Promise Me Eternity (19 page)

Stunned, he became aware of her beautiful
hair shining in the light. Not knowing what to do, he put his hand
on her head, gently stroking her hair. She started to calm
down.

The softness between his fingers was like
stroking silk. A faint smell of perfume entered his nostrils. He
was relieved. For a moment, he shut his eyes and gave in to the
comfortable feeling. A miracle must have happened for him to have
such a beautiful woman in his arms, he thought with a smile on his
face. Then he roused himself, quickly raising his head.

“Sorry, Dr. Patterson.” She wiped her eyes
and nose. “I didn’t mean to have such an outburst. I have so many
problems.” All the time she was clasping his hand.

“It’s OK,” he said kindly. “You released some
of your negative energy. That’ll help.” Simon gently let go of her
hand. “Wait a moment. I’ll lock the office just in case. If anyone
came in, they might get the wrong idea. And we don’t want that, do
we?”

She nodded regretfully.

He turned the key twice and sat down next to
her. They spontaneously took each other’s hands again.

“Go on, please,” he said. “Tell me what’s
troubling you.” He checked his watch. “My next operation is in an
hour and a half. No one should come bothering me till then.”

“Ah, I don’t even know where to start. You
know, my husband …. I made a big mistake marrying ….”

“Go on.” The whole time he looked into her
eyes, admiring her beauty. Never in his life had he touched such a
beautiful woman. He felt bad, watching her suffer and pour her
heart out to him, and he wished he could pull her to him again, to
calm her. But of course, he didn’t dare do anything like that.

“I don’t know how much longer I’ll last.
Maybe I’ll have to run away.”

“Is it really that bad? Why don’t you ask for
a divorce? Why don’t you move away?”

She shook her head in abrupt movements. “If
only it was that simple! Carlo would never let me go. You haven’t a
clue how dangerous he is.”

Again she started sobbing, trying to catch
her breath. And in a moment she was clinging to him again. He
hugged her back, holding her close. His heart pained him because
she was sad and by holding her he wanted to help.

Wiping her tears again, she apologized. “I
shouldn’t be burdening you with my problems. You really scared me,
looking at me that seriously. I don’t know how I’d handle something
being wrong with my head. I thought I had cancer or something.”

“I’d really like to help with your headaches,
but I can’t. The cause must be somewhere else. Maybe you have an
inflamed tooth.” He thought that unlikely, having noticed how nice
and healthy her teeth were the first time they had met.

She shook her head. “I go for a checkup to
the dentist’s almost every three months. Everything’s always OK.”
She fixed her hair. “I’ll manage. They’re only headaches. Luckily,
painkillers exist. I’ll manage, don’t worry, Doctor.”

He didn’t realize he was stroking her arm
with his fingers. It was a spontaneous action, as if they’d been
friends for years. He picked up a tissue and dabbed at the tears on
her cheeks. “I’m sure everything will turn out OK.”

“You’re very kind. I don’t know how to thank
you.” Her bottom jaw shook as she stared at him. She was obviously
trying not to start crying again. “Sadly, I wasn’t destined to meet
someone like you.”

Moving his head, he backed away slightly. “I
don’t understand.”

“You
’
re everything
I ever wanted.”

He didn’t know what to say. Was it possible
for such a woman, a goddess, to want an average guy like him? “Oh
Christine, you must be desperate.”

She shook her head, still gazing into his
eyes. “I’m not desperate. That evening you were at our place was
one of the nicest evenings of my life. Do you realize how much I
admire you? I know I shouldn’t be telling you this.” Big tears
rolled from her eyes.

His heart was beating like crazy. “I had a
nice time too, but ….”

“I always wanted to marry a doctor, but
….”

He was drawn to her more and more and wanted
to kiss her passionately. “Everything will be OK,” he whispered.
“Sshhhh.”

Slowly, they moved toward each other and the
gap between them diminished.

At first their kiss was soft and slow, their
hands hardly moving. They surrendered to each other, eyes closed
and not realizing what they were doing.

