Donna walked into the infirmary and pushed the door panel to Sam’s office. She waited. The door slid open. “Can we talk? Gary assured me your office was… safe.”
Sam waved her to a chair and sat on the edge of his desk. “Where’s your fiancée?”
Donna sighed. “He’s going over the security footage with Gary. Where’s Joyce?”
“She’ll be here on Monday, but the Euphoria won’t. I told her if she wanted to keep her job to lose the perfume, or else.”
Donna softly smiled. “How can you fire her on the basis of her perfume?”
“As I see it, Euphoria is a controlled substance, and that goes against her contract. Not to mention, it’s dangerous. You – ah – you said so yourself.”
“I believe it could be, yes. You haven’t had any more… episodes with your oxytocin and testosterone levels, have you?”
“Not until you walked through the door.”
Donna laughed. “Sorry about that. I’ll try to keep my distance.”
Sam swallowed hard and jutted his chin. “What did you want to talk about?”
Donna studied his eyes. “Sam, things have not… turned out the way I’d planned. I wanted you to know that I’m not marrying Richard, just because of the baby. I’m doing it to protect the ones I… love.”
“Did Gary get a chance to talk to you about what we found out?”
“You mean about the Depro shot? I know about it, Gary told me, that’s another reason. If Richard is responsible….”
“Is he threatening you?”
“I don’t know Sam, but I won’t risk you getting hurt. Another reason I came to see you was to ask you to play at my wedding.”
Sam frowned. “You want me to watch you marry Richard? I love you, Donna. Do you realise what you’re asking me?”
“I know it’s asking a lot of you, and if you don’t want to do it, I’ll understand, but I’d like you to… be there. This isn’t forever, Sam. I don’t want… to be with Richard, but right now, I don’t have a choice. And… I have to make it look real, or this whole mess is going to blow up in my face.”
“Just answer one question for me. Do you love me?”
Donna hesitated. “I… care, very deeply for you Sam, but I can’t be with you, any more than Jared could be with me, and I understand why, now. And I do have to think about the baby.”
“So what are you telling me, Donna?”
“I’m asking you to wait until the baby is born, and if you still want me, then we can go from there. Trust me. I’m just as frustrated about this situation as you are. One of the reasons I’m doing this is because of Beth. She’s like a daughter to me. I need to know if you can play your part in this. Because if you can’t, then it ends now. I won’t be the cause of Jared, or Beth, or even you….”
Sam put his finger to her lips. “I took drama lessons, too. I’ll be there, and we’ll get through this… somehow.”
Donna’s eyes glossed. She softly smiled and cleared her throat. “Now that I’ve cleared the air between us, what did you find out about Mildred?”
“Have you seen the footage from the Centre?”
“No, but I know Forrest was responsible, or so it seems.”
“Apart from the fact that her neck was broken, and part of her little finger cut off, Forrest gave her a truth serum cocktail.”
Donna tightened her jaw. “What kind of drugs did he use?”
“Sodium amytal, scopolamine and - are you ready for this, oxytocin.”
“But, no cerbera?”
“Nope. As you know the sodium amytal….”
Donna held up her hand. “I know what they do, Sam. Save your explanations for Sir Richard.”
Sam grinned. “Don’t you mean your future father-in-law?”
Donna sighed. “And, my godfather.”
Sam frowned. “Godfather? Sir Richard is your godfather?”
Donna waved it off. “Another time Sam. Do you have your post-mortem report ready?”
Sam grinned and stood. He took her hand and lifted her to her feet. “VICi, secure office door, no entry mode,” he said and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Before we go into this role-playing thing, do you think I could have one kiss?”
The corners of Donna’s mouth turned up. “Do you still smell like dead fish?”
“No. I assure you after three extremely hot showers, there is no Euphoria anywhere on me.”
“I think I can spare you that much consolation then, but when we get out of here, things have to go my way – understood?”
“Will you stop trying to order me around and kiss me? I know my role. Just remember that’s what it is – a role. If you see me coming onto someone, it doesn’t mean anything.”
“I’ll remember,” she whispered and kissed him.
Sam held her and buried his face in her hair. “I was so afraid I’d lost you.”
Donna grinned. “Not yet, but I have to go, now.”
------------
Gary narrowed his eyes and stared at the wallscreen. “I’ve been over this thing four times now, and something just doesn’t seem right.”
Richard scratched his head. “I have to admit, the part at the end where Forrest speaks Mandarin doesn’t fit.”
“Yeah, I know, but that’s not what’s bothering me. It’s this bit here,” he said aiming a laser pointer at the wallscreen. “You see that filing cabinet beside him?”
“Yes. I’ve propped my elbow on that thing many times.”
“Unless it’s the angle of the camera,” Gary continued. “There’s either something wrong with the height of the filing cabinet, or Forrest’s condition is making him shorter.”
