The Flu

Chapter 88

Four mugs of spicy cider clink in a toast at the proprietor's table at Imagination Patch. "Earl Jabbanek was indicted in New York today for his brother's murder, and the state of Pennsylvania is looking at him for the murder of Chauncy Bergman," Kate announces. "You two played a big part in that."

"Are you working on a new case?" Holly asks.

"More like an old case," Rick replies.

"The judge gave a replacement defense lawyer a continuance, but now it's coming up for trial. Rick and I are both potential witnesses, so we'll have to hang around the courthouse for a while," Kate explains.

Holly takes a sip of her cider. "Sounds restful."

"Or boring," Rick complains.

"Witnesses can be excluded from the courtroom to avoid prejudicing their testimony," Kate clarifies. "We could be stuck in the hall waiting to be called. It will depend on how the motions go."

"Holly put together a great mix you could listen to on your phones while you're waiting," Mark suggests.

It's got some jazz violin, Kate, you might like it," Holly adds. "I can bring it on a thumb drive when I give Alexis her lesson. How's she doing? Last time I saw her, she seemed a little down."

"She had less than her usual enthusiasm for her return to academia," Rick agrees. "She says she learns more working at C.S.U. than she does at school. She signed up for two classes with labs but says the experience isn't even close. She's campaigning for me to have a little lab built for her in the loft. I think she pictures herself as a junior Sherlock running his experiments at 221B Baker Street."

"Are you going to do it?" Mark asks. "The insurance could be a nightmare." He turns to Holly as she smothers a laugh. "I'm doing the manager thing again, right?"

"Mark has a point," Rick confirms as Holly nods. "When I felt out the contractor I used to divide rooms and build bookcases, he said the same thing. I put a call in to my insurance agent to check it out, but apparently, the question doesn't come up too often. She's supposed to get back to me. I thought about renting some space in a building already set up for lab work, but then Alexis would have to spend time in transit, and if anything went wrong, I don't know who'd be around to help her."

"You'd probably have just as much trouble today setting up a lab for her in Holmes' old stomping grounds," Kate offers. "But there's got to be something we can work out."

"When I was in high school, I used the practice rooms at the university," Holly recalls. "Maybe Alexis can do something like that with a lab."

Rick bounces in his seat. "That's a great idea! I'll look into it."

"Better yet," Kate proposes, "have Alexis look into it."

Rick pulls her to him for a heartfelt kiss. "As usual, my wife is brilliant."

Harvey Bender is doing his best not to look overconfident. The last thing he needs is for Eli Douglas to catch on to what he has up his sleeve. He considered making a motion to exclude Douglas' witnesses from the courtroom, but in the end, it wouldn't make much difference. Nothing the cops say will undermine Bender's argument. And he would look uncooperative. That's the last thing he wants. He plans to come across as the good guy fighting for a falsely accused client, a client who has given years of his life to protecting New Yorkers from the real bad guys.

The lawyer loosens his tie, just a touch, and allows a couple of strands of hair to fall slightly out of place. He needs to project that he's just a regular guy. He thought about allowing for some wrinkles in his shirt but didn't want to imply he's sloppy. It's the guys in the lab who are sloppy, so sloppy that the cops had to arrest the wrong man.

Douglas is calling Detective Katherine Houghton Beckett to the stand. The stuck-up cop didn't even change her name when she married the writer, or at least Harvey will try to imply as much. Douglas' direct examination will probably take all morning, maybe all day. Harvey will make notes and attack Beckett's testimony when he can, but she's not his primary target. He'll just have to score enough points to keep the jury from deciding Eli's proved his case and tuning out.

Rick regards Kate with pride. Her answers to Eli's questions are clear and concise but not off-putting. She's dropped the cop-speak in favor of plain English. He can see the jury paying attention too, especially the guy in the front row staring at Kate's legs. Well, the jury box is as close to them as Juror Number Three is going to get.

Apologetically, Claire Bigelow gestures toward a small hood and workbench in the lab's back corner. That's your space. You're the first student the university's picked for this open lab option, so nothing was set aside. This was the only spot available."

"It's fine," Alexis assures her new mentor. "When can I get to work on a project?"

"Professor Gilly wants to assess your skills before you start on anything. She has your transcript from the summer program, but she wants to make her own judgments."

"Didn't she get the letter of recommendation from Chief Osnitz?" Alexis asks.

"She did, but Gilly still wants to check you out for herself, so she's using her own evaluation process. She's going to give you an unknown substance to identify. You'll have all the glassware and reagents you need. But here's the thing, You won't have access to a GC-mass spec or N.M.R. You can run an infrared spectrum, but you can't compare it to a library. You'll have to interpret the peaks on your own. You can also run an A.A., but picking up on metals won't help you that much. To pass Gilly's test, you'll have to identify the primary organic component."

"Are you kidding me?" Alexis demands.

Claire gazes upward as if searching for divine intervention. "Sorry, Alexis, if you want the slot, that's what you'll have to do. On their first day, Gilly tells all her qualitative analysis students that when she was in school, she had to learn to do everything with wet techniques instead of using instruments and computers. She still thinks of that as the real test of problem-solving, which is what a competent forensic scientist has to do. If you can solve the puzzle she presents to you, she'll have a soft place in her heart for you forever. If you can't, she won't see you as becoming anything but a tech going through the motions without understanding the underlying chemistry."

"I guess that makes sense," Alexis acknowledges. "It's like Captain Kirk said in Wrath of Khan, 'You have to learn why things work...'"

Claire's laugh echoes off the lab walls. "You and Gilly should get along great! She used that exact quote when I took her class."

"When do I get to start on my analysis?" Alexis asks.

"We should have things set up for you by the weekend. Gilly has a standard protocol you can use as a starting point. Chem majors will be working here with grad assistants supervising them. I'll be around for a while too. We'll come running if it looks like you're in danger, a fire or something, but otherwise, you'll be on your own."

"Then I'll be here Saturday morning," Alexis declares.

Claire nods. "The lab opens at eight."

Settling into a seat on the subway, Alexis mentally replays her conversation with Claire. "If Professor Gilly is a Trekkie," she comforts herself, "how bad can she be?"