Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 (37 page)

“
Tell them to call me,”
Seth said. “I’m on my way to the Federal Building.”

Seth raised a hand to the troop of men who
had showed up to help him. Turning on his siren, he turned out of
the Museum parking lot. He was accelerating onto turning off of the
Sixth Avenue Freeway onto Kipling when his phone rang.

“
O’Malley,” Seth
said.

“
Are we going to get that
box?” Ferg asked.

“
Do you work all the
time?” Seth asked.

“
Until you find Saint
Jude,” Ferg said. “Are we going to get that box?”

“
When I’m done with it,”
Seth said.

“
Good to know,” Ferg said.
“The munitions box and the sleeping bag are booby trapped. Bombs.
Get this. The freakin’ pendant is booby trapped.”

“
Thank God some kid didn’t
find it,” Seth said.

“
Yeah,” Ferg said. “We
found the cameras. They were connected to a wireless router. We
didn’t find the receiver. How did you know?”

“
Such an elaborate set up?
He’d want to watch,” Seth said.

“
We’re going to be here
most of today and probably tomorrow,” Ferg said. “You want the
report when we’re done?”

“
Yep,” Seth
said.

“
Hey, do you think Amelie
would come in to help us out?” Ferg asked. “I hate to even call her
but the DA’s breathing down our necks. We could use the
help.”

“
You can always ask,” Seth
said.

“
Her father got rid of her
cell phone,” Ferg said. “She didn’t answer your phone.”

“
She’s with Lizzie today,”
Seth said. “You want the number?”

“
Go,” Ferg
said.

“
Remember her voice is
bad,” Seth said.

“
Got it,” Ferg said.
“We’re desperate and that girl can do more in an hour than the rest
of us combined. Her team said they’d come in if Amelie was
here.”

Seth gave him the number.

“
Good luck with Homeland,”
Ferg clicked off the phone.

Seth stopping at the Federal building
security gate and let out a breath. For the first time, he had the
sense that Saint Jude was within his grasp.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday afternoon — 1:20 P.M

With a chatting Katy on her hip, Jill and
Heather, pushing Mack in a stroller, walked toward the small City
Park playground. They were meeting Julie and Paddie here for a play
date. While Heather stopped at one of the picnic tables, Jill
continued to the sand. Jill set Katy down and Katy ran to the
swings. A small child, Katy couldn’t swing as high as she wanted to
without help. Jill moved behind her child to push her on the
swings. After a few minutes, Heather joined Jill in the sand.
Sucking on a teething cookie, Mack’s big eyes took in all the
playground activity. Giving Katy a big push, Jill’s top lifted
up.

“
You’re starting to show,”
Heather said.

Jill pulled her top down.

“
Have you told him?”
Heather asked.

“
When?” Jill asked. “He’s
been working so much. He’s either asleep or rescuing someone on his
time off.”

“
You sound angry,” Heather
said.

“
No, not at all,” Jill
shook her head.

“
PADDIE!” Katy
squealed.

Paddie broke away from Julie and ran toward
the playground. Jill stopped the swing to let Katy off. Katy ran to
meet her friend.

“
You’ve got to tell him,”
Heather said.

“
After Valerie lost her
baby?” Jill asked. “How’s it going to be, ‘Oh by the way, I’m
having twins’? Seems mean.”

“
Everyone’s going to know
soon enough,” Heather said. “You exploded with Katy. Can you
imagine with two?”

Jill shook her head. They smiled and greeted
Julie, Paddie’s mother. Holding hands, Paddie and Katy ran to the
playground.

“
I’m always tempted to
helicopter Paddie,” Julie said.

“
As if any of us could
keep up,” Jill laughed.

“
How’s Mack?” Julie said
hello to the baby on Heather’s hip.

“
He’s not sure what to
make of all of this action,” Heather said.

“
Katy’s either his hero or
his demon,” Jill laughed. “He’s not quite sure.”

As was his way, Paddie began stripping off
his coat and cotton sweater. He threw them one at a time off the
jungle gym and into the sand. Julie jogged over to pick up his
clothes.