Christine was the first to open her eyes.
Still kissing him, she started to unbutton his shirt. At that,
Simon came to. For a moment he looked around the room, making sure
they were still alone and then remembering that he had locked the
door. He looked at her with fright while she was undressing him,
not knowing what to do. He knew he was doing something he
shouldn’t: cheating on Helen and kissing the wife of a dangerous
Mafia boss. Taking a deep breath, he moved his chair a few inches
away from her.

“We have to stop, this isn’t a good
idea.”

“Yes, we should stop,” she whispered.

They were still holding hands. He felt an
indescribable urge to kiss her at least once more. His urge was
irresistible and his hands were shaking. He looked at her
longingly, moving his chair toward her and pressing himself against
her. He didn’t even realize that she had taken his shirt off long
ago and was now working on his pants. Then they stood up so
suddenly that one of the chairs toppled over.

Christine was also trembling with fear, while
drowning in his kisses. She had come looking for help. She had
wanted him to save her from her unbearable headaches; maybe she had
wanted to talk to him, but …

“We shouldn’t do this,” he finally let out.
He was standing in front of her in only his underpants.

“You’re right, Simon, we shouldn’t be doing
this.” She skillfully unbuttoned her blouse and let the material
open on its own.

He wanted to say something else, but the
words dried up. Her soft, pert breasts appeared and he couldn’t
move his dry tongue.

“Oh Simon, kiss me, please!”

And they were together again, not caring
about the world around them. Their tongues entwined, their hands
caressed, and they breathed heavily. In a slow rhythm, they drifted
to another reality, for the moment unaware of the dangers they were
letting themselves into.

Simon opened his eyes. In front of him lay
Christine, naked and barely catching her breath. His hands were
stroking her stomach.

“Shh,” he whispered to her. “Not so loud,
please.”

She had cried out at least three times,
making him worry that someone in the corridor would hear.

Then she got up and started dressing. She
avoided looking at him from embarrassment.

She was already dressed as he put on his
underwear. “That was one of the most beautiful moments of my life,”
she told him. “You’ll always be in my dreams.”

Her lips touched his for the last time and
then she was hurrying toward the door.

“Wait! I’m not even—” Before he could finish,
she had already turned the key and was outside his office. Simon
was standing at his desk in his underwear. “My God, I have to get
dressed. Quickly!”

An hour later, when he was at the operating
table wanting to start the operation, he realized his breathing
still hadn’t slowed down. He was agitated and it showed in his
hands. He turned to Dr. Duncan and handed him the scalpel.

“I don’t feel well. It will be best if you
operate and I assist.”

Chapter 32

_______________________

Simon got home at five in the afternoon.
Strange thoughts had buzzed around his brain as he drove. In a way,
he felt sorry because he had cheated on Helen and threatened their
marriage. He also felt sorry because he’d never wanted to have
anything to do with Christine. On the other hand, he felt
unbelievably alive, full of energy, something that hadn’t happened
in years. He felt twenty years old again because his body was
bursting with life. Remembering his sexual adventure made him smile
to himself and sent pins and needles running from his toes to his
groin and all the way up to his neck.

Ashamed of his thoughts, he drove them away:
A waste of time.

He looked in the refrigerator and found a
saucepan containing seafood risotto. He was glad that he’d be able
to eat something fast and wouldn’t lose a lot of time. He put the
saucepan on the stovetop and turned his attention to a medical
journal.

Later, he headed to his laboratory. While he
was analyzing the last results of blood samples taken from the
rats, his eyes wandered to their cages. He noticed that they had
gray fur around their snouts. Surprised, he murmured something to
himself and proceeded with his writing.

He suddenly turned to them again.
How can
they be going gray? They’re only six months old.
He put on
thick gloves and grabbed one of them. It struggled with all its
might, biting the glove several times.

