Chapter 15
15
O ne Week Later...
Aubree remembered the art gallery of posters that her high school principal had created in the hallway leading toward the cafeteria. Most of the framed posters were just a blur of pretty images, but it was the one just before the door that she remembered for the words printed along the bottom of a highly stylized old world map. "Chance favors the prepared mind." Louis Pasteur
It was at that time that conversations seemed to stop, and attentions were diverted to the menu board as if they didn't have a printed menu for the month in each classroom, so Aubree had more than her share of time mulling over the quote.
When she met Special Agent Aparicio for the last time at the NMPD Station that quote was at the tip of her tongue.
"Thanks for staying as long as you did, Alara."
The FBI agent sighed and shook her head. "I thought I had it all figured out..."
There wasn't much more either of them could say.
Aubree wanted to make her feel better, but she didn't know what she could say. "I know it's crazy, but I wish you could stay a little longer." Aubree stretched her neck, leaning her head to one side and the other. "I feel like... like there's something breathing down my neck."
Alara reached out and gripped her arm, giving it a squeeze. "You watch your back, okay? You keep close to other people."
Aubree nodded. "Ruben barely lets me out of his sight when he's not working."
Alara's smile lightened the mood. "He's good for you," she nodded, "keeps your mind off of..."
"Not enough."
The alarm on Alara's phone went off and Aubree was tempted to toss the thing into the trash. "I'll keep you informed on anything I find out." Aubree looked around the office and ground her teeth together. "Even if you were here longer, I'm not sure that I'll be."
The shock on Alara's face made Aubree feel worse.
"It's not just about the... the attacks," she tried reassuring the other woman who had quickly become one of her friends, "I'm set for the upcoming trials to provide my testimony, thanks in no small part to the fire you lit under that prosecutor's butt."
Alara's smile brightened Aubree's mood as well.
"Still, the likelihood that I'll be able to drive my own cruiser anytime in the near future isn't good. I've gone to therapy to fix that part of my claustrophobia, but it doesn't seem to help. My dad's been great about playing my chauffeur when Ruben’s at work but even he knows it can't go on indefinitely. I'm beginning to think I'm just... broken."
Alara's alarm sounded again, and she turned it off before she dropped her phone on the edge of Aubree's desk. "Don't. Don't do that to yourself."
Aubree smiled at her friend. "It's not something I'm saying lightly, but how can I go out on the street if I need a driver to move me around. It's just not how things work in law enforcement. You know that."
As an FBI agent, Alara did know.
"See?" Aubree blinked back tears. "I'm going to be talking to a few recruiters for security companies that need analysts and a couple of law firms that need someone to evaluate evidence for cases. It's not what I saw myself doing this early in my career, but I don't want to give up completely on what I do. I just... I can't keep doing it for NMPD with my limitations."
Alara leaned in and gave her a smile and a nudge. "If you want to be an analyst, maybe you can come to work for us. I'm just one of the field drudges on the street. We have a need for analysts, too."
Aubree nodded. "I was kind of thinking of something like Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan."
Alara shook her head. "I haven't seen anyone in the CIA look that good."
Smiling, Aubree leaned in for a hug, whispering into her friend's ear. "They're spooks, right? I'm guessing we wouldn’t know who's in the CIA analyzing anything."
When they stepped apart, Alara's smile was near blinding in its intensity. "That's the spirit, Aubree."
She turned and picked up her phone from the desk. "I'm touch base with you tomorrow when I get home to San Antonio, kay?
Aubree nodded and gave her friend a weak little wave. "Sounds good. Travel safe."
When Alara disappeared out of sight, Aubree's whole expression fell.
It turns out that it took a whole lot of energy pretending to be okay with saying goodbye to a good friend.
The phone on her desk rang and Aubree dragged herself over to it. She picked it up by the second ring and held it up to her ear. "Cueva. Who-"
"Officer Cueva. Mr. Kepler wants to know if you have some time to come over to his office."
Aubree looked up at the clock on the wall, a remnant from a by-gone era. There was less than an hour before her father was due to pick her up at the end of her workday.
"One of the defense attorneys is pushing for an additional probable cause conference due to some new evidence that's come to light. Evidence that the attorney says is concrete proof that his client is not the drug dealer that the prosecution is trying to make him out to be."
Aubree was tempted to push it off until the morning.
