This is a Test

Ch. 20

Miranda called for another meeting in the Kitchen. Everyone dragged themselves there except Karina, who glared at all from behind the glass doors of the Lab. "We need to have a discussion about recent events."

"Aren't we waiting for the rest to join us?" Dante asked, nodding in Karina's direction.

"No. She will not be a part of this, as per her request. The situation that happened was horrific, but more so for her, based upon events she has previously experienced."

The rest in the group nodded at different moments as Cashe assumed all understood what Miranda implied. It also explained a lot of Karina's interactions with him. ""Because of this" Miranda continued, "she does not feel as secure around the men as she does with Lia and myself."

"So, what?" Dante said with a snort, wagging his finger between himself and Cashe. "We can't be anywhere when she's around, or we need chaperones?"

"I think that in this situation, we need to do whatever we can to keep her calm." Miranda dropped her voice to a whisper. "After all, we can't lock her up, can we?"

"Absolutely not," Cashe stated. "I stand by my assertion that she is the most crucial person here."

"Okay," Miranda agreed, darting her eyes back to the solitary woman. "But she took a life. And she might have killed Roger as well. I don't even know if we can be sure that what she said about Alan was true. Obsessed?" The psychiatrist shook her head. "I saw no signs."

Cashe nodded, but a thought nagged at him as the others whispered among themselves. After a few moments, he stroked his chin with a thumb. "It might make sense."

"What do you mean?" Dante asked.

"I'm not sure. Give me a minute."

He stood there, recalling moments from the last few days. Luckily, the others ceased their noise so he was able to process puzzle pieces while staring at the empty countertop. Once he felt he had a good grasp on his conclusion, he nodded to himself and looked up to the others to find they were watching him. Even Karina had opened the door to exit the Lab a step or two. "What's going on?" she asked, still angry, but with some concern as she clung to the door handle.

That was Cashe's question, as this group never shut up. Miranda answered over her shoulder without averting her eyes from him. "Randall says Alan's attack makes sense."

"Oh, it makes sense for him to attack me?" Karina snarled.

Cashe sighed. "No, not like that. I mean his actions leading up to that."

"What actions?" Dante said.

"Okay," Cashe began. "Right after we met him, he sat with us at the table to recount what he had observed from the hideout, I thought he was staring at all the women, as they were together, but in retrospect, since Karina was in the middle, he may have been only looking at her."

Miranda crossed her arms. "That's hardly damning."

"Agreed," Cashe acknowledged. "But, there's more. The control room below has no recordings. Video of us is on one monitor with four perspectives. If you click on one of the views, it fills the screen and audio is allowed." A few glanced at Lia, who nodded. Cashe continued. "At one point, he referred to a conversation between Karina and myself, including my knocking on the table." Cashe raised his hand. "I know. Not real evidence. It may be that ours was the only action that there was to watch. The thing that had bothered me was when he mentioned Roger's health issues." He waved towards Karina. "That didn't make any sense to me until what you said."

"What's odd about that?" she asked, brows furrowed.

"Alan had wedged a screwdriver into the bottom of the Garage door. I claimed there was nothing blocking the tracks, when he obviously had done so. We as a group broke up; Lia and I left the rest of you to investigate the problem. If we were looking into his sabotage and he was confused why we couldn't see a bright red object in the tracks, why was he focused on the other group, listening to your conversation? That is illogical... unless there was something about that other group that he was more interested in. So, for me, that makes more sense now."