Page 139 - Labelle Gramercy, Detective

Airtight

Dr. Kapil shrugged. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Ray; I had hoped
you might have progressed beyond your need to find fault with
others. You remember our talks about compensation and—”
“And your godamned attempts to psychoanalyze us made me
sick,” Ray hissed, lots of color—or lots of colors—coming back to
his face. “Who gave you your psychiatry license, doc? The same off-
shore medical school you bribed to get a degree?”
“Now, that is totally uncalled for,” began Larry, but Blanche cut
him off.
“Oh, please! I’m getting a headache from this endless anger and
recrimination. We all did our jobs and did them well for a whole year,
regardless of our petty idiosyncrasies. Please, Ray, sit down and act
human. I know you can do it: remember all the time we spent
together playing Scrabble? You and Larry were good friends.”
Ray suddenly collapsed into a chair. All the fight had gone out of
him; nothing remained but fear of some unknown but powerful
antagonist. Dr. Kapil was just a harmless object of his wrath, a target
of opportunity.
“You’re right, Blanche. The only conspiracy is in my head. I went
ballistic when I saw that policewoman with my log of the plant trials.
She had it open to a certain page while she was questioning me, and it
made me extremely nervous.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because, and I hate to admit this, she found where I had made
some erasures and altered the data.”
That got Toro’s attention. “You did what?”
“I’m sorry.” Ray squeezed his temples with the thumb and index
finger of his left hand, a mannerism I recalled from pre-dome days.
“She had my personnel records, too, and there was no way to hide
the past from her. Lt. Gramercy had me by the short hairs, and I
guess the whole story will come out now. I kind of lost it in there,
accused her of spying on me, getting information illegally, threatening
lawsuits, and so forth. But she had a search warrant, and she made
one or two phone calls to my former employers. The police can get
people to say things they might not otherwise.”
“What about the data?” Toro rumbled.
Ray wouldn’t look at him. He looked at Blanche, who tried to look
sympathetic. What else could she do? “Whatever you were going to

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