Notice anything? Not giving any hints here, but maybe you've noticed I put down a very important plot point at the end of Chapter Seven and in Chapter Eight. If you have figured it out, good for you. If you haven't well, you will soon, because all is to be revealed in Chapter Nine... :) Yay for lots more Kate/Nigel!
(And alternate title to this chapter is "Waiting it Out". Someone convinced me that this one was better and made more sense, so, yeah. Here it is.)
P.S. In regards to comments by Amelia Bianca Black: I know Woody usually doesn't do the analysis; but these are special circumstances. Both Nigel and Bug, those who would normally do them, are out sick. Also, Jordan won't do it because she's determined to let him solve a case by himself. Or that's how it played out in my head, anyway. ;)
Chapter Nine: Just When You Think Things Can't Get Any Worse, Of Course They Do. And Then They Don't.
"Kate? Are you all right?" Nigel walked into his bedroom with a worried expression on his face. He had just gotten off the phone with Woodrow, who was working on the Pester case, apparently.
"I'm fine," said Kate, sitting on his bed clutching his navy comforter to her chest. "I woke up and you weren't there." Nigel smiled at her then sat down on the edge of his bed.
"I'm not going anywhere, Kate. I promise. I was just on the phone with Woodrow. He's working on the Pester case."
"Oh," said Kate. She put her head on his shoulder, which surprised him a little. "Did he find out what poisoned him?" Nigel shook his head, and Kate looked disappointed.
"Don't worry, love, I was helping him do just that." She grinned for a moment then her grin disappeared.
"I feel sick," she stated. He smiled and shook his head. A slightly-delirious-obviously-feverish Kate was amusing. She liked to state the obvious and seemed much more relaxed then her normal self. Nigel found it rather soothing. Like the child within her was being let out.
"I bet you are. Are you hungry?" She thought about it for a moment then nodded slowly.
"You want me to make us some soup? I have chicken noodle..." She smiled.
"Okay."
XXX
It didn't make sense. Bug held Lily close to his chest. She was shivering, but they had all of his blankets piled on top of them. Her fever refused to go down, and she was still nauseous. It didn't make sense. He never got sick. Lily never got sick. Nigel never got sick, but according to Dr. Macy, he was out, too. And Kate was sick as well. Yet Jordan, Woody and Garret all were fine. It didn't make sense.
A thought struck him. He pushed the covers off him and piled them more on top of Lily, then went to find his home phone. When he did, he called Nigel.
"Nigel, did Woody ever find out what killed the Pester guy?"
XXX
"Nigel, did Woody ever find out what killed the Pester guy?" Bug's voice sounded through the phone. Nigel raised his eyebrows.
"Hello to you too, Buggles," he said with a smile. He ate a spoonful of chicken noodle soup.
"Seriously, Nigel!" he said. Nigel stopped, spoon half way to his mouth again. Bug sounded very aggravated.
"Uh, no, not yet. He's got it down to six or seven poisons, I think. Why is it important? I thought you were sick like me and Kate." Bug let out a long breath.
"Who did the autopsy of Mr. Pester?" he asked.
"Kate," said Nigel, unsure of where this was going.
"Who was standing beside Kate when she pushed on the guy's intestines and he, as you so nicely put it, 'cut the cheese'?"
"Lily," he said, still clueless.
"Who else was in the room?"
"You were. And I walked in afterward."
"WHO'S SICK?!" Nigel jumped as his tiny friend's very loud voice almost deafened him.
"Kate, Lily, you and I." Nigel gasped as realization hit him like a brick to the head. "We've been poisoned."
"Damn right we have!" Bug's angry voice was almost frightening. "Kate and Lily have it worse because they were next to him, and I have it a little worse than you, because I was next closest. You got the littlest exposure, so you're only a little sick. DO YOU GET IT NOW?!"
Nigel got it. Boy, did he get it. They needed to find out who had poisoned Mr. Pester and with what; or else they might all be in danger.
XXX
Woody's face paled and he closed the cell phone with a click! that sounded around the room.
