“What happened?”
I told him about Cindy’s departure and the nets and samples left behind.
He gave a snort that was meant as a laugh. “It does-n’t surprise me. Cindy isn’t exactly the brightest light.”
Dinah came through the doors just in time to catch this last comment. She stormed right past me and stopped inches from his face, looming over him. She gave him a sharp jab with her finger. “You’re an ass-hole.” Then she gave him another jab. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
JJ took a step back and brushed his shoulder where she’d touched him, as if removing a squashed bug. Then he looked back at her with a cold smile. “I told you it would-n’t last. I mean she’s dumb, but she isn’t that stupid.”
Dinah moved forward a step, but I grabbed her arm and yanked her back. JJ looked casually at his watch, although in this light he couldn’t have read the dial, and said, “Sorry to break up the party but my date is waiting.” He turned and started back toward the doors.
I could hear Dinah almost hyperventilating beside me, but I kept a grip on her sleeve.
“Hey JJ,” I called after him. “Did you manage to sell your GeneMed?”
He’d made it to the door and with his hand on the latch he turned to face me. “Sell it? Why would I want to sell it? It’s going to go back up, and when it does I’ll make a killing.”
Dinah chose a tiny Mexican café on 4th Avenue. As I swung open the door I was hit with heat, noise, and the dark, luscious smells of chili and garlic. I realized I was starving. When the waitress arrived with the tortilla chips and salsa I ordered a big pitcher of sangria. I planned to limit my intake, freeing up the rest for Dinah. I was heartened to see that she emptied her first glass before the waitress even left the table. She was pouring the second when I said, “Why don’t you tell me about Cindy. That is what’s bugging you, isn’t it?”
There was no response, and I thought maybe she didn’t hear me. She poured the sangria in slow deliberate movements then lowered the pitcher to the table, took her glass, looked me in the eye, and guzzled half of it down, then set her glass carefully on the table. Finally she said, “It’s no big deal,” and turned to look out the window.
I waited a minute, sipped my sangria. She avoided my gaze. Finally I put my glass on the table and leaned forward. “I think it is,” I said softly. “I think it’s a very big deal, and I think it might help to talk.”
After our evening of cleaning and hauling her short hair was in disarray — the bedhead look that some people spend hours to achieve — and I could see a tiredness pulling at her eyes and the corners of her mouth. Finally she turned back to me. “Look, you don’t have to act like I’m going to burst into tears or something because I’m not. Okay? We worked together, things got intense.” She shrugged. “It didn’t work out. That’s all.”
“Things got intense. Does that mean you had a relationship or were thinking about having a relationship?”
Dinah laughed, but it was a bitter sound. “That depends on how you define relationship. We were sleeping together, but I’m not sure that means we were having a relationship. It was all in the closet because Cindy didn’t want anyone to know… her career and all that shit.”
“JJ knew.”
“Yeah, well, Cindy had a fling with him just before me. Can you believe it? That jerk? But then things started to heat up between her and me. We were out in the field a lot, one thing led to another, then it just sort of happened. She wanted out of her relationship with JJ, so she told him about me, thinking it would get him off her back, but he went ballistic. He started following her around, threatening to tell everyone what was going on between us, begging her to return. He’d show up at her apartment and bang on the door at two in morning. Sometimes he’d yell he loved her, sometimes he screamed he was gonna kill her. That’s why she had to leave Madden’s lab. JJ wouldn’t let up.”
“So what happened?” “He finally backed off. Maybe he found somebody else to harass, I don’t know.”
“And what about you and Cindy?”
She gave an impatient sigh and a shrug. “With JJ off her back I thought things would get better, but to tell you the truth, nothing changed. We had this sort of thing going, but I was about fifth in line after Elaine, experiments, animals, gear, you name it. And Cindy wanted it all undercover. Since I wanted the relationship to work I didn’t have a lot of options, but about two weeks ago something changed. She got really weirded out; maybe about the missing fish, could have been the stress of the field season, maybe it had something to do with our relationship. I’m not sure. Then a couple of days ago she suddenly tells me she needs some space, she needs to think things over. I’m not an idiot. I know what that means, and I’d kind of had it. I told her to take all the space she needed but not to expect me to sit around waiting.”
“Nice, Dinah. Very caring.”
She gave me a petulant shrug. “I was pissed. Then when you told me she’d left for New Zealand I was furious. I mean, that’s just like Cindy. Don’t deal with it, run away. But then other things started to happen. She didn’t leave instructions for her work, she abandoned her samples in the truck… “ She had pulled a taco chip from the basket and was toying with the salsa, taking a minute to run over the whole thing in her mind again. Finally she shook her head and said uneasily, “I don’t know. I don’t doubt she’d jerk me around, but screw up her work? That doesn’t make sense.”
The waitress arrived with the food, chicken enchiladas for me and a bean and cheese tostada for Dinah. We were both so hungry that there was no point in even trying to talk until the plates were half empty. Before the waitress could get away I ordered another pitcher of sangria and took the next few minutes of fussing with napkins, cutting up food, and chewing the sublime concoction to consider my next move. The discussion of Cindy was a sidebar for me. Although there was always a chance it was connected to my case in some way it wasn’t the main attraction, and I still had a lot of ground to cover with Dinah: JJ, Graham, Riesler, and Elaine. On the other hand, Cindy was good currency. If Dinah trusted me I’d get a lot more out of her, and we would have a long day working together tomorrow.
Dinah poured herself another glass of sangria. It was depressing to think of that nice alcohol buzz being wasted on something irrelevant, but what can you do.
“Why don’t you call her?” I asked. “Just to make sure she’s all right.”
Dinah looked up with a full mouth of rice and beans. She shook her head. She swallowed and dabbed her mouth with a napkin. “She wanted space. I promised I wouldn’t call her, that I’d let her contact me when she was ready. Anyway, I couldn’t call even if I wanted to. I don’t have a number in New Zealand. Her moth-er’s remarried and has a different name, which I don’t know. You can see how far our relationship got.”
I shook my head. “You sure she’s worth all this?” She sighed. “No… but unfortunately, I love her. I mean, I wish I didn’t, but I do.”
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll get the number through the office —”
“They won’t give it to you.”
I brushed that aside, “— and I’ll call Cindy in New Zealand. I’ll use her research as an excuse, say I’m calling for Elaine and we all want to know when she’s
