During the interim, there was little conversation except for Terese asking Richard if he was sure he’d disposed of all the cultures. Richard assured her that he’d flushed everything down the toilet.
When the fifteen minutes was up, Terese redialed Colleen as promised. At the end of their brief conversation Terese thanked Colleen and hung up.
“That’s the first good news tonight,” Terese said to Richard. “No one else at the ME’s office gives any credence to Jack’s theory. Chet told Colleen that everyone chalks it up to Jack’s grudge against AmeriCare.”
“So no one else must know about Frazer Labs and the tagged bacteria,” Richard said.
“Exactly,” Terese said. “And that simplifies things dramatically. Now all we have to do is get rid of Jack.”
“And how are we going to do that?” Richard asked.
“First you are going to go out and dig a hole,” Terese said. “I think the best spot would be on the other side of the barn by the blueberry patch.”
“Now?” Richard questioned.
“This isn’t something we can blithely put off, you idiot,” Terese said.
“The ground’s probably frozen,” Richard complained. “It will be like digging in granite.”
“You should have thought of that when you dreamed up this catastrophe,” Terese said. “Get out there and get it done. There should be a shovel and a pick in the barn.”
Richard grumbled as he pulled on his parka. He took the flashlight and went out the front door.
“Terese,” Jack called out. “Don’t you think you’ve taken this a bit too far?”
Terese got off the couch and came into the kitchen. She leaned against the cabinet and eyed Jack.
“Don’t try to make me feel sorry for you,” she said. “If I warned you once, I warned you a dozen times to leave well enough alone. You’ve only yourself to blame.”
“I can’t believe your career can be this important to you,” Jack said. “People have died, and more people can die still. Not just me.”
“I never intended that anybody die,” Terese said. “That only happened thanks to my harebrained brother, who’s had this love affair with microbes ever since he was in high school. He’s collected bacteria the way a survivalist collects guns. Just having them around was a weird turn-on for him. Maybe I should have known he’d do something crazy sometime; I don’t know. Right now I’m just trying to get us out of this mess.”
“You’re rationalizing,” Jack said. “You’re an accomplice, just as guilty as he is.”
“You know something, Jack?” Terese said. “At this moment I couldn’t care less what you think.”
Terese walked back to the fire. Jack could hear more logs being added.
He rested his head on his forearm and closed his eyes. He was miserable, both sick and frightened. He felt like a condemned man vainly waiting for a reprieve.
When the door burst open an hour later Jack jumped. He’d fallen asleep again. He also noticed a new symptom: now his eyes hurt when he looked from side to side.
“Digging the hole was easier than I thought,” Richard reported. He peeled off his coat. “Wasn’t any frost at all. It must have been a bog in that area at one time, because there weren’t even any rocks.”
“I hope you made it deep enough,” Terese said, tossing aside a book.
“I don’t want any more screwups, like having him wash up in the spring rain.”
“It’s plenty deep enough,” Richard said. He disappeared into the bathroom to wash his hands. When he came out Terese was putting on her coat. “Where are you going?”
“Out,” Terese said. She headed for the door. “I’ll go for a walk while you kill Jack.”
“Wait a second,” Richard said. “Why me?”
“You’re the man,” Terese said with a scornful smile. “That’s a man’s job.”
“The hell it is,” Richard said. “I’m not going to kill him. I couldn’t. I couldn’t shoot someone while he’s handcuffed.”
“I don’t believe you,” Terese yelled. “You’re not making sense. You had no compunction about putting lethal bacteria into defenseless people’s humidifiers, which sure as hell killed them.”
“It was the bacteria that killed them,” Richard said. “It was a fight between the bacteria and the person’s immune system. I didn’t do the killing directly. They had a chance.”