"I know it's late in the day, Officer, but if it is true, both the prosecutor's office and you might be in more than a bit of trouble."
Aubree felt something pinch at the base of her skull where it met her neck.
It was an uncomfortable feeling that had her leaning against her desk trying to escape it.
She didn't have anything overtly pressing to do that evening. Ruben was going to be busy at a Refuge staff meeting until later.
Aubree bit into the inside of her cheek. If things worked out, she could just have Ruben pick her up at the prosecutor's office. That way she wouldn't have to bother her father for a ride home.
"Officer?"
"Hmm?" She tried to fix her attention on the matter at hand. "I need to ask-"
"For a ride?" The man on the other end of the phone seemed to have a bit of a sixth sense. "Mister Kepler has already cleared it with your captain. He's having an officer bring you here for the meeting."
"Oh!" Aubree felt a weight fall from her shoulders. "That... that would be great."
"One second..." The other end of the call went quiet for a moment. "Ah. The officer just arrived at your office building. If you go outside, he's in a marked cruiser just outside the front doors."
"Great. I'll be out in a minute."
Aubree hung up the phone and picked up her wallet and keys, pocketing the first item in her right hip pocket and the other in her left.
She was just a step outside of her office before she remembered that she'd left one thing behind.
Aubree hustled back into her office and opened the center drawer with a quick twist of a key. She reached in and picked up a little key fob that her father had just given her. To some it might look silly. The back-to-back B logo of Buckaroo Banzai from a movie that she'd watched over and over with her older brothers when they'd been younger was engraved on one side and on the other were the words, 'No Matter Where You Go... There You Are.'
Holding the little metal fob in her hand she felt it warm to her skin.
She might not be able to venture out by herself just yet, but it felt like she had a little bit of her family with her no matter where she went.
The cool metal warmed quickly to the temperature of her skin as she walked toward the front door and down the steps.
The caller from the prosecutor's office had been spot on. A marked cruiser waited for her at the bottom of the steps and before the driver could get out to help her with her door, she waved him off and climbed into the back seat.
"Thanks for the ride,"
The officer at the front of the car chuckled. "NMPD Rideshare, ma'am. We're proud to serve."
As they pulled away from the curb, Aubree frowned as her skin heated to the point of sweat. "Hey," she leaned forward toward the separator between them, "sorry to bother. Is there something wrong with the air?"
The driver leaned forward and as they pulled through the intersection, he fiddled with some of the controls. "Is it a little too hot back there?"
A LITTLE?
If she wasn't already off kilter by her friend leaving, she might only have been mildly upset by his bland humor.
"If you can up the air back here, I'd appreciate it.”
He twisted a few nobs and shrugged. "Sorry. I would have loved to fix it, but I-"
Aubree sighed. "It's okay. It's not that far to the office."
"You're right!" The driver laughed a little. "Sorry about all of this, Aubree, It's an older car. I picked up a bottle of water and left it in the back for you. It's cool and might help until I get you to Mister Kepler's office. I know they have a top-notch AC system in their building."
The promise of cool air and water went a long way and Aubree sagged back against the hard shell of the seat.
"Thanks again." She picked up the bottom that had been left on the back seat.
She picked up the bottle and settled it into her lap before she gave the bottle top a quick twist.
The bottle was cool against her palms and she barely resisted the urge to touch it to her face and feel how cold it was.
The important thing, she reasoned, was drinking it. The rest could come later.
Holding the bottle in one hand and the cap in the other she took a long, satisfying sip of the water and tried to relax.
As the car moved, bumping down the road, Aubree felt the world around her start to twist and turn, tipping one way and then another.
The car turned onto the highway which confused Aubree even more.
There were half a dozen ways to get from the NMPD building to the prosecutor’s office. She knew that for certain as they'd used each and every one from time to time depending on traffic.
None of them involved the highway.
"'scuse m-me..."
She swallowed and her tongue felt a little thick.
"Exs-cuuse m-me..."
Even working to enunciate her words, she couldn't manage to say what she wanted to.
The driver in the front seat looked up into the rear-view mirror and she could tell that he was smiling by the way his eyes crinkled up at the outside corners. "Hey there..."
Her own mouth turned down in a frown, partially from her own confusion but also because her face seemed heavy and slipping out of her own control.
"...it looks like I've finally got you all to myself."