Coldwater Revenge, James Ross [books for 9th graders txt] 📗

here? Or what do you think he might have intended to do before you busted in on him? Any guess?”

“Guess?” Willow’s neck arched like a fastidious egret’s. “I’d rather not. The potential for serious mischief in a bio-research lab should give nightmares to any thoughtful person. It’s a field that attracts its share of brilliant misfits, I’m afraid.”

Joe gestured toward the open door. “Did he leave anything behind?”

“Not that I noticed. But then, I’m afraid I didn’t think to look.”Willow clasped his hands behind his neck and looked again toward the shelf of photos and corporate memorabilia above his desk. “My sense now is that I came in before he could get started on whatever it was he intended to do.”

Joe pursued. “And what’s usually in your mail room? Anything out of the ordinary?”

“Mail, of course. Overnight packages. Dry chemicals. Wet chemicals. Refrigerated culture dishes. Scientific journals. Junk mail.”

“Could he have been looking to steal something?”

“He didn’t act like it. Like I said, he was pretty bold.”

While Joe worked his questions, Tom sat with the sense that there was something familiar about the NeuroGene owner. But the answer didn’t come right away.

When Joe had finished taking careful notes of Willow’s unremarkable answers, he gave the NeuroGene owner a copy of the driver’s license photo and asked him to show it around the office in case the intruder had been there more than once and someone else had run into him.

As Willow took it, Tom noted the demeanor of a witness who has not been asked the question he’d over-prepared to answer. At the risk of pushing his brother over the edge, he prompted. “I think Mr. Willow has something to add.”

Willow’s head swung toward Tom and then slowly back to Joe, who was busy staring holes into Tom’s skull.

“I’m sorry, Sheriff,” said Willow. “I know you blacked out the name and address on that license. But the Gazette printed the name and address of the man whose body was found in the lake this morning.”

Joe’s face hardened.

Willow’s voice was almost apologetic. “I’m sure you know this already. But if not… well, I’m pretty sure the man in that photo is the brother of one of my researchers. I think you know her. Susan Pearce?”

CHAPTER 5

Tom awoke before first light and brought a cup of coffee to the back porch where the sunrise was slowly transforming a distant misty puddle into a bright metallic disk that was Coldwater Lake. He got no farther than the top rung of the split log steps, before the dawn air exploded with two hundred decibels of ear splitting siren and a blinding flash of red halogen light. The mug of coffee slipped from his hand and tumbled down the steps. Then Joe burst through the back door with a twelve gauge shotgun angled across his chest and a pair of boxer shorts sliding toward his ankles. Tom raised his hands above his head. “I forget to say ‘May I?’?”

Joe let the firearm slide to his side and reached inside the sliding door to press an electronic touch pad. The horns died and the lights faded. “Should have warned you about the toys, I guess.”

“Anything else besides noisemakers?”

Joe pointed the barrel of the rifle toward the slim black rectangles bolted beneath the eaves. “Cameras, so I can watch it later with popcorn.”

Tom clenched his hands to keep them from shaking. “What if Mom wants to go out for a walk?”

“She can’t. Her leg’s broke. That’s why you’re here.”

Even as a kid, his smart-mouth younger brother had a quick retort for everything.

“What if I want to go for a walk? Do I come back in one piece? And what about the kids?”

“The place is only rigged at night when everyone’s inside sleeping, or when we’re all out.”

“How about giving me the code, in case I want to break curfew while I’m here.”

Joe hesitated. Then without expression, recited, “0 4/ 0 1/ R I P.”

It was a moment before either brother spoke.

“You’re expecting trouble?”

Joe shrugged. “It comes with the job. This place is empty most of the time. If it’s not, I like to know before I walk in the front door.”

“And that code?”

“A reminder not to get careless.”

* * *

Kate grabbed a pancake, folded it like a crepe and bussed her mother’s cheek before disappearing into the bathroom. In fifth grade, she was already eye-to-eye with her mother. Meghan, who appeared next, had her father’s height and coloring as well. She took the stool next to Tom, opened a book and hovered over some last-minute homework. Joe entered the kitchen last, resplendent in Sam Brown boots and wide leather belt. He poured a cup of coffee and motioned to Tom to join him outside.

The noise of boots on gravel mixed with the calls of morning song birds and the rustle of autumn leaves. Joe sipped from a ceramic cup that was clearly a homemade present from one of the girls. “We need to find that NeuroGene guy’s former partner and check his story. He got kind of squirrely when you started with the money questions.”

“He’d have gotten squirrelier if I’d recognized him sooner.”

Joe spilled the coffee onto the ground and pointed the empty mug at Tom’s chest. “Quit being a smart ass, Tommy. You busted my beauty rest and I’m in no mood for guessing games. You recognized him? How? When? From where?”

“Coldwater High School. Fall semester, twenty years ago. New chemistry teacher, straight out of college. Girls were all over him and vice versa. That is, until he pissed one of them off and she got him fired by telling the principal he promised to show her how to make LSD in the high school Chem lab.”

Joe frowned. “I don’t remember any of that. Why didn’t you say something last night?”

“You don’t remember because it wasn’t your girlfriend who was Mr. Wizard’s main admirer. And because you were too busy terrorizing visiting team quarterbacks the whole ten weeks