Double Bind (3 page)

           
Sarah couldn’t believe it.
 
How was it possible that her friend thought she could do something so awful?
 
“Angela, I would never do something like that.
 
Why would I do something like that?”

           
Angela glanced at Sarah, looking a little relieved.
 
“So, you really didn’t do it?
 
I mean, I know you’ve been frustrated with testing and -”

           
“And so you thought I dumped poisonous chemicals into a water main?
 
Are you crazy?”
 
Sarah ran her hands through her short hair, noticing suddenly how messy it was.
 
“I’m frustrated because the tests are coming back bad.
 
How would killing thousands of people fix that?”

           
“I don’t know.” Angela said.
 
“But whoever set you up did a good job of it.
 
You look really, really guilty.”

           
Sarah slouched down in the chair.
 
“I don’t get how, either.
 
You’d think I would have noticed if someone was stealing my identity.”

           
Angela shrugged.
 
“I don’t know either.
 
But, you’re out now, so we’ve just got to keep you out.”

           
Sarah turned to smile at her friend.
 
“Thank you.”

           
Angela smiled.
 
“Of course.
 
Anytime.
 
You know I’m here for you.”

           
Sarah’s smile faded.
 
“I have a feeling I’m going to be needing your help a lot over the next couple of months.”

           
“Yeah,”
 
Angela started to frown.
 
“But I’m sure the police will find the right guy.”

           
“Are you kidding me?”
 
Sarah said.
 
“That detective was hell-bent on taking me out.
 
He’s positive it’s me.
 
Nothing is going to stop him.”

           
Angela sighed.
 
“He’ll get over it sooner or later.
 
After all, if you are innocent, then they won’t find enough evidence to keep going anyway.”

           
Sarah shook her head, suddenly worried about the thoughts in her head.
 
“I still don’t think that’s going to stop him.
 
You didn’t talk to him.
 
I really don’t think he’s going to give up.
 
Even if they find evidence of someone else, he’ll still think it’s me.”

           
Angela waved a hand dismissively.
 
“You’re just feeling a little paranoid because you had such a lousy day.
 
Once we get you home, things are going to be better.”

           
Sarah shook her head.
 
“No. I can’t let it go.
 
If I don’t do something, I’m going to wind up in jail!”

           
Angela started to talk, but Sarah was starting to freak herself out.
 
“The police aren’t going to find the real people.
 
They won’t even be looking for other people or other proof.
 
They are just going to be looking for the things that were planted to make me look guilty.”

           
Angela looked worriedly over at Sarah. “You can’t let it get to you.
 
Come on, they will figure it out.”

           
“They won’t.”
 
Sarah looked over at her friend, worry on her face.
 
“Angela, I only have one choice.
 
I am going to have to prove that I am innocent.”
 
Angela paled as she spoke.
 
“I am going to have to catch the real criminal.”

           
Angela protested, but Sarah knew that she wasn’t going to change her mind.
 
She had to prove that she was innocent, and she would do anything to do it.
 
She would do anything at all.

Chapter 2

           
Angela kept insisting that Sarah needed to take it easy, so in the end Sarah assured her friend that she wouldn’t do anything rash.
 
Angela still didn’t seem sure when she dropped Sarah off at her car, but Sarah leaned in to hug her.

           
“Man, I so want to get home and take a bath to get the darn jail grime off of me,” she said.
 
“Call me later, when you’re done at the office okay?”

           
Angela looked relieved and waved goodbye.
 
“I will!
 
Drive safe.”

 
Of course, the moment that Angela drove away, Sarah turned away from her car and headed right back into the building.
 
She had investigating to do.
 
Luckily for her, she had gotten her ID card back from the cops.
 
So although she got a few odd looks from security, she passed into the building without any trouble.

           
The odd looks increased when she reached her department.
 
It was almost the end of the work day and people were starting to get ready to leave.
 
