When focus returned, he saw what had hit him. It was a pickup truck, full size, the chrome bumper wrinkled like a piece of tin foil.
The driver hopped out of the cab and hurried over to Red, opening his door. Red was grateful for the speedy assistance, until he looked into the driver’s eyes.
“David?”
“Hiya, Doc. Beautiful day for a drive.”
David reached down and unbuckled Red’s seat belt. He firmly tugged the older man out of the vehicle. Red was a solid man, tall enough to have played basketball in high school. But David handled him as easily as if he were a child.
Another car slowed down beside the accident site, the driver sticking his head out the window.
“Are you guys okay?”
“I think so.” David shrugged. “No one’s hurt, but my wife’s gonna have a fit.”
“Do you want me to call the police?”
“Already did. Thanks.”
David waved, and the car sped off.
Red was still stunned, and his neck was beginning to ache, but he wasn’t afraid. David had apparently followed him from DruTech, and he obviously needed to talk.
“You seem sort of edgy, David. Any idea where Manny is?”
“That cry baby? No idea.”
“I have to question your method of approach here. Wouldn’t a phone call have been easier than rear-ending me?”
“Sorry, Doc. You know I’m impulsive sometimes.”
Red nodded, then winced.
“Neck hurt? Let’s go sit down.”
David took Red’s arm, assisting the older man with his footing on the bumpy grass. David led him down the ditch and over to a copse of trees. He leaned the psychiatrist against a massive oak.
“Thank you, David.”
“With the ditch, you can barely see the road over here. It’s like we’re all alone in the woods.”
Red agreed. “Private. It’s nice to get away, sometimes.”
David sat next to the doctor and twirled a brown oak leaf in his fingers. Red waited. Silence was important. It was good to let patients work things out for themselves.
“I was there.”
“Where, David?”
“When Dr. Nikos died.”
Red did his best to hide his alarm.
“I didn’t notice you there.”
“I came later, after the speech. I know Dr. Nikos didn’t want me there. Manny’s the success. I’m the failure.”
“That’s not true…”
“It is true. That’s why I killed him.”
For the first time in his professional career, Dr. Red Fletcher felt a spike of fear. He’d had David pegged as antisocial, prone to fits of temper, but not homicidal.
His diagnosis had been wrong.
It all made sense now. And Red was in serious danger. Stupid, to have let his own ego blind him from the truth.
Red controlled his breathing, trying to treat the conversation like it was just another therapy session.
“You believe Dr. Nikos thought you were a failure.”
“Of course. If anyone knew about me, do you think N-Som would get FDA approval? I know I’m a secret. That new CDER guy, Bill, doesn’t even know about me, does he?”
“No.”
“See? Big embarrassment.”
Red chose his words carefully. He didn’t want to get David riled up. They had a relationship, mentor and student. He could still control where the situation went.
“You’re not an embarrassment, David. You may have some problems…”
“Problems?” David spat. “I sliced Dr. Nikos up like a pizza. And when Manny tried to stop me, I did the same to my own brother. The one person in the whole damn world that I love.”
“You… you need help, David.”
“No shit.”
“But we’ll be able to work it out. It isn’t your fault that Dr. Nikos is dead. We can actually blame the drug. You can get through this, David.”
David crumpled the dry leaf in his hand, the brittle flakes grabbing the air and blowing away.
“Sometimes I think I can. Sometimes I really do.” His mouth formed a lopsided grin. “But it would be a lot easier if I just killed you.”
David took a scalpel out of his back pocket. Red felt the sweat bead up on his forehead. He kept his voice steady.
“That’s not in your best interest, David.”
“You said it yourself. I can blame the drug.”
David moved closer. Red crab walked backwards, keeping his feet between him and the advancing blade.
“I can help you, David. I can help make you well.”
“I appreciate the effort. Really, I do. But between me and you, Doc, I think psychiatry is a big load of horseshit.”
The scalpel flashed. Red tried to defend himself, tried to ward off the unrelenting slice after slice after slice. After a while he gave up and just prayed for it to end quickly.
But it didn’t.
“Now it makes sense.” David laughed, digging in. “Why they call you Red.”
Jack Kilborn
Disturb
Nathan White liked every aspect of his job except this one.
His mother thought being a courier was the same as being a pizza delivery boy. She couldn’t have been more wrong. They both involved driving, and dropping things off, but the similarity ended there.
Even though he worked for a company, Nathan was technically an independent contractor-his own boss. But more than that, he was actually part of something. Many people, companies, and institutions depended on him.
Fed Ex offered next day service, but in many cases that wasn’t quick enough. Sometimes it had to be the same day, or even within an hour.
Nathan had delivered contracts that saved companies from bankruptcy, organs for emergency transplants, evidence that helped convict murderers, water to disaster victims-things that helped make the world better.
He was paid well, treated with respect, and people were always happy to see him when he arrived just in the nick of time.
Kind of like Superman, Nathan thought. Except Nathan was fat with acne and no super powers.
The job had only one downside; the DruTech run. Or, as he called it, the cadavalivery.
He picked up his two-way radio and spoke to headquarters.
“Dispatch, I’m at the morgue, over.”
“Roger, Nathan. Make it quick-you wouldn’t want the corpsicle to thaw.”
Nathan winced at the joke. He got out of the car and rang the buzzer at the rear entrance. Like always, his mind began to wander while he waited.
Once a week, for almost two years, Nathan had been coming to the morgue to pick up packages. The procedure was always the same. He’d give Sully a sealed envelope, Sully would give him an insulated box.
The boxes varied in size, some small enough to hold shoes, some large enough for a TV. They were always cold
