Monsters - Matt Rogers (icecream ebook reader TXT) 📗

herself down on the sofa, inhaled deeply. It helped. She gazed up at the woman. She knew nothing about her. ‘Honestly, what the fuck are you doing here?’

It brought a smile to Alexis’ face, cut through the tension. She sat down in an armchair on the other side of the living room, which wasn’t enough of a distance away to be awkward. The space was cosy, intimate. Mary couldn’t imagine the dread she’d feel if she lived in a bigger place.

Alexis tilted a lamp on the coffee table beside her away from her face, elongating shadow. ‘Ava spoke to you briefly about me. I helped her out of a bad spot.’

Mary nodded. ‘My mom noticed. Ava’s sister. She heard it in her voice. Can I ask…?’

‘You can ask whatever you want.’

‘Will you answer?’

‘Depends.’

‘Mom and I…we always suspected it was pain pills. It’s starting to seem like everyone in the middle-class has some sort of issue with them. We thought Ava was overdoing it, spiralling. It’s funny, because…’ She trailed off.

‘Because what?’

‘It’s the reason I took Heidi’s offer in the first place, four years ago. The reason she got me on board with Vitality+’s ethos. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but I bought it. The idea that, if you get rid of the jitters associated with caffeine, then for a lot of people that’s enough. Not all of them, but Heidi was adamant that there’s a swathe of people who shy away from caffeine because they hate the anxiety. They crave that soothing feeling that opioids provide. Extreme example, I know, but I believe it. It’s all to escape pain, after all. But, um, that’s beside the point. Mom and I, we thought with Ava it was Oxys.’

‘It started that way,’ Alexis said. ‘By the time I got involved she was buying black tar heroin off ten-year-old kids.’

Mary froze. ‘Shit.’

‘Don’t be so shocked. It happens more than you think.’

The condescending tone brought a little of Mary’s fire back, which in hindsight was probably exactly what Alexis wanted. ‘I know exactly how much it happens and why. I’m head of R&D at a company that specialises in the brain chemistry surrounding addiction, specialises in turning those receptors on and off. My shock comes from the fact that by the time it gets to that point, it’s usually irreversible. So whatever you did to my aunt, I can’t thank you enough for it. It would’ve only taken a step toward the tipping point and she’d’ve been just another overdose victim.’

‘Ava did all the work,’ Alexis said. ‘I was only there at the right time. Gave her the push she needed.’

‘And now you’re here.’

‘I am.’

‘This is different to putting a junkie on the right path. This is serious shit.’

‘That wasn’t the only thing I did for your aunt.’

Silence.

Alexis said, ‘If it wasn’t for me she’d be dead.’

‘Why?’

‘That’s for her to tell you, if she wants. I’ve said enough. Now, back to what you said just before. I understand you’re head of R&D, but I was under the impression Vitality+ only pretends to specialise in anything.’

Mary sighed. ‘We were almost there. I swear to fucking God, we were almost there…’

‘So it was promising?’

‘It was better than promising. All the research indicated we were on the cusp of breaking through, of actually getting it to work. And then Heidi ran her mouth before we had a finished product. She got blinded by the fame and fortune and the company became…some monster.’

‘She had an old man beaten to death,’ Alexis said. ‘I hate to break it to you, Mary, but nothing blinded her. She was like that all along. You don’t lose your conscience in an instant.’

‘So what are you going to do about it?’

Alexis’ green eyes were brilliant even in shadow. ‘I’m going to save your life. Like I saved your aunt’s.’

21

Over the course of the evening, Alexis got to know Mary Böhm.

They had a glass of wine each, and they talked. At first Mary was apprehensive. Alexis had come all the way here. Shouldn’t she be permanently on guard?

‘I am,’ Alexis said, cradling her pinot noir. ‘One drink won’t change anything. And they won’t come for you tonight. Trust me. I’ll fix this tomorrow. For now, tell me about you. How you found your way out here. What drew you to Heidi. What she’s like.’

So Mary opened up. It was difficult at first, what with the stranger barrier, and the omnipresent fact that Alexis was here to make an enemy of the head of a billion-dollar corporation, fight back against someone who had the whole world within their grasp. That initially made her clam up, but she let a few details slip and Alexis returned with her own story, where she’d come from and how she’d ended up here in this armchair across from Mary.

Quickly they realised they were very similar people.

Mary had come to SF with a burning desire to challenge herself and put her newly acquired STEM degree to use, and Heidi Waters had sensed that potential. They’d met for coffee at a popular café in Palo Alto and within the hour Heidi had sucked her in, convinced her to join the research and development team. A combination of intensity and persuasive ability had won Mary over, just as it had sold all her fellow employees and most of the board members. Four years ago, Vitality+ was nothing but a pipe dream, but Mary had stayed the course, never quite attuning to the wool Heidi had steadily pulled over her eyes. When she saw the photo of Jack’s body, it all came crashing down, and hindsight had revealed to her all the red flags she’d missed over the years.

Alexis had been about to share the similarities between Mary’s early days in San Francisco and her own past as a paralegal in New York City, but the red flag comment made her stop, switch gears. ‘How could you possibly have missed it all?’

‘I guess I didn’t,’ Mary said, lowering her head. ‘I guess,