Good Chemistry (19 page)

“A toast. To the first successful mission of our new partnership.” Debra clanked her glass against his. The wine was tart and fruity on her tongue.

“So what do we do now?” Alex grinned over the rim of his glass.

“Tomorrow we sail back to Miami and clear your name. But today we have a more pressing matter.”

“Oh, and what’s that?” Debra smiled at the mischievous look on Alex’s face. He jumped up and pulled in the anchor. Then Alex captained them out into the deep ocean.

“Here.” Alex encircled Debra with a thick leather belt. He clamped each end to a brass ring mounted on a swivel chair. Alex pulled one of the four fishing poles out of the rack mounted to the back of the cabin. He dug around in the bait box and came out with a herring.

“This will take a while to thaw out but they can still smell it.” Alex anchored the pole into a metal cuff welded to the deck plate after casting it far out to sea. He handed it over for Debra to hold.

“So what are we after? Shark?” Debra grinned. She’d lived her entire life in Florida and had never been deep-sea fishing before.

“No, close. We’re after swordfish.” Alex shaded his eyes from the sun as he scanned the horizon back and forth. Debra tightened up a bit. She’d seen part of a fishing show. They were after swordfish, too. And that guy had gotten yanked right out of the boat.

“You do realize if I hook one I can’t battle it with my arm this way.” Alex grinned as he held her wine glass.

“So Superwoman does have a weakness after all. Don’t worry, if we get a bite, just hand it off to me.” Alex leaned his weight over the front rail of the boat. “I wasn’t kidding about Belize, you know.” Alex studied Debra’s eyes closely, trying to gauge how she really felt about the idea.

Debra kept her gaze fixed on the water. Minutes ticked by.

Alex started wondering if she’d even heard him. His sense of trepidation grew. The longer she delayed in answering the more dejected Alex felt. Maybe it was just too much of a stretch to ask Debra to change her life that dramatically.

Debra frowned and turned to Alex. “I think I would get bored.”

Alex ducked his head down a little. He’d been indulging in an adolescent fantasy. Now, the painful adjustment back to reality began.

“I’d want to start a private detective agency on the side.” Debra’s expression never wavered.

Alex looked up. He studied her face. Was she being serious? He didn’t really know her well enough to be sure. A smile suddenly curled up the corners of her mouth. She turned to look into his eyes.

“Of course I’ll go with you.” Debra giggled, as she pulled Alex’s lips to her own.

After a long, passionate kiss, Alex scooped Debra up and was about to carry her to the bedroom below.

Suddenly, the fishing pole bent nearly in half as a seven-hundred-pound swordfish took the bait and sailed away with it. Alex was a really great guy, as Debra was discovering. But he was still a guy.

Ever-so-gently, he set her down as fast as he could. He handed her his wine glass and set his full attention to battling the monster fish.

Debra shook her head and laughed. Life had finally happened for her.

Chapter 20

Joanna took Bernie and made a beeline out of town to the family fishing cabin on the edge of the Everglades.

“You’ll be safe here until we can sort all this out.” Joanna fumbled with her keys but finally managed to open the door. It creaked and swung inward. The dust swirled through the shaft of sunlight as it flooded the dark cabin.

“I’ll be back with some food as soon as I can.” Joanna put her finger on her lower lip. She ran through her mental checklist silently.

“What about Andrew?” Bernie cut in, pulling Joanna out of her train of thought.

“Oh, of course, he’s on his way. He’ll be here any minute.” Joanna pulled Bernie into her arms. She patted her softly on her tangle of red curls.

“Everything is going to be just fine, Sweetie, you’ll see.” Joanna had been waiting for this moment ever since Andrew first brought Bernie home for Thanksgiving their junior year of college. She headed out the door and had just pulled away when Andrew pulled up and parked.

“Oh Bernie, God, I was so worried about you.” Andrew squeezed her tight.

“So what happened?” Bernie’s eyes narrowed down with hurt and frustration. Bernie knew what he was asking about. The stupid experiment. This was finally the last straw for Bernie.

“Why don’t you see for yourself?” Bernie fumed as she yanked up her sleeve and presented her arm for Andrew to inject. As usual, sarcasm was completely lost on him. He retrieved his little case with the hypodermic needles and was about to take her up on her offer.

“Andrew! God dammit. Enough!” Bernie snatched the case and the needle out of his hands and slammed them on a rickety table.

Andrew looked dumbfounded.

“Listen to me!” Bernie commanded in a voice Andrew had never heard before. Bernie was finally pissed off for the first time since he’d known her. Andrew could only marvel at the change.

“I’ve had enough of this crap and it ends right now! My best friend is locked up in the nuthouse because of your precious damned formula. News flash Andrew! It doesn’t work! All the side-effects this stuff causes . . . ” Bernie paused and almost froze, her face throbbing with emotion.

“Andrew. I faked the tests.” Bernie pushed the words out and then just waited.

