Tempted by Her Boss

It made sense. Once they had a diagnosis they could find the best possible treatment for the patient.

David was still reading from the paper in his hand. ‘Jessie Tanner, sixty-seven, from Florida. Admitted four days ago with diarrhoea, vomiting, maculopapular rash and jaundice.’

That name.

Grace’s skin prickled, every hair on her arms standing on end. There was no air movement in the isolation room but she could almost swear a cold breeze had just blasted her. No. It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t.

David was still talking, ‘Deteriorated rapidly. Didn’t respond to IV or oxygen support.’

‘Oh, no.’ Her hand covered her mouth. She was trying frantically to remember. When was the last time she’d spoken to her? Had she said anything different? ‘Oh, no. I’ve missed something. I didn’t take her seriously.’

Donovan frowned. ‘What on earth are you talking about. Grace? How on earth would you know someone in Florida?’ His face paled, ‘Is it family?’ There was an edge to his voice, a real concern.

Grace shook her head fiercely, her heart beating furiously in her chest. ‘You don’t get it, Donovan. It’s her. Jessie Tanner phones here every day.’

‘What for?’ He didn’t get it. It was clear he had no idea what she was talking about.

She took a deep breath, ‘Donovan, Jessie Tanner is crazy bat lady.’

* * *

‘What?’ All the heads outside the isolation room shot round at the rise in pitch in Donovan’s voice.

Grace jerked back as if she’d just been stung by a wasp.

He couldn’t believe his ears. This wasn’t happening. It just wasn’t. This was one of those crazy, muddled dreams you had, with totally random things happening all around.

Nothing about today seemed real.

Least of all being naked in a shower with Grace.

He put his hand on her shoulder, trying to make sense of what she’d just said. ‘How can you be sure?’ He had a bad feeling about this.

She took a deep breath. ‘Because I remember things. I remember details. That’s her name. That’s where she lives.’ Grace put her head in her hands and groaned. ‘She hasn’t phoned the last few days. I wondered what was wrong with her.’

Donovan looked at David. ‘Get the call log. Find out the last time she called and who spoke to her. Find out what her query was.’ David walked away swiftly.

Grace lifted her hands. ‘But it’s the same thing every day. It’s always questions about the bats. There are some in the caves near her, and in the forest next to her.’

She screwed up her face. ‘But how could African fruit bats get to a cave in Florida?’

David shook his head. ‘African fruit bats probably couldn’t, but Jamaican fruit bats could. I’ll get someone from environmental health or the fish and wildlife service.’

There was a movement to their side. Frank from the lab. This time he wasn’t wearing the hazmat suit and he had something in his hands. He pushed the button outside the isolation room’s pressurised doors, not waiting for the second set to close before he walked in.

He was laughing, holding up the sample bottle with a tiny bit of powder in the bottom.

Donovan caught the shout in his throat. Frank had been here longer than him. He knew more about biohazards than Donovan ever would. It must be safe. They must be safe.

‘What is it?’

Frank smiled, he was shaking his head. ‘You’ll never believe it.’

‘Try me.’ He wasn’t in the mood for jokes. The sooner he knew that the staff around him hadn’t been exposed to anything dangerous the better.

‘It’s honey dust.’

‘What?’ Of all the things in the world he’d expected to hear, that hadn’t featured at all. No wonder Grace’s skin and hair had glistened.

Frank kept laughing. ‘I know. I can’t believe it either. Must have been some high-school kids playing a prank.’

Now he knew his staff were safe Donovan felt his blood pressure rising. ‘Some prank. They shut down our agency for the last few hours.’ He waved his hands around the isolation room. ‘Look at the procedures we had to put in place. I don’t even want to guess how much this has cost us.’

Frank shrugged. ‘I’m just glad we don’t have a full-scale incident on our hands. This could have been our worst nightmare.’ He lifted his hands. ‘I’ll take a high-school prank over a real-life disaster any day.’

‘What’s honey dust?’ Her voice was quiet, timid. He’d almost forgotten she was standing behind him.

He and Frank exchanged a glance. Grace Barclay didn’t know what honey dust was. Who was going to tell her?

Frank pressed the sample bottle into Donovan’s hand with a glint in his eye. ‘I’ll leave this with you, Don. I’ve let the lead investigator from the FBI know we’ll be standing down. I take it they’ll fingerprint the letter and try and track it.’ He was still smiling, his gaze flicking back towards Grace. ‘I have some more tests to run on another possible outbreak. Come and see me in an hour.’

The Marburg virus. He’d need to deal with that as soon as possible.

Frank left, chuckling away to himself as Grace continued to stare at Donovan.

She stepped towards him, fixing her green eyes on his. ‘I don’t get it. What’s going on? What’s honey dust? I take it’s not dangerous?’

He shook his head and tried to hide his smile. ‘Dangerous—no.’

‘And?’

There was no way out of this. He was just going to have to spell it out. ‘It’s a type of body powder, it makes the skin glow and...it tastes like honey.’

‘Why on earth would it taste like—? Oh.’ Her eyes widened as realisation struck home. Her cheeks flushed with colour and she instantly looked down at the floor. ‘Someone sent that as a prank? Wow.’

She was embarrassed. And he liked it. Her feet shuffled nervously on the floor, her hand twiddling a still-damp strand of her hair.

He really ought to put her out of her misery and change the conversation, but this was kind of cute.

The more he was around her, the more she piqued his curiosity. He rubbed his finger and thumb together. He could almost still feel the smoothness of her skin, along with the angry, ragged stab wound. There was more to Grace Barclay than met the eye.

He cleared his throat. ‘We’ll need to do a debrief about this later. The Director will expect one.’ He looked around him, ‘We’ve only ever done drills in here before. This time we had a real life chance to see how things could work out.’ He picked up some notes that he’d scribbled earlier. ‘Maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing after all. I can think of a few areas for improvement. How about you?’

She sighed and leaned against the glass wall. ‘I don’t ever want to be in here again—drill or no drill.’

He smiled. He knew exactly how she felt. ‘Me neither. I’m sort of hoping that my suit and shoes haven’t already been incinerated.’

She cringed. ‘I’d forgotten about that. Darn it. That was my favourite shirt.’