Jordan gave him a look. "You look like you've seen a ghost," she said. Woody shook his head.
"Our morgue staff isn't sick," he said, "They've been poisoned. Accidently, of course. While Kate was doing the autopsy, they were all in the room and inhaled it. We have to find this guy and hope he has an antidote, or else we might lose eighty per cent of our staff. Our family."
XXX
The four sick morgue-workers were rushed to Boston General. Lily and Bug got a semi-private room so they could be together, but both Nigel and Kate opted for private rooms.
Bug lifted his head when Woody entered his and Lily's room. She was sleeping.
"Anything?" Bug asked, his voice hardly a croak. They had to admit they were getting weaker. They had to stomp out this poison, and fast.
"Yes and no," he said, hanging his head. "The poison was philisocopolynide; the test came back positive. But..." Bug hung his head.
"There's no cure to philisocopolynide poisoning?" he guessed, and Woody nodded sadly.
"The only things we can do are sit and wait for it to work itself out of your system, and hope to Hell you didn't inhale enough for it to be..."
"Fatal?" he asked, shaking slightly. Woody nodded.
"Did they check out Maddie and makes sure she wasn't poisoned, too? She was in the room, though farther away..." Bug said, nearly piercing Woody with his stare. Woody nodded.
"She inhaled so little that they said it'll be out of her system by tomorrow, and that she'll be absolutely fine," he said with a grin. Bug sighed and leaned back against his pillow with relief. "We can only hope that all you were just as lucky." Bug nodded.
"Well." Woody shifted uncomfortably in the doorway. There wasn't much else to say, really. Woody and Bug had never been very close, and that hadn't really changed, even after the plane crash. "I'd better go tell Nigel."
XXX
Nigel was told the status. He felt confident that both he and Bug hadn't been close enough to inhale a fatal amount of the poison, and he was glad that Madeleine hadn't inhaled much, either. But Lily and Kate... he shuddered. There was no telling how much philisocopolynide they had inhaled. It was a toss-up, really. Both could be in danger, or neither of them could. It was all about luck.
He sighed. Neither Kate nor Lily had ever been described as 'lucky'. This just kept getting worse and worse, and he could do nothing to stop it.
XXX
"A fingerprint?" asked Woody. "Where did you find a fingerprint? Jordan please don't tell me you went near that body!" Jordan put her hands on her hips.
"I'm not an idiot. It's called a 'bio-hazard suit', in case you were wondering. And Kate forgot to empty his stomach contests. Or missed something if she did."
"Kate doesn't make mistakes like that," he said out loud, though he was actually just planning on thinking it. "She must have been about to when the poison got to her."
"Sure, let's go with that. But anyway: plastic bag, broken, filled with powdered philisocopolynide. Lucky us, there was a print preserved on the inside."
"I'll run it through AFIS," said Woody with a dimple-filled grin. "And hope we catch a killer."
XXX
"Boston PD! Open up!" yelled Woody, banging his hand against the door. Jordan stood slightly behind him; he hadn't been able to discourage her from coming, like usual.
He had thought that because this was his solo case she wouldn't, but apparently when her friends became in danger it became a whole 'nother ball game.
They had gotten a hit off AFIS, a Mr. Gregory Weller, arrested for possession twelve years ago. They were at his place, banging on his door, hoping to get some much-needed answers.
The door opened and a short, portly man with greying hair and a tired expression. He looked very surprised to see police on his doorstep.
"What can I do for you, officers?" he asked, obviously mistaking Jordan for a police officer like Woody. She didn't correct him, though. It just wasn't her style.
"Hello, sir, my name is Detective Woody Hoyt, and, you see, we are doing this investigation and your name popped up. It might be nothing, but we were just wondering if we could ask you a few questions. It would be completely voluntary, of course." He smiled his best dimple-smile at the man. He gave in, and invited them in for tea.
"So, in this case of yours. How did my name pop up?" he asked. Woody looked at Jordan.
"Well, you see, sir," she said, trying her best niceness impression on the man. Hey, it worked for Woody. "We found your fingerprint on a plastic bag when doing the autopsy of a car crash victim."
