Final Challenge (12 page)

- The truth is that ... then he rectified requesting us a second report.

- Thank God! I was beginning to think I had the wrong person.

- I'm glad someone believes that our work has some interest.

- Have any?  ... It's a great job, agent Hanson, otherwise I wouldn't be talking to you. We need to talk.

- And our boss?

- He's
aware
of course, but he no longer has this issue

- What about us?

- You do,
of course. During the next
weeks you'll be working for my department.

- Not sure as happy I am to hear this news a
nd not just because it comes from you.

- I can imagine. Listen, it's ok we meet tomorrow morning?

- Yeah
, of course. Where?

- Don’
t worry, I'll come to your office.

- Thank you, ok.

The next day Marvin and Hanson waited expectantly the visit of Kelly Adams. It meant something more than an unexpected support to move forward with the case. Kelly had made them regain confidence in themselves and in their way of working, at the same time that she had discovered, unconsciously, the dirty trick
s of his boss. As
Hans
on
was reflecting about his at
titude and the reason that had led him to manipulate their report, he saw from distance the figure of his colleague David Bell, a few steps ahead of the silho
uette of a stylish and slender
woman whose features from afar not happened to s
ee. David loved to boast about
his conquests, was not the first time he approac
hed to their office to presume
introducing his latest pickup. Not a bad guy, but Hanson saw him as childish and braggart.

David entered
the room as
the woman remained prudently out to a distance.
He
opened the door displaying a too
thpaste ad laugh.

- There is a gorgeous looking for you, Hans. I have taken the liberty to accompany her - he said as he winked - then beckoned the woman to come in, then he said her - There he is. Remember, however, that my office
is down the hall. It has been
an honor.

- Thanks, you've been very friendly - the woman
came slowly and smiled to see
Hanson, then she went to him - The agent Bell has been an exc
ellent host. - Extended her
hand - I'm Kelly, Kelly Adams.

   Hanson had left gaping from the first time he had the opportunity to see her up close. He thought that Kelly could have also been a model of success if she had been proposed. She was a woman of about thirty and five years, remarkably beautiful, blonde
, tall, with an enviable kind,
perfect features, thick and sensual lips and to cap big green eyes that spoke for themselves. All without forgetting that tone of voice that had already captured him
from
the previous day. A woman so evocative, sensual, wasting an elegance that did not go unnoticed, caused a huge impact on the department, not only in David Bell. Hanson could observe as several colleagues had left the offices adjacent with the only intention of seei
ng her. So, before greeting her,
decided to bring down the slats of the blinds to have a minimum of privacy.
Outside
a murmur of disappointment
could be heard.

 
Since her High
School
days Kelly used to cause suc
h impact among men. But behind her
beauty and fragile appearance
she
hid a strong, resolute character. Able to get to where were necessary. She did not need t
o rely on her physical to open
gates
, her capacity for sacrifice and intelligence had led her to specialize in Genetics from UC Berkeley with outstanding score and play some positions in research laboratories before accepting this important p
ost at the FBI, but not before
some doubts emerged in her head. Theirs was the investigation in its purest form, and instead looked doomed to do police work on their peers. But on the other hand, she was seduced by the challenge involved and the difficulty would mean achieving a balance between science and law, between challenge and ethics.

- Excuse me, Miss Adams. If I'd known you were so beautiful I would have brought the shark repellent - Hanson said, smiling as he shook her hand -

- Do not worry. I'm used to navigate between them - Kelly responded by sticking those big eyes that made him float -

  Marvin had been watching the scene. It seemed that both were absorbed, isolated from the world, as if all they cared
was less than a meter away. He knew that feeling,
had lived it when he met Susan.
That
thought made
him
feel
even worse.

He decided to come near and introduce himself.

Sorry to interrupt. I am Marvin, Miss Adams, not s
ure how much we appreciate your
pr
esence.

- Excuse me both, please - Hanson responded to then make presentations.

  The glances of Kelly and Hanson were still looking each other for space of a few seconds. Then he invited her to sit down and offered a coffee which she refused. Finally, once all three sitting around the table, he asked the question that had been around his head all night.

- Tell me, what attracted your attention from the first report?

- A name. O
r
more precisely, two. Clerigan and Owen.

- The two missing scientists?

- Yes, at the time that disappearance struck me.

- Did you know them?

