Long After Midnight Read online

  She heard wood strike flesh, a shrill scream, a pained grunt.

  Someone grabbed her hair from behind and tried to pull her down the steps.

  Her head snapped back as agony jarred through her. She swiveled and swung the pole.

  A scream and the grip on her hair was suddenly gone.

  Good. She hoped she’d knocked the—

  “Hurry, Dr. Denby.” A man in a gray uniform with GeneChem embossed on the pocket was beside her. She recognized Cary from Security. “Get inside.” He was pushing her up the stairs while two other security men battled the crowd. “You know you shouldn’t be out here.”

  Her relief turned to annoyance. “I didn’t have much choice, since you weren’t. Why the devil did you have to—” She broke off. She wasn’t being fair. The building was secure, and everyone had been warned to come in early to avoid contact with those idiots out front until Administration could find a way to reason with them. “Sorry. Events just escalated.”

  “You should have waited. Why did you go out there?”

  Kate glanced at Benny standing in the doorway beside Charlie Dodd. Evidently Security had arrived after Benny had reached safety and had no idea of her involvement. Charlie shrugged and raised his eyebrows, leaving it up to Kate. That scene outside might well escalate into a major public relations nightmare. As head of her project, Kate could survive the bureaucratic fallout, but Benny was only a lab assistant and would be considered expendable. “It was a mistake. I should have known better.” She saw the relief in Benny’s expression and added deliberately, “It’s always foolish to try to stop idiots from making asses of themselves.”

  “Right.” Benny stepped forward and took Kate solicitously by the arm. “You look like you’ve been through a hurricane. Come on along to the washroom and I’ll get you cleaned up.”

  Cary was uncertain. “Maybe she should go to the infirmary. Her temple’s bleeding.”

  “It’s nothing,” Kate said. “I’ll be fine, Cary.”

  “Sure you will.” Benny was guiding her down the hall. “Tell them at the lab that I’ll be there as soon as I finish helping Kate, will you, Charlie?”

  “And of course they can’t expect you to be on time when you’re playing Florence Nightingale,” Charlie said dryly.

  She winked at him over her shoulder. “It would be totally inhumane of them.”

  Kate heard Charlie chuckle and she knew he would cover for Benny just as she had done. Why did they do it? she wondered in exasperation. Benny was always late, recklessly impulsive, sometimes manipulative.

  She was also the most thorough technician in the lab, generous and boundlessly good-humored.

  And Joshua adored her. He would be heartbroken if anything happened to Benny. So, for Joshua’s sake as well as her own, Benny must be protected.

  “Sit down.” Benny pushed her into the chrome seat in front of the long mirror, turned to the basin, and dampened a paper towel. “You look like hell.”

  “I wonder why.”

  “Because you’re a pushover.” Benny grinned as she began to dab at Kate’s temple. “And you rush in where angels fear to tread.”

  “You’re no angel and you were in the middle of that mess.”

  “You should have let me battle my way out. I’m better equipped for the job. I’m a strapping five foot ten and you’re five foot nothing.”

  “Five foot two,” Kate corrected. “And you’ll notice I was more successful than you were.”

  “They caught me by surprise.” She wiped the smudges off Kate’s cheeks. “I couldn’t believe they’d actually go for me. For God’s sake, it doesn’t make any sense. Do they think we’re performing abortions here?”

  “They’re fanatics. They believe what they want to believe. They get bored with attacking abortion clinics so they target genetic research.”

  “But GeneChem isn’t even involved in fetal research. We’re searching for a single vaccine for all the influenza strains.”

  “We’re all monsters as far as they’re concerned.” Kate took the towel from Benny. “I can do that. Clean yourself up.”

  “I thought you’d be taking over pretty soon.” Benny made a face. “No one’s allowed to take care of you for very long, are they?”

  Kate looked at her in surprise. “Why should I let you do what I can do myself?”

  “No reason. I just thought you might relax for a change. You don’t have to be Wonder Woman every minute of the day. Brilliant Scientist meets Super Mom. It must be exhausting.”

