Sadie's Spirit - CB Samet (important of reading books txt) 📗
- Author: CB Samet
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“Okay, so where can we get computer access at midnight?”
“Don’t you have a computer?”
“It’s a two-hour drive back to my place, and I’m not using my computer to access your workstation. That would tie me to your murder in a millisecond.”
“The university library.”
“Done.” He put the truck in drive and headed for downtown Atlanta. “Are you gonna be okay for the drive?”
“I’m getting the hang of me and matter. I might even venture to try opening a door in the near future.”
Her tone was jovial, but he suspected she was masking a desire for emotional release, which would naturally be to cry and scream about her situation. For now, feigning acceptance was more productive. If she could lift objects and knock over salt shakers when she was trying to control herself, what would she be capable of if her emotions were unleashed?
From the corner of his eye, he could see Sadie fidgeting with her hands. He instinctively reached out to hold one in his, but stopped himself. He clenched his fist and brought it back to the wheel.
She turned her head away from him to look out the window. Was she angry with him for never returning her call? Did she resent the fact that he was alive, and she wasn’t?
Asher wished he could fix her situation. He hated feeling impotent in the wake of her death. All he could do was offer to help solve her murder, which might very well result in her ghost disappearing forever.
Under Sadie's direction, he parked in the visitor bay. He donned his leather jacket and walked toward the library.
The parking lot was sparsely populated but well lit. He suspected cameras would be hanging near the lighting. When an investigation got underway, the police would be able to track the IP address of the remote login to the library, and the library cameras would identify him. The alternative to avoid becoming a suspect was to not help Sadie. But he was committed to helping Sadie.
“Hey, look! I can keep up with your long strides.”
Asher looked at her as she glided along beside him. He had always had to slow his normal stride for her. Tonight, on a mission, he walked at a swift pace.
He slowed his gait.
“What?” she asked.
“It’s creepy. Can you walk normally?”
Sadie sighed, but began walking rather than floating. “I thought my behavior was more ghostlike.”
“I wouldn't know.”
Sadie arched an eyebrow.
He smirked. “Until you, all the spirits I’ve encountered have been glimpses and whispers and sensations.”
“What kind of sensations?” She batted her eyelashes at him.
He noticed how his breath condensed in the cool night air, while hers did not.
“Not those kind of sensations. For instance, I could be walking in the woods on a cold day, and following a trail of warmth would lead me to the victim’s body. Or I’d be inside an empty, non-ventilated building and a breeze only I could feel would take me to an empty elevator shaft where the victims fell. Looking solid and alive, you, Sadie, are an anomaly.”
“Excellent.”
He gave her a sidelong glance.
“I’ve never been accused of being normal, so there’s no sense starting now.”
Asher grinned.
Sadie talked Asher through signing in to her remote desktop on the library computer.
“I’m going to open various files,” he explained. “I want you to see if anything looks out of place.”
She leaned over his shoulder and focused.
They combed through her files: PowerPoint presentations, journal articles, various letters, research folders, documents, and policies.
Here was her life. All her information in a stored file. Flat little icons that represented endless hours of work. Her two-dimensional life. The data was arranged in neat rows. The papers had perfect margins and had been tediously edited. Asher had made her life three-dimensional. He had brought color, depth, and passion into it.
“This is the morbidity and mortality file?” Asher asked, interrupting her wandering thoughts. “Whoa,” he said as he opened it. “There are eighteen files in here.” Her turned his head to look at her.
Their faces were close, their lips almost touching.
“Yeah, I’m on the committee. We go through all deaths.” She leaned back as she stood over him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You’re on a committee that investigates death. Anyone you investigated could be a suspect.”
Sadie bit her lip. She stared at the open file, trying to recall if anyone had been angry about the committee’s findings. Morbidity and mortality committees were standard in every hospital. Surely, all personnel on the committee weren’t targets because of their role. Her eyes roamed the computer screen.
“Wait. My TIE-55 folder has been moved. It’s always at the top right of the screen.”
The folder icon was showing at the bottom left.
Asher opened the file.
As he did so, Sadie’s breath hitched. “The merged data file is missing. That’s where Ben and Yoshi’s data is, and the spreadsheet where I merged them with mine. It was all there.”
“I believe you. Who might be after the data?”
“It’s de-identified, so no one can link the patient to a particular data set. There’s no information about the drug itself; only which subjects received it and which didn’t. Anyone who was after my spreadsheet would have had to want the data for what it is—information on drug efficacy.”
“Which you said demonstrated that the drug wasn’t delivering any miracle cures.”
“That’s right. Who would want a data set about a drug that doesn’t work?”
“And who would be willing to kill for it?”
Sadie took a step back and wrapped her arms around her torso. “I’ve no idea.”
“You said something about adverse events . . . ”
“Platelet counts seemed to drop, but then they usually drop in patients with septic shock. Also, heparin is commonly given to patients in the hospital to prevent blood clots and has a little less than one percent incidence of causing platelets to drop. A bigger data set with multivariate analysis would be needed to confirm whether a significant difference in platelet counts was recorded.”
“Let’s finish our search of your computer. If nothing else is missing—”
“We have the smoking gun?”
His brow furrowed. “We have smoke, but no gun. To get the gun we need the data set, and we need to figure out what’s hiding in those results.”
She nodded. “Hopefully they didn’t find my laptop.”
Asher swiveled in his chair to look at her face on.
“I back my desktop up to my laptop every night,” she continued. “I didn’t take it home Friday because I knew I was coming back Saturday. Well, I thought I was coming back Saturday.” Her voice trailed off.
“You back up your data nightly?”
“Yes. Why do you look so surprised? I’m not an amateur. I don’t want to lose my work in a hard-drive crash.”
“How do we get your laptop out of your office?”
She stared at the floor. “I have an idea, let me try it out. I’ll be right back.”
“Wait, wait. Let’s do this methodically. Finish the computer search first, and then break into your office.”
An hour later, Sadie was standing outside the external door of her hospital department offices. She could walk through the door but Asher couldn’t. Even though she could waltz undetected into her office, she couldn’t then carry her laptop out with her. She needed to determine if she could help Asher get inside. She looked at the key card reader. Surely if she could knock over a salt shaker, she could jiggle a little electricity in her favor.
“Here goes nothing,” she mumbled to herself. She extended her fingers into the mounted black box and a tingling sensation spread up her arm. She wriggled her fingers until—voila!—the red indicator button switched to green. A mechanical click was emitted and the door was unlocked.
Excitement rose within her. She would be able to get
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