Oath of Office

“I thought each stalk produced one ear. One of the stalks I checked had four. The other had five.”

Chester chuckled. “I’m pleased to meet an amateur agrarian,” he said. “Some kinds of corn still make one ear per stalk, but many others are hybridized and produce two and even three. Still, our corn is special. I’ll show you why.” Chester led them over to a row of baskets filled with flowers of a stunningly iridescent blue. “We’ve been experimenting with a new type of fertilizer in our fields. It’s the same formula that I’ve used to help grow these magnificent blue Phalaenopses. This type of orchid is often extremely difficult to grow, especially with color this brilliant. But thanks to our breakthrough fertilizer, the task has been made remarkably easy. I’d tell you more about it sometime after our patent issues are dealt with, but for now, I must pay homage to a busy day ahead by getting some sleep.”

At that moment, the greenhouse door flew open, and in stepped a well-groomed, nattily dressed man of slight stature, perhaps five-foot-seven. In his early forties, he was quite handsome, with chiseled features, raven hair gelled straight back, and dark, piercing eyes.

“What’s going on here?” the new arrival asked sharply, moving so that he stood shoulder to shoulder next to Chester, and eyeing Lou, Cap, and George as if they had dropped in from Mars.

“Ah, Edwin,” Chester said. “It appears we have had a disturbance in one of our fields.”

“Then what are you doing even talking to these people without our attorney?”

Chester actually seemed somewhat cowed next to the man. “I just didn’t feel it was necessary,” he said.

“Sometimes I wonder how you’ve made it this far, Father.”

“Gentlemen,” William Chester said, “I’d like you to meet Edwin Chester, my son.”

CHAPTER 32

Edwin Chester stood motionless beside his father, at the center of the magnificent greenhouse. Lou introduced himself by name, but the scion made no attempt to shake his hand. Cap and George received the same chilly greeting.

Edwin’s gaze turned first to Stone, then back to Chester. “What sort of disturbance?” he asked, gesturing toward Lou and the other two. “What happened to these men?”

“We were attacked,” Cap said. “Ambushed. That’s what happened. And in your father’s cornfield.”

“What’s my father’s is mine,” Edwin said. “Ambushed by whom? What are you talking about?”

Lou paid close attention to Edwin’s reaction. His surprise appeared to be genuine, as did his indignation about having to deal with this situation at all.

“These three are from D.C.,” Chester said. “They say they followed two men out here whom they believed were following them. They claim there was an ambush and gunfire, and that at least two men were killed. One of them was their friend.”

“My cousin,” George corrected.

“Chief Stone is here to investigate, and I’ve offered our complete cooperation.”

“That makes no sense,” Edwin said. “Why would somebody attack these men in our cornfield? Have you contacted someone from Hensley’s? They’re on call to us twenty-four/seven. That’s why you pay them that ridiculous retainer.”

Lou took a step forward. “I believe I know exactly why we were attacked,” he said, addressing both Chester men.

“And who the hell are you?”

“Edwin, Dr. Welcome, here, is an emergency physician at Eisenhower Memorial,” Stone said.

Lou was unable to ignore the fact that William was concerned as to why the ambush could have happened, while his son seemed interested only in absolving them of any responsibility.

“Go on,” Edwin said, as if he expected Lou wouldn’t speak without his permission.

“I’ve noticed an unusual pattern of behavior among people in Kings Ridge,” Lou began. “It seems that my observations may have attracted the attention of the people who ambushed us-or else of the people who hired them.”

“What sort of behavior?” Edwin asked.

“For me, it all started with the John Meacham shootings,” Lou said.

“Meacham!” William exclaimed. “What in the hell could that crazy murderer have to do with your being ambushed in our field?”

It was the first crack in the man’s composure. Continuing to select each word with care, Lou reviewed his job with the PWO, his relationship with Meacham, and the reason for his trip to the hospital in Kings Ridge.

“I don’t think John knew what he was doing when he shot those people,” Lou summarized. “His judgment was impaired and-”

“Of course his judgment was impaired!” Edwin cut in. “He was deranged. He had proven that before, but apparently you weren’t paying attention then. Now you’re consumed with guilt and willing to pin the blame on anyone and anything except your bad evaluation of the man.”

“Up until the day he killed those people, Meacham had been doing fine?” Stone asked, as if he expected Edwin to jump down his throat.

“Perfect, from all I can tell,” Lou replied.

“Then what happened?”

“That’s what I’d like to find out,” Lou said. “You see, I think Meacham is the tip of an iceberg.”

“Explain,” Edwin said curtly.

“From what I can tell, he wasn’t deranged in the sense that he had gone crazy,” Lou replied. “It seems more as if he was profoundly confused-as if his logic and reasoning deserted him.”

Lou went on to review the police report of the woman who survived long enough to describe Meacham’s repeated muttering of the phrase no witnesses during his rampage, even though the most important witness of all, Roberta Jennings, had long since departed the office.

“That does sound strange,” Edwin said.

Lou sensed that he had now lost the older Chester completely, and knew that he had never made a dent in Gilbert Stone. But there seemed to be at least a glimmer of interest from Edwin. Lou decided it was worth pushing his theories.

“And there’s more,” he said.

He recounted the baffling and at times risky medicine being practiced by several of the staff at DeLand Regional, Carolyn Meacham’s dangerous car chase, and finally, his observations surrounding Joey Alderson’s near amputation, and the young chef’s admission that he had no idea why he chose to reach beneath the deadly blade when he did.

“In each instance,” he concluded, “it appeared that there was a temporary loss of judgment-a gap in thinking or, if you will, a lapse of reason.”

“Oh, Jesus,” Edwin muttered when Lou had finished. “This is absolute rubbish. It is preposterous to think that you’d be the target of a deadly ambush, like you claim happened, just because of your theories, which are utterly baseless.”

Lou’s patience with the man was wearing thin. “Baseless? Chief Stone, how many residents are there in Kings Ridge? Seven thousand?

“Ten,” Stone grumbled, clearly wishing they could all call it quits.

“Ten,” Lou echoed. “Even allowing for the fact that not everyone working at the hospital is from Kings Ridge, I’ve just identified roughly ten people who have exhibited these symptoms, and that was without even searching for them. Now, I was never a biostatistics whiz in med school, but I did pass. I imagine that someone who knew what they were doing and crunched the numbers would tell us there is no coincidence at work here.”

“Ridiculous,” Edwin said. “Please, Gilbert, tell me you’re not buying in to this nonsense?”

“We’re investigating all possibilities, Edwin,” Stone said.

“We’ll cooperate in the morning when our attorneys are present. But for now, I ask that you all leave these premises immediately so that my father and I might attempt to get some sleep.”