Toxin (27 page)

The two men didn't try to talk until they were outside.

“I don't know how you can stand that noise in there for more than five minutes,” Shanahan remarked.

“How come, man?” Carlos asked. “It's good music.”

With the rain falling steadily, Shanahan brought Carlos to his Cherokee and the two men climbed inside.

“Let's make this fast,” Shanahan said. “The name is Marsha Baldwin. She's an attractive, tall blonde who's about twenty-five.”

Carlos's face twisted into a grin of pleasure, making his mustache look like two dashes under his narrow nose.

“The reason you got to move fast,” Shanahan explained, “is because at this very moment she's where you work.”

“She's at Higgins and Hancock?” Carlos asked.

“That's right,” Shanahan said. “She's in the admin section looking into records she's not supposed to. You won't be able to miss her. If you have trouble finding her, ask the guard. He's supposed to keep his eye on her.”

“How much you pay?” Carlos asked.

“More than we talked about, providing you do it now,” Shanahan said. “I want you to go this minute.”

“How much?” Carlos asked.

“A hundred now and two hundred later if she disappears without a trace,” Shanahan said. He reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a crisp hundred-dollar bill. He held it up so Carlos could see it. It was bathed in red light from the neon bull.

“What about my job?” Carlos asked.

“Like I promised,” Shanahan said. “I'll get you off the kill floor by the end of the month. Where do you want to go, the boning room or the carcass room?”

“The boning room,” Carlos said.

“So we have a deal?” Shanahan.

“Sure,” Carlos said. He took the bill, folded it, and slipped it into his jeans pocket. He started to get out of the car. It was as if he'd been asked to rake leaves or shovel snow.

“Don't screw it up,” Shanahan said.

“It's going to be easy with her in Higgins and Hancock,” Carlos said.

“That's what we figured,” Shanahan said.

 

L
ifting her arms over her head, Marsha stretched. She'd been bending over the open file-cabinet drawer long enough to make her back stiff. She used her hip to close the drawer, and it made a definitive click as it slid home. Picking up her cellular phone, she headed for the USDA office door. While she walked, she punched in Kim's phone number.

As the call went through, she opened the door and looked up and down the silent hall. She was pleased not
to see anyone. While she'd been going through the files, she'd heard the guard pass by and even hesitate outside the door on several occasions. He'd not bothered her, but his loitering had raised her anxiety level. She knew that if he approached her, she'd feel trapped in the seemingly deserted building. She'd not seen a single one of the cleaning people who were supposed to be there.

“This better be you,” Kim said without saying hello.

“That's a strange way to answer the phone,” Marsha said with a nervous laugh. She closed the USDA office door and started up the deserted hall.

“It's about time you called,” Kim said.

“I haven't had any luck so far,” Marsha said, ignoring Kim's complaint.

“What's taken you so long to call?” Kim demanded.

“Hey, cool it,” Marsha said. “I've been busy. You have no idea how much paperwork the USDA requires. There's daily sanitation reports, disposition records, livestock slaughter reports, process deficiency records, kill-order reports, and purchase invoices. I've had to go through all of it for January ninth.”

“What did you find?” Kim asked.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Marsha said. She came to a door with a frosted-glass panel. Stenciled on the glass was the word:
RECORDS
. She tried the door. It was unlocked. She stepped inside, closed the door, and locked it behind her.

“Well, at least you looked,” Kim said. “Now get yourself out of there.”

“Not until I look at the company records,” Marsha said.

“It's eight–fifteen,” Kim said. “You told me this was going to be a quick visit.”

“It shouldn't take me that much longer,” Marsha said.
“I'm in the record room right now. I'll call you back in a half hour or so.”

Marsha disconnected before Kim had a chance to object. She put the phone down on a long library table and faced a bank of file cabinets along one wall. The opposite wall had a single window against whose panes the rain was beating. It sounded like grains of rice. At the far end of the room was a second door. Marsha went to it and made sure it was locked.

Feeling relatively secure, she walked back to the file cabinets and yanked out the first drawer.

 

A
fter several minutes, Kim finally withdrew his hand from the receiver. He'd hoped that Marsha would have called right back. The conversation had ended so abruptly he'd thought they'd been cut off. Eventually he had to accept the fact that she'd hung up.

Kim was sitting in the same club chair Marsha had found him in. The floor lamp next to the chair was the only light on in the house. On the side table was a glass of neat whiskey that he'd poured for himself and then had not touched.

Kim had never felt worse in his life. Images of Becky kept flooding his mind and bringing forth new tears. The next instant, he found himself denying the whole, horrid experience and attributing it to an extension of his nightmare where Becky had fallen into the sea.

The sound of the refrigerator kicking on in the kitchen made him think he should try to eat. He couldn't remember the last time he'd put anything significant in his stomach. The trouble was he wasn't hungry in the slightest. Then he thought about taking himself upstairs to shower and change clothes, but that sounded like too
much effort. In the end, he decided he'd just sit there and wait for the phone to ring.

 

T
he old Toyota pickup had no heat and Carlos was shivering by the time he turned off the paved road onto the gravel track that led around the Higgins and Hancock stockyard. He switched off the single functioning headlight and proceeded by knowledge of the route and shadowy glimpses of the fence posts to his right. He drove all the way around to the point where the stockyard funneled into the chute leading into the plant. During the day, this was where all the luckless animals entered.

