Page 7 of The Beachside Cafe 2
Jaymee directed him on what folders to click on and where to go to see the videos and pictures. Alex leaned in close and examined them.
“I’m going to put these through my… enhancement… program…” He spoke slowly and performed the task as he told them what he was doing. Jaymee watched in fascination as Alex enhanced and sharpened the images on the screen, selecting and cropping certain areas and focusing in on them.
“Well, I’ll be…” he said, softly, leaning in even further as if his eyes were bad. “Would you look at that?”
For the first time since she’d met him, Jaymee detected a note of irritation in his voice. Or it could be anger?
Her eyes darted to him as he lifted one finger and pointed to a logo on the sleeve of one of the people working in the lab. “I know this lab. I know this company.”
Excitement filled Jaymee’s chest. A lead was just what they needed. “How do you know them?”
“That’s the logo for Intersectional Dynamics Laboratories. They are one of my rivals.”
“Oh no.” Jaymee’s heart sank. “That doesn’t sound too hopeful.”
“So this company creates drugs like the ones we’ve brought to you?” Cameron asked.
Alex looked at him and nodded. “Yes, and if these came from their labs, they’re probably looking for them. Which means everyone on this list, these six people, they obviously have something to do with it and Doug was blackmailing them. You’ll need to contact IDL yourself. I can’t do it. They know who I am.” He grinned. “I’d say I’m banned from their property but I’m not sure. If I’m not, I should be. I was a wild teenager, even if I was a scientist.”
Jaymee was immediately curious. “What do you mean by that?” She thought Alex’s mischievous smile was suspicious.
“Oh it’s nothing,” Alex replied. “I’ve been there, well, I went there a few times as a teen and blew up a couple of their labs. They couldn’t do anything because I had trade secrets and was very willing to expose their fraudulent behavior. I didn’t see it as a crime then. But I don’t know what this is. These drugs you’ve given me, I mean. The only explanation I can give is that IDL is experimenting. They’re creating something and giving it to the masses. Maybe as a drug instead of Cocaine or Fentanyl? Morphine? They might be mixing it with other drugs. Shoot, for all we know, they’re selling it to hospitals as something it’s not just to do tests on the patients it’s given to.”
“Oh my Lord,” Jaymee said, shocked. “Surely that’s not something that’s really happening.”
Alex tilted his head to the side, lowering his eyelids, halfway. “Ah, the sweet and naïve. It is happening, Jaymee. It’s been going on since the invention of drugs.”
“What a travesty,” she said. “I’m just stunned that any of this is going on.”
“Well, like I said,” Alex turned to take the flash drive out of the computer, “that’s only a theory. I just made that up right now that IDL could be doing that. It’s not that it’s not being done but I can’t prove IDL is doing it so don’t quote me. I don’t want to get shot by one of their goons.”
“Oh, you have to be kidding me now,” Jaymee said, holding out her hand for the flash drive.
“I’m not.” He set the flash drive into her hand. “Don’t you think those scientists and their discoveries and laboratories have security? Trust me, they have security just like mine. Trespassing on this property will cause someone to have some lead injected into their body.”
“Yeah, but you don’t have goons,” Jaymee said.
“No, I don’t,” Alex replied. “But I’m not one of the bad guys. I use my knowledge to really try to help people. That’s not their ultimate goal. They want to experiment until they have the perfect drug and they don’t care who they have to sacrifice to get there. That’s probably what these videos are about and why Doug was using them to blackmail those people. They’re doing something morally and ethically wrong, perhaps even legally wrong.”
FIVE
Jaymee looked across the table at Cheyenne when she and her daughter stood up at the same time. The women laughed briefly.
“You don’t have to clean up, Cheyenne, I’ll do it.”
Cheyenne shook her head. “No, of course you won’t do it alone, Mom. These men need to talk, don’t they? Isn’t that tradition after dinner? The men go on the porch to have a drink and smoke while the women clean up and go to the living room for a cup of tea?” She used a British accent to finish off her sentence, mimicking sipping tea from a cup, lifting her eyes up to the sky in a haughty way.
This made her mother, Alex and Cameron laugh.
“Maybe about two hundred years ago,” Cameron said. He looked at Alex. “Though an after dinner drink does sound pretty good, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, I think so, too.” He looked at the women, focusing on Cheyenne. “I do hope you two will join us when you’re done though. And I feel like I should offer to help clean up even though you will both turn me down.”
The women laughed.
“No, we don’t want your help,” Cheyenne teased. “Men don’t know how to load a dishwasher. Leave it to us.”
Alex gasped, looking offended for a moment. Then he laughed and pushed his chair back to stand up. “That sounds like a signal to leave the room. Cameron?”
