She Was Their Target, page 29
Zachary couldn’t help grinning. Obviously, she knew very well that they had hacked their way into a server where they were not authorized to be. She was willing to look the other way on that. But she wouldn’t let them pursue it any further.
Not that she would know about it. He didn’t plan on telling her.
“I will need a statement from you about the kidnapping,” Garcia said, changing the subject. “Especially if you saw any faces and can tell me some of the players involved.”
Zachary rubbed his temples, thinking about it. It was all still very foggy. He knew that he had been lured to Bridget’s house. And he could vaguely remember fighting people off, being dragged away against his will, and then into the private facility, where everyone had pretended that he was having a psychotic break rather than a perfectly natural reaction to a kidnapping. But it was all very fractured and he was missing chunks of time. He didn’t know if he had been knocked out or drugged, or if he had dissociated during those periods. But there was very little he could actually remember from the kidnapping.
“Not sure if I can help. I was drugged… and most of it is a blank.”
Garcia’s gaze slipped over to Kenzie, asking her silently for more details or verification.
“From what was on his chart, I wouldn’t expect him to be able to remember anything,” Kenzie advised, shaking her head.
Did she really think that, or was she just being supportive and trying to keep Garcia from pushing him too hard? Zachary decided he didn’t care. The result was the same either way. He was going home. There wasn’t anything he wanted more than that right now.
72
Garcia’s eyes stayed on Kenzie. “Not so long ago, we were both lecturing Zachary on rushing into an investigation on his own when he should have gone to the police. Do you and I now need to have that same conversation?”
“I came in with your police officers.” Kenzie shrugged innocently. “I didn’t come here on my own. And I helped them to get up here to find Zachary and to talk that doctor down.” She looked at him, sitting on the floor scowling, with his hands cuffed behind his back. He didn’t look at her. “Is that Dr. Evans? That’s the name that was on all of Zachary’s papers.”
Garcia gave a brief nod. “Apparently, he works at TrimProGenix.”
“And here. Prescribing psychogenic drugs. And apparently, trialing experimental drugs.”
“Like LipoSlayerRx?” Zachary asked, trying to get a handle on the connections.
“It would be strange for him to work in both weight loss and psychosis,” Kenzie said, shaking her head. “I wondered whether he discovered the weight loss aspect of Rx while testing it for something else. That happens sometimes, you know.”
A lot of scientific discoveries had been accidents.
Zachary rubbed his eyes. He put his hands down on the floor to shift his position and get his feet under him. “I’m getting up now,” he informed Kenzie, in case she had any ideas about keeping him down or tackling him to the floor once he made it to his feet. He didn’t like all of the cops towering over him. He felt small and vulnerable.
Kenzie stood up right after him. She kept one hand behind him for a moment, obviously expecting him to be lightheaded or unsteady. After he managed to stay on his feet without any obvious swaying, she figured out that he wasn’t going to fall down and withdrew her hand.
It took longer than it should have to finish at the clinic so they could go home. But checking out of the hospital always felt like it took way too long too, so Zachary supposed he didn’t have anything to complain about. As far as the clinic was concerned, he had been admitted under Title 19, so he should have had to stay there for a couple more days being observed and evaluated. But Garcia repeated the assertion that Zachary had been kidnapped and not lawfully admitted under Title 19 and, eventually, the staff had agreed to let him go home.
There was no way he would be able to go to sleep right away, and he figured Kenzie was probably pretty keyed up too. She had dark circles under her eyes, but didn’t look or act sleepy. Maybe they were caused more by worry than by lack of sleep. Eventually, her physical fatigue would catch up with her and she would be able to sleep, but that was probably at least a couple of hours away. Neither of them was a tea drinker, but he brewed some anyway, hoping Kenzie would find it comforting.
“How are you?” he pressed. “This must have been really hard for you, considering… what happened to you.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe you watched it on video. You’re very brave.”
“Or stupid,” she said with a shrug. “Maybe watching it happen to someone else is a pretty dumb idea.” She stared off for a minute, and Zachary watched her closely for signs of distress or dissociation. But she seemed to be okay. “It was actually cathartic. I can even say the word kidna—” The word caught in her throat, surprising her. She tried again. “K-k-kidna—” She stopped trying. “Well, I was able to say it. That word.”
Zachary smiled as reassuringly as possible and nodded. “I’m sure you will again. You’re just thinking about it too much right now.”
She nodded her agreement, stirred her teabag around gently, and pressed it to the side of her cup to squeeze out the juices.
Looking at his cracked but still functional phone, Zachary tapped through his various notifications and messages. He followed a mention to Brittany Blake’s profile and saw that she was still broadcasting live. She must have been hoarse after talking for hours. He tapped the Like button, and she must have gotten a notification on her side, because she gave a bright smile and greeted him by name.
“For those of you who have just arrived, we are waiting for an announcement by TrimProGenix, which they said would be made this morning.” She looked at her watch.
While it was technically the next day, the workday hadn’t started yet and Zachary would be surprised if they were ready to issue a formal statement until late morning or early afternoon. After their lawyers had a look at it.
