Heart Stopper (22 page)

Reyna said, “So, both the patient and the technician were subjected to this frequency thing? Why didn’t the patient have a heart attack?”

Priya said, with a note of excitement, “Because they had a pacemaker. So it has to be some kind of damage to the heart and that damage must be able to be circumvented by the pacemaker. The pacemaker keeps the heart rhythm going in the patient while the technician, or Liam, suffers a heart attack brought on by loss of the pacing, by a loss of electrical activity.”

Priya was pulling out sheets of paper as she spoke. Her voice was strong, with the occasional tremble of agitation. “That’s why Jacintha’s battery readings are low now! Her lithium battery is kicking in because she must have no self-firing electrical activity to run the main battery. It must have started being utilized since December, which would correlate with the current reading now. Damn! If we could match up the exact times and dates of the low voltage and battery readings in patients to frequency emissions we could be sure. I’d say the patients who were undergoing their checks at the times when the frequency was emitted are the ones whose readings are low. Looking at the numbers of low readings, the frequency emission happened on rare enough occasions and there are only three incidents, no, four, that we know of since 2003 where it caused heart attacks in technicians or bystanders... So it doesn’t happen in every routine check therefore either it occurs as a very rare and completely random thing or it happens when a specific function is being carried out. And it makes sense that it only affects the person without the pacemaker who is within a certain distance, like John Landon and Liam, really close.”

Reyna asked, “Close to the pacemaker or to the Controller?”

Priya sat back, her forehead furrowed, then nodded. “You’re right. I assumed it was the Controllers, but it could be the pacemaker.”

Catherine asked, “Would the technicians have followed the same procedure? What else is similar between what happened when John and Liam had their attacks?”

Priya found the descriptions of the checks and compared them.

She pointed to a line in Tara’s handwritten description. Tara had finished the routine check and just started a programmer test when she had been interrupted. Priya examined the email printout from John Landon. She found the line where it stated that John had commenced the programmer test when the patient had complained of discomfort and John had leaned over her with the wand in his hand and over her chest.

“The programmer test.” Reyna and Priya spoke at the same time.

Priya said, “There are a few test routines on the controllers. Though they are not used very often, some I’ve never even used. A stray frequency pattern might have been generated on the very rare occasions that these tests were used. It would explain the rarity of the attacks considering the number of pacemaker checks that are carried out every day in clinics around the world.”

The three women were silent for a few minutes. Priya started to gather up the sheaves of paper that she had scattered around her on the floor. The rush of discovery had washed through her and her arms now felt like they were made of lead.

Priya said, “You know that this points to somebody at TechMed Devices or the Research Company. Whatever I may think of Valerie, and I have a deep admiration for Gerry, I can’t see them being involved, not knowingly.” She shook her head. “They’re like Daniel; they worked all their lives to find better ways of helping people. Not killing them.”

“People change when money is involved.” Reyna’s voice was harsh.

Priya said, “Gerry was never motivated by money. I spent a lot of time with him. He had no interest in cars or houses or the trappings. He really did live for his work. And for Valerie.” She paused. “Who
did
enjoy the trappings. And she enjoyed playing games with people.”

Priya smacked her palm against her forehead. “And someone else… Tara was talking about Aidan being a toy boy. For an older woman who would have a problem with them getting together. Aidan came back from London where he wasn’t doing very well at all. That’s what Tara said. And she couldn’t figure out how he could afford the very expensive car and watch and other stuff. We all assumed Aidan got his job at the clinic because he was Gerry’s brother, but what if it was Valerie all along. And Aidan was there that night at Massimo and saw you putting me into your car. He didn’t know at the time who you were, but he might have told Valerie and she could have put two and two together.”

Catherine leant forward on the couch and asked Priya. “Are you sure you’re not letting your history with Valerie cloud your judgment?” Her voice was gentle.

Reyna said thoughtfully, “It’s possible. Looking at their financials, they made a lot of money and then they seem to have had quite a dip in the last two years. Didn’t Gerry say they’d bought at the height of the boom and now they were struggling? They did seem a bit stressed at dinner. I really wanted to see where they lived and get an idea of their lifestyle, but Gerry said he had to work late.”

Priya suddenly remembered where Reyna had been Saturday evening. And where she had been. The images clamored for her attention again and she closed her eyes and forced them away.

