A Strange Little Desert Town - Chapter 13 (2/5)
A Strange Little Desert Town
Chapter Thirteen - But I Don't Want to Go
Part Two of Five
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The shrill ring of the phone in the dining room brought Corey headlong out of his work. He wondered how often Hitler was dragged out of planning by an ill timed phone call. Corey left his class notes on World War Two on the table & got up to answer the incessant trilling.
“Hello?”
“Hello, is Doctor Stripe there?” the male on the other end of the line enquired.
Corey smiled & raised an eyebrow. “Which one?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Which Dr Stripe did you want to talk to?” Cory expanded.
There was a pause & the rustling of papers.
“Er…” the caller faltered. “I don’t have a first name listed here.”
“Ah,” said Corey. “Well then, I guess the next step would be to ask what is the nature of your enquiry?”
“I’m phoning for an employment reference.”
“Hmm. That still doesn’t narrow it. Do you have a job title or place of employment for the doctor you want?” Corey couldn’t help but be amused by how flustered callers could get in situations like this.
“Um,” the caller rustled more paperwork. Corey wondered idly at the state of the man’s desk. “Miimac Laboratories.”
“Oh!” grinned Corey. “That Dr Stripe! Hang just a tick!”
Corey held the phone away & called out to his father in law. “Mike! Phone for you!”
He waited.
“Mike!!”
“What?” came a voice from upstairs. “Oh! Coming!”
“He’ll just be a moment,” Corey informed the caller, purposefully not using an actual measurement of time.
He waited, holding the receiver, for Mike to come downstairs.
Corey looked up the stairs again & strained his ears. Mike was moving around at least; he could hear the floorboards creaking. Come on, Doc, he thought. The urge to tap his foot was growing. He knew that if he did, it would be just in time to be caught by Mike - which was the last thing he wanted. He did not want his Father in Law to think he was disrespectful.
But then again, it would be like lighting a cigarette whilst waiting at a bus stop. The bus would pull into sight at the first draw. Or when you want service in a music store, you pick up a guitar & play it to instantly make a sales assistant appear.
Corey looked at the staircase, then his unfinished history class preparation. He looked at the stairs again, smiled like a child about to reach for the biscuit jar while his parents aren’t looking, & tapped his foot.
Mike appeared at the top of the staircase & hurried down to the phone. He gave Corey a puzzled look.
“What are you up to, Corey?” he asked. “Should I be worried or have you found my lolly stash?”
Corey grinned wider. “You have a stash?”
“Of course! I’m a good little squirrel,” he shot Corey a conspiratorial wink. “Plus, I’m the son of a pirate.”
Corey laughed & handed Mike the phone.
“Employment reference,” he told him.
“You’re on the line with Doc Stripe, speak to me!”
Corey sat down to his paperwork & tried to focus on the forays into the occult by the Third Reich. Were the SS Paladins? Was Hitler delving into more than just the surface atrocities?
“Jennifer was brilliant. She was my receptionist & typist, she kept my lab running smoothly with perfect appointment keeping. She handles herself spectacularly under intense pressure,” Mike told the person on the other line. “She kept my books in order too. You’d be mad not to employ her. You won’t find better.”
Mike listened to the caller for a moment.
“Ah,” he said, as if that answered everything. “Well that’s because I’ve closed down Miimac Labs.”
Corey’s head snapped up & he stared incredulously at the back of Mike’s head. He’d been trying to ignore the phone call happening opposite the table from him, but Mike putting a stop to his life’s work was something he could not shut out.
“Not a problem,” Mike said. “Bye!”
He hung the receiver back on the wall mounted cradle.
“Mike,” Corey began. “What was that about you’ve closed Miimac?”
Mike’s shoulders slumped. He sighed & pulled up a chair at the table. Putting his head in his hands, he sat in silence below the painting of his mother. Eventually he looked back at Corey, anguish filling his brown eyes.
“I had to,” he said sadly. “I cannot keep asking people to suffer my inabilities.”
“Mike, you shouldn’t give up everything for the sake of a couple of mistakes.”
A tear ran silently down on of Mike’s cheeks. He made no move to wipe it away.
“That’s the thing, Corey.” Mike all but sobbed. “Those mistakes resulted in the deaths of my volunteers!”
Corey start at him in horror. He’d never known. Suddenly, everything clicked into place. The reason why Mike was so hard on himself. Why he was constantly wracked with guilt. Why he basically locked himself away during the times he wasn’t at the lab.
The phone rang, jerking them both from the silence.
Corey stood up & walked quietly to the phone, not wanting to look again at the once proud man at the table now reduced to heart-wrenching sobs.
“Hello?”
“Could I speak with Corey Stripe please?”
“That’s me. Yes?”
“Corey, its Detective Corsen. It’s about your wife, Ash.”
The blood drained from Corey’s face. It was all he could do to speak again.
“Is she okay? What’s happened?”
It was Mike’s turn to be unable to ignore the conversation. He didn’t even notice that he was holding his breath as he strained to hear the caller’s words.
“Of course. I’ll be right there.”
Corey hung up the phone in a rush & looked at Mike, disbelief written across his features.
“There’s been an incident at the hospital with Ash. I need to go. Now. Can you look after the boys?”
Mike nodded, wide eyed, as Corey grabbed his car keys & raced out the door.
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