Most of them stopped or paused when they saw her.
 
Obviously anyone who had missed the show earlier had been told about it.

           
She decided that the best plan would be to pretend that nothing was wrong.
 
Instead, she cheerily waved to her friends and coworkers as she reached her office.
 
Just when she thought that she was going to make it without even having to explain herself, Valerie caught up with her.

           
“You’re back!”

           
Sarah smiled at her.
 
Valerie was one of her best friends at the company.
 
She hadn’t been around when she was arrested, but Sarah was sure that her friend would have insisted on her innocence.
 
Sarah shrugged.
 
“What can I say?
 
They had the wrong girl.”

           
“I’m so glad” Valerie said, grinning from ear to ear.
 
“Have you talked to Grisham yet?
 
I’m sure he will be thrilled to have you back on the team.”

           
Sarah smiled at her friend.
 
“The day is almost over.
 
I figured I would talk to him on Monday, I don’t want to bug him now.” She winked at her friend. “You know how grouchy he gets if you ruin his weekend.”

           
Valerie grinned and laughed.
 
“Totally.
 
Alright, well call me if you want to go clubbing this weekend.
 
I heard there is a new club in town that is absolutely amazing.”

           
Sarah smiled back.
 
“I might just do that.
 
It would be good to get out on the town after all of this insanity.”

           
Valerie hugged Sarah quickly, then pulled away.
 
“I’m just glad they got everything sorted.
 
I can’t believe they really thought you could do such a horrible thing.”

           
“Thanks
hon
,” Sarah said, then turned into her office, feeling much better.
 
After all, her friends knew the truth.
 
They knew what kind of person Sarah was, and they knew she wouldn’t do something really bad like that.

           
Feeling light and happy, Sarah scanned her office.
 
The police had obviously been through her things.
 
The papers on the desk had been shifted and pawed through, the drawers were still open.
 
There was police tape over her computer monitor.
 
She had a feeling that it would be a bad idea to mess with too many things, but she needed to find something that could prove her innocence.

           
She powered on her computer, but as always, it took forever to boot up.
 
While she waited she turned to the file cabinet.
 
She looked through the various files.
 
It was actually pretty easy to find the right things.
 
The police had pawed through the cabinet, leaving streaks of their black fingerprinting dust and half of the files put back wrong.
 
It was easy to see the ones that had caught their attention.

           
She pulled them out, leafing through them.
 
Most were the results from earlier attempts at the
Espry
serum.
 
Her computer binged, and she moved over to pull up the chair, taking the files with her.

           
She was still locked out of the system, but earlier she had refrained from hacking in out of courtesy.
 
She definitely had no intention of doing the same this time.
 
Within minutes she was inside the system.
 
She wasn’t completely sure what she was looking for, so she uploaded her whole hard-drive to her email quickly.
 
She could look through it later.

           
While everything was processing, she finished leafing through the papers.
 
There really was nothing special about them.
 
If only she knew what to look for, this would be a lot easier.

           
She was about to put everything back when she saw a folder tucked in with everything else that was truly curious.
 
It wasn’t even about the
Espry
project.
 
It was about a different formula that her team had been working on, a medicine for schizophrenia that they had abandoned when it had been way too medically dangerous.
 
Yet someone had leafed through the entire thing.
 
She glanced through the folder, trying to figure out why someone would be interested in that, when her computer binged.

           
She set the folder down and glanced back up at her computer.
 
Now that she had that to leaf through later, she needed to get into the system.
 
She could at least find the security footage from the night before to prove that it wasn’t her using the keycard to get in.
 
She was scrolling through the footage when she heard someone clear their throat behind her.

           
She spun in her chair, grinning in case it was Valerie or one of her other co-workers.
 
To her utter dismay, it was Detective Snyder.
 
His arms were folded across his chest, and he actually seemed amused.

           
“You know,” he said, “you’re really not helping your case here.”