“
What about Delphie?”
Heather asked. “She must know.”

“
She’s so caught up in
this Saint Jude thing, I don’t think she’s given me much thought,”
Jill said. “Jake was supposed to go with me to the ultrasound but
he was called away. Out of the waiting room. Crazy.”

“
Those guys really screwed
Lipson when they left,” Heather said.

“
They just don’t know if
they’re going to replace them,” Jill said. “Aden’s still only
working half time.”

“
Blane’s only half time,”
Heather said.

“
Right,” Jill said. “Hey,
I never heard how the DNA tests went. Did you find someone who’s a
match?”

“
Yep,” Heather
said.

“
Heather!” Jill clasped
Heather to her. “That’s wonderful! When will Blane have the
surgery?”

Heather shook her head. Julie came back with
Paddie’s clothing.

“
Sorry, did I interrupt
something?” Julie asked.

“
Heather was just telling
me they found a donor match for her husband,” Jill said.

“
How wonderful!” Julie
said. “Wow, congratulations! Blane was over a couple nights ago to
give everyone acupuncture. Colin said they hadn’t found a match
yet.”

“
So who is it?” Jill
asked.

“
You know what?” Heather
shook her head. “We decided not to have the surgery, so it doesn’t
really matter.”

Jill and Julie turned away from the
playground to look at Heather. Heather’s eyes stayed locked on
Paddie and Katy. Her face was like a steel trap – guarded and
closed for any approach.

“
Why wouldn’t you have the
surgery?” Jill asked.

“
Everyone who took the
test gave permission for the surgery,” Julie said. “Isn’t it
Blane’s only chance?”

“
Liver transplant,”
Heather said. “It’s his only chance.”

Mack gave a little cry and Heather walked
over to her baby stroller. She took some water and a plastic baggie
of Goldfish crackers out of the back. Sitting down at the picnic
table, Heather turned her back on them and gave Mack the snacks.
Jill and Julie looked at each other for a moment.

“
Why don’t you go?” Julie
asked. “I’ll watch the kids.”

Jill touched Julie’s arm in thanks and went
to Heather. Jill sat down next to Heather. Mack held a Goldfish
cracker out to Jill. She took the cracker and gave it back to him.
Mack giggled.

“
What’s going on?” Jill
asked.

“
I don’t want to talk
about it.” Heather shook her head.

“
When you say that, it’s
usually the time you…” Jill said

“
Need to talk about it,”
Heather and Jill said together.

“
Before you say it,”
Heather said. “I’m being like my mother. I just…”

“
After everything we’ve
been through, what could be so awful?”

Heather nodded.

“
About a month ago, the
DNA lady called,” Heather said. “She said that everyone was
negative but they got a ‘mixed sample’.”

“
Mixed sample?” Jill
asked.

“
That’s what I said,”
Heather said. “I mean the lady and the tests cost a fortune. How
could one be mixed? She said it was male and female DNA mixed
together but that one of them was positive. The lab was checking
the samples again and checking the DNA databases. Blane and I… We
were so excited because there was hope… some hope.”

Tears sprouted in Heather’s eyes. Jill put
her arm around her.

“
We didn’t hear anything,”
Heather said. “I called every week. Nothing. A couple of days ago
there was a message on the machine. And…”

Mack touched Heather’s face and she pulled
him close.

“
And?” Jill asked. “Who’s
the match?”

“
Katy,” Heather
said.

“
Katy?” Jill asked. “There
must be some mistake. She didn’t…”

“
Her DNA was mixed with
Paddie’s,” Heather said. “Paddie’s DNA went up on the DNA database
because his Granddad’s a Senator. Remember Ava used it in her
investigation? They identified you and Jake as Katy’s
parents.”

“
Oh,” Jill
said.

“
They are one hundred
percent sure,” Heather said. “Katy’s the only match to
Blane.”

Instinctively, the women turned to watch
Katy and Paddie play. After a moment, Jill sighed.

