Chapter Eleven

Armed with the hot sheet and a memo from G.O.D. that expressed in strong terms the need for everyone's cooperation in assuring the launch, I headed off for the third floor, again.  I didn't really want to deal with Julio, but it was obvious that he had assumed Derek's workload, at least for now.

As I got off the elevator, I saw through the glass window that Julio had company.  I could only see the back of a frizzy female head, and the side view of a long pair of legs crossed at the knee, with one foot dangling a black court shoe, but that was enough to tell me that it was Sonja Nielsen.

When I walked through the door, Sonja did a guilt jump up, taking something out of Julio's hand.  It appeared to be small bottle, and she crammed it into her pocket.

"Hi, Jayne," she greeted me with a studied casualness, and added "Thanks, Julio." as she left.

After her exit, I directed my attention to Julio, who began staring pointedly at my chest which came about to his sitting eye level. His manner always annoyed me. He was the type whose eyes undressed you with a glance. I eased into the chair that Sonja had vacated and carefully smoothed my skirt over my knees.  No freebies for you, Julio, I thought.

I handed him the hot sheet.

Does this mean that the Spritzie run could be delayed?"

"Could be," he replied.

"Do you have any idea why these items are unavailable?"

He shrugged. "You'll have to take it up with the big man, Yarlborough.  It's out of my hands."

"All right, I will," I told him, standing up.   As I did I happened to glance through the open door to the lab where Derek had worked. The shelves that had held his plants were empty. "What happened to Derek's plants?" I asked.

"Beats me," he answered.

"Weren't they part of the work here?" I queried, wondering if some of them had been the ones that Derek had brought to me last Thursday night."

"Not part of my work.  He just fooled around in there with Sizemore's blessing.  We didn't need him or his plant farm.  I for one, won't miss it, or him either!"

His words were spoken with such venom that they gave me a chill. 

"What did Sonja want," I asked, changing the subject.

"That any of your business?"

"Not really, but I'm curious.  Didn't I see you give her something?"

He gave me a defiant look.  "Yeah, I did.   Since Derek was her main supply man, and she already knew where the stash was, I let her have what she wanted."

"Supply?  Do you mean drugs?"

In reply, he opened the bottom drawer of the desk next to his.  "Not technically.  Just Derek's special little herbal concoctions.   He supplied them to a lot of people." He held out a bottle to me.   "Want some for yourself?"

As I took it, I saw that the bottle was the same type as the one Derek had dropped in the cafeteria, only the label, and the contents-which I confirmed had small yellow pills - were different.

"Can I look?" I asked, indicating the other bottles.

Julio waved a hand toward the drawer. I peered inside.   There were a number of differently labeled bottles.

"Which ones did Sonja want?" I asked.

"The one in your hand," he said.

I looked at the label, 'XM824 - For Firming'." I gave him a puzzled look.

"You know, for her legs, her butt - to firm it up," he told me.

"Herbs can do that?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

I handed the bottles back to him, and he returned them to the drawer.  Then he leered at me.

"You know something, you're not too bad for an old chick.  Your butt's much better than hers."

I cringed at his crude remarks and fuming, I couldn't think of a retort.  So, with as much dignity as I could muster, I left the room, striving to keep my buns - as I prefer to call them, from jiggling under his scrutinizing gaze.

Wouldn't the militant feminists love them, I thought.   But I couldn't spare the time to dwell on yet another gross male chauvinist flexing his sexual muscles, I had other interests to consider.  Fortunately, Marlin Yarlborough's office was just down the hall from the lab, so I set off with a determined air. I had to be sure that Yarlborough. was aware of the urgency of this project.

Perhaps I could use the Tater connection to appeal to his him - help out his old school buddy.  I could imply that this was a project near and dear to Tater's little tin heart.  If that failed, perhaps a mention of G.O.D.'s name would suffice.  The secretary's desk was empty, and Marlena was nowhere in sight.   The office door was ajar, and so I sneaked a peek inside.  I saw Yarlborough. in a passionate embrace with a feminine figure.  I rolled my eyes.  Spring must really be in the air.  I rapped lightly on the door to give them a chance to separate. 

At my knock, Yarlborough's voice trembled only a little, as he called, "Come in."

When I did, he was standing on one side of the room, and surprise, surprise, Adeline Woggle was standing across the desk from him. He had managed to pull himself together, but she definitely had that "just kissed" look.   I pretended not to notice as I forged ahead into my speech.

"Sorry to bother you, but Tate Walker is out of town, and he wanted me to follow up on the hot sheet for Spritzie.  Julio said you might be able to give me the latest status of the two missing ingredients."

Yarlborough. preened his tie and took his accustomed stance behind his desk, to affect a heightened measure of control.  His sculptured gray hair helmet was perfectly in place, and his dark eyes gazed steadily at me.

"Why do you need to know?"

