Chapter 43
When McMurrich left I emailed Mori to tell him I could fly out as soon as Thursday night and kept in front of the computer, trying to read some papers, looking up plane tickets, minimizing and maximizing the mailbox window every minute. After half an hour I told myself I couldn’t sit in front of the computer for the whole day. Another ten minutes, then you go find Alice in the lab, try to be productive, I told myself. But five minutes later I received Mori’s email.
Dear Iris,
I look forward to having you here. Please let me know if you need any help to make arrangements, I can advise you about good hotels at affordable prices and help you find your way from the airport once you get here.
All the best,
Mauro Mori
I maximized the webpage where I had been eying the flight I wanted to take. Click purchase. Click accept the conditions. Input your personal information, input your credit card information. Accept again. “Thank you for travelling with us”, said the screen and it was done.
I was still sitting there, with “Thank you for travelling with us” printed on my screen when Brad walked in.
“Hello”, he said
“Hey”, I said, turning around. “I thought you were sick”
“I was nauseous this morning, but after throwing up every single molecule I had in my stomach I felt better”
“Thanks for the details”
“Well, you asked…”
“That’s what you think. Changing topic, there’s something I need to tell you, but not here”
“Yes, we need to talk”
“What happened?”
“No, not here…”
“Right. What about going to the cafeteria downstairs?”
“I hope McMurrich won’t crave coffee while we are there. Anyways, that’s our best bet, we can’t go anywhere else without the risk of raising suspicions”
The cafeteria was quite empty when we got there, with the exception of two or three people from another division of FoodTech labs and a cleaning lady wiping the floor. We found a table in a corner, and we sat there with smoking cups of black coffee.
“What did you tell the police yesterday night?”
“Everything. I told them everything”
“That is?”
“That I saw a journalist at the cross cancer institute who wondered why so many patients were dying, that Sandeep was scared…and that I was worried although I had no proofs that something is going wrong”
“And what did the police say?”
“Detective Avery, that’s who I spoke to. She said she’ll look into this. I gave her you name, she wanted to know who else was working on the polymer”
“I should probably go talk to them too. Shouldn’t I?”
“It’s up to you, but I think you should. You see that there’s something wrong in this whole story, right? You don’t want to be suspected or involved in a mess you didn’t cause”
“I’ve wanted to believe all along that your worries didn’t have any solid foundation…”
“I know”
“But there are too many hints that something fishy is happening after all”
“Ehm Uhm”, I nodded
“So I’ll go see the police after work”
“I spoke to Mariam Avery, here’s her phone number”, I said, taking from my wallet the card she had given me the previous night.
“I’ll find a pen”, I said, going to the cashier to ask for them. I copied down the information on the back of a napkin and handed it to Brad.
“Thanks”, he said
“But this isn’t what I wanted to talk about”
“No?”, he asked suprised
“I am flying out to Milan on Thursday night to meet Mori”
“What?”
“You heard. I am flying out to Milan on Thursday night to meet Mori”, I repeated.
“Are you serious?”, he exclaimed
“Shhhhh”, I said, placing a finger on my mouth, “I had just finished purchasing the flight ticket when you walked in the office”
“Did you tell McMurrich?”
“I told her I had a family emergency, I hinted to a family member being about to die in a hospital. Can I count on you to back me up on this?”
“Oh boy”
“I want to understand what’s happening, don’t you? Mori can help”
“And you’ll fly all the way to Italy”, he said, looking at me with an incredulous expression painted on his face
“I trust my instinct”
“I see that. And for how long are you going to be away?”
“I’ll be back on Monday of the next following week”
“Well good luck, we need it”
I smiled.
“I think we better get back to the labs now, or Miss Bossy Lady upstairs might notice. Go figure she was annoyed when I told her I needed few days off to see a dying relative, using up my holidays. She deserves the worst”
Brad shrugged.
“I’ll back you up”
“Thanks”, I said, getting up and pushing my chair under the table.
“You know I have the feeling someone tried to have a look at my desk, at my files…I don’t know”, I said
“What do you mean?”
“The other day, after you left, I found that my desk looked different”
Brad stopped to look at me with a puzzled expression, holding the door of the cafeteria open. The lady who had been cleaning the floor approached us with her bucket of dirty water.
“Sorry”, she excused herself, pulling the bucket past the door with one hand while holding the mop with the other.
“Come on, keep walking”, I said, tugging him. “So yes, I had rushed to see Alice and found McMurrich in her lab. I waited for the boss to leave and then I told her about what Mori found about common intestinal bacteria, how they could change with chemicals and affect the human body…”
“Really? He told you that?”
“Yes, sorry, I forgot to mention it. So many things happened since your pipes leaked at home…”
“I can see that”
“Mori’s research suggests that common bacteria can change and became toxic to humans, but his findings are still preliminary…”
“Now I am starting to see why you are flying to Milan. And what about your desk?”
“Well, I came back and the chair had been pushed very close to the desk, although I had leaped up from it and certainly left it in a random position”
“Ok”
“Nobody was around, so why would someone move the chair unless he or she – and I think it’s a she – went to have a look at my desk?”
“What was on your desk?”
“Nothing important, but I hoped the computer was locked”
“I see”
“Another thing I didn’t tell you. There’s going to be an inspection to the labs in the next coming days?”
“Who told you?”
“McMurrich. She was annoyed, and that’s at least in part why she wanted me around. I don’t know if the police has something to do with this…”
“I see…Ok, I’ll be here a moment longer to call Mariam Avery”, he said, stopping.
“But you start going upstairs, or else it might really seem like we’re up to something if anybody notices us”, he added
I walked past the hallway to the elevators, where the lady was wiping the metal plates around the buttons with a rag.
“Sorry”, she said, interrupting her cleaning to let me press the up button.