Chapter 147
THE PIER HAD EMPTIED while I was talking to Mary Lou.
In another world, Laura would have waited for me, and with our husbands gone for the night, we’d have made plans to do something fun. Grab a pizza or a plate of pasta and drink too much wine. But apart from the fact that she was pregnant, things hadn’t been right between us since her baby shower.
What Laura had said, back in June, still stung, but I recognized that some of her ire toward me was well deserved.
For one thing, I shouldn’t have confronted her at her own baby shower.
The afternoon was meant to be joyous, and I could have waited to say my piece, considering how long she’d waited to be able to celebrate with her friends.
Then there was a more subtle truth, which was that when I’d cheated on Paul, I hadn’t just made a mockery of our marriage.
I’d made a mockery of my friends’ marriages.
Girls like Laura put their hearts and souls into being good navy wives, and what I had essentially told Laura, by sneaking around behind not just Paul’s back but also hers, was that none of it mattered, at least not to me.
I got in my car and tried to figure out what to do next.
I needed to stay busy, so I decided I’d swing by the lab and see if Luca and Bruno were working.
Maybe they’d know something about this mysterious problem out at Santo Stefano, and even if they didn’t, I figured I could convince one or both of them to come out with me for a drink.
Bruno was in the lab, but as soon as I took in his disheveled appearance and the buckets of sediment and seawater that surrounded him, I realized we would not be going out for drinks. “You look busy,” I said.
“Have you heard?”
“About what?”
“The sub.”
“No,” I said slowly, “but I just came from the pier, and the command sent all the wives home. Said everyone in Repair was working overnight.”
“A sub came in with its nose blown off.”
“Blown off?” I repeated. The statement didn’t even make sense.
He nodded. “It sounds unbelievable, but it’s true.”
“How?”
“We don’t know. But it got towed in early this morning. Bertini’s office tipped us off.”
“How’d they find out?”
“No idea.”
“I assume you guys have been out there taking samples?”
“All day. Luca’s still on the boat, but I had to get back and start processing everything.”
“Do you think there’s a leak?”
“There’s definitely a leak. The only question is if whatever’s leaking is radioactive. We’re getting reports from fishermen that they can see white powder on the seafloor.”
“Wait, would that be from the reactor?”
He shook his head. “I’m thinking maybe asbestos.”
“I mean, that’s not good,” I said. “But it’s better than a fission product, right?”
“We’ll see,” he said, gesturing at the buckets. “I’ve got all these samples. But they’ve got to get to Cagliari.”
“Why Cagliari?”
“That’s where the closest transmission electron microscope is.”
“Can I help?” I asked.
“Please,” he said, and pushed some small glass jars and a roll of masking tape toward me. He explained how much water to pour in each jar and what to label them with, then set me to work.
“Does Paul have access to a transmission electron microscope out on the tender?” I asked.
“I doubt it,” he said. “They’ve got a lot out there, but TEMs are really big and expensive.”
“So are they sending their samples to Cagliari, too?”
“I don’t know. But I’m sure they’ll get to the bottom of this much faster than we will.”
“What’s Daniel Bornemann saying?”
Bruno laughed. “He’s not even picking up our calls.”
“I can ask Paul,” I offered, which was no small task, considering how we’d left things. “He’s not going to admit to much, but if he knows the white stuff isn’t harmful, he might say so.”
Bruno shrugged. “It can’t hurt to ask.”
We worked in silence for some time before I got brave enough to ask if anyone had told Teo what was going on.
“He’s been here since yesterday.”
“Oh,” I said, surprised. “I didn’t realize.”
“Are things okay between you?” he asked.
I wondered if Teo had said something, then decided that Bruno was probably just reading between the lines. “Yeah,” I said. “I haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks. His parents were in town, and it’s been busy with the move and everything…”
Bruno gave me a nod of understanding, then took the last of the glass jars from me. “Go call your husband. Try to find out what you can. And if I see Teo, I’ll tell him you’re looking for him.”