“Did you use a large dose?” Viktor asked. He, Alexei, Nikolai, and Dmitry were standing outside the closed changing room door. Alexei had shut it behind himself when he fled from JD’s clutches. He’d then held it shut for the minute or two that JD had tried to open it while screaming in pain. When all was quiet within and Alexei surmised the Novichok had accomplished its dirty work, he’d gone upstairs to get the others.
“Yes,” Alexei admitted. “I wanted to be sure it worked quickly. To make certain it got good dispersal, I made it into a powder and put it inside the lining of his bathing suit.”
“It took me a while to get the message,” Viktor said.
“I’m glad you did,” Alexei said. “I was worried he was about to nix the idea of swimming after I’d gone ahead and prepared his bathing suit. You agreeing to swim with us pushed him over the edge. Using the bathing suit seemed like a far better idea than using his underwear. By taking care of him before swimming, it will give us more time to do what we need to do to cover our tracks, like dealing with his car.”
“Resourceful,” Viktor said in a commending tone. He then leaned forward and put his ear to the door and listened for a moment. “All quiet within,” he added. “We should be good to go.”
“I brought latex surgical gloves and aprons from the barn,” Alexei said as he handed them out. “I don’t imagine there’ll be any spillage but there’s no reason to take chances until we do a formal cleanup.”
All four people donned the protective gear before Viktor opened the door. They found JD in a heap between the door and the bench. Except that he was pale and slick with perspiration, he appeared normal although he was not breathing and his pupils were pinpoint. While Dmitry went to open the outside door, Alexei closed JD’s eyes. He didn’t like them staring up at him accusatorily.
With a person at each extremity and a bit of a struggle, they managed to get JD up the five steps to the lawn and then down to the dock, where they laid him on the planking.
“I want him to join his buddy feeding the fishes as soon as possible,” Viktor said, mildly out of breath from effort. “Hop to it!”
“It’s going to be more difficult without the benefit of rigor mortis,” Alexei pointed out. “Don’t expect miracles! We have to push him off the end of the diving board for the water to be deep enough.”
“With the four of us, we’ll manage,” Viktor said. “Get what you need to get.”
Revisiting their roles, Alexei went to the barn for a length of rope while Dmitry returned to the back of the house to get one of the spare cinder blocks. When they returned, they were surprised but pleased that Viktor and Nikolai had managed to get JD lying supine with his head hyperextended out over the end of the diving board. When Alexei complimented their efforts, Viktor complained it hadn’t been his idea. He was obviously not in the best of moods. “Hurry up and get this over with,” he ordered, peeling off his gown and then the gloves. Nikolai did the same. “We’ll see you two back up at the house. We’ll go ahead and make sure there’s no evidence of his visit in the kitchen. When you two return, you can take care of the rest. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Alexei and Dmitry said in unison. After Viktor and Nikolai departed, the two lower ranking individuals exchanged a disgusted, knowing look. Although they’d appreciated the help in getting JD out of the changing room and onto the diving board, they weren’t all that surprised that the rest would be up to them.
Although it was difficult to maneuver on the diving board, Alexei and Dmitry eventually managed to attach the cinder block to JD’s ankles. Then, with the cinder block balanced on the man’s chest, they picked up his feet, and on the count of three caused JD and the cinder block to do a backflip off the end. The idea was to get JD into the deepest water possible.
After a significant double splash, the water quickly returned to its relative placidity. The only thing marring its surface was the intermittent soft summer breezes wafting across the lake from the west.
“What do you think?” Alexei called out. He’d retreated to the base of the diving board while Dmitry had stayed out at the very end, peering down into the remarkably deep water.
“Every so often I think I see something but then don’t,” Dmitrysaid. “I believe we’re good.” He nodded a few times as if agreeing with himself before retreating off the diving board to join Alexei at the base of the dock.
“Let’s talk for a minute about the cleanup,” Dmitry said as he and Alexei removed their aprons and latex gloves. “Since the only people who have shown up out here, other than the chief of police when we first arrived, have been Ethan Jameson and recently JD, I don’t think getting rid of JD’s clothes is a top priority like his car. That broken down blue Lexus is like a goddamn neon sign announcing that he’d been here. It’s got to go straightaway.”