Priya said, “Valerie came on to me just after I solved their coding problem which we think is what prevented further attacks. I was on such a high and she provided such a validation for me. She played me and obviously played Kathy as well. Whatever happened between them drove Kathy to kill herself sending me off the rails and far away from the work I was doing. I can’t say for sure she knew what she was doing when this happened. And I don’t know if it was deliberate when she flirted with Daniel in front of me the night of my birthday. I thought that her hold on me was gone, after what happened with Kathy and I had not seen Valerie after that till the night of my birthday. I was so disappointed with myself that she could still affect me. I still hadn’t dealt with the guilt around Kathy, I had just got news of my mum, I was trying to use drink to wipe out feelings and I’m terrible with alcohol. All added up to one hell of a bad decision that night to try to stop her and Daniel getting together. It wasn’t Daniel, I didn’t want Valerie, well…I didn’t want to want her, a huge part of me hated her, but she had this power…” Priya stopped and held her head in her hands.

Reyna said, “Catherine told me what Valerie did with Kathy. Valerie almost pushed you off the edge again when she told you about it, which was just after we asked her about the deaths. And then she gets you suspended, or at least, she may have pushed for it. TechMed stands to lose the most, along with Valerie. Valerie wasn’t the one who killed Michael. We know the American man killed Michael and has been looking for you and your PhD papers. They could be linked through TechMed.”

 
Priya swallowed back the image of Michael. And thought of Daniel, lying slumped against the bed, bare-chested.

She whispered, “The way he was lying there with just his trousers on. Like he had been sitting on the bed and when he had his heart attack, he just slid off. So, if someone had been there with him, Daniel was obviously comfortable with the person.” Not like Michael. The knife sticking out of his chest. The men had used one of Michael’s kitchen knives. To implicate her. No fake heart attacks here.

Fake heart attacks.

The battery readings. The voltage readings. They showed a pattern of failure. Failure of the natural pacemaker in the heart.

Priya had a feeling of horror growing in her mind. She became aware of someone saying her name and she looked up to see Catherine staring at her.

Priya said, “Fake heart attack. Daniel’s fake heart attack. What if that stray frequency pattern that killed the technicians could be generated by some thing at will. It would stop his natural pacemaker. And if Daniel had been with a woman that evening like Catherine thought all along, and he was seeing a researcher like he told Reyna and that person was Valerie, and afterwards he’s sitting with her, and she uses this thing to kill him…”

They sat in silence for a long time, each trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together in their minds. And whichever way they looked at it, the pieces fit and the answer was Valerie. The darkness outside finally came and found the three women sitting in the trembling light of the fire.

Catherine said, “We need to go to the police with this.”

Reyna gestured at the papers. Her hair was loose and scattered around her shoulders from dragging her fingers through. “We have no proof. These are all great theories.”

Priya nodded, “And someone could still make a case for me being the one responsible. I mean, we worked it out for Valerie, but I was the one who worked with the code, I guess if my code was the basis for this thing, this device that could kill then, if I put my mind to it, I could design it. If I had all the details. And I had been hurt by Daniel and nothing was done. I lost my partner to suicide, my mother just died recently. So I could have designed the thing, killed Daniel, gone crazy and killed Michael. And I ran from both.” She looked at the two women and exclaimed, “God! Even
I
think that sounds plausible. Why wouldn’t the Guards believe that, over some theory that a well-respected researcher, and she’s a doctor too, is in cahoots with a hugely successful medical device manufacturer in the States and could do all those cold and calculating things, for money. I mean no-one knows that side of Valerie, she’s very good at games, at hiding what she’s really like. How many people have fallen for it?”

Priya looked at Reyna as she asked the last question, but Reyna was staring at the fire, a grim look on her face.

Reyna said, “I am going to go in to the Research Company in the morning.”

She ignored the protests from Catherine and Priya and continued, “I don’t seem to be a target at the moment, and everyone will assume I am as shocked about what happened on Saturday. In fact, I’ll encourage that. I’ll make them think I think you went off the rails and killed Michael, and that it is all down to you being unstable after Kathy and your mother and then Daniel dying completely pushed you over the edge because you were seeing him as the rumors suggested.”

She turned to Priya. “Hopefully I’ll be able to find out something that can get you out of the even bigger hole that I’ll be digging for you.”

Priya said, “I don’t care about that. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Priya watched the flames reflected in Reyna’s eyes and wished she could stop the world as it hurtled over a cliff.

Catherine got up from the couch and put another load of turf on the fire. She knelt and placed her hand on Reyna’s shoulder.

“I don’t want to lose you too. I couldn’t bear it. You’re all I have left.”

Reyna hugged her mother.