Andrew cocked his head and looked confused. “I don’t—”

“I faked the tests with you, but I’ve been testing each batch on Judy and giving you the correct results.”

Bernie could see Andrew’s thinking veer off. There was all of this going on between them but then there was the thread of the story that followed the science.

Andrew just couldn’t help himself. “So Judy—”

“Yes, Judy!” Bernie sputtered. “All of the crazy side-effects are real. I had to pretend with you to make sure you got the right information. But I’ve never had a drop of that crap in my system.” Bernie glared at Andrew.

“So the intervals until you passed out, those were accurate measurements?” Andrew asked, as naturally as he ever had.

Bernie felt her pulse ignite. She hauled off and slapped him across the face with everything she had. She paused for a split second to see his reaction before she burst into tears.

Andrew looked utterly shocked.

Even through her sadness, Bernie realized that she would have to explain everything to Andrew. He never would figure it out if she didn’t.

“Andrew, I . . . I love you.” Bernie went right on sobbing after confessing. “I always have. Don’t you realize that? Haven’t you ever realized the way I feel about you?” Bernie searched Andrew’s eyes. She’d wanted to ask that question for years. She wanted an answer. Andrew’s mouth hung open slightly. After an awkward silence, he said the one thing Bernie could have never expected. “I never realized you felt that way about me. You know I’m no good at reading emotional cues.”

Well, all right, there it was. The biggest understatement of all time.

“But I guess that works out perfect.” Andrew smiled at her as if he had a headache that had lasted forever, but suddenly stopped.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Bernie was lost.

“I’ve been in love with you since that first moment in Chemistry Lab. Why do you think I sat down there? That was the bravest thing I had ever done with a girl and you missed it. You thought I just wanted to be friends and I’ve always accepted that. I’ve been glad to have you in my life anyway I could.”

As Andrew began to blabber on a little, he completely missed Bernie yanking off her blouse. Her eyes smoldered like sapphires. Grabbing Andrew by the waist she shoved him down on the bed and pressed her tender lips down on his. The hunger Bernie had caged inside all these years burst forth.

She came up for air just long enough to rip Andrew’s clothes off. She pushed him down on his back and wiggled her way on top on him. Her chest heaved with deep, halting breaths. Bernie’s arms were propped up in the air like rigid tent poles. Her eyes burned down into his. The soft ivory flesh of her buttocks tingled everywhere it touched Andrew’s warm skin.

“And just so we’re clear. . . Heidi?”

“Who?” Andrew grinned, as Bernie lowered herself down and played the tip of her tongue around the edge of his mouth. As Bernie rode Andrew, a deep quiver of ecstasy rattled through her neck and shoulders and slowly melted its way down. Their breath and heartbeats pounded into each other along with Andrew’s flesh. With each thrust, Bernie ground her hips down meeting him halfway.

“Oh my God. Oh . . . Oh.” Bernie’s voice fluttered as she came. Pulling Andrew by the shoulders, she rolled over with him now on top of her. Looking up into his smoldering eyes, she could tell that he felt the same way about her. No matter what else happened between them, Bernie knew that in this moment, he loved her as completely as she loved him.

Unbeknownst to the newly christened lovebirds, also at that moment, and halfway across the city, Rick was pulling off the road to meet up with his old army buddy, Keith.

“So what’s the good word?” Rick asked in his cool, cocky voice as Keith hoisted the gym bag up onto the hood of his car. He pulled the zipper and fished out what appeared to be a stick of modeling clay.

“C-4, detonators, blasting caps, the works. You could bring down a skyscraper with what you’ve got there.” Rick gave the contents a quick once-over and pulled the zipper closed. They were the same explosives he already had except these could never be traced back to him. He handed Keith a small roll of hundred dollar bills in a rubber band.

“The other half when it’s done.”

Keith stuffed the roll of bills in his pocket. He didn’t bother to count it. It wasn’t that he trusted Rick. If he were going to try ripping him off it would come later. When there was really something at stake.

“Did Tito find anything out about the chemist?”

“He said if you can get a big enough sample he can most likely reverse engineer it. But the research that goes with it would be better.”

Rick nodded silently, checking for anything he might have overlooked. He’d already done one stretch in the pen and he had no intentions of going back.

“So what are you going to do with your share of the money?” Keith’s eyes glittered with innocent curiosity. But it was just the sort of question that set Rick on edge. Small talk. Harmless bits of information exchanged to pass the time. Until a District Attorney gets a hold of someone. Then every detail he can remember gets Keith one inch closer to a plea deal.

“What’s it to you?” Rick’s eyes took on a dark, suspicious cast.

“Nothing. Nothing. I was just asking, just making conversation. I plan to get one of those trucks you sell food from. I got a perfect spot.”

Keith’s eyes got very big as his carefully crafted vision played out in front of his eyes for the thousandth time. He was completely transported and didn’t see when Rick brought the tire iron down across the back of his skull.

He slumped over and Rick pushed him into the trunk Rick had opened to load the explosive. He dumped his legs in over the edge. Rick slammed the trunk shut and looked around frantically. He saw no one, but it didn’t matter. In Rick’s mind there was always someone watching him.

