Young people seemed so much more complex now than the students he’d gone to college with. Like Sula. He could not fathom what was driving her to be so intent on getting the PR suicide files. What possibly did she have to gain? Did she see herself as some kind of hero?
He stared at her tiny little house and wondered if she had any idea who she was up against. If not, she was about to find out. As soon as she set foot in the airport, Jimmy would let him know, then Rudker would put a stop to her nonsense once and for all.
Chapter 28
Friday, April 23, 8:47 a. m
Ruder got the call earlier than he expected. “Sula’s back and headed for the parking lot at the Eugene airport,” Jimmy reported.
“Follow her and call me if she goes anywhere but home.”
“When will I get a break?” Jimmy sounded weary.
“Soon. Once she’s in her house, call me and I’ll relieve you.”
“I’ll tally up my bill while I wait.”
Rudker went back to work on his comments for the company’s Q2 report. He had so much energy perking in his body, he could barely stay in his chair. He’d slept only a few hours, yet he felt hyper and charged with confidence. Today, things would go his way. He would take control of his world again.
Rudker channeled his energy into his quarterly statement, which came out more optimistic than he intended. The PR director would undoubtedly edit the hell out of it. Fine with him. Prolabs’ stock was at an all-time high of $48.76, as of 8:05 this morning. As long as the merger went through, stockholders would stay happy.
At 9:05, Cindy Taylor, his friend on the environmental committee, called. “We’re submitting our report to the commission this afternoon. Overall, we’ve given the project a greenlight. I thought you’d like to know.”
“Excellent. Thank you. Let me know when you kick off your run for mayor. I’ll be the first to donate to your campaign.”
“I’m announcing my candidacy next month at the Cinco de Mayo celebration.”
“I’ll get a check to you soon after. Good luck.”
“Thanks.” Cindy was off the line. That was one of the things he liked best about her. She got things done but didn’t waste time yapping about it.
Rudker felt his fortune turn. If he’d been a gambler, he would have bought a lottery ticket. Instead, he called his broker and bought 1,000 shares of a little nanotech company he’d been investigating. Might as well spread his luck around, give the little guys a boost.
Too excited to wait for Jimmy to call, Rudker buzzed the PI.
“JJ’s Investigations.”
Rudker hated the name, but Jimmy had come highly recommended as someone who could keep private matters private. “What’s the word on the girl?”
“Headed for home. She just turned on Friendly Street.”
“What took so long?”
“She stopped at Safeway.”
“Stay with her. I’ll relieve you later this afternoon.”
“Why do I have to stay? She was on an all-night flight from Puerto Rico. She’s going to crash as soon as she gets home.”
“You don’t know that. Don’t let her out of your sight.”
Rudker hung up before he had to listen to any more whining. Jimmy was probably right, but he wasn’t taking any chances.
She had only been gone for just over forty-eight hours but Sula was deliriously happy to be back on the ground in her little home in Eugene. She was exhausted, but she couldn’t rest, not yet.
She ate the Kung Po Chicken she’d picked up at the Safeway deli, then called Paul and left a brief message. “It’s Sula. I’m back. And I got DNA samples from both guys. A successful trip.”
The next call required courage she didn’t think she had. Sula paced the house with her phone in hand for ten minutes before she finally pressed the numbers. He answered on the second ring, sounding a little breathless.
“Aaron?”
“Yes.”
“It’s Sula Moreno. You called last week and invited me for coffee. If it’s not too late, I’d like to accept.”
“Sure. I’d like that. Hang on a sec, okay?”
She heard a door close, followed by the sound of a faucet. In a moment he was back. “Sorry. I just got back from a run and needed a drink of water.”
“It’s okay. I just got back from Puerto Rico.” Sula laughed. It made her sound like a seasoned traveler.
“Wow. I see why you didn’t call until now.”
“It’s been a crazy week.”
There was a pause. “I’ve got a lot going on over the next few days,” Aaron said after a moment. “What about Sunday afternoon, around three o’clock?”
“Great. Where?”
“Full City Coffee?”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you then.”
When she hung up, she realized she was shaking. It’s just coffee, she told herself. No need to be nervous. Or excited. Just coffee with a guy, an acquaintance.
Running on adrenaline, she unpacked her bag, threw a load of clothes in the washer, then took a shower. At noon she lay down. The two plastic bags with the Rios men’s hair samples sat on her dresser. She couldn’t stop thinking about them. Until they were packaged and in the mail to the FDA, her mission was not accomplished.
Sula got up, turned on her computer, and began a letter to Irene Johnson, an FDA public spokesperson she’d become friendly with while working at Prolabs. She tried to keep the letter simple, but her brain was tired and fuzzy and it took forty minutes to craft. Sula hoped her tone would seem concerned, but rational. In her first draft, she mentioned the disks disappearing from her home. Then she decided to cut that part. It made her sound too much like a wacko with active paranoia.
Finally, she hit print. Sula held her breath. Her printer was a garage sale special she’d picked up for five bucks. Sometimes it worked. Often, it did not.
She got lucky and the letter came out in the first try. The ink was more gray than black because she needed to replace the cartridge and was putting off spending the twenty-three dollars. Otherwise, she was pleased with her effort.
Working at the kitchen table, she stuffed the samples-plastic bags and all-into a small padded envelope, then put the letter and the small envelope into a bigger manila envelope. She scooted back to her computer to look up the FDA’s mailing address, then added it to the front and sealed the package.
Sula lay down again, but her brain kept buzzing from one thought to another. Scenes from her trip to Puerto Rico kept playing in her head. Marta had been so angry, and Lucia had been so helpful. Everybody reacted differently to death. She could see Lucia’s warm face suppressing a smile as she spoke into the tape recorder.
The cassette. Shit. She’d forgotten to put Lucia’s taped statement into the FDA package. Sula jumped out of bed and trotted up the hall. The recorder was still in her shoulder bag on the kitchen table. She dug it out and hit rewind. It seemed to take forever. Which struck her as odd, because Lucia’s statement had been quite brief.
When the machine finally clicked off, she pressed play to see how the recording sounded. All she could hear were muffled voices in the background. Had she accidentally been recording while the machine was in her purse? Sula let it play for a moment, waiting for Lucia’s voice to come on. Instead she heard Rudker say, “Nonsense. The percentage of suicides in the Puerto Rico trial was lower than the national average.”
Sula was stunned. It was the conversation she’d recorded outside the conference room last week. Before, she had only played back the first few minutes, but it had been so bad, she’d written the whole thing off. Rudker’s statement about suicides clearly indicated there had been adverse events in the Puerto Rico trial, and now those files were missing. FDA officials would be interested in the discrepancy.
Sula played out the tape. None of what Warner said was decipherable, but Rudker came though a few more times. Eventually, she heard Lucia’s voice talking about her husband’s lock of hair. While the cassette rewound, Sula wondered if the investigators at FDA would be curious enough about the tape-and her report of the conversation-to have it analyzed. The FBI, or even the Washington DC police, would have the technology to enhance the tape quality and volume. Maybe some of what Warner said could be understood as well. This tape was all that was left of Warner’s personal feelings about her discovery. Someone needed to hear it.