“You need to stay here with Priya. It wouldn’t make sense if you came in with me. It has to be just another day, a normal day. Trust me. All the attention will be focused on Priya. No one is going to know she came here, especially when I go in and pretend I don’t even know what happened on Saturday. I have every reason to go in and talk to Valerie; she said she would keep searching. She’ll probably come up with some half-baked theory about the deaths of the technicians to put me off. I have to find a way to get some proof though…”

Catherine stayed in the hug. Her silver hair glowed against Reyna’s dark sweater. Then she sighed and rubbed Reyna’s back and got up.

“I’m going to try and sleep. I’ll be awake when you leave in the morning.” She gave Priya a tired smile and wandered out of the living room and they heard her slow tread upstairs to her room.

∞

Priya felt a wave of tiredness crash over her. But she couldn’t leave the room. And Reyna didn’t move either. They sat in the silence without looking at each other. A spark from a loose turf fiber flew out and spiraled to rest on the rug between them. They both reached over to touch out the tiny flame, Priya’s fingers landing first. She felt the brief heat of the burning fiber and then the warmth of Reyna’s hand on hers. Reyna left her hand there and Priya watched their fingers entwine on the shadow blue rug.

Priya couldn’t speak. The fear was overwhelming, the losses of the last three years screaming at her to stop Reyna walking into the lion’s den. For her.

Reyna murmured, “I wish I could explain. You deserve to know. But I can’t risk losing what I’ve fought for years to get.” She lifted Priya’s chin with her fingers and looked into her eyes. “I just need you to know that if I could have given it up, you would be the person I’d have given it up for. I just can’t give up. I told you things were complicated. I don’t know how long it will take to work it out, but whether I win or lose, I’ll come back when it is over. If you will have me.”

Priya was confused. “Is it Simone…?” she asked.

Reyna nodded. “She has me where she wants me. Has had me there for years. I can’t talk about it; I can’t get involved with anyone. If she finds out…”

“Do you still love her?” Priya asked in a shaky voice.

Reyna lowered her face and kissed Priya. Priya let her heart and mind fall into the slow gentle kiss.

Monday, July 25, 2011

She woke up covered in the bedspread. Her eyes and hands took in the empty space beside her where Reyna had slept and Priya felt cold despite the blazing fire. She threw off the cover and scrambled to her feet. There were sounds coming from the kitchen.

Catherine was standing at the sink, gazing out of the window, water running over her hands.

“She didn’t wake me. Has she gone?”

Catherine nodded. “About half an hour ago.”

 
Priya sat down at the table. Her limbs felt like they belonged to a stranger, a bigger, heavier person. She checked the clock on the wall; it was 8.15 a.m. Reyna would be at the Fairer Research building at about 9 a.m. depending on the commuter traffic in Galway.

She said her voice sharp with fear, “It was a stupid plan. What were we thinking? Letting her go in on her own.”

Catherine said nothing, just turned off the tap and wiped her hands on a dishtowel.

Priya asked, “She took the rental car?”

Catherine nodded.

“Can I borrow your car?”

Catherine turned and looked at her. Priya stared back.

“Catherine, I can’t let Reyna put herself in danger for me. I agreed with her last night, like you did, but now…” She saw the look in Catherine’s eyes and added, “No, I don’t want you to come with me. Reyna would never forgive me.”

Priya got up. “I’ll go to the research building and find Reyna and we’ll go together to the guards. I just have to hope that I’m not stopped on the way and that Valerie will be happy enough to let me be taken into custody. It’s what she wanted anyway. They must have made sure there’s enough evidence to point to me.”

Catherine said, “Reyna will be furious with you. And me.”

“But she’ll be safe.”

Priya held out her hand and, after a pause, Catherine took a key ring off the kitchen counter and placed it in Priya’s palm. She placed both of her hands against Priya’s cheeks and whispered a thank you.

∞

Despite the heavy station wagon she was driving, Priya found the journey over the winding Connemara roads easy compared to the nerve-wracking drive through the traffic in Galway though it was lighter than on a normal working day as many people had time off for the Races. She expected to be stopped at any minute by a white and blue Garda-emblazoned car. Her heart jumped when she saw a Traffic Corps car parked at the side of the road, the blue-uniformed woman writing out a ticket for a trapped driver, her partner watching from the driver’s seat, patiently tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. She had a desperate urge to slide down in her seat as she passed the officers, feeling as conscious as she had ever done in Ireland, of her difference, her brown skin in the sea of white. But the woman was engrossed in conversation with her victim who was obviously trying to talk his way out of a ticket and the partner was staring into space.