  Kelly lowered her
head, some moments that she preferred not
to remember came to her mind. 
Far as her memories were able to reach she would not have been able to respond if she had fallen in love for Applied Genetics or her teacher, Stephen Clerigan. The truth is that Clerigan had instilled
to her
his love for Genetics, and this in turn by Clerigan. In fact she wasn't able to understand one without the oth
er. Because she even remembered
his classes, his essays and, of course, those months she had been with him preparing her final project. The truth is that one of the attractions of Clerigan was in his way of understanding life and making it
to
understand others. Never was limited to stick to the script. He often said that life had been writing its own script on the fly, without knowing what the end result would be, which had only to look at the results of the theory of evolution. And scientists had also to learn to adapt to the developmental schemes of life, pursue it to get to master it. Genetics in this sense meant a before and after in the history of science, opening the man the possibility of interpreting to himself.

 
  No one was bored listening to Clerigan. He always ended up finding a connection point between the matter he was talking about and everyday phenomena, between
the sublime and the banal. H
e said that genetics did not measure the results in terms of greatness, but of effectiveness.

  Also came to her mind the last times she h
ave met the professor
before his
strange disappearance. The latter had been at a conference, where she met a happy and beaming man. It was clear that his marriage after a lightning courtship with that beautiful Broadway
actress twenty years younger tha
n
him, had done him to feel great. Then she learned that she became ill with leukemia and died only a year later. So initially she had associated
his
disappearance
with the death of his wife
, just a few months before they submit the
second part of the
Human Genome Project, which he had been part. But she considered Clerigan a survivor, one of those rare people who are capable of falling and getting up ever
y time it takes, a person with
strength and resources out of the ordinary to get out of the more complicated situations in which the life can put to anyone. Yes, definitely
Stephen
Clerigan was different. Another possibility that had been considered at the time was that of murder, but no motive known and without a body had no sense.

- Yeah ...
well,
the one who I really knew was Clerigan. He was ... my professor in university and who led my final project. - Said in low tones and stuttering slightly. Then she got composed her again, raised her tone, her voice became stronger and continued -. I admit I was impressed by his disappearance because it made
no sense. But if I am here is because I think there is a rela
tionship between your case and that of the disappearances.

  Kelly was lying in some way, but she did not consciously, indeed, in the background was lying to herself. While it was true that th
e
case might have some interest,
the real reason for having taken it so s
eriously, as something personal
had only one name: Clerigan. Marvin intervened.

- I see that you share our views.

- Completely.

- Although we have not yet been able to prove it?

- Yeah
, I believe there are ample and well-founded reasons to follow this line of research. We should find a response in the Amazon.

- But this is a huge and unknown territory for us, on which we have no jurisdiction -  Hanson pointed out -

- We are going to have help. I am making efforts to find support and cooperation from the Brazilian authorities, I will keep you informed.

XIX

That evening, Marvin returned to his apartment at the same time he u
sed to do
every day. He opened the mailbox and found what had l
ong been waiting for. He didn’t need
to open the
letter to know its contents as
he saw the letterhead of a law firm. He had at heart a hidden hope that letter had not gone before, that Susan would repent and finally gave him another chance, so when he picked up the letter he felt a pain and oppression in the chest that forced him to rely on the wall as he could not avoid to vent his pain as tears.

   He looked around, got l
ucky. No one, no witness of such
moment of weakness. He dismissed the idea of riding an elevator, instead barely went
upstairs as he often did, but
this time those six floors with slow, tired steps became eternal. The reason because he did every day such free extra gymnastics had nothing to do with staying in good physical condition, but indirectly
it suited him. The only motive
was to delay the arrival of an uncons
cious way to a house that didn’
t consider his own, where he felt so sad and so empty that any excuse to be absent suited him. But he had decided not to take refuge in alcohol an
d bars, as they could mean his
final destruction, sinking further into his particular abyss.

 
When he started to open the door of his house, he noticed that something was wrong. The lock was forced.  As moved by a spring, he parked his bitterness. His adrenaline level went up enough to be on guard. He pulled out his gun and came in a flash, throwing himself down on the floor because the possibility that someone was still inside. He inspected the house and took a deep
breath, found no one. But his
apartmen
t was dilapidated, all lying on
the floor, someone had been looking for something but not mattering to leave traces.

 
After the initial shock he did a more detailed inspection. He start
ed by the living
room, passing then to the room, then to the bathro
om. And it was there where his
heart skipped a beat when he noticed a message written on the mirror with red spray, poor handwriting and text rather than explicit: "Do not go forward. Do
it for yours." That really
made him nervous. Whoever it was, seemed willing to intimidate with the only weakness of any police: his family.

   He took the
cell
phone from his jacket pocket and dialed Susan's house, but jumped the answering machine. He tried again with the same result. He called the cell phone, but it was not operating. There was always t
he possibility that number had
changed, but that did not stop his nervous state was increasing. Then he remembered that, when she had something to do, Susan used to leave Billy
with her mother. He searched
the phone
number
of his mother in law. He never had been so glad to hear her voice.