"Tate asked me to be sure to keep this project moving."  I didn't find response on his face, so I hurried on, deciding that a higher level of name dropping was called for.  "Mr. Dawson has expressed an interest in ensuring that Spritzie..." I began, but he interrupted me.

"I'm quite aware of Mr. Dawson's intentions,"he told me with a cool smile. "Miss Woggle was just brought me a memo to that effect."  He motioned toward Addie who simpered under his gaze.

"Then I'm sure you can see the necessity for..." I tried, and he broke in, again.

"It isn't quite that simple," he told me. "Perhaps you are aware of the irregular procedures in the lab?"

When I nodded, he motioned for me to sit down and looked suggestively at Addie, who took the hint and spoke up.

"Uh, if you'll excuse me," she said, and left.

Yarlborough. waited until she had closed the door behind her.  He sat with hands arched in a controlled steeple.

"I don't like to air our dirty linen, but as Tate's valued assistant, I know you understand how important it is that the Spritzie project proceed on schedule. We have experienced a little difficulty with ingredient stability from batch to batch, and completion of testing isn't proceeding as rapidly as we'd like.   However, the responsible people have been identified.  You can let Tate know we have the situation under control.

"And the missing ingredients?" I asked.

"No need to be concerned.  These so-called missing ingredients were only flavor enhancers, not an integral part of the formula at all, and may not even be necessary. We're undergoing the required testing now.  We are a bit handicapped by some irregular record keeping, but when Dr. Sizemore returns, we'll be able to iron things out right away."

"Dr. Sizemore is out of town?"

"On administrative leave for a few days.  The unfortunate death of Derek Martin left some loose ends he had to attend to.  But tell Tate not to worry. We've got a handle on this thing.  The launch plans are secure.   We wouldn't to worry Mr. Dawson, would we?  We'll take care of the production problems; that's our job."

He stood up.  The interview was over.

"We'll keep Tate advised," he said, escorting me to the door.   "I'm certain that you understand the confidentiality of this information."

"Absolutely," I said, and left.

I didn't know whether to be relieved or more discouraged.   He made it sound like there was no real problem, but he didn't really give me any solid answers. It was apparent that I wouldn't get the information from him, or Julio.   I'd have to look elsewhere.

I spent the rest of the afternoon shuffling papers, until a little before five, Dena came in to say goodnight.

"Did you get the Fed-X off to Tater?"  I asked.

"Yep," she said.  "What was that all about anyway?"

"Just some stuff he wanted," I answered.   "Probably instructions to his bookie," I added with feigned disinterest.

"Yeah," Dena replied. "Well, have a nice weekend," she called as she left.

God, the weekend.  I'd completely forgotten what day it was.  Here it was Friday night, and not only did I not have a date, Lo hadn't even attempted to snare me one.  I sighed.  I had been so concerned about checking about checking on Spritzie, that I hadn't given it a thought.  In fact, I hadn't even really considered why Tater had so much cash in his locked drawer, but I was too tired to care.  Maybe Tater really did have a bookie.  My train of thought was interrupted when Mick Daniels appeared in my doorway.

"Hey, Jayne, how about  a ride to pick up my car?  Had to have it towed this morning.  It's ready now, though.  Can you drop me off?" 

I looked up.  His oversized dark glasses mostly hid the advertised black eye, but the yellowed puffiness did show around the edges."

"Your new car giving you trouble?"

"That'll teach me to buy off the lot, he said. "But it's OK now."

"Then, we outta here," I told him, and we headed for the parking lot. Only a few cars, including Yarlborough's remained.  I smiled as I noted that Addie's car was still parked in G.O.D.'s specially reserved spot - he must be gone today.  I wondered what was going on with Yarlborough. and Addie, but then everyone said he was the biggest lady killer in the office, next to Mick, of course.

Remembering that Mick was with me, I unlocked the passenger door.  Mick was silent as we drove.  Finally we got to Dena's father-in-law's import car agency, and I dropped Mick off to pick up his repaired rice-burner.  Taking the long way home, I drove past the Cop Shop.  My eyes scanned for Rooney's car - not there. 

Knock it off, Jayne, I told myself.  He said he'd call.  You're not a lovesick teenager. These encounters take place all the time; doesn't mean a thing.  I kept up the self-talk until I passed the Dairy Queen, did a U-turn (while watching out for police cruisers) and stopped at the drive thru.  An occasional sugar fix never hurt anybody, I decided, as I ordered a peanut buster parfait to go.

My answering machine was blinking red: three calls, but two were hangups and the third was my sister, Lo with an invitation for tomorrow night.   No calls from Rooney, unless he was the two-time hanger-upper.  I fed the cat, and picked up a juicy new mystery book to read in leu of supper, no big sacrifice after my frozen snack earlier.  Perhaps a few pages would lull me to sleep....

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