Kim blinked. Edward seemed to be surprising her every time he opened his mouth. The inappropriateness of this new question was completely out of character for him.
“You don’t have to tell me if you feel uncomfortable,” Edward said when he saw Kim’s hesitancy. “The reason I’m asking is because I’d be willing to let you have some equity in Omni. I haven’t wanted to sell any more of the stock, but you’re different. You’ll get a monumental return on your investment if you are interested.”
“My portfolio is fully invested,” Kim managed to say.
Edward put Buffer down and held up his hands. “Don’t misinterpret me,” he said. “I’m not playing salesman. I’m just trying to do you a favor for what you’ve done for Omni by allowing the lab to be built here.”
“I appreciate the offer,” Kim said.
“Even if you choose not to invest I’m still going to give you some stock as a gift,” Edward said. He gave her leg a pat through the covers and stood up. “Now I’ve got to get to bed. I’m looking forward to four solid hours of sleep. I tell you, ever since I started taking Ultra I’ve been sleeping so soundly that four hours is plenty. I never knew sleep could be so enjoyable.”
With a spring in his step, Edward went back into the bathroom and began brushing his teeth again.
“Aren’t you overdoing that?” Kim called out.
Edward stuck his head back into Kim’s bedroom. “What are you talking about?” he said while keeping his lower lip over his lower teeth.
“You already brushed your teeth,” Kim said.
Edward looked at his toothbrush as if it were to blame. Then he shook his head and laughed. “I’m becoming the absentminded professor,” he said. He went back into the bathroom to rinse his mouth.
Kim looked down at Buffer, who’d stayed behind, positioning himself in front of her night table. He was vigorously begging for some biscotti she’d brought up earlier from the kitchen.
“This dog of yours is acting awfully hungry,” Kim yelled to Edward, who was now in his bedroom. “Did he get fed tonight?”
Edward appeared at the door. “I honestly can’t remember,” he said. Then he disappeared again.
With resignation Kim got up, slipped on her robe, and descended to the kitchen. Buffer followed close at her heels as if he understood what had been said. Kim got out the dog food and scooped a portion onto a plate. Buffer was beside himself with excitement and was both growling and barking. It was obvious that he’d not been fed, maybe even for more than one day.
To avoid being bitten, Kim closed the dog in the bathroom while she put his food on the floor. When she reopened the door, Buffer went past her like a white blur and began wolfing the food down so quickly he sounded as if he were gagging.
When Kim climbed back up the stairs, she saw that Edward’s light was still on. Wanting to tell him about Buffer, she stuck her head into his room only to find he was already fast asleep. He’d seemingly lain down and fallen asleep before he’d even had a chance to turn out the light.
Kim walked over to his bedside and marveled at his stertorous breathing. Knowing the schedule he’d been keeping, she wasn’t surprised at the depth of his sleep. He had to be exhausted. Kim turned out his light then went back to her own room.
14
Monday, September 26, 1994
When Kim finally opened her eyes she was surprised to see it was nearly nine o’clock. That was later than she’d been getting up during the last month. Climbing out of bed, she glanced into Edward’s room, but he had been long gone. His empty room appeared neat and orderly. Edward had the commendable habit of making his bed in the morning.
On her way to the bathroom to shower, Kim placed a call to the plumber, Albert Bruer, who’d worked on both the cottage and the lab. She left her number on his answering machine.
Albert called back within a half hour, and by the time Kim had finished breakfast he was at her door. Together they drove up to the castle in his truck.
“I think I already know the problem,” Albert said. “In fact I knew about it when your grandfather was alive. It’s the soil pipes. They’re cast-iron and some of them have rusted.”
Albert took Kim into each of the bathrooms in the servants’ wing and took off the fronts of the access panels. In each he pointed out the rusted pipes.
“Can it be fixed?” Kim asked.
“Of course it can,” Albert said. “But it will take some doing. It might take me and my boy a week.”
“Do it,” Kim said. “I’ve got some people staying in here.”
“If that’s the case I can get water to the bathroom on the third floor. Those pipes look pretty good. Maybe no one lived up there.”
After the plumber left, Kim walked over to the lab to let the men know about the third-floor bathroom. She’d not been to the lab for some time and was not looking forward to the visit. They’d never made her feel welcome.
“Kim!” David called out excitedly. He was the first to see her come through the door that led from the vacant reception area into the lab proper. “What a nice surprise.” David yelled out to the others that she was there. Everyone, including Edward, dropped what they were doing and came over to greet her.
Kim felt herself blush. She did not relish being the center of attention.
“We have fresh coffee and donuts,” Eleanor said. “Can I get you some?”
Kim declined but thanked her, explaining she’d just had breakfast. She apologized to the group for bothering them and quickly told the men about the resolution of the plumbing problem.
The men were pleased and assured her that using the bathroom on the third floor was not an imposition. They even tried to talk her out of bothering to make any repairs.
“I don’t think it should be left the way it is,” Kim said. “I’d prefer it be fixed.”
Kim then started to leave, but they wouldn’t allow it. They insisted on showing her what each one of them was doing.
David was first. He took Kim to his lab bench and had her peer through a dissecting microscope while he explained that she was looking at an abdominal ganglion preparation that he’d taken from a mollusk called Aplasia fasciata. Then he showed her printouts of how Ultra modulated the spontaneous firing of certain neurons of the ganglion. Before Kim could even figure out what she was looking at, David took the printouts from her hands and led her into the tissue-culture incubator. There he explained how he evaluated the tissue cultures for signs of toxicity.
Then it was Gloria’s and Curt’s turn. They took Kim downstairs to the animal area. They showed her some pitiful creatures: stressed rats and stressed monkeys that had been raised to have severe anxiety. Then they showed her similar animals that had been treated with Ultra and imipramine.
Kim tried to appear interested, but animal experiments disturbed her.
François took over from Gloria and Curt and led Kim into the shielded room where the NMR machine was isolated. He tried to explain exactly how he was attempting to determine the structure of the binding protein for Ultra. Unfortunately, Kim understood little of his explanation. She merely nodded her head and smiled whenever he paused.
Eleanor then took over and led Kim back upstairs to her computer terminal. She gave Kim a lengthy explanation of molecular modeling and how she was attempting to create drugs that were permutations of Ultra’s basic structure and that would potentially share some of Ultra’s bioactivity.
As Kim was whisked around the lab, she began to notice that not only were the researchers friendly, they were also patient and respectful of each other. Although they were assertively eager to please her, they were content to wait their turn.
“This has been most interesting,” Kim said when Eleanor finally finished her lecture. Kim started to back toward the door. “Thank you all for taking so much of your valuable time to show me around.”