Hello, World

Chapter 12

Rain fell from a murky sky in lateral sheets and beaded on the glass door. When a bead became big enough it fell down the glass, bringing with it any other beads unfortunate enough to be in its way. Such it was when titans fell; they couldn't help but crush the servants standing in their shadows.

Lisa Morgenthaler's gaze telescoped between the sliding water droplets and the strobing lights of red and yellow in the parking lot. Some of the droplets caught a beam of the sirens and glowed around the edges, an infinitesimal microcosm of a supernova from a distant place in time and space.

For the first time, one of the droplets ringed blue. Then another. Soon there was more red and blue than red and yellow and Lisa stepped out into the rain to greet the man in blues with a badge on his hip. The rain soaked har face and hair, forcing her to squint, but she did not care.

"Hello, officer," said a voice Lisa hardly recognized as her own.

"You must be Dr. Morgenthaler," the man said, offering a gloved hand to shake. "I'm detective Jacobs. I'll be in charge of this investigation."

Lisa led the detective into the lab and showed him Jackson's body, covered with a white sheet after the paramedics failed to revive him, then to Fred's body, hands folded over his chest as Jackson must have left him. Fred's face was set in the slightest close-lipped grin, an expression of perpetual peace. It was small consolation to her for losing the friend she felt closer to than any human.

Lisa joined Tyler in explaining what they think happened after the decline they had observed in Jackson's mental state over the past several months. Detective Jacobs nodded as they told their story, occasionally taking a handwritten note, but Lisa had a feeling he wasn't listening to her.

"Well," Jacobs said when they were done, "there could be charges filed against Mr. Jackson were he alive, but in this situation there's not much for me to do here."

"So that's it?" Lisa said.

"You may have a civil case here. That's outside of my area though. You'd want to talk to a lawyer about that."

"So there's nothing else you're going to do about the fact Jackson killed my Fred?"

"No, ma'am, I'm sorry. There's nothing for me to do here. Mr. Jackson already paid the ultimate price," Jacobs said.

Lisa's hands shook like an addict's. Tyler put his arm around her shoulder. "Thank you, detective," Tyler said.

Jacobs pursed his lips and nodded. "I'm very sorry for your loss."

Tyler took his arm off her shoulder and stepped to the side to look her in the eye. The dark spots under his weary eyes told of an exhaustion that came from more than just one night of lost sleep. "Care for some lunch?" he asked. "My treat." He tried to smile but it came out like a constipated grimace.

"I'd like to," Lisa lied, "but there's one more thing I need to take care of first."

Tyler nodded and left her to speak with another of the deputies.

Lisa went back to the glass door at the entrance and stared out blankly. She wasn't looking at the beads on the glass or the black Mercedes SUV pulling into the lot, but rather at some in-between place that only she could see.

The blonde head peaking out of the open door of the Mercedes snapped Lisa back to the present. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the folded paper with Jackson's final words scrawled on it in his illegible print. How Lisa became responsible for delivering this letter to Jackson's widow, she did not know, but somehow the task became hers and she would carry it out dutifully, just like she dutifully wheeled Fred to his predictable demise in that doomed lab.

Lisa handed the letter to Sara as if she hadn't read it, then left to sit in her own car. Only then did Lisa acknowledge her pain and for the first time since she was a teen, Dr. M, ever-logical Dr. M, cried.