Lab Notes: a novel (28 page)

μ CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT μ

David stood at the curbside in front of his condominium, punctual as usual. Diane pulled up in the Suburban, and he slid onto the passenger seat.

“I just got a call from Charlotte Bellfort,” he said. She wants to sell Raymond’s stock back to BRI. She said that with her husband gone, she sees no point in keeping a minority position in the company. She wants to spread the proceeds from the shares around to all her charities.” He shook his head. “If Raymond hadn’t been so busy playing the high roller—buying yachts and ranches and making big donations here and there—he could’ve bought back his stock from Gabriel; Charlotte would now own the whole caboodle.”

Diane smiled, but made no comment.

She pulled away from the curb, and said, “Olimpia emailed. She is so excited; her inheritance money enables her to set up an ethnobotany center in Bogota—her lifelong dream. She said Gabriel was very generous.”

David said, “I’m happy for her.” He looked over at Diane. “Are you sure you’re okay about tonight? I could stand in for you.”

“Sara said it might raise some questions if I didn’t show up. She said it needs to be ‘business as usual, hide in plain sight, fly under the radar,’ etcetera, etcetera—now that we’re a secret government facility.” Diane snickered. “Actually, I think we’re
so
secret, the
government
doesn’t even know we exist.”

She glanced over at David, then back at the road. “You look good in a tux.”

“You’re looking rather lovely yourself. Nice dress.”

“Thanks. It’s my only designer dress; it’s seen a lot of miles. I wore it to that Christmas…” Her voice cracked and she didn’t complete the sentence.

“I remember,” David said softly, almost in a whisper.

They rode in silence, immersed in their own thoughts. Then Diane realized David was watching her. She gave him a sidelong glance. “What?” she asked.

“You seem rested lately; what’s your secret?”

Diane nodded knowingly. “I’ve had at least eight hours of sleep almost every night for the past couple weeks… And it seems that I dream the entire night.”

“They’re obviously happy dreams.”

“It’s mostly one recurring dream. In it, throngs of whiterobed people stand in line to place garlands of thistles in my hands.”

“Sounds mighty prickly.”

Diane kept her eyes on the road. But in her mind, she saw an ageless face in a village in the mighty Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. She smiled and said, “Quite the contrary. It’s the finest bouquet a person could ever hold.”

The dinner and the speeches were finally over. The emcee returned to the microphone and announced that this was the moment everyone was waiting for—the naming of Houston Biopreneurs’ Person of the Year.

“This year, the award goes posthumously to Raymond Bellfort, former president of Bayside Research, for his philanthropy in the Houston science community. The award will be accepted by BRI’s new president, Dr. Diane Rose.”

Diane stood up amid the applause and stepped toward the stage to say a few kind words about Raymond Bellfort.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gerrie Nelson is a retired registered nurse. She and her husband live in Houston, Texas and Penang, Malaysia (the locale of the sequel to
Lab Notes
entitled
The Pearl
).