"A plastic bag?" he said looking mildly uncomfortable. "You don't say."
"Uh-huh. Listen, sir, it isn't only because your prints were in the bag that concerns us," said Jordan, "It's what else was in the bag." Mr. Weller sighed and shook his head.
"I think I know what it is," he said, looking at the police officers with a look of slight distaste, "But I can assure you that I did not import it, nor did I give it to Zachary. He was your crash victim, I suppose?" Woody nodded.
"Zachary Pester. Listen, Mr. Weller, we would really appreciate it if you told us where the philisocopolynide came from, and how Mr. Pester got it in his stomach." Mr. Weller looked uncomfortable.
"It all started about fourteen years ago," he said, and Jordan and Woody listened closely. "I was a bit of a recreational drug user back then. I'm clean now, of course, but back then... let's just say I worked up a dept with one of my dealers." Woody nodded. "He said he would... forget about my dept, you see, and all I had to do was keep hold of a few bags filled with this white powder. I thought it was just cocaine, so I put it in my basement for a while."
"And you didn't think about using it? All that 'cocaine' in your basement?" asked Jordan. Woody gave her a 'shut up' look, and she did. Mr. Weller shook his head.
"I was a heroine user. I never touched cocaine. Though I had a friend who found it, and thought it'd be a good idea to snort some." Woody almost laughed at the older man's terminology, but thought better of it. "Which he did, of course, and he got violently ill for his trouble. Refused to go to the hospital, of course, but eventually it went away. He blamed the 'cocaine', so I never went near it again. Until last month. My old dealer came back, asking for his drugs. I gave them over to him, and I haven't seen them since."
"A very convincing story, Mr. Weller," said Jordan, leaning forward, "But there's just one problem with that happy-go-lucky version of events: How did you know he gave the philisocopolynide to Zachary Pester?" Mr. Weller thought about it for a long moment, then started speaking, choosing his words carefully.
"Zachary was his... well, they were acquaintances. But he, my old dealer, hated Zachary. He told me once. I just assumed he gave the, uh, the poison to Zachary." Woody nodded.
"Zachary Pester was his brother, wasn't he?" asked Woody, out of the blue. Jordan turned and gaped at him; Woody hadn't told her their victim had a brother, let alone a drug-dealing one. Mr. Weller nodded slowly.
"Are you going to arrest me for possession because I kept the poison all these years?"
"I'll tell the Captain how much you helped our investigation, and I'm sure they'll go easy on you." Mr. Weller nodded again.
"Thank you."
XXX
"Mr. Pester?" Woody hit the door again. "Boston PD! Mr. Pester, open up!"
Alexander Pester opened his door, and held out his hands. Woody slapped the cuffs on him and he went to interrogation. He had caught another murderer. Put another killer behind bars. Brought justice to Zachary Pester.
...Then why did he still feel so lousy?
XXX
"Nigel!" said Bug, grinning, "Are you feeling better?" It was two days later, and Nigel's system had rejected the poison. A good thing. Lily, Bug and Kate's conditions were improving, too.
Nigel nodded then walked into Bug and Lily's room, pulling his IV with him. "Much, Love. Thank you. How are you feeling?" Bug grinned.
"Better. And Lily is, too." Lily opened her eyes groggily.
"Lily is what?" she asked. Nigel smiled.
"Feeling better."
"Oh," she said, sitting up a little, "Yeah, I am. Are you?" Nigel nodded then sat down on the edge of Bug's bed. They sat and talk for a while, until they were interrupted by the rest of the gang showing up.
"Hey, Bug, Lily, Nigel," said Garret, holding Abby by the shoulder. Woody had his hand protectively around Jordan's waist. It was actually rather amusing.
"Nige! Bug! Lily! How are you?" Jordan gushed. It was un-Jordan-like, but lately she had been. Ever since the plane crash.
They all nodded. And the makeshift party started. They laughed and talked and had a jolly old time. So good a time, none of them realized someone was missing.
