“Unfortunately, not yet,” Jack said. “But Chief Hargrove is giving it his full attention. Let me ask you: How do you feel about an autopsy being done on Ethan Jameson when his body is located, assuming it is going to be located?”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Are you against the procedure for any reason, religious or otherwise?”
“Of course not!” Janet said with emphasis. “I know autopsies are critical in some circumstances, and certainly this is one of those times. When I was in high school I used to watchCSIevery week.”
Jack smiled inwardly, knowing how much that TV show had put forensics on the general public’s map despite its questionable realism. “How about any of Ethan’s close friends? Do you know anyone who would be seriously opposed to his being autopsied for whatever reason?”
“Ethan didn’t have any close friends,” Janet said. “He’s been a loner since I’ve known him in grammar school. He had a few acquaintances, John Daniels and Nate Morrison among them, but that was it. Listen: I’m going to have to cut this off. There are people that need to check out. I’m happy to continue this discussion but after-hours.”
Jack turned around and saw that there were several people standing in the checkout lane. He held up a finger to indicate he needed a minute or two more. Turning back to Janet, he said: “I know you also talked with Chief Hargrove on Monday and told him that Ethan was upset that morning about the foreign militiamen.”
“Yes, he acted really angry. He was going to ask them to leave.”
“And it was because the commander wasn’t participating.”
“Yes. The commander and his second in command.”
“And it was presumably because the commander and his lieutenant were spending too much time in their home brewery.”
Janet rolled her eyes. “Yes, that’s what he said.”
“Was this the first time he was angry about this, as far as you know?”
“Heavens no,” Janet said. “It was an ongoing problem, particularly over the last couple of weeks. But to be honest, I wasn’t all that interested in that aspect of his life. Quite the contrary. But listen, I’m sorry but I need to help these people.” She pointed over Jack’s shoulder at the customers standing in line.
“Okay, I understand,” Jack replied, stepping to the side. “Thank you for your time.” With that said, he dashed over to his bike, quickly wrestled it out through one of the glass entrance doors, and leaped on. Peddling hard in a standing position to get up to speed, he turned onto Main Street. He was eager to get to the park. As soon as he was able, he glanced at his watch. He was relieved. It was still just a few minutes before five o’clock, meaning he was going to be late but only by minutes.
Chapter 20
Thursday, July 24, 5:00p.m.
Essex Falls, New York
Just like the previous afternoon at the very same time, Alexei was sitting in the passenger seat of the Ram pickup truck with Dmitry driving, on their way to Bennet Park to play basketball. The difference was that today Alexei didn’t want to go whereas yesterday he did. Although it was flattering to a degree that Viktor was confident he could handle what was certain to be a tricky situation, Alexei didn’t share his confidence one iota. He knew that it was going to be nearly impossible to avoid talking with Jack, who specifically said yesterday afternoon when Alexei was trying to break away from him, that if Alexei played today, they could continue their conversation.
“Should I drop you off at the same spot?” Dmitry asked, breaking into Alexei’s worried thoughts.
“Yeah, sure,” Alexei responded. “And pick me up at the same place later after I text.”
“Got it,” Dmitry said, with an agreeable nod.
As opposed to yesterday, he was glad to have Dmitry drive. Alexei wanted the excuse of being picked up as a way of limiting any conversation with Jack, similar to how he used it the day before. Unfortunately, it was only going to work at the very end. How he was going to handle Jack during the course of play, he had no idea whatsoever.
“That was good news about the fermenter,” Dmitry said as they entered the western end of Main Street.
“For sure,” Alexei said. Earlier, after JD had departed following his surprise visit to the Bennet Estate, Alexei had gone back out to the barn to work as Viktor had ordered. He’d picked up where he’d left off in his attempt to get an idea of how the most recent batch of yeast was doing. Although he’d not been optimistic primarily because of the short time, to his surprise it was doing quite well. A small but definite amount of theta prion protein had been detected, suggesting the particular yeast cells that had picked up and incorporated the vectors that Viktor and Nikolai had produced Monday morning seemed to be quite robust both in their reproductive capacity and their protein expression capability. If all continued to go well, a prion harvest could be significantly sooner than Alexei anticipated, meaning their departure from Essex Falls was back on a reasonably imminent timetable.
Sensing that his partner was in a contemplative mood from his terse answers, Dmitry resisted any more attempts at conversation. It wasn’t until he pulled to a stop in front of the elementary school that he added: “I’ll be awaiting your text. Good luck!”
“I’m going to need it,” Alexei said as he slid out of the cab, slamming the door behind him and eyeing his watch. At least the timing was good. He skirted the brownstone school building along its eastern side and headed into the park. As was the case the previousday, the place was busy with almost all the facilities in use, including all six tennis courts and the two pickleball courts.
Pausing in the shadow of the same oak tree where he’d paused the day before, Alexei could see that quite a crowd of basketball players had already arrived. He quickly counted and saw that there were ten people, meaning that they would undoubtedly be playing five-on-five full court. Although he recognized most everyone, there was one individual whom he’d never seen before, a particularly muscular, middle-aged Black man whom he assumed was the “quite a player” JD had mentioned. This new individual was talking animatedly with Jack, who Alexei hoped to avoid as much as possible.
The group was in the process of picking sides, and as usual, Dr. Bob had taken command. Rather than walking ahead and joining and potentially being cornered by Jack, Alexei was content to remain where he was. Just as he expected, the crowd quickly separated into two groups of five and within a few minutes more began playing. Feeling it was now relatively safe to show his face, Alexei walked the final hundred feet or so to the basketball court and took a seat on the bleachers. Dr. Bob was the only person who seemed to notice his arrival and waved a greeting. Alexei waved back.
As Alexei sat there and watched the game progress, it was immediately apparent to him that JD had been correct about Jack’s friend being skilled. He’d been designated to be on the opposing side from Peter Ross, the best local player, and the two were guarding each other. Although the new fellow was significantly shorter than Peter, he was neutralizing Peter’s effectiveness by either preventing him from getting the ball or stealing it if he did. On offense, it seemed that whenever the new fellow got the ball, he scored, such that his team jumped out into the lead rather quickly.
