegations. She could not reconcile such violence with an ill boy like Blaine. Yet they had two separate witnesses who had accurately identified him and given comparative accounts of the incident. She swallowed again, but there was no saliva left in her mouth.
‘I ... I understand those are very serious allegations, Detective, but I’m—’
‘Give him the medication and take him there!’ Eddie’s voice sizzled through the air like a high frequency whistle.
Rising from her chair, she turned her back on him and tried to block out his insistent demands. ‘I’m sorry, Detective, but it’s just not possible, we—’
She stopped. Pressing the phone to her chest, she strained her ears toward the door. ‘Eddie, what’s that alarm?’
Eddie’s head snapped around and he set off at a bolt.
‘Blaine!’ Melissa began running after him. ‘I’m sorry, Detective. I’ve got to go!’ He continued to talk, but Melissa shoved the phone into her pocket.