           
Sarah started to open her mouth, but she really had no idea what to say.
 
It occurred to her that it probably looked really bad that she had come in here.
 
She moved her purse across the desk nervously.
 
“This isn’t what it looks like.”

           
“You know,” he said, moving into the room.
 
“You’re really not helping your case.”
 
Sarah spotted Mr. Grisham standing in the hallway, peering around the detective.
 
She groaned.
 
How had he found out that she was here.
 
Who had found out the police hadn’t cleared her?

           
“I promise, I just came back for my things.” Sarah said, pulling her purse closer to her.
 
One of the folders was trapped beneath it and slid too.

           
The detective raised one eyebrow, moving closer into the room.
 
He glanced at the computer, and the security footage spooling across it, his eyebrows raising.
 
“Is that so?
 
You contaminated a possible crime scene to get your bag.”

           
Sarah swept up her purse, slipping the folder in between in and her body by accident.
 
She had no intention of drawing more attention to herself by putting it back on the table, so she shifted her arms to block it from view.
 
Then, she started to hurry past the detective and out into the hall.
 
“But, I’ve got it now, so there are no worries.
 
I’ll just be going.”

           
Mr. Grisham blocked her way in the hall, his arms folded across his chest.
 
His grey hair was as impeccable as ever, but there was no trace of his usual smile this time.
   
“Ms. Gaul.”

           
She halted, knowing that she probably looked guiltier than ever.
 
“Yes?” She said, hoping that she looked relatively innocent.

           
He put his hand out.
 
“Your keycard, please.”

           
Sarah hoped that her relief didn’t show on her face.
 
She could deal with it if they were only upset about her keycard.
 
Of course, it would make it a lot harder for her to prove that she was innocent, but anything was better than them taking her back down to the station.
 
Angela might not be able to save her this time.

           
“Oh!
 
Of course.
 
Sorry.”
 
She pulled the keycard from its lanyard around her neck, passing it over to her boss.

           
“Thank you.
 
We can’t have non-employees running around the company unescorted.”
 
He glanced at the detective, who was looking at the computer and the files on the desk.
 
“Perhaps it would be best if the detective escorted you out of the building.”

           
Sarah almost squeaked in horror, but she managed to clamp her mouth shut.
 
To her delight, the detective looked as off-put as she was.
 
“I don’t know if -”

           
“Please, detective.”
Mr
Grisham said, his eyebrows raising.
 
“Since we have been so accommodating.”

           
The detective grimaced a little, but nodded.
 
“Of course.
 
I’ll see that she doesn’t contaminate the crime scene further.”
 
He turned away from the files and the computer, following Sarah into the hall.
 
Sarah scowled as she headed down the hallway toward the elevators.
 
Behind her, the detective stopped briefly, glancing back at Mr. Grisham.

           
“If you would seal the room.
 
I’ll need to find out exactly what she was doing.”

           
“Of course, detective,” Mr. Grisham said, nodding slightly.
 
“I’ll see that it gets done.”

           
The detective nodded his thanks, and then joined Sarah just as the elevator doors opened.
 
Because it was so late, the elevator was completely empty.
 
Nearly everyone else had left for the weekend.
 
She stood awkwardly next to the detective, letting him push the button for the parking garage.

           
After a moment, the awkwardness seemed to build.
 
Sarah almost felt that if something didn’t happen, she was going to suffocate on the stale air in the elevator.
 
She’d never been particularly claustrophobic, but suddenly she desperately wanted out of the cramped space, where she could feel the detective watching her every move.

           
Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.
 
Clutching her purse tightly to herself, she turned to the detective.
 
“Detective, you have to believe me.
 
I’m just trying to clear my name.
 
I promise I didn’t do it.”

           
Detective Snyder seemed surprised at her earnest tone, but it didn’t drop the smirk from his face.
 
“Oddly enough, Ms. Gaul, everyone I’ve interrogated said the same thing.”