After years of using crystal meth, Rick’s paranoia was matched only by the outpouring of rage he was capable of if anyone triggered it. Poor, stupid Keith had done just that. Now, instead of them having a third hand to help with the heist, Rick had a fresh body he had to dispose of instead.

He left Keith’s car where it was with the door slightly ajar in the hopes he could entice someone to come along and steal it for him. The keys were in the ignition so either way something was going to happened with it and it shouldn’t take very long. If the cops found it first that would put them looking for a missing person.

Rick’s rash impulsive response to an innocent question meant that he now had less time to do the job and get out of town. After this one, if he could make the kind of score Heidi was talking about, then he knew he’d never return to the United States. Rick was mentally running through a list of places he planned on going as he pulled into the spot in front of Heidi’s apartment.

He hopped out and strolled up to the door. He knocked a few times and then just let himself in.

“Hey, Babe, we have a little run we need to make.”

Heidi froze. She put aside the piece of mail she was reading. She glared at Rick contemptuously. She knew him well enough to know that when he said he had ‘a little run to make’ that it meant he’d screwed up and now Heidi had to use her calm thinking mind to fix it.

“What happened?” She grilled Rick like he was a five-year-old.

“Nothing. It was just that asshole Keith. He started asking a bunch of stupid questions like, where were we planning to go and what were we planning to do with the money . . .” Rick trailed off, hoping Heidi would let it go.

“And?”

“And nothing. I clocked him, that’s all.”

“So where is he now?” Heidi hated this about Rick.

When he remained silent, she said, “God damn it, Rick.”

“I’m sorry, but you should have seen the way he was looking at me. He was a rat, for sure,” Rick said as he followed Heidi out the sliding glass door to the patio. She grabbed a shovel for herself and handed one to Rick.

“Here. Let’s go.” As they marched out the front door, Heidi quickly scanned the area. No one was in view, but that didn’t mean no one was watching them. Heidi popped the trunk and they both threw their shovels in on top of the body.

Heidi slammed the trunk and got in behind the wheel.

Rick looked out the window watching the countryside go by.

Heidi stared straight ahead without speaking. Her worst fear about Rick was that someday he was going to land her ass in prison. And today was a perfect reminder why.

Heidi turned onto a gravel road. Two cyclones of dust kicked up behind her car. After a few more miles, Heidi pulled over into a secluded spot where she could hide the car so it couldn’t be seen from the road.

As they hauled Keith’s body from the trunk, every fly for a hundred miles converged on the scene. By the time they dug down a few feet in the thick pungent mud they were both exhausted. They pushed Keith’s body into the shallow grave and heaped the soggy clumps of muck-encased roots back on top until it was hidden from view.

The freshly chewed grave-shaped mound was obvious to anyone who might casually walk by and see it.

Rick hurled both shovels back into the trunk and slammed it shut.

“Come on.”

Heidi was already behind the wheel while Rick absently picked a fresh blister off his hand. Finally, he snapped out of his walking slumber and got in. Getting away quickly from a freshly dug grave needed to take precedent over a blister. Heidi shook her head at Rick as she backed out and got on the gravel road.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she finally got her car back on firm enough ground that she didn’t have to worry about getting stuck. “Well, did you at least get the stuff before you killed him?”

“Of course, what do you think I am? An idiot?”

Heidi just let it pass. “You just severed our link to all the guns and explosives we would ever need. Plus, you killed Keith. He was an officer in the Army Reserve. And now he’s gone missing at the same time as the explosives.” Heidi shook her head in disgust.

Whatever he did to the records to keep thefts from being noticed, Heidi could only hope Keith had time to do it this time. Otherwise, this was going to be one red-hot trail indeed.

“I wonder if we should split right now? I mean, just keep driving and get into Mexico through Texas.”

Rick arched his back and snapped his head at Heidi.

“Are you serious? Come on. Keith had his fingers in all different sorts of pies. There’s plenty for the Army to chase down before they ever link him to us. Besides what connection is there? I haven’t seen him since the Army. We only meet at the drops and I throw the cell phone away every time.”

Heidi arched her eyebrow in a look of concession. Maybe he was right. After all, she’d been there to manage him at every point with Keith. So, he was probably right about that. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. That’s just a pretty big hiccup to have right before a job.” Heidi glanced over at Rick a final time. The robbery was still on but as the last word on the subject, she wanted to remind him that he’d fucked-up again.

“Hey. Two-way split.” Rick threw his arms up as if to say:
Hey, what ya’ gonna do? Ya’ gotta’ roll with it.

Heidi laughed and shook her head. He was right about that as well. There was a reason life had put them together.

Underneath his impulsiveness and quick temper, Rick had a calculating, devious mind, just like she did.

“So, have you thought about where you want to go after this?” Rick smiled and winked at Heidi. He only had to get her talking about travel and all would not only be forgiven but forgotten as well.