wrath of the Sea Queen (159 page)

"Ok.  I
wi
ll buy that Lorrie went to school with us.  That explains how she knew my name and why she seemed familiar.  It still doesn’t tell me how Lorrie has anything to do with Lara."

"
Look at Lorrie's photo in
the yearbook
.  Sometimes I think young
Max
's
instincts
are better than my own
.  He always seems to know exactly what we
a
re looking for or
precisely
the
right
words to say to point us in the proper direction
.  It
i
s almost as if he has someone telling him the answers
,
"
Ben said with a slight smile.

Vin flipped
t
he book to the page Ben
had
marked.  When he
came to
the p
icture
, Vin
gasped in
astonishment
.  The photo of Lorrie was also the same lady
Vin
vaguely remembered and who was listed in the book as none other than C
a
eli's friend, Lara.  Having met Lorrie earlier that day, Vin was now surprised that
he
had
not
recognize
d
her.  He
had seen
Lara many times during school, though he never really paid her much attention.  Lorrie's
current
hair
style
looked much different than Lara's hair in the photo.  And, of course, Vin hadn't actually seen Lara in years.  C
a
eli and Lara communicated
mainly
by email or phone and only
met
each other
perhaps
once a year
at conferences like the one C
a
eli recently attended in New York.  Vin
now
understood Lorrie's underlying reference
about
Vin never having asked her out.
  C
a
eli once mentioned that
she thought
Lara
had a crush on him
when they first started dating
.  Vin never n
oticed.  He was already smitten
.

"She changed her name.  Why would she do that?" 

Ben shared the
little bit of
information tha
t Apela provided about
the
incident in Lorrie's past.

"
When I looked up the information about the fraudulent energy bar company, and C
a
eli said her friend Lara recommended them, I knew the woman had to be involved. 
Additional
digging
revealed
the rest.  I
never imagined
it would be this complicated. 
I hop
ed
, for C
a
eli's sake, that
Lara
's
involve
ment was
u
nintentional
."

"You're right.  This will hurt C
a
eli
deeply
when she finds out," Vin did not relish the idea of telling
C
a
eli
about this, though he knew it was unavoidable.

"
N
ow that you know th
is part
, the rest will make sense. 
I knew the
other
threatening letters were about Maku's father. 
One other detail I discovered on the envelope
s
was a misspelling in
Salma's
address.  Maku made the original mistake
on his letting requesting Salma's help for Pete
, and the threatening letters repeated it.  Therefore, the lady
who
wrote those letters also had to know Maku and ha
ve
access to his address book. 
When we met Lorrie earlier, it was obvious in the way she spoke Maku's name that she once
possessed
strong feelings for him. 
G
iven that
Maku and Apela have been life-long
friend
s
, Lorrie
very likely knew Maku's
father. 
I also managed to get a few details of the incident from Lorrie's youth.  It turns out that Maku's father was the sheriff at the time and testified in a case on her behalf. 
When you put it all together,
the letters
must
have been written by
Lorrie
.
"

Vin listened closely,
following Ben's logic and
making the
final
connection.

"
You think that Lorrie found out C
a
eli was Salma's niece and decided to poison her
to get back at Salma for not helping Maku's father
? 
Do y
ou believe Lorrie
actually
intended to kill C
a
eli
?
"
  Vin
asked,
appalled at the notion
.

"
I'm sorry, Vin
.  Y
es
,
I do.  I believe Lorrie is
still
suffering from
that childhood
trauma, and it is fueling the bad situation she is in now.  I don't believe she is thinking altogether rationally
or long term
. 
I don't
believe
she has thought beyond th
e
single goal
of punishing Salma
.  And
I didn't buy that line she was selling us at lunch, not for a second.  I am certain that she is a threat to both Salma and C
a
eli.
  It's our luck that she hooked up with Scott, making matters worse.
"

Vin sat silently for several minutes.  It was a lot to consider, but he found himself agreeing with Ben's conclusions.  C
a
eli probably told Lara
all
about her
a
unt.  She was very proud of Salma's accomplishments
and of her newly discovered familial connection
.  That would easily explain how Lara
/
Lorrie found out about their relationship.  Lara's marketing background made her fully capable of setting up a false company and website to trick C
a
eli. 
Of course,
C
a
eli
would have no reason to mistrust Lara. 
Given that Lorrie was
a
nurse, the knowledge of poison
and dosage
gets thrown into the mix
as well
.  It all made crazy sense
.  Vin was thankful that
Lara/
Lorrie did not know about C
a
eli's gift
.  If she had, C
a
eli might not have survived
long enough for Salma to find the answer
.  Even with the help of her gift, C
a
eli
had
still suffered tremendous pain and sickness
as a result of the
poisonous
chemicals
.

As he considered all of this, Vin clearly
understood
one side of the p
roblem
.  However, it did not explain
everything that
had
happened; and not
the most recent events at all
.

"
Ok,
l
et's assume that
Lara/Lorrie poisoned C
a
eli to hurt Salma. 
I
'll agree to
that, but it
still leaves several unansw
ered questions.  What about all
that blood the man stole from the hospital
?
  That was not
merely
a coincidence.  It
was
related to Salma's research, right?
 
How about
the explosion at the levee?  Could that have been meant to hurt Salma through me?  The only one I think I understand is the hotel
bombing during the seminar
.  I think
th
at
explosion
was meant to cause a minor disruption so that Dr. Jacobs could run off with Salma. 
S
omething went wrong
, and i
t got out of hand
.  A
s a result, we n
ow only have to deal with Lorrie and Scott
. 
Above all,
what
d
oes any of this have to do with what happened to C
a
eli today?
"
  Vin asked.

"
I'm n
ot sure. 
Lorrie
could have
s
ent
someone
after C
a
eli again, since
she survived the
poisoning
. 
As for the blood, m
y men did find out that
the stolen
units were donated by Salma.  She donates
regularly
, and the hospital keeps detailed records.  Other than that, they have not been able to get
beyond
the man's lawyer.  If someone hired him to steal
the blood
, we
wi
ll pr
obably never find out who
.  We have to assume that someone did
, and m
y money is on Dr. Jacobs or Scott.
  I think they hired him to get a sample of Salma's blood.  I suspect that the thief got greedy and hauled off more than he was asked to retrieve, hoping to make some additional money
selling the
blood
to
certain cl
inics
under the table
.
"
  Ben was rubbing his chin
again, clearly unsettled by the
evolving
mystery.