“And when the tsunami hit?”
“Near the shoreline, it was pure chaos. But higher up, where I was, some people weren’t even aware it had happened. I heard the news on the radio and knew our lab would have been destroyed, along with all our work. I knew if any of the researchers survived, they would do what they could to keep the work secret. I did the only thing I could do. I put the iguana in the helicopter the army provided and got the hell out of there.”
As delicately as I could, under the circumstances, I said, “That doesn’t explain what caused your—”
He gave that braying pseudo-laugh again. “Funny thing about creating diseases to use for espionage. We can manipulate cells to cause blood to boil or bones to crumble or the brain to implode. But we never consider the long-range consequences to the creators. One careless moment, and you can be seeing a death mask in the mirror for the rest of your life.”
“I’m just guessing here, but does that mean you were careless?”
“You get so familiar with the animals, you know? You sort of forget why they’re there and why you’re there. Sometimes you’re too tired to do things exactly the right way. You don’t put on gloves or you accidentally stick yourself with a contaminated needle or you inhale particulate in the air after an animal sneezes or coughs. In the early days we used silver nitrate to attenuate the viruses we were working with, and I was exposed to so much of it that my skin was beginning to turn bluish even before the tsunami. It’s become a lot more pronounced in the past few months. The neural spasms and the episodes of debilitating pain didn’t appear until after I left the island. That’s why I need heat too. My body’s temperature regulator has been destroyed.”
“If you created your condition, can’t you create an antidote for it?”
His face was blank for a moment, and then a light seemed to switch on in his eyes.
“Smart girl, Dixie. That’s exactly what I think. That’s why the vials Gilda took are so important.”
I was a hundred and eighty degrees past exhaustion, but I knew Kurtz had just told a gigantic lie.
Dully, I said, “Those packages in the refrigerator were vials of an antidote?”
“Exactly! It’s somewhat the same principle as homeopathy, to treat an illness with minute amounts of the the same toxins that caused it. Gilda gives me the injections. She’s dedicated to seeing me returned to health.”
“Then why did she run off with the vials?”
He shrugged, flicked his eyes upward, and found another lie.
“I think she was scared, Dixie. She didn’t understand what had happened to Ramón, and she was afraid. But she’ll be back when she thinks about it. She wouldn’t abandon me.”
I thought of Jessica saying, He abandoned me, and knew Ken Kurtz was hiding something I would probably be better off never finding out.
Before I left, I asked him if he wanted me to bring Ziggy inside for the night.
He shook his head. “Leave him out. He’s happier outside.”
His voice had an unaccustomed hint of affection. Maybe Kurtz wasn’t as cold as he seemed. Whatever he was, I left him there in his house with the number that instilled fear in the hearts of the marchers outside.
As I drove past them, they didn’t look as loony as they’d looked before.
NINETEEN
When I got home, I went straight to Michael’s kitchen, where he and Paco were busy putting dinner together.
Michael’s face was grim. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. A headache, but it’s better.”
“Tell me what happened.”
I did a mental groan. If I had to tell it one more time, I might start making stuff up to make it more interesting.
“When I was passing the Kurtz house on my way home last night, I saw the woman’s car I told you about, the one with the dog named Ziggy. It was parked in the driveway by the guard’s house, so I pulled in.”
Michael gave me a big-brother disapproving look, and I hurried to justify myself.
“I wanted to catch her and Kurtz together because he’d lied to me, said she died two years ago, so it couldn’t have been her that I talked to. But I was going to call Guidry to check it out, I swear I was. I drove in and got out of my car, and that’s when somebody hit me on the head. When I woke up, I smelled smoke and called nine-one-one.”
“The fire marshal said you passed out while you were there.”
I rubbed my forehead, not unlike the way Kurtz touched his face before he lied. All the questions were taxing my brain.
I said, “I fainted on the way to tell your guys about the woman. Guidry found me and took me to the emergency room at Sarasota Memorial.”
Michael rubbed his own temples with his forefingers, rotating his fingertips like giving himself a shiatzu massage. I had a feeling his head hurt almost as bad as mine.
He said, “That fire was set by somebody who knows chemicals and has access to them. The stuff they used doesn’t explode, but it burns for a long time and puts out lots of dark smoke that looks like a major fire. Whoever set it meant to draw attention.”
I didn’t want to tell him I knew the arsonist. That was information still reserved for Guidry. Besides, as much as I resented her, I was beginning to feel a sort of female bond to Jessica.
I said, “Other than getting a concussion, I had a great evening. My date with Ethan, I mean.”
He raised his head and quirked an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
“I really did. We danced.”
Michael allowed his mouth to twitch in an almost-smile.
Paco said, “You danced? For real?”
“Honest to God, and I didn’t step on his feet or trip him or do anything embarrassing.”
In unison, they said, “Good girl!”
Then they beamed at me like mothers hearing a five-year-old’s report of the first day of kindergarten.
Michael was so pleased he lost the worry wrinkles on his forehead. “I’ve got spareribs for supper. Sweet potatoes. Corn bread. I’m talking real soul food.”
Two seconds ago, I’d intended to crawl in bed without dinner, but now I licked my lips like a feral cat offered a warm mouse.
As a kid, I thought soul food was something God dispensed, like a Mardi Gras king tossing trinkets down to clamoring humans. I imagined it as fluffy and insubstantial, maybe pink as carnival cotton candy. It was Michael who told me it meant basic down-to-earth things like collard greens and ham hocks and corn bread. Now, inhaling exquisite smells coming from a sizzling rack of ribs hot off Michael’s prize smoker, I was glad soul food was real instead of ethereal.
He said, “So tell me more about your lawyer.”
“He’s not my lawyer, and I just went out to dinner with him. There’s nothing exclusive about it.”
Michael raised his face with such a look of shock that I laughed. For the last two years, Michael and Paco had been after me to start seeing men and I had refused with the chaste prudishness of a cloistered nun. Now all of a sudden I sounded like a woman ready to play the field.
Paco twirled an imaginary mustache. “Ah so, my little chickadee.”
I got a stack of napkins and tossed them around on the butcher-block island, but my mind was playing a tape of Granddad patting Gran on the rump and saying, “My little chickadee,” while she made pretend push-away motions and cut her eyes warningly at Michael and me.
He would grin and say, “Kids, why don’t you go outside and see if you can count the stars. The one who gets the number right gets a hot fudge sundae at Dairy Queen.”
Michael and I would edge out of the room, trying not to giggle, and wait until Granddad came out to see if we’d counted the stars correctly. We knew it didn’t matter what number we came up with, he’d say we were right. Then we’d all pile in his Chevrolet Impala with the pelican hood ornament and the personalized license plates that said SIESTA-1 and drive to Dairy Queen and give ourselves tummy aches on too much ice cream. When we got home, our grandmother would be in her shiny satin robe that she reserved for special occasions, and she’d have a soft smile on her face. I was grown before I learned that the word chickadee belonged to a bird and not to my grandmother.