Peter Clement - Mortal Remains

“Hey, no! I’m waiting for a callback-”

He’d already hung up.

Tommy had never once initiated the two of them going out for a beer together their whole time in med school. Nor had he looked up Earl since then. The guy was after something. Stuck at an unseemly long traffic light, Earl decided he might as well make him get to the point.

“So what did you want to talk about?”

“I figure I needed to warn you.”

“About what.”

Another sprint start sent them roaring toward Second Avenue. “A strange conversation I had with Melanie this morning. She got me in her office, all worried about you and Kelly.”

Something that had nothing to do with Tommy’s driving tightened in Earl’s gut.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Apparently you two had a conversation last night. She found it suspicious that you never asked who she thought Kelly’s lover was.”

Earl’s every instinct went on alert. “Kelly’s lover?” He tried to sound curious, but not overly so.

Tommy gave him a sideways look as he rocketed through the next intersection. “Hey, Earl, come on. Don’t play dumb. Melanie said she already told that snoop Roper that Kelly had the look of a woman in love. Naturally, she found it strange you never asked about it, since Roper must have made it part of the investigation you’re helping him with. So now she’s thinking maybe the lover was you.”

Shit! Earl felt a cold sweat percolate on his back. He could kick himself for having made such an obvious omission. The only response he could think of was to act incredulous. “What? You’re kidding me.”

“Nope, and I figured you ought to know she’s already making noises about reporting you.”

“Oh, my God, that’s ridiculous. I didn’t ask what she knew about Kelly’s love life because I figured Melanie would have told me anything of importance without me having to dig for it.”

“Hey, buddy, you don’t have to convince me. One way or the other, my lips are sealed. As I said, I figured forewarned is forearmed.”

Earl’s mind raced. Every emotion he could come up with that seemed appropriate for a guy wrongfully accused – astonishment, indignation, disbelief – he threw into his performance. “I’m calling her right now, and putting an end to this nonsense. Why, if a rumor like that got started…” He trailed off, digging out his cell phone, checking for her number in its memory, and punching ENTER. Let Tommy believe him, he prayed. And for Christ’s sake, let Melanie believe him.

“Hey! She’ll know I told you,” Tommy protested.

“I can’t just let her think-” Her answering machine interrupted, ordering him to leave a message at the sound of the beep. “Melanie, it’s Earl. We got to talk. There’s been a terrible misunderstanding, and I might have given you a very wrong impression. Please call me as soon as possible. It’s urgent.”

Tommy lurched the car left onto York Avenue.

Earl’s stomach seemed to keep on going toward the river. “Jesus, Tommy, do you have to beat every car at every light-”

“Don’t you be tellin’ Melanie I warned you. But if you explain to her like you did to me – it sounded pretty good, that part how you thought she’d tell you anything important about Kelly’s love life without your asking – she just might buy it.”

Damn, Tommy doesn’t believe me either. “Look, there’s nothing to buy, Tommy. Kelly and I were just friends.”

“Well, then, all’s the more the pity, because our dear Kelly deserved a good man to love her before she died.”

Earl snapped another sideways glance at the well-coiffed man, to see if he was being serious.

His lips were pressed into a thin red line.

“She had it rough all right,” Earl said, the only admission he felt ready to make.

When they hit Tommy’s watering hole, the patrons greeted him by name and the staff gave them attentive service. Earl nursed a nice Irish red ale and made small talk, all the time willing Melanie to call. His drink, cool and pleasant to the taste, seemed to rile his stomach and set it churning again. Nerves, he thought.

3:30 P.M.

Hampton Junction

“They fired you?”

Victor Feldt nodded, face crimson and lips trembling under his magnificent mustache. He sat on the edge of the chair across the desk from Mark, his huge frame hunched over, his beefy hands clasped together and working each other with the steadiness of a beating heart.

“But that’s outrageous!” Mark got out of his usual chair and took the one beside Victor. “Why?” he asked.

Victor shook his head, pulled his mouth into a grimace, and swallowed a few times. His eyes glistened.

Mark let him compose himself.

“The reason they gave was that I showed unauthorized people around the lab,” he said eventually.

“What?”

The big man shook his head again. “I’ve taken visitors on tours since day one. ‘Good PR,’ my director always said. To pull this now, I don’t get it.”

“But they can’t do that. We’ll get you a lawyer, sue them for unlawful dismissal-”

“It’s no good. The rules are clear. They just never enforced them before.”

“So why now? Who’d you show the place to that got them so upset?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“Of course.”

“Try you and Lucy O’Connor.”

He couldn’t have heard right. “Pardon?”

But Victor grimaced, held his palms skyward, and gave a huge shrug.

“You’re not serious.”

“I’m afraid I am.”

“Jesus Christ!”

“That’s what my director said. He’s as flabbergasted as I am.”

“There’s got to be some mistake.”

“Oh, there’s no mistake. They stipulated my alleged violation of lab security occurred between the hours of six and seven last night.”

“Wait a minute. Let me go to your boss. I’ll explain to him-”

“Won’t do any good. My own boss was apologetic as hell. The order to can me came from the head office in New York.”

“But how did anyone there even know about our visit?”

“That’s what I can’t figure out. I mean, security’s extra tight these days. But this doesn’t figure. It’s overkill.”

“Did the people in New York know you were showing two doctors through the lab?”

“I don’t know. But my director did. When he got the order, he looked at the surveillance tapes and saw it was you, then figured the woman was one of your students. He even called New York on my behalf, arguing that you were the local GP and no more a security threat than he was. They weren’t interested, and told him that unauthorized personnel were unauthorized personnel.”

“But orders from New York to fire you because you showed me around. Why would somebody in the head office of a high-powered lab be so skittish?”

“Beats me.”

Still dismayed, Mark began to think the worst. “Who owns Nucleus Laboratories?”

“A numbered company. You know how it works these days – nameless corporations within corporations.”

“Could you find out who’s at the top?”

“With all I know about their records? Give me a day. But what good will it do?”

“Just get me a name. I might be wrong, but this may have more to do with me than you. If that’s the case, and I can prove it, we could get your job back.”

Victor frowned “What do you mean?”

“Sorry, I can’t tell you any more right now. But do this for me, and if a hunch I have plays out, chances are Nucleus Laboratories won’t be causing either of us any more trouble.”

“Us?”

“Yeah! Us. Hey, without you managing the place, how am I going to get my blood tests done?”

Victor studied him a few seconds, then the apprehension in his expression dissipated. “It’s a deal, Doc. And thanks.”