He parked the truck in the shadow of the building. He took off the heavy mittens he used to drive and replaced them with tight-fitting black leather gloves. Reaching under his seat, he extracted a long, curved kill knife, the same kind he used during the day. By reflex he tested its edge with his thumb. Even through the leather he could tell it was razor-sharp.

He climbed from the cab. Blinking in the rain, he quickly climbed the fence and dropped into the trampled mud of the stockyard. Mindless of the cow dung, he sprinted down the chute and disappeared into its dark depths.

 

W
ith an oyster fork in one hand and a cut-crystal glass of bourbon in the other, Bobby Bo mounted his coffee table and drew himself up to his full height. In the process, he knocked over an hors d'oeuvre plate of marinated shrimp to the delight of his two professionally cut standard poodles.

Bobby Bo loudly clanged the the fork against the glass. No one heard until the quartet stopped playing.

“All right, everyone,” Bobby Bo yelled over the heads of his guests. “Dinner is served in the dining room. Remember to bring the number you drew out of the bucket. That will be your table. If you haven't drawn a number, the bucket will be in the foyer.”

The crowd began to move out of the living room en masse. Bobby Bo managed to step down from the coffee table without further mishap other than to scare one of the dogs, which yelped and fled into the kitchen.

Bobby Bo was on his way to the dining room, when he caught sight of Shanahan O'Brian. Excusing himself, he stepped over to stand beside his head of security.

“Well?” Bobby Bo whispered. “How did it go?”

“No problem,” Shanahan said.

“Is it going to happen tonight?” Bobby Bo asked.

“As we speak,” Shanahan said. “I think Daryl Webster should be told, so he can tell his security not to interfere.”

“Good idea,” Bobby Bo said. He smiled happily, patted Shanahan on the shoulder, then hurried after his guests.

 

T
he doorbell shocked Kim out of his melancholic stupor. For the moment, he was disoriented as to the origin of the noise. He even started to reach for the phone. He'd expected the phone to ring and certainly not for the door to chime. When he realized it was the door, he looked at his watch. It was quarter to nine. He couldn't believe that someone would be ringing his doorbell at such a time on Saturday night.

The only person he could imagine it might be was
Ginger, but she never came over without calling. Then Kim remembered he'd failed to listen to his answering machine, so she could have called and left a message. While Kim considered the possibilities of this, the doorbell sounded again.

He did not want to see Ginger, but when the doorbell sounded for the third time followed by some knocking, Kim pushed himself out of the chair. He was just thinking of what he could say, when to his utter surprise, he found himself looking at Tracy, not Ginger.

“Are you okay?” Tracy asked. She spoke quietly.

“I guess,” Kim said. He was nonplussed.

“Can I come in?” Tracy asked.

“Of course,” Kim said. He stepped back to give Tracy room. “Sorry! I should have invited you in immediately. I'm just surprised to see you.”

Tracy stepped into the dimly lit foyer. She could see that the only light in the house was in the living room, next to an easy chair. She slipped out of her coat and rain hat. Kim took them.

“I hope you don't mind my coming over here like this,” Tracy said. “I know it was a little impulsive on my part.”

“It's okay,” Kim said. He hung up Tracy's things.

“I didn't want to be with anyone,” Tracy explained. She sighed. “But then I started thinking about you and worrying, especially with how agitated you were when you ran out of the hospital. I thought that since we've both lost the same daughter, we're the only ones that could have any idea of how we feel. I guess what I'm saying is I need some help and imagine you do too.”

Tracy's words snatched away any remnants of denial Kim was entertaining. He felt a keen wave of grief he'd
been doing his best to avoid. He breathed out heavily and swallowed as he choked back tears. For a moment he couldn't speak.

“Have you been sitting here in the living room?” Tracy asked.

Kim nodded.

“I'll get a chair from the dining room,” Tracy said.

“Let me,” Kim volunteered. He appreciated having something physical to do. He brought the chair into the living room and placed it within the penumbra of light from the floor lamp.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Kim managed. “I poured myself some scotch.”

“Thank you, but no,” Tracy said. She sat down heavily, then leaned forward, cradling her chin in her hands with her elbows on her knees.

Kim lowered himself in the club chair and looked at his former wife. Her dark hair, which was always wavy and full, was matted against the top of her head. The small amount of makeup she normally wore was streaked. She was clearly pained, yet her eyes were as bright and sparkly as Kim remembered.

“There's also something I wanted to tell you,” Tracy said. “After I had a little time to think, I believe what you did today to Becky took a lot of courage.” She paused for a moment while she bit her lip. “I know I couldn't have done it even if I was a surgeon,” she added.

“I appreciate your saying that,” Kim said. “Thank you.”

“I was appalled at first,” Tracy admitted.

“Open-heart massage is a desperate act in any circumstance,” Kim said. “Doing it on your own daughter is . . . well, I'm sure the hospital isn't looking at it the same way you are.”

“You did it out of love,” Tracy said. “It wasn't hubris like I thought at first.”

“I did it because it was clear to me the external massage wasn't working,” Kim said. “I couldn't let Becky just fade away like it seemed she was doing. No one knew why she was arresting. Of course, now I know why and why the external massage wasn't working.”

“I had no idea this E. coli could be such an awful illness,” Tracy said.

“Nor did I,” Kim said.

The phone's jangle startled both people. Kim snapped up the receiver. “Hello,” he barked.

Tracy watched as Kim's face registered first confusion, then irritation.