“
Well, I guess I have
something else to talk to Jake about,” Jill said. “Don’t worry.
We’ll figure this out.”

“
We can’t…” Heather
started. “We decided to forget the transplant.”

Jill leaned over to hug Heather.

“
I’ll talk to Jake,” Jill
said.

“
Mommy!” Katy ran over to
them. “Can we go to the zoo? I promise I won’t touch any
bees.”

“
I brought our pass,” Jill
said. Turning to Heather, she asked, “Is that all right with
you?”

Heather nodded. Jill saw Paddie working on
his mother while his mother was working to get Paddie’s clothing
back on him. Julie looked up and nodded.

“
Come on,” Jill said.
“They have chocolate at the zoo. And Giraffes. I know how much you
love Giraffes.”

“
And chocolate,” Heather
smiled.

“
It’s settled,” Jill
said.

Katy and Paddie cheered and took off in the
direction of the zoo. Julie and Jill ran after them. Heather wiped
her tears and packed up the stroller. With Mack settled, she looked
to see Jill and Katy waiting for her.

“
Come on Auntie Heather,”
Katy yelled. “We’re missing the Giraffes.”

Smiling at Katy, Heather jogged to catch up.
When she got there, Katy reached her hands up to Heather. Heather
picked Katy up. Katy gave Heather a big hug. With her mouth next to
Heather’s ear, Katy whispered:

“
Don’t be afraid.
Everything works out.”

Heather pulled back to look at Katy. The
little girl nodded.

Katy squirmed and Heather set her down. Too
surprised to say anything, she watched Katy run to catch up with
Julie and Paddie. Jill followed close behind.

Everything works out.

Saying a silent prayer that the child was
right, Heather ran to catch up.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday afternoon — 3:20 P.M

Ava looked up to see one
of her lab techs coming toward her work area. Glancing down, she
checked the six DNA gels running in front of her. She reached over
to turn down Pink’s
F**kin’ Perfect
blasting from Pandora on her computer. As he
approached, she smiled at the goofy fleece dragon hat on her almost
sixty year old lab tech. Her lab techs had gotten these hats for
everyone. Stripping off her gloves, she adjusted her own dragon
hat. Her team bought these dragon hats, hats with red devil horns,
and Mickey Mouse hats as a get well present to Ava. This hat was
puke green with burnt orange spikes ending in a tail that hung
between her shoulders.

Looking up again, she saw who was following
her lab tech. Instinctively, she glanced over at her lab desk. Her
desk was filled with photos of her life with Beth. Feeling a tiny
bit stronger, she turned back to her older sister.

“
Your sister is here from
the DA’s office,” her lab tech said.

He held out a travel mug to her. Taking the
mug, she nodded.

“
Would you mind following
Ava to the conference room?” her lab tech asked. “This is an
evidence room.”

“
Why isn’t she talking?”
her sister sniped.

“
Her voice is too weak,”
her lab tech said. “Would you like me to…?”

Ava shook her head.

“
Drink your lemon water,”
he said.

With a nod, he left them. Ava pointed toward
the glass door and a quiet room. Her sister followed Ava into the
room. Ava went to the white board and wrote:

“
WHY ARE YOU
HERE?”

“
Who is that man? And what
are you wearing on your head?” her sister asked. “And why are you
writing on that stupid board?”

Ava wrote:

“
Man = my old professor at
FBI retired to be lab tech for Denver Police”

Ava turned to look at her sister. Her sister
pointed to her head. Ava wrote:

“
This is a
hat.”

“
Why are you writing on
the board?” her sister repeated.

“
No voice,” Ava
wrote.

“
Why does everyone call
you Ava?” her sister asked.

“
My name now,” Ava wrote.
She pointed to the big block letters of “Why are you
here?”

“
The DA sent me over to
ask you why you, a
junior
technician,
are doing DNA work and not the
DNA lab,” her sister said. “You’ve totally fucked up here, Amelie.
This is great evidence but because you’re a total amateur, we can’t
use it. Who’s going to listen to rogue
Technician Alvin
when we have a
world class DNA lab?”