Invasion

Sheila spun on her heels. Cassy and Pitt hurried after her. They caught up to her at the elevator.

"What now?" Pitt asked.

"It's time someone made a phone call to the people who should be looking into this problem," she said. "Halprin's taking a day off for personal reasons is too weird."

"I hate suicides," Vince said as he turned right on Main. Up ahead was a gaggle of squad cars and emergency vehicles. Crime-scene tape held back a throng of onlookers. It was late afternoon and just getting dark.

"More than homicides?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah," Vince said. "In homicides the victim doesn't have any choice. Suicides are just the opposite. I can't imagine what it's like to kill yourself. It gives me the creeps."

"You're weird," Jesse said. For him it was just the other way around. It was the innocence of the homicide victim that disturbed him. Jesse couldn't conjure up the same sympathy for a suicide. He figured that if someone wanted to do himself in, it was his business. The real problem was making sure the suicide was a suicide and not a homicide in disguise.

Vince parked as close to the scene as he could. On the sidewalk a yellow tarp covered the deceased's remains. The only gore visible was a trail of blood that ran to the curb.

The detectives climbed out of their car and looked up. On a ledge six stories up they saw several crime-scene boys nosing around.

Vince sneezed violently twice in a row.

"Bless you," Jesse said reflexly.

Jesse approached a uniformed officer standing near the crowd barrier.

"Who's in charge here?" Jesse asked.

"Actually, the captain," the officer said.

"Captain Hernandez is here?" Jesse asked with surprise.

"Yup, upstairs," the officer said.

Jesse and Vince exchanged confused glances as they headed toward the entrance. The captain rarely ventured out to scenes.

The building belonged to Serotec Pharmaceuticals. It housed their administrative and research offices. Their manufacturing division was outside the town.

In the elevator Vince started to cough. Jesse moved away as much as the small car would allow. "Jeez," Jesse complained. "What's the matter with you?"

"I don't know," Vince said. "Maybe I'm having an allergic reaction or something."

"Well, cover your mouth when you cough," Jesse said.

They reached the sixth floor. The front of the building was occupied by a research lab. There were several uniformed policemen loitering by an open window. Jesse asked where the captain was and the policemen pointed toward an office off to the side.

"I don't think you guys are going to be needed," Captain Hernandez said when he saw Jesse and Vince enter. "The whole episode is on tape."

Captain Hernandez introduced Jesse and Vince' to the half-dozen Serotec personnel in the room as well as the crime-scene investigator who'd found the tape. His name was Tom Stockman.

"Roll that tape once more, Tom," Captain Hernandez said.

It was black-and-white security camera footage taken with a wide-angle lens. The sound had an echolike quality. It showed a short man in a white lab coat facing the camera. He'd backed himself against the window and appeared anxious. In front of him were a number of Serotec people, all in similar white coats. They were seen from the back since they were facing the short man. Jesse guessed they were the same people who were now in the office.

"His name was Sergei Kalinov," Captain Hernandez said. "All of a sudden he started screaming for everyone to leave him alone. That was earlier in the tape. Plainly you can see that no one is touching him or even threatening him."

"He just flipped out," one of the Serotec employees said. "We didn't know what to do."

Sergei then began to sob, saying he knew he was infected and that he couldn't stand it.

One of the Serotec employees was then seen moving forward toward Sergei.

"That's the head tech, Mario Palumbo," Captain Hernandez said. "He's trying to calm Sergei. It's hard to hear his voice because he's speaking so softly."

"I was only telling him that we wanted to help," Mario said defensively.

Suddenly Sergei turned and made a dash for the window. He struggled to get it open. His frantic haste suggested he feared interference. But none of the people present including Mario tried to restrain him.

Once Sergei had the window open, he climbed out on the ledge. With one last glance back at the camera, he leaped off into space.

"Aw, man ... " Vince voiced and looked away.

Even Jesse felt an unpleasant sinking feeling in his gut having watched this terrified little man kill himself. As the tape continued, Jesse watched as several of the Serotec people, including Mario, walked over to the window and looked down. But they weren't acting as if they were horrified. It was more like they were curious.

Then to Jesse's surprise they closed the window and went back to work.