“I agree with you,” Alexei said. He put the inside-out aprons and surgical gloves on the dock, planning on dealing with them later. “Where do you propose we put it?”
“I think we should just drive it into town. We can park it just about anyplace. It doesn’t really matter. I don’t think we should take it out on one of the old logging roads. Some hiker might see us and wonder what the hell we are doing. Nor do I think we should risk parking it at his apartment because one of the mechanics from the auto shop he lives above might recognize us. No one is going to notice us parking it in town on a lazy summer afternoon.”
“Good point!” Alexei said. “Okay, I’ll find his keys and meet you in the kitchen. Let’s get the car problem out of the way.”
While Dmitry got keys for the Dodge Ram, Alexei descended the few cellar steps and went into the changing room. It gave him a weak feeling just returning to the scene, and he shuddered yet again at JD’s violent death. At the same time, he experienced a sudden surge of anger directed at Viktor for changing his mind Sunday night and not leaving Essex Falls. Had they done so, all of this angst could have been avoided as they would have already arrived back home in Koltsovo.
Alexei took in a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out. He shook his head in frustration. The whole ridiculous situation seemed so unnecessary and unbelievably unfair, especially since he was the one saddled with the most amount of effort and work by far. At Viktor’s insistence he’d again been out in the barn bright and early that very morning rechecking the theta prion concentration in the fermenter even though it had been less than twenty-four hours since he’d done it previously. Interestingly enough and to his surprise, it seemed to have risen, which was unexpectedly reassuring.
As these thoughts reverberated around inside his head, Alexei froze for a minute as a sudden but alluring idea occurred to him that he’d not thought of previously. What if he fudged a theta determination and announced to Viktor it was suddenly adequate? He could then go through a sham purification process and claim there had been a significant harvest. After all, his work was never checked by Viktor or by any of the others. At that point they could then go ahead and do a release by dumping it into the town water department’s final holding tank and get the hell out of Essex Falls.
What made this idea suddenly so tempting was that Alexei felt he was the only one who seemed to be progressively fearful that their world was threatening to collapse around them. First it had been Ethan’s menacing threats to involve the Essex Falls police by calling attention to their forged passports, then JD essentially doing the same. And as disturbing as those two episodes had been with those two simpletons, it was nothing compared to what Alexei feared could possibly happen with Jack Stapleton. Here was a true threat, an obviously intelligent and highly trained individual that Viktor seemed to completely disregard at their peril.
As if awakening from a mini-trance, Alexei took in a deepbreath. He immediately recognized he’d stumbled onto a potentially lifesaving solution to a growing problem. Under normal circumstances his first thought would be to raise the issue with Dmitry so they could debate the pros and cons. Yet in this particular circumstance he didn’t know for certain what Dmitry’s response might be. There was always the worry that Dmitry would interpret such thoughts as traitorous. Militiamen were trained to follow orders, not to think on their own.
Yet from Alexei’s perspective the overwhelming issue was time. If they waited until Jack Stapleton showed up on their doorstep, like they essentially had done with Ethan and JD, it would be too late. Even if they chose to flee, it was a three- to four-hour drive up to the border, and there wasn’t any possibility of an alternative route, meaning there was a lot of opportunity for them to be apprehended.
Undecided how much of his thoughts to share with Dmitry, Alexei went into the locker JD had chosen and made a quick search through his trouser pockets. As he expected, he quickly found JD’s car keys. He then balled up JD’s clothes along with his wallet and shoes and hid them temporarily in a small cabinet meant for pool equipment. Although he had zero expectation of anyone coming to the house looking for JD while he and Dmitry were getting rid of the car, he wanted to be sure. His plan was to ultimately deal with JD’s personal effects when he and Dmitry returned.
That taken care of, at least temporarily, Alexei headed back upstairs and found everyone in the kitchen where Dmitry was having a quick bite and the others creating a grocery list for their evening meal. Alexei dangled JD’s keys in front of Dmitry’s face. “I’ll go ahead and drive the Lexus into town. How about you pick me up where you usually do in front of the school in fifteen to twenty minutes?”
“Will do,” Dmitry said as he wiped his face and slid off the barstool.
