Falling Down The Stairs

Chapter Three

She was on edge from the moment she woke up. She took two antidepressants every day, usually at night, but this morning she took them immediately after waking. She could feel an episode coming on and she hoped that taking her medication early would keep it from spilling over. The odds were not in Sarah's favor.

Sleep had been near-impossible, and when she did, she dreamed of her hands running through Hannah's hair. It had been a long time since she'd had those kinds of thoughts about anyone, and to have them about her ex-wife made her especially upset. She had worked very hard to improve and change and not be the person she had been. She was stronger now. She couldn't fold under the pressure just because Hannah was around.

Still –– it was hard not to think of what could've been. Sarah had panicked and that was that. She was only here a few more days, or at least, that's how long the governor had paid for the hotel she was in. It would be over soon.

The drive over to the private lab was uneventful. She checked her mirrors, looking for Marcus's car, but didn't see it. She still wondered how he'd known that she'd gone. She'd even looked for a tracker on her car, but hadn't found one. This was a small-ish town, and her movements shouldn't be that easy to track. If Sarah were to tell the Governor about the potential tracking, and the resistance she was encountering, he would certainly be able to pull some strings and assist her. What stopped her before and what was stopping her now was that she knew her benefactor would come down on these people hard. Too hard.

The lab was called Cosmas & Damian –– named as such for the patron saints of medicine and pharmacology. It was a family business, which she had wanted to avoid –– her thinking being that family businesses would have an incentive to protect someone in their town –– but it had only been open a few months. She'd called a few of the franchised testing labs, but they were slap-full of piss tests for small business employees and high school athletes.

It was in a strip mall, and the logo was the letter C and D intertwined, and two men holding a caduceus staff was stencilled onto the window beneath it. Sarah parked her car in front of the lab, and went inside.

A big black couch ran the length of the back wall, painted robin's egg blue. Drawings, made by the kids of the owners, were framed and on the wall. Pamphlets sat on a small end table by the couch, and that is where she had learned yesterday about Cosmas and Damian. When the door opened, a bell jingled, and the woman who had taken her order the day before came from the back to meet her.

"Good morning!" said the woman.

"Morning," Sarah said.

The woman's name was Jennifer, Sarah remembered now, and Jennifer went through the report.

"The sample you brought to us contained muriatic acid and various other chemicals. We were able to isolate and identify several different types of road cleaner. That's on the readout here–"

She pointed to the bottom of the paper, and Sarah read it. Jennifer was very pretty and had blonde hair. Sarah had noticed this yesterday but had forgotten it.

"The cleaners are pretty standard. Nothing that interesting. Most companies who clean roads use these or their competitors."

"I appreciate the rush job," Sarah said.

"That's what you pay us for," Jennifer said with a smile.

She gave Sarah the readout and the report and a receipt, and Sarah went to leave. But she paused at the door.

"Has anyone come by," Sarah said, "and mentioned this?"

Jennifer frowned.

"No, I don't think so," she said. "Is something wrong?"