  Kate smiled. “Not nearly as exhausting as playing Little John with that makeshift staff. If you want me to relax, get here tomorrow morning at eight like you’re supposed to. Okay?”

  “Okay. So I overslept. I had a date last night.” She raised a brow. “You should try it sometime.”

  “It would get in the way of my being Super Mom.” She added flippantly, “I don’t need a man. I’ve been there, done that.”

  “Some things bear repeating.” Benny hesitated. “But maybe you’d rather really do a repeat. Are you still seeing Michael?”

  “Every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon.” She held up her hand as Benny opened her lips. “When Josh plays in Little League games.”

  “So that your son will see a united front. It’s nice seeing a happy, civilized divorce.”

  “No divorce is happy.” Kate stood up and straightened her white lab coat. It had survived miraculously unscathed. She looked almost normal. “But it doesn’t have to destroy everyone around it.”

  “No danger. You wouldn’t allow it. You always have everything under control.” Benny washed her face. “Do you still sleep with him?”

  Kate made a face at her. “That’s none of your business.”

  “Well, actually it is.” Benny looked a little sheepish. “I kind of . . . like him.”

  Kate went still. “Michael?”

  “He dropped in at the house a few weeks ago when I was babysitting Joshua. Remember the night you worked in the lab until after midnight and Phyliss was at her accounting class?” Benny was talking fast, avoiding Kate’s eyes. “What can I say? I’ve always liked cops. Authority figures. It must come from having a father flit out when I was a kid. But if you still have a—”

  “How does he feel about you?”

  “He likes me.” Benny turned to face her and added baldly, “We’ve been out a few times. I won’t go again if you don’t want me to.”

  Why did she feel so betrayed? Kate wondered. Michael had a right to form new attachments. They had been divorced two years, and the only bond between them now was Joshua. “Was it Michael you were with last night?”

  Benny nodded.

  No, it wasn’t betrayal. It was loneliness . . . and plain dog-in-the-manger envy. “Do what you like. We don’t sleep together. It’s over.” She straightened her hair. “It should never have begun. You’d suit Michael much better than I did.”

  “I think so too,” Benny said with a sigh of relief. “I know I’m not as smart as you, and I don’t look like an angel on the top of a Christmas tree, but I have my points.”

  Yes, Bennie had her points. She was twenty-two years old to Kate’s twenty-nine, and in the mirror she appeared even taller and more vivacious standing next to fair and delicate-looking Kate. Kate automatically squared her shoulders. She had been fighting and compensating for that fragile image for most of her adult life. “You’re not dumb and you have to know you’re attractive, Benny.”

  “I’m not so bad.” Benny rushed on, “And Michael’s an old-fashioned guy. It must have been hard for him being married to a workaholic.”

  Benny was already aligning herself with Michael, Kate realized with a pang. “Yes, it was very hard for him. But being married to a police detective working Narcotics wasn’t a piece of cake for me either.”

  “I didn’t mean it was all your fault.” Benny looked stricken. “It’s just you expect a man to—” She shrugged. “I was brought up in a Latino household. I guess I’m old-fas
hioned too.”

  “How nice for Michael.”

  “You do mind.”

  Kate wearily shook her head. “I don’t have the right to mind anything Michael does. I suppose I should feel lucky he chose someone Joshua likes.”

  “It’s not as if we’re an item,” Benny said quickly. “But if you really don’t care about—”

  “It’s okay,” Kate interrupted. “Thanks for telling me.”

  She walked quickly out of the washroom. It was stupid to feel this hurtful sense of loss. Benny and she were friends, but Kate’s work had prevented them from becoming really close.

  It must have been hard for him being married to a workaholic.

  She blocked the words out as she opened the door of the lab. All right, she wasn’t a fifties sitcom mom. She and Michael had realized the marriage was a disaster from the beginning, and only Joshua’s birth had made it last as long as it did. She was no more a failure than Michael.

