Love in the Midst of Chaos

School

After leaving Mrs. Blanchard's I realize I have to get my hands on that bible and head back to the prison. Once I arrive and walk toward the front gate, I am stopped by one of the guards. "May I help you?"

"Yeah, I need to do a level three once-through on Evan Lee Hartley's cell."

"A level three once-through? What the hell is a level three once-through? "

"It's after a crime scene's been properly searched, tagged, and verified. Someone needs to just go through it one last time."

"I remember you. You're one of the gals from that French embassy."

"Yeah, that's right."

"How come you don't seem French?"

"Actually, I'm on loan from Interpol. I'm here to assist Miss Tousignant in whatever she requires, and today she requires a level three once-through."

The guard nods and speaks into his walkie, "I'm sending somebody down to you, Robson. Bring her to Hartley's house."

"Copy that." The man replies.

"Go ahead," the guard smiles and opens the gate for me.

"Thank you."

"oui oui."

When I get to Evan Lee's cell I look around for anything I can find, a bible, a book, a notepad, anything. I look under his pillow, under his mattress, and finally find a manilla envelope in a grat under the bed. When I look inside I find the bible Mrs. Blanchard was talking about. As I read through it I notice almost every mention of animals is underlined or highlighted. "Nevertheless man being in honor abideth not. He is like the beasts that perish." What does that even mean? As I flip through the bible more, I come across a photo of Evan Lee and another man. Once I get back out to the car, I call Chloe, "I hit the mother lode."

"Don't come back to the hotel. We'll meet you at the car rental agency."

Chloe doesn't go on to explain what happened and it takes what seems like hours for the group to arrive at the rental agency, but finally, they do. "What happened?"

"Deputy Kraft didn't find Evan Lee Hartley and is looking for someone to blame."

I nod and hold up the bible, "I found this. It's Hartley's. The guy underlined every reference to animals in the Bible. I mean every single one."

"Well," Mitch clears his throat, "He was on death row. Bible comes in very handy on death row."

"I also found this." I show the group the picture.

As I do, Jackson goes white, Chloe looks over to him, "What is it, Jackson? Do you recognize the other guy?"

Jackson nods, "That's my father."

I guess while I was working on finding out anything I could about Evan Lee, the group found and trapped a wolve. Discovering it was infected with some kind of bacteria. The next morning we head to one of the better high schools in the area and Mitch and I effectively breaks in to use the microscope to view the sample he has. As he does I am waiting in the hall keeping a look out for anyone while on the phone with Mitch. "Anything yet?"

"You know what's not guaranteed to make this go faster, Phoebe? You saying anything yet every 25 seconds."

"Okay. I know. I know. I know. But we're running out of time."

"Running out of time, I know." Mitch goes quiet for a moment, "hey, now."

"What? What is it?"

"Looks like a type of Alcanivorax bacteria. The kind they use to clean up oil spills eats hydrocarbons."

"Okay, well, how did it wind up in the blood of a wolf?"

"The usual way. It went from a primary consumer all the way to a tertiary consumer."

"So something else is infected and something it ate was infected too."

"That seems to be the logical theory."

The school bell rings, "Mitch did you hear that? Let's go."

"Hang on a second. I think I got something."

"Mitch, we really got to go." I look down the hall and see students heading toward the labs.

"Yup. On my way."

"Mitch, we are going to get caught. We have to get out of here right now. Mitch! Move!"

Mitch runs out of the lab and the two of us run back to the car. When we get in Mitch smirks, "Slipping out without getting caught by the teacher. Takes me back."