'Yup, upstairs,' the officer said.
Jesse and Vince exchanged confused glances as they headed toward the entrance. The captain rarely ventured out to scenes.
The building belonged to Serotec Pharmaceuticals. It housed their administrative and research offices. Their manufacturing division was outside the town.
In the elevator Vince started to cough. Jesse moved away as much as the small car would allow. 'Jeez,' Jesse complained. 'What's the matter with you?'
'I don't know,' Vince said. 'Maybe I'm having an allergic reaction or something.'
'Well, cover your mouth when you cough,' Jesse said.
They reached the sixth floor. The front of the building was occupied by a research lab. There were several uniformed policemen loitering by an open window. Jesse asked where the captain was and the policemen pointed toward an office off to the side.
'I don't think you guys are going to be needed,' Captain Hernandez said when he saw Jesse and Vince enter. 'The whole episode is on tape.'
Captain Hernandez introduced Jesse and Vince' to the half-dozen Serotec personnel in the room as well as the crime-scene investigator who'd found the tape. His name was Tom Stockman.
'Roll that tape once more, Tom,' Captain Hernandez said.
It was black-and-white security camera footage taken with a wide-angle lens. The sound had an echolike quality. It showed a short man in a white lab coat facing the camera. He'd backed himself against the window and appeared anxious. In front of him were a number of Serotec people, all in similar white coats. They were seen from the back since they were facing the short man. Jesse guessed they were the same people who were now in the office.
'His name was Sergei Kalinov,' Captain Hernandez said. 'All of a sudden he started screaming for everyone to leave him alone. That was earlier in the tape. Plainly you can see that no one is touching him or even threatening him.'
'He just flipped out,' one of the Serotec employees said. 'We didn't know what to do.'
Sergei then began to sob, saying he knew he was infected and that he couldn't stand it.
One of the Serotec employees was then seen moving forward toward Sergei.
'That's the head tech, Mario Palumbo,' Captain Hernandez said. 'He's trying to calm Sergei. It's hard to hear his voice because he's speaking so softly.'
'I was only telling him that we wanted to help,' Mario said defensively.
Suddenly Sergei turned and made a dash for the window. He struggled to get it open. His frantic haste suggested he feared interference. But none of the people present including Mario tried to restrain him.
Once Sergei had the window open, he climbed out on the ledge. With one last glance back at the camera, he leaped off into space.
'Aw, man ... ' Vince voiced and looked away.
Even Jesse felt an unpleasant sinking feeling in his gut having watched this terrified little man kill himself. As the tape continued, Jesse watched as several of the Serotec people, including Mario, walked over to the window and looked down. But they weren't acting as if they were horrified. It was more like they were curious.
Then to Jesse's surprise they closed the window and went back to work.
Tom turned off the tape. Jesse glanced at the Serotec workers. Since they had just watched the harrowing sequence again he would have expected some reaction. There wasn't any. They were all eerily detached from the whole affair.
Tom ejected the tape and was about to slip it into an evidence bag with an attached custody slip when Captain Hernandez took it.
'I'll take care of this,' the captain said.
'But that's not ... '
'I'll take care of it,' the captain repeated authoritatively.
'Okay,' Tom said agreeably, even though he knew it was not accepted policy.
Jesse watched his captain walk out of the room with the tape in his hand. He looked at Tom.
'He's the captain,' Tom said defensively.
Vince coughed explosively directly behind Jesse. Jesse turned and gave him a dirty look. 'Jeez,' he said. 'You're going to get us all sick if you don't cover your mouth.'
'Sorry,' Vince said. 'All of a sudden I feel terrible. Is it cold in here?'
'No it's not cold,' Jesse said.
'Shit, I must have a fever,' Vince said.
'Maybe we should just go out and get some mexican food,' Pitt said.
'No, I want to cook,' Cassy said. 'It always calms me down.'
They were walking beneath the bare lightbulbs strung on wires over the European-style outdoor market. The main commodities were fresh produce and fruit brought directly from outlying farms. But there were other stalls as well that sold everything from fish to antiques and objets d'art. It was a colorful, festive environment and popular. At that time in the early evening it was crowded with shoppers.
'Well, what do you want to make?' Pitt asked.
'Pasta,' Cassy said. 'Pasta primavera.'
Pitt held the bag while Cassy made her selections. She was particularly choosy about the tomatoes.
'I don't know what I'm going to do when he does come back,' Cassy said. 'The way I feel right now, I don't even want to see him. At least not until I'm sure he's back to normal. This whole episode is frightening me more and more.'
'I have access to an apartment,' Pitt said.
'Really?' Cassy asked.
'It's over near Costa's,' Pitt said. 'The owner is a second cousin or something like that. He teaches in the chemistry department but is on a semester sabbatical in France. I go in to feed his fish and water his plants. He'd invited me to stay, but it was too much trouble to move at the time.'
'You don't think he'd mind if I stayed there?' Cassy asked.
'Nope,' Pitt said. 'It's a big place. Three bedrooms. I'd stay too if you wanted.'
'Do you think I'm overreacting?' Cassy asked.
'Not at all,' Pitt said. 'After his little demonstration at basketball I'm a bit leery of him myself.'
'God! I can't believe we're talking this way about Beau,' Cassy said with emotion.
Instinctively Pitt reached out and put his arms around Cassy. Just as instinctively she did the same. They clung to each other, momentarily oblivious to the other shoppers who swirled about them. After several moments Cassy glanced up into Pitt's dark eyes. Both felt a fleeting sense of what might have been. Then, suddenly embarrassed, they released each other and quickly went back to selecting tomatoes.
With their groceries purchased, including a bottle of dry Italian wine, they headed back to the car. The route took them through the flea market section. Pitt suddenly stopped in front of one of the stalls.
'Holy crap!' he exclaimed.
'What?' Cassy demanded. She was ready to flee. As keyed up as she was she expected the worst.
'Look!' Pitt said, pointing toward the stall's display.
Cassy's eyes swept over a bewildering collection of junk that a sign proclaimed to be antiques. There were mostly small items like ashtrays and ceramic animals, but there were a few larger things like plaster garden statues and bedside lamps. There were also several glass boxes of old, cheap costume jewelry.
'What am I supposed to be noticing?' Cassy asked impatiently.
'On the top of the shelf,' Pitt said. 'In between the beer mug and the pair of bookends.'
They moved over to the stall. Cassy now saw what had caught Pitt's eye. 'Isn't that interesting,' she commented. Lined up in a perfect row were six of the black disc objects like the one Beau had found in the parking lot of Costa's Diner.
Cassy reached out to pick one up, but Pitt grabbed her hand. 'Don't touch it!' he said.
'I wasn't going to hurt it,' Cassy said. 'I just wanted to see how heavy it was.'
'I was worried about it hurting you!' Pitt said. 'Not vice versa. Beau's stung him somehow. Or at least Beau thought so. What a coincidence seeing these things. I'd forgotten all about Beau's.' He bent over and examined one
