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“Yeah!”
For the next fifteen minutes, Rachel explained the process of the treatments. She also spent some of that time insisting that she really felt fine and that she was taking care of herself. She did glance to the stack of files pertaining to the deaths of Dr. Willis and Dr. Adler with a bit of guilt as she did so.
“Now,” she said, when she was done, “what about Jack? Has he been around today?”
“He dropped by this morning,” Grandma Tate said. “Just to check in. I invited him over for dinner, but I think he still feels weird about coming over when you aren’t here.”
"That's silly. I'll talk to him."
They exchanged small talk for another five minutes, before Grandma Tate insisted that it was time to make dinner, and that Paige was going to help since they were having her favorite: baked ziti and garlic bread. Rachel ended the call and walked over to her Thai dinner and the large stack of files on the two deaths. She wondered what it said about her personality that she was absolutely stoked to dive into both with equal measure.
She started by separating the police reports and the information about the doctors’ work. She placed the stack of police reports on one side of the bed and the work-related material on the other. As she sorted out Dr. Willis's work, she pulled out the sheet that had the strange-looking coding and set it to the side. Then she began to go over everything. She studied the pages meticulously, looking for similarities and patterns. She also kept an eye out for any reference to the other doctor within the files—any instances where Dr. Willis had referred to Dr. Adler, or vice versa. But bit by bit, she found nothing of the sort. What she did start to notice, though, was that she would find the occasional report or bit of data that did look similar to something from the other doctor’s pile. In this way, she was able to confirm that there were indeed certain parts of their work that were similar—particularly when it came to the use and study of stem cells.
Rachel scrutinized these areas but could find nothing that would link the two. However, in a footnote to one of the pages with graphs, readings, and so on, she saw a simple yet almost foreboding note. One of the graphs contained an asterisk and in the footnotes, the asterisk said: Refer to Williams, Paul for confirmation.
So she went through the files page by page until she came to a sheet with the name William, Paul specifically listed. Right away, Rachel knew she’d found something of note. Because on the same page with Paul Williams’ name, she also saw that same strange stream of code she’d found in Dr. Willis’ research. She took it out at once and set it beside the page from Dr. Willis’ files. The coding and numbers weren’t exactly the same, but the format and the seemingly random placement of it in the midst of so many files certainly made it stand out.
She then continued searching Dr. Adler’s notes for any further mentions of Paul Williams. It took another ten minutes of digging, but she found two other mentions. One came with another name, and as she read it and an identifying term to go along with it, her alarms started to go off.
Just as she made the connection, though, her phone rang. The name in the display read: JACK. She answered it at once, finding that she was thrilled to talk to him. “Hey there,” she said. “Are you off for the day?”
“Eh, for a bit. Anderson has me helping and an interrogation later tonight. But for now, yeah…it’s off for some fast food for dinner. But enough about me…how are you feeling? The text you sent me earlier wasn’t much on details.”
“I’m feeling great, actually. The treatments are so minimal that I feel almost guilty for being here all by myself. It’s sort of like a vacation, honestly.”
“Really?” he asked, and she could hear the suspicion in his voice.
“Well, I may have poked my nose into an ongoing police investigation.”
Jack chuckled—a sound that never failed to bring a smile to Rachel’s face. “Whew…I’m glad you came out and told me right away. I was afraid you were going to try to keep it a secret.”
“Wait…you know?”
“I do. You can blame Anderson. When you put in the request to join the Willis case, he called to ask if I had any objections. As your partner, not as your fiancé. He made that quite clear.”
“Well, that’s…I don’t know what that is, but it feels sexist.”
“No, not Anderson. I think he just wants to make sure he’s not giving you too much of a leash. I think if you weren’t there for treatments, he may have been more confident about it. And no offense, but he does have reason to suspect such a thing. You know…with the treatments and all.”
“And are you okay with it?”
“Yeah…but only after I asked about the details. I mean, you're feeling much better, and I couldn't imagine you in a strange city just twiddling your thumbs between treatments. I get it. I know you all too well.”
“Thanks, Jack. That means more than you know.”
“Oh, I know. You owe me big when you get back home.”
“Noted.”
"So, how is the case going? Have you been able to help yet?”
“Not just yet, no…but I think I might be on to something,” she said as she looked back over to the sheet she’d just come across.
“Well, I just wanted to check in. I’ll let you get back to your work-vacation.”
“Thanks. Oh, and hey…you know, you can hang out with Grandma Tate and Paige even when I’m not there.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s just weird. But I’ll accept the next invitation. I promise.”