The area around the clinic was quieter than was usual on a Monday morning, with only a skeleton staff in at work, the rest probably enjoying time off for Race Week. The car park in front of the research building was deserted apart from the rented Mercedes parked in one of the slots reserved for the company staff and one other car. Gerry’s Volvo was parked at an angle across one of the slots, not the one with his name on it. Priya had a sudden hope that Valerie wasn’t there, but she could have gotten a ride in with Gerry. Priya stared at the two cars and around at the hushed car park. The quiet was only broken by the occasional splash of oars in the river.

Priya crept out of the car and walked into the building as fast as she could without running. Her shoes echoed across the empty lobby. The doors of the lift slid open and the now familiar voice droned its presence. Priya stepped into the small space, her reflected image creeping closer. She hoped whoever was in the building couldn’t hear the machinery whispering as the lift ascended the two floors. She thought they might hear the disembodied voice announce her arrival.

The corridor was empty; all the doors leading into the offices and labs were closed except the door to Valerie’s office at the end. Despite expecting the voice, her heart jumped when she heard it again. It echoed in her head and she clutched the railing, her hand slipping in sweat and smoothness. She could not see movement in the office and it felt empty even from a distance so she concentrated on the other doors.

The lab in which she had carried out her research was behind the second door and as she gripped the handle and opened the door, she said a silent prayer.

She took in impressions as she scanned the room. The wall of glass behind the counters glared light into the lab. Reyna was sitting upright in a chair in front of the door, her eyes angry. Next to her, was the man Priya had seen at Michael’s apartment. This time he wore no yellow gloves, but in his right hand was a gun and he pointed it in the direction of Reyna’s head. The man stood so that he was not visible to any of the rowers on the river outside the bank of windows. Priya froze. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Gerry sitting on a stool, bent over equipment laid out on the counter. He was rigid, he hadn’t even moved when the door opened.

The man gestured her in with his left hand and Priya walked further into the lab. His eyes were emotionless. The familiar smell of chemicals and cleanliness welcomed her. There was an iron scent in the air and she recognized the smell of blood, but she could not see any on Reyna or Gerry. As she moved past the aisle between the freestanding lab counters, she glimpsed a woman, sprawled motionless, a stain of blood leaking onto the crisp white tiles from her blonde head.

The man gestured to Gerry.

“He could do with a hand. And he tells me you’re the one who came up with the idea in the first place.” He spoke with that same flat confident tone that had terrified her when she was hiding in the hole beneath her tree.

Priya hesitated, confused, and he smiled.

“I know there’s no positive reinforcement here, you know, some kind of reward for the brilliant work you’re going to do this morning, but maybe you’ll both get some weird professional satisfaction. Along with saving your skins. And some pain.” He made a jabbing motion with the gun towards Reyna’s head and Priya gasped and moved quickly towards Gerry.

“Priya, don’t.” Reyna’s voice was firm, but it was cut off with a cry of pain.

Priya turned and clenched her fists as she saw that the man had silenced Reyna by shoving the gun into her mouth. He grinned at Priya’s face and nodded towards Gerry.

There were ion study chambers on the counter in front of Gerry. What looked like a handheld controller was hooked up to an oscillometer and a portable keypad. The glow of the readout shone green on his forehead.

Priya sat on the stool beside Gerry. He turned his head and through the grief and fear in his eyes, she saw a subdued madness. Like petrol just thrown on a fire that had been damped down for a long time, licks of flames curling at the edges. She looked behind her and she could see Valerie. The blood moved, a slight, but definite, movement, which meant she was still alive.

Gerry’s hands on the table were shaking.

Priya whispered, “Gerry, you’re going to have to pull yourself together. Tell me what’s going on.”

Gerry glanced at the man and then looked back at Priya.

The man said, from across the room, “Aren’t you going to fill her in on what you’ve accomplished. With her work.” He removed the gun from Reyna’s mouth and a bead of blood welled up from her upper lip and crept onto her lower lip.

“My work, Gerry? My idea? What is he talking about?” Priya tried to sound completely ignorant, as if she had no idea of what they were working on. She looked again at the equipment on the counter. There was a metal device the size of a matchbox lying against the wall at the back of the counter.

Gerry remained silent, his lips trembled and the man laughed.