  Failure? She had Joshua, respect in her field, and work she loved. Not bad for a woman of twenty-nine. Many women had far less.

  She sat down at her desk and eagerly reached for the results of yesterday’s tests.

  “Noah Smith called again.” Charlie tore off the number on his notepad and tossed it on her desk. “He wants you to call him back.”

  “Thanks.” She absently pushed aside the message and went back to the DNA pairing on the chart. She felt a leap of excitement. Eighty-seven percent. Close. My God, she was close.

  “It’s the fourth time,” Charlie said. “Didn’t you return his call?”

  “Once.”

  “The great man’s nose must be out of joint.”

  “Maybe.”

  “If you don’t want the job, you might recommend me.” Charlie sat on the edge of her desk. “I’ve no prejudice against working with a Nobel Prize contender.”

  “Talk to him. You’ve a better background in cancer research than I have.”

  “That’s what I told him just now when he called.” He sighed. “He says you have certain credentials that I lack.”

  “Bull.”

  “Have you ever met him?”

  She shook her head. “We were at the same conference a year ago, but I saw him only at a distance. The reporters were clustered around him like flies.” She had a sudden memory of Noah Smith cleaving his way through the crowds like a scimitar: forceful, totally assured, dynamic. “He was there for only one day. I guess he found us lacking in inspiration.”

  “Ouch,” Charlie said. “I take it you don’t care for him.”

  She shrugged. “I suppose he’s okay. I just think he’s a bit of a hot dog.”

  “Well, he’s a colorful character. Special Forces, yachtsman in the America’s Cup . . . Newspapers love to write about scientists who don’t wear horn-rimmed glasses and tote microscopes in their back pocket. So he likes to have a good time. Give him a break.”

  Kate knew that Charlie was right. Noah Smith was a reporter’s dream—a war hero, sportsman, and scientist who had carved a brilliant career. And he had yet to turn forty. Her antagonism was completely unreasonable. No, it wasn’t. He was making himself a major pain in the ass to her. “You give him a break.”

  “He won’t give me the chance,” Charlie said mournfully. “If you won’t put in a word for me, you could at least take the job he’s offering so I could take over yours.”

  “Sorry. I’m not going anywhere. I like it here.” She smiled. “Now get off my desk and let me get back to work.”

  Charlie’s gaze fell on the chart. “I bet that’s not an influenza statistic. Your private project?”

  She said evasively, “Just a few comparisons.”

  “Rudy?”

  “Yes.”

  “You lit up like the Fourth of July when you saw them.”

  “Did I?”

  “My God, you’re cautious.” He looked hurt. “Don’t you trust me?”

  “You’re impossible.” She shook her head in amusement. “You just tried to bounce me out of my job.”

  “Well, I guess I can see where that might give you pause.”

  She chuckled and waved a dismissing hand. “Get out of here.”

  The phone on her desk rang.

  “Opportunity calling,” Charlie murmured. “Smith’s not a man who gives up.”

  “It’s probably Public Relations reading me the riot act for causing an ‘incident.’ ” She picked up the phone. “Kate Denby.”

  “What the hell is going on out there at GeneChem?”

  She sighed. “Hello, Michael.”

  Charlie shrugged and ambled back to his own desk.

  “What are you doing beating up on those nutcases?”

  “Trying to keep them from beating up on me. Administration called the precinct?”

  “They want police protection out there tomorrow. For God’s sake, are you an idiot? You could have been hurt.”

  “But I wasn’t.” She paused before saying deliberately, “And neither was Benny.”

  There was silence on the other end of the line. “She told you?”

  “Was it a secret?”

  “No, I just—I don’t know. It’s damn awkward. I need to talk to you.”

  “No, you don’t.” She felt raw and vulnerable, and the last thing she needed was to listen to Michael make excuses for becoming involved with one of her friends. “It’s all been said.”

  “I’ll pick you up at four out front and drive you home.”

  “I can’t leave my car here. There’s only a skeleton Security crew at night. It would probably be trashed.”

