The Mind Virus

Chapter 17 - Part 1

A knock on the door awakened Jim. He glanced over at the clock on his bedside table. It was mid-afternoon. He had been finding solace in sleeping lately. In his dreams, the virus couldn't get him. It's true that after he woke up, the memories of his dreams would become tainted like any other memories, but during his sleep, as far as his brain was concerned, the good dreams were new memories to which the virus had no access.

Jim stumbled out of bed and went for the door in his underwear. As the virus dug deeper into his brain, he could feel his need for maintaining decorum slipping. The fact that his fingers were still out of action only exacerbated the situation.

After fighting with the keys and the door for far longer than he'd liked, he got it open.

"Jimmy! How are you doing, my man?" Chris Roberts was standing outside his house.

"Chris, what are you doing here?"

"Now that's no way to greet a friend. Where are your manners?"

Jim hated to admit it, but Chris' wide smile was a welcome sight. "Yeah, come on in. Oh, and do me a favor and close the door when you do. I can't be fucking bothered with it anymore."

"No problemo," Chris said as he pushed the door closed from the inside and turned the key.

"So what brings you here?" Jim said as he led the way into the living room.

"Don't let the casual clothes fool you, Jimmy. I'm on serious business."

"Go on."

"It's about your little investigation."

"What about it?"

"I understand you're back into it."

"I am."

"Any reason why?"

"Because I want it resolved."

"Even after what's happened to you? Don't you think you're tugging on the devil's tail a little too hard there, Jimbo?"

"I'm doing what I have to do. I can't explain it, and I don't expect you'll understand."

"Ooh, you don't expect I'll understand? Really, mom? What next? You gonna give me the birds and the bees talk?"

"Look, Chris, if the police want to fire me from my lowly unpaid position over this, then fine, I don't really care anymore. I'm not ceasing this investigation, though."

"What's changed your mind? When we last spoke, you seemed quite certain that you weren't going to push this any further, then the next thing I hear, you're coming into work dressed like a homeless drag queen and pulling old reports."

"Things change. I came upon some new information, and that sort of started a chain reaction. For your information, I've taken the investigation farther than Miller or Spaulding did. I found another suicide that precedes what you all thought was the first one of the connected ones."

"Yeah, I heard you were digging into Molly Moore's death. Truth is, Jim, we already knew about her."

Jim eyed Chris wish a newfound suspicion. "And who is this 'we,' Chris?"

Roberts laughed. "After all this time, you still don't realize how deep this all goes."

"Why don't you tell me, then?"

"Nah, sorry, I'm not here to feed you more information, only to give you a warning, as a friend."

"A friend? Chris, in the hospital, when you were leaving, you said something about not paying attention to messages in my tray anymore or something."

"And?"

"I never said anything about the message being left in my tray. I never said anything at all about how I came to be in possession of it."

"Ah," Roberts said, looking somewhat uncomfortable. "Sorry about that, Jimmy. If it's any consolation, they initially had much worse in mind. I managed to convince them that all you needed was some gentle persuasion... sort of. We met halfway in the end."

"So you did this to me, you fucking Judas?" Jim yelled.

"I've been watching your back from the very beginning, you ungrateful turd. How many times did I try to push you into abandoning your investigation?"

"If that's the case, then why did you tell me so much in the beginning? You practically set me on the path! You're the one who told me of the first connections between the victims! You're the one that told me that there were guys at the station who thought there was something more to it all!"