“He wasn’t so shy when he sold us the idea. Was a good sell actually, had the early stage prototype that he had proved in action; he had the proof of concept for the new device. Everything is set to go. I don’t need to convince you of the urgency of my task.” He ran a finger along Reyna’s lips and smeared the blood into a macabre lipstick. “We have our own little ticking clock here that should be an incentive even if you don’t care about my deadlines.”

Priya could see the anger clouding Reyna’s eyes and before Reyna could say anything, Priya said, keeping her voice as steady as she could, matching his tone,

“I am not going to get any closer to whatever it is you want, and I’m certainly not going to be able to solve any problems if you hurt her again. And I need to do something about Valerie.”

Priya moved to Valerie’s body. She found a pulse, weak, but present. Her hair hid most of the cut on her scalp and the volume of blood was frightening. Priya looked around the room and saw the first aid kit fixed to a bracket in the wall, alongside the emergency defibrillator many of which were now installed in public places around Ireland.

Priya walked over to the first aid kit, ignoring the man, and brought it over to Valerie. Gerry seemed fixed in place, staring down at the blood. Priya used a full roll to bandage Valerie’s head. It would hold the bleeding for the moment. She couldn’t think of anything else to do for her.

She turned to Gerry.

“I need to know everything. Now.”

Gerry rubbed his neck, which was already red. He wasn’t wearing a tie and his casual clothes looked like they had been thrown on.

His voice was shaky when he started to speak.

“I used your algorithm to develop something.”

He reached over and picked up the matchbox-sized device.

“It works by damaging the natural pacemaker. But it only works at extremely close proximity to the heart. I promised them a device that would work at a distance of 3 feet. And it’s almost ready.” Gerry shoved the bigger device, the one that looked like a handheld controller, a few inches along on the counter.

His voice had grown stronger with every word and then his shoulders slumped.

“I just can’t figure out that one last piece of the code.”

Priya stared in puzzlement at the two devices.

She said, “
You
developed something to damage the natural pacemaker? Why?” She felt nauseous.

“Why do you think? I guess I should give you some credit. I had already mostly developed the early version, but your research helped me finish it and was crucial in setting me on the longer-range wireless path. You were developing the test scenarios for potential wireless attacks on installed pacemakers. I was able to expand on it to attack the natural pacemaker. It isn’t that commercially interesting to attack artificial pacemakers, I mean, what would the target be? Mostly older patients and you’d have to wait around for them to have a pacemaker installed. The first device works at close range to the target so the user doesn’t need protection. However, with this longer-range one, it will actually be the opposite; anyone without a pacemaker will die. Which, in a way, is a bit of a problem, but one we’ve been able to solve temporarily.”

Priya sank down onto the stool.

Priya turned back to Gerry. “He said you were able to prove the device in action.”

Reyna said, “Daniel…?”

Gerry’s eyes had been filled with pride as he spoke of his work. Now the pride was replaced with pain. He nodded.

Gerry said, “I had to use the close range device.” He picked up the smaller device. “The long-range one isn’t ready, and I don’t have a pacemaker installed anyway.” He sighed. “Three wouldn’t stop digging, even when I told him his grandfather had sanctioned the development.”

“No!” The word came from Reyna.

Priya said, “There is no way that Dr. Fairer would sanction the development of a weapon.”

Gerry said, “Three only found out in the last few months about the unfortunate accidents that had occurred with the Controller I, but his grandfather knew as soon as I discovered them. We had already released the Controller II so rather than recalling the Controller I, we made sure that all the Controller I’s were returned by offering a hefty discount on the Controller II.”

A little more animation crept into Gerry’s voice. “The original fault was an aberration, easy enough to fix once we figured out what caused it. But the fault could still theoretically occur with the Controller II so we had to issue the patch, which we developed from your work. But the aberration gave me the idea for the device. And that’s really where your algorithm came in. And then when he came along and offered so much money,” Gerry shrugged, “well, I needed it. Dr. Fairer couldn’t very well say anything about it after he had helped conceal the problems. And he thought he was helping, you know, in the fight.”

Reyna shook her head. “You killed Daniel? And grandfather knew?”

“I had no choice with Three. Your grandfather didn’t know about it till afterwards. I had to do it. Three wouldn’t stop, even when I told him that your grandfather would be destroyed, that we would all be destroyed.”

Gerry lowered his voice and whispered to Priya, “Dr. Fairer met him,” he gestured with his head to the man, “when he came to collect the plutonium from a decommissioned pacemaker. Supposed to be American government, but I don’t think what he’s doing has anything to do with the war on terror. Seems personal to me.”