  “I’ll bring Alan. He can drive it home for you.” He hung up.

  She should have kept her mouth shut. She should have known Michael would react like this. He had always insisted on having every issue on the table and shredded into neat pieces. Well, four o’clock was hours away, and she couldn’t let her dread at the coming meeting with Michael distract her.

  She lowered her gaze to the report, and the excitement flared again. “We did it, Rudy,” she whispered. “I think we did it.” She stood up and walked quickly to the adjoining room. Rudy was scampering about his large cage, alert and bright-eyed and . . . healthy. So healthy she wanted to hug him. A white lab rat wasn’t precisely huggable, so she fed him a piece of lettuce instead. “Eighty-seven percent,” she told him. “I think it’s time you retired from this job. There’s not much future in it. How about coming home with me next week? Joshua would love you.”

  Rudy didn’t appear too excited at the prospect. Well, she was excited enough for both of them. She’d study the comparisons for a few more minutes, then put them aside. It was time she set herself to the work for which GeneChem paid her.

  God, she hated to do it.

  She was coming so close.

  Seattle

  3:35 P.M.

  “You wanted me,” Seth said as soon as Noah picked up the receiver. “So here I am.”

  “Just where are you? Venga?”

  “My condo in Miami. Venga became difficult. I had to crush a local insect and thought it best to leave. I flew in late last night.”

  “Christ, I don’t need this. Legal trouble?”

  “No, actually, the local policía declared Namirez had suffered an unavoidable accident.”

  “What kind of accident?”

  “He fell face forward into a bullet,” Seth said cheerfully. “Funny how that could happen. Must have something to do with equatorial balance.”

  “Who was Nam—Never mind, I don’t want to know. You’re sure the police aren’t after you?”

  “They wanted to give me a medal. Maybe even put up a statue in the town square.”

  “Then why are you on the run?”

  “I don’t run. That’s undignified. I just walk quickly, very quickly. Namirez had partners who wouldn’t appreciate his demise at a very sensitive time in their endeavor.” He paused. “Why did Tony call me? RU2?”

  “Things may be coming to a head. I wa
nted you where I could get in touch with you.”

  “In Seattle?”

  “No, stay where you are. I’ll call you when I need you.”

  “Good. I could use some R and R after being in the jungle for the last six months. Hey, do you want a puppy?”

  “What?”

  “Well, not right away. Customs didn’t like the fact that he didn’t have shots and I found him running around in the jungle. I had to put him in quarantine.”

  “I don’t want a puppy.”

  “I think you should have a dog. It goes with pipe and slippers and hearth and home. He’d be an asset to a sedentary type like you. Maybe stir you up a little.”

  “No, Seth.”

  “I’ll try you again when he gets out of quarantine. Give a holler when you need me.” He hung up the phone.

  Noah found himself smiling. Where the hell had Seth picked up a dog? He probably wouldn’t find it so amusing when the pup was cleared from customs, he thought ruefully. If Seth had gotten it into his head that the dog was going to belong to Noah, then he’d shake the earth on its axis to make Noah accept it.

  But he did find it amusing. Seth always made him feel safer, lighter, better able to cope. Though God knows Seth’s method of coping wasn’t always to be recommended. It was too simplistic.

  I had to crush a bug.

  Well, that was certainly simplistic enough.

  The phone rang again.

  “You’ve been avoiding me, Noah,” Raymond Ogden chided when Noah picked up the receiver. “Is that kind?”

  All amusement vanished. “I have nothing to say.”

  “But I do.” He paused. “You don’t have the facilities and contacts to produce RU2. I think you need to sell out to me. It would be much better in my hands.”

  Noah’s hand tightened on the receiver. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Really, Noah. Do you think you could work on something like RU2 for six years and not have it leak?”

  “You’re admitting to industrial espionage?”

  “Why, that’s illegal.” He paused. “I wasn’t worried about it at first. I didn’t think you could pull it off.”

  “What makes you think I did?”