He brought it up close and observed its
gray-rimmed nose. The realization cut him to the quick. He caught
his breath, and then returned the rat to its cage. He opened
Dorothy’s cage and pulled her out. The rabbit didn’t resist. While
holding her in his lap he checked her teeth. Shocked, he sat down
on a chair. Obviously something wasn’t working. The rabbit had lost
two teeth and two more were about to fall out. He put her back in
her cage.

Again, he picked up one of the rats and with
a biopsy needle took a sample of its tissue. It was a slightly
painful process so the rat squealed desperately. “It will heal,” he
told it, putting it back in its cage. He put the tissue sample on a
glass slide.

When a few minutes later he was looking into
the microscope, a terrible anger arose in him.
How is this
possible? Why such changes in the tissue?
What he saw was the
total opposite of what he’d expected. He kept on staring, trying to
confront the horrible fact. He had thought that the animals were
calmer as a consequence of the negative influence of the antiaging
vaccine, but instead the opposite was happening. Instead of
stopping the aging process, it was speeding it up. In his
estimation, the rat was at least two-and-a-half years old. That’s
why they had gray fur. And that’s why Dorothy’s teeth had started
falling out.

He stared at the animals, holding his head.
Then he put a hand to his stomach to ease the burning pain that was
building inside him. He was so disappointed he even forgot to close
his mouth.
Where did I go wrong?
he kept asking himself. He
had expected anything but this.

He got up in a moment, hitting the table
hard. He felt like smashing his whole laboratory because he had
wasted so much time. All the years of research were in vain. He
thought he was on to a big discovery, but now he was right back at
the beginning.
Who would buy such a vaccine?

Poor Dorothy. He would be to blame for her
premature death. He had been so sure he would give her eternal
life. That’s also why he had become so attached to her.
Oh,
Dorothy, where did I go wrong
? His anger began to turn into
sadness. He started to sob at the horror of it.
Where did I go
wrong, damn it!

He reached toward the cage to take her out
and hug her, but changed his mind because his eyes were filling up
with tears so that he couldn’t see. He covered his face with shaky
hands and began to cry. All his dreams of helping people and
animals had turned to dust. He had neglected Helen, his friends,
even his work, so he could help others. And now it all proved to
have been in vain. His research wasn’t worth a dime.

He put a needle onto an empty syringe and
opened the refrigerator in which he stored various vaccines. He
picked up the bottle labeled 33. That was his code for the last
version of the antiaging vaccine.
I’ve had enough of this, I
can’t take it anymore
, he thought feverishly.

For a while he stared at the small bottle and
at Dorothy, and then made up his mind.
I’ll put an end to it.
I’m no use to anyone, anyway.
He removed the top and drew some
of the vaccine into the syringe. He put the bottle back in the
refrigerator.

He was still crying as he looked at Dorothy.
“Sorry, honey, I only wanted to help. Obviously I am a useless
quack, just like Helen said. I deserve this punishment.” He raised
his hand to inject the failed vaccine and so end his life.

Chapter 33

_______________________

Special Agent Sandra Grant had spent the
previous week talking to many different people, looking for
information that would lead her to the perpetrator of two crimes.
She had been to various restaurants and bars where different
criminal types hung out. She had received a negative reception
almost everywhere and was even thrown out of a bar on Packard
Avenue. She never said what she was actually up to, always
pretending she was someone else.

Steven West had a similar task, but easier.
He mainly talked to neighbors near the crime scenes and to the
victims’ friends and acquaintances. He and Sandra had agreed this
since she knew Steven didn’t like sleazy bars and so wouldn’t do
this properly.

They would meet up in the afternoons to
exchange leads.

“Where have we got to?” Steven asked her.

Sandra put her hand to her chin. “It’s hard
to say. All the information so far points in different
directions.”

Their boss, Richard Ross, entered the room.
He was forty-three, with a round, boyish face, short, dark hair,
and a broad mouth which made him look like he was always on the
verge of laughter. But he rarely laughed. All his co-workers
preferred to avoid him—too serious, strict, and sometimes a
hypocrite.