Chapter 59
We showered together when we got home, lingering under the crystalline liquid again as long as the supplies of hot water from the old boiler allowed us, and rushed out laughing and cursing when it suddenly began to pour on us cold. We were rubbing each other dry when the phone rang.
“Ah no…”, I said, not wanting to talk to anybody but Jack for reasons I could not tell
“You’d better go…”, said Jack, pushing me out of the bathroom with a slight slap
I wrapped myself in the towel and went to pick up the phone, sighting.
“Iris? Am I annoying you?”, I heard Christine say on the other end of the line
“Not at all”, I said, partly lying but feeling a slight positive shift in my disposition
“Sure? You seemed unhappy when you answered the phone…”, Christine replied hesitantly, before adding, “But I have news to tell you!”, her tone turning excited, and all traces of worry about my mood vanishing
“What’s up?”, I asked
“I figured the police is investigating about the deaths at the NY cancer center hospital…some information leaked, and I heard from unofficial sources that the cross cancer institute is also under investigation. Now I know for a fact that there is a suspicious collaboration between the two institutes just as I expected all along, although I am missing many details and I haven’t pinned down any name yet. I tried to find the names you gave me, those Sandeep and Wilhelm guys, to know if they were involved in any collaborative project with the NY cancer institute but I couldn’t find them. The investigation is ongoing and the police is trying to keep it strictly confidential, don’t you worry though, just give me a bit more time and I’ll get there!”, Christine spoke without pauses, with a radiant, high-pitch of confidence in her voice, till she realized I wasn’t saying a word, not even humming in assent.
“Are you still there?”, she asked
“Yes…”, I said, feeling the fear gush from my lower stomach to my stern
“Are you ok?”
“I got out of the hospital this morning, someone tried to kill us”, I said quietly
“What?!”, Christine almost yelled
I told her what happened, and as I described the events, stating them out loud, I felt the fear flow out of me a bit at a time. Suddenly it all seemed so theatrical and unreal, as if it wasn’t happening to me but to a character I had read about and in which I was identifying myself during a dream or a daytime phantasy. And tomorrow I was flying out to Milan.
“Tomorrow I am flying to Milan”, I heard myself say, as if watching myself from the outside
Another stupefied reaction, almost shouted from the other end of the line, and again my explanation, the feeling of a surreal setting dwelling within me, the walls of my home oddly transforming, becoming known and unknown at once, as I ran my eyes across the room.
Then I saw Jack stand at the bathroom’s door, towel wrapped around his waist, eyebrows arched, an ironic smile twisting his lips. I turned my palms upwards to mean “not my fault if she’s asking”, and he smiled again, shaking his head.
“Ok Christine, I have to finish packing now…I’ll call you when I am back”, I said, brought back to reality by Jack’s skeptically amused expression
“Why were you laughing?”, I said after I hang up
“Laughing?”, he asked, laugher cracking the simulated expression of innocent perplexity
“Well, you looked funny, as if you were acting in a Hitchcock movie or something”, he admitted after a pause
“But that’s how I felt in a way…Christine told me she is sure that there is something going on between the cross cancer institute and the NY cancer institute, and the police is investigating. I wonder if Mariam Avery is involved but didn’t say…”
“What about dinner and a good night sleep before tomorrow?”, Jack said instead of following up on my thoughts
“Ehm uhm”, I nodded, and let Jack guide me through this strange night