“They should be on any minute now,” Brittany assured her audience.
He kept an eye on his phone while he and Kenzie talked. Then a banner came up on Brittany’s live video and he turned his volume back up to watch it. Coverage switched to a man in a suit reading a prepared statement, looking appropriately grave.
“Due to rumors of negative side effects and out of an abundance of caution, the board of directors of TrimProGenix has decided to temporarily suspend sales of LipoSlayerRx while an investigation into these allegations is conducted.”
The written statement went on, but that was really all that Zachary needed to hear. The rest was just puffery about the company and its history and what a difference LipoSlayerRx had made in the world during the time it had been in distribution. They didn’t answer questions. Eventually, the feed reverted to Brittany. She smiled broadly.
“Well, there you have it. This is a huge step for society. Sales of Rx have been suspended and, with any luck, they will never resume. Thank you to everybody who has had something to do with this. Especially my friends Zachary Goldman and Kenzie Kirsch. You guys rock.”
Zachary grinned at Kenzie. “We rock.”
“Apparently, we do.”
73
So, how are you feeling now that it’s all over and life has returned to normal?” Dr. Boyle asked Zachary, uncrossing her legs and crossing them in the other direction. “About the kidnapping, I mean. I’d like to know how you’re handling things. If we need to work on your meds. Extra therapy sessions.”
“I’m doing pretty good,” Zachary protested. “I don’t remember much of what happened because of how they drugged me.”
“But that doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen or that your body and brain don’t react to triggers that bring it back. Look at Kenzie and the difficulty she has had. Things don’t just snap back to normal after a traumatic experience like that.”
Maybe it was because he’d been through so many traumatic things in the past that Zachary couldn’t really see it. It wasn’t like when he’d been captured by Archuro, paralyzed, tortured, and abused.
Dr. B studied him closely for a few seconds before nodding. “Okay. But I want to hear as things bubble up to the surface. If you start having new triggers or thoughts, I need to be aware of them.”
“Okay.”
“And how about your obsessive thoughts? We should discuss whether that is any worse and what we need to work on. Did you get to your OCDA group?”
“Yeah, once. But I didn’t really… feel like I belonged there. It’s not the same…”
“It’s enough the same that I think your association with them, talking to others who have obsessive thoughts, will help you.”
Zachary shrugged. He would see. He wasn’t sure that it was worth his while to keep going.
“Have you been over to Bridget’s house?”’
Zachary gave an involuntary shudder when he thought of the street in front of Bridget’s house, where he had pulled over so many times to watch the house, hoping for a glimpse of Bridget or the twins, even just a shadow passing over the window.
“What was that?” Dr. B asked.
“Umm…” Zachary tried to put it into words. “Just… I don’t want to go back there.”
“You don’t want to? But you feel compelled to?”
“No. I don’t want to go anywhere near there. Where I was abducted.” Zachary shuddered again, though he tried to control his reaction. He no more wanted to go back there than he did the cabin where he had been held by Archuro. He wanted to put as much space and time as possible between himself and that experience.
“The memories of the abduction bother you,” Dr. B suggested.
“Yes. I don’t… want to be where that happened.”
She sat back in her chair, observing him with a half smile.
“What?”
“I wouldn’t have expected a kidnapping to have a positive effect on your mental health. But if it has made you averse to going to Bridget’s house… that’s not a bad thing.”
“No…” Zachary laughed. “I guess it’s not.”
Kenzie had been talking on the phone when Zachary got home. She finished saying goodbye and hung up, then looked at him with an expression he had difficulty interpreting.
“What?” Zachary asked uneasily, immediately casting his mind back to identify what he might have done wrong. Not anything serious. He hadn’t gone to Bridget’s and didn’t see himself going there again any time in the near future. He had just been at his therapy appointment, so it wasn’t because he had missed it. Was he supposed to run an errand for her while he was out? Bring something home for dinner? Or maybe he wasn’t supposed to, but she had expected him to anyway. One of those spontaneous things couples did for each other. Unplanned, but expected. “Is something wrong?”
“That was Detective Garcia.”
Zachary hadn’t seen El since the clinic, so it wasn’t anything he had done. Why would she be calling Kenzie instead of Zachary? He was the one who had a previous professional relationship with her. He was the one who had been abducted and held hostage. Not Kenzie.
“They got results back on the pills that you didn’t take at the clinic.”
His chest got tight and he found it hard to breathe normally. “They were supposed to kill me, weren’t they?”
He remembered the low conversation of the two doctors when they had checked in on him, believing he was doped up. He had been an obstacle to Dr. Evans and to billions of dollars of earnings for TrimProGenix. Evans had been able to think of only one way to remove that obstacle permanently.
Kenzie nodded her head. Her expression was grim. “A very strong opioid, combined with the Benzodiazepines the doctor had prescribed… you would never have woken up.”
Zachary swallowed. His mouth and throat were suddenly very dry. “Could it have been a mistake? An oversight?”
She shook her head. “There was no reason to give you an opioid. And opioids mixed with benzos are a big no-no. If he had prescribed both, the nurses would have flagged it. But I guess someone just slipped it in.”
He remembered the nurse patiently telling him what each pill was. She hadn’t said any of them were opioids. And then the other nurse had helped him to pick up the spilled pills. Was that when he had slipped an extra one in, thinking Zachary was too dopey to notice the difference?
Zachary shook his head. He thought of the night he had taken two of his sleep aids and been so groggy, unable to wake up. If he’d been sedated and given the opioid, he never would have known there was anything wrong. He would just have ceased to exist, leaving Kenzie and his family behind. He had fought so hard against his depression and suicidal thoughts over the years, the idea of dying from an accidental—or intentional—overdose hit him like a punch in the gut. He couldn’t let that happen.
Kenzie hugged him. “You stopped them. You knew you weren’t supposed to take whatever it was, and you didn’t let them succeed.”
Zachary gripped her firmly and pressed his cheek against hers. He could feel her heart pounding. Both of their hearts together, strong and fast.
74
It had taken some work for Zachary to get Jennifer to meet with him somewhere other than in her office. He wanted to avoid the corporate atmosphere, the pretty shades of pink and chrome, and everything being perfectly arranged and decorated. For some reason, he couldn’t put himself back into that setting and didn’t want to see Jennifer in it either. She was a different Jennifer from the one he had known as a teen. Not just because she was grown up and grieving Kristin. She had become something different. He couldn’t put his finger on it or put it into words, but he didn’t like what he saw. The corporate veneer was false. It didn’t suit her.
He found a coffee shop near her office. Not in her building, because she would still have the advantage there. She had probably met many people there over coffee, so it was just an extension of her office. The shop he picked was independent, not one of the big chains. The type of place they might have gone to as teens, skipping out of classes or going somewhere over lunch. Finding a place they would make “theirs” and use as a home base. Or a touchstone.
He got there first, and then Jennifer arrived. She looked around the cafe uncertainly. Then she met his eyes and smiled at him. Her expression said she was still grieving, but her slight smile acknowledged their shared history.
Jennifer went to the counter to place her order and joined Zachary at his table a minute later, steaming cup in hand.
“This is nice,” she commented. “It has real atmosphere.”
“Yeah, it does,” Zachary agreed.
Jennifer sat down.
“So… I guess you know about the company taking Rx off the market,” Zachary said.
“Suspending it.”
“Yes. But no one thinks it will be coming back in any form.”
“It will be back. For something else, next time, and maybe with warnings on it and better monitoring. But these drugs don’t disappear forever. They just tweak it, rebrand it, and sell it to another segment of patients. This time it isn’t for weight loss, but weight loss is a known side effect.”
“They were initially testing it as a psychoactive drug.”
“Well, there you go.” She shrugged. “They can go back to that. Maybe you’ll take it someday. Although, you can’t stand to lose much weight.”
“This is the heaviest I’ve been in a few years. My doctor is happy that I’m finally well into the ‘healthy’ bracket.”
“So maybe you’d better not take it when it comes back as BeHappyRx.”
“Yeah. I don’t think so,” Zachary agreed.
“I appreciate you looking into it. The medical examiner has agreed to reopen the investigation and look at Kristin’s autopsy in light of the new data… but he said that probably nothing would change. They don’t have any proof that it was the Rx rather than the anesthetic. Or a combination of the two.”
“There were others who had cardiac issues with Rx.”
“Yeah. But not enough to be able to identify it as the cause of death.”
“You couldn’t have known it would cause her problems. Even if you had known that she was on it, you would have had no way of knowing that it was potentially dangerous. The company was holding back any information about it being related to cardiac issues and death. The surgery would have gone ahead anyway. The results would have been the same.”
“I knew she was on it.”
Zachary opened his mouth and stared at her, stunned by the admission.
“Or I suspected,” Jennifer amended. “She never came out and said it, but she had asked me about it, and then she was losing weight, and I didn’t think it was anything to worry about. I was proud that she was losing weight. Glad that she was getting into better shape and would be healthier and fit in with her peers.”
Zachary wondered if Kristin would ever have reached the level where she blended in with the rest of the school population. Not a cheerleader, but someone who didn’t stick out as being fat. And if she did, would she be more acceptable to her peers? Or would she just be an ex-fat girl to them?
But it was Jennifer’s dream, not his. In her mind, Kristin succeeded. She became the girl she had wanted to be. Not the girl who stayed an outcast forever. The girl in Jennifer’s dream had a nice body and straight teeth and friends.
Zachary looked toward the door as the tinkling of bells announced a new customer. Jennifer followed his eyes.
“Oh, I know her,” Jennifer said, standing partway up to wave to the girl. Rain approached the table with her father, and then both sat down, looking awkward and uncomfortable. “Rain!” Jennifer took the girl’s hands in her own. “I’m so glad to see you.”
Rain nodded. “You too, Mrs. Jones.” She sniffled and swallowed. “It’s been really hard,” she confessed. “I miss her.”
Jennifer nodded. “I do too.”