“Making who shorter?” Donna entered the room and walked next to Richard. He smiled and kissed her forehead.
“We were just going through the video from the Centre. CML wouldn’t affect Forrest’s height, would it?”
“No, CML affects the white cells in bone marrow. It does not affect a patient’s height. Why do you ask?”
“Take a look at this picture.” Again, Gary used the laser pointer to indicate a particular part of the image. “Is it just my eyes, or does Forrest seems shorter than he should be?”
Donna sighed. “How tall is that filing cabinet?”
“It’s 132 centimetres,” Richard said.
“That’s what, about four foot four. Forrest is about five foot ten. VICi, what is the height of the man standing next to the filing cabinet?”
VICi; Subject is 1.72 metres.
Donna rolled her eyes and sighed. “VICi, what is that in feet and inches.”
VICi; Five feet eight inches.
“It could just be the difference in his position and the angle of the camera. Why? You don’t think it’s Forrest? It certainly looks like him to me.”
“Another thing that’s bothering us is this last line. Now I want you to listen to this. Forrest speaks in English the entire time, except for this. VICi replay last two minutes of video.”
Donna listened to the playback. “He spoke fluent Mandarin. Why?”
“Does he speak Mandarin, pet?”
Donna shook her head. “I don’t know Richard. If he does, he never did it around me. He travels all over the World, I suppose he could have taken lessons.”
“So… did you and Sam get Mildred’s post-mortem sorted?” Richard asked.
Donna glanced at Gary. “Ah – yeah. The reason Mildred was so eager to help, toward the end, was because she was given a mixture of truth serum drugs. One of them being oxytocin.”
“The love hormone?” Gary asked.
Donna chuckled. “It’s been called that. It’s one of the active chemicals in Euphoria. I might would try some of it myself except I can’t stand the way it smells.”
“Pet, you don’t need Euphoria.”
Donna smiled. “Neither do you, so do me a favour, stop hanging around women who wear it.”
“That won’t be a problem in the complex. I talked to Dad, and he’s outlawed it here.”
“Outlawed? Are you saying your father has separate laws in the complex?”
Richard glanced at Gary. “To a certain extent, he does. I mean, for the most parts, he follows the laws of the land, but there are times, when he bends the rules a bit. It makes sense. See, the biosphere project is supposed to act as its own little world. We’re a community down here, and since Dad is responsible for everyone, he feels he has the right to set certain rules. Much like an employer would expect certain standards.”
Donna arched an eyebrow. “But… he’s willing to kill and doesn’t feel he needs to report murders?”
Richard sighed. “The reason Dad didn’t report the Wilson murders and Mildred’s was because he knew Forrest was involved. And, where Forrest is concerned, standard laws just don’t apply. I know to a law abiding citizen that might be hard to understand.”
Donna grinned. “So… you’re saying you’re not a law abiding citizen?”
“What are you on about, D?”
Richard chuckled. “You kind of missed that staff meeting, Gary. She’s concerned that Dad wants to use our wedding to take Forrest out.”
Gary frowned. “Sir Richard is planning on acing Forrest, and he’s using you and Donna as bait?”
“Not entirely,” Richard groaned. “Here’s the situation. Donna and I are getting married at Grandma’s castle on Tuesday, but, our wedding announcement and the headlines are going to say something else. See, we’re not actually going to be at the cathedral. Dad is just making Forrest think that.”
“So, let me guess. Sir Richard is going to have someone in the church tower?”
“Well, actually, John suggested two, but yes,” Richard replied. “Donna is….”
“Excuse me,” she interjected. “You might be marrying me, but Donna can still speak for herself. I was under the impression that we were going to frame Forrest and have him arrested.”
Gary glanced at Richard. “D… even if Sir Richard was lucky enough to get Forrest behind bars, he would never stay there. He has too many connections in high places.”
“Well, I’ll put it this way. If there’s anyone who wants to get even with Forrest it’s me, but I still don’t agree with the way you’re doing it.”
Richard brushed the back of his fingers down her cheek and smiled. “Then I would say the safest thing for us to do in this situation is to agree to disagree. Dad is not going to risk an opportunity like this, especially after he murdered Mildred.”
“So that’s that, then, is it?”
“I’m afraid so, pet.”
“No, it isn’t.” Donna narrowed her eyes and let go of Richard’s hand. “I could always call off the wedding.”
Richard growled. “Donna, you’re not being reasonable.”
“Neither are you,” she responded curtly and walked out.
Richard turned to Gary. “Would she do that?”
Gary sighed. “Donna doesn’t believe in murder, Richard.”
“She’s got to understand, sometimes to get what you want; you have no choice but to step over the line!” he groaned. “I’ll go talk to her.”
Gary rested a hand on Richard’s shoulder. “No! You carry on. I’ll handle this one,” he sighed and left. “VICi; locate Donna Rigden.”
VICi